So I’m trying to sell an item on eBay. The winner of the auction has 0 feedback and lives in Nigeria. He wants to add an extra $100 to the purchase price so I can ship it there. He wants to pay via PayPal.
Any advice on how to mess with this guy for a little while, waste his time and hopefully money just like he’s wasted mine?
There is a Yahoo! group called Scambaiters, or something similar.
I believe it deals mostly with 419 mails rather than eBay scams, but you may like to check it out.
Personally I think teasing a crook does not make up for my time being wasted. Your mileage may vary. 
If you want to engage him, why not ask for his bank account details so that you can do something with them?
I’ve never heard of a scammer offering PayPal… is this a new tactic?
What makes you assume he is a scammer?
Fun as it is to mess with scammers, I think it’s probably quite important to report this one to eBay, because if he’s involved in any transactions with sellers less savvy than yourself, a warning will go out to them.
It’s a pretty safe assumption, even if the facts are as few as wasson has mentioned.
I thought a few things about the scam were odd…
First, the PayPal deal. I thought they all dealt with Western Union or wiring money. Doesn’t PayPal have to be tied to a legit credit card or bank account?
Second, he doesn’t seem to be trying to get extra cash out of me. Isn’t the usual deal to offer an extra $300 but expect a check back for $150 or something? It seems he just wants my crappy broken camcorder for free… weird.
Yeah, I may be wasting more of my time dealing with it, but I’m frustrated and think it could be kind of funny.
Oh yeah, remember how I said he was a 0 feedback buyer? He’s now a -4 feedback buyer, all the comments being related to scam. He’s been reported to eBay already, no worries.
Just for reference, here’s the auction:
Although I haven’t heard of a scammer using PayPal (not that they may not have, it just may not be very popular) it’s probably possible to use it in a scam by placing a stolen credit card on file with the PayPal account and using it to pay for whatever it is the guy is buying. The easiest way to tell that would be:
All of these assume that he is not just using a hacked PayPal account, naturally, in which case he may appear to have a good rating, but where he wants it shipped to and the address on file with PayPal (and for that matter eBay) won’t match.
I can’t think of any other way he might be able to scam with PayPal and it seems unlikely that even the above method would work very well since, unless you ship prior to eCheck clearance, you’ll still get your money. Either way I wouldn’t go through with it obviously and couldn’t be bothered toying with the guy. I’d report him to eBay, request credit for the listing/final value fees and relist after putting this guy on my blocked bidder list.
Unfortunately this guy already has your personal information from eBay.
Paypal credentials are a constant target of phishing. If he’s buying using a phished Paypal account, there’s no disincentive to pay more than the asking price. It isn’t his money. He may very well find a few folks willing to accept the extra $100 and ship to wherever.
Can I ask what you’re selling? My guess would be some sort of electronics or something otherwise easy to sell and make a profit wherever he’s asking you to send it.
Or, he may be seeing who takes the bait and will attempt further social engineering in an attempt to scam the people who take the bait.
I’d cut and paste all correspondence (be sure to include the extended email headers) that you’ve had with this “buyer” into this Paypal form:
It isn’t exactly the type of report that they’re asking for on this page, but it will end up in the right hands.
And I see upon preview that this post is preaching to the choir, but I’m posting it because it contains the link to the form.
Shoulda previewed…
Y’know, I was thinking about a fake (forged) PayPal E-Mail payment notification, but then I thought that would have been too obvious both because this isn’t a spam where maybe one in a million might actually fall for it (and in this case he has only one chance per eBay purchase he makes), and because of all people wary of scams on eBay, one would think sellers would be the most cautious, especially ones who have sold before.
Not a very good mugu, is he?
One would think that the sellers who left the negative feedback would have checked their PayPal accounts after receiving the ‘notifications’ to see if they’d actually been paid. I mean, Nigeria!
There are a number of ways you can still be stiffed - mostly covered by Mindfield, but others include:
-Fake email message appearing to originate from Paypal, advising you that you’ve received payment - if you had the item already packed up for despatch and the scammer had managed to persuade you there was some great urgency, you might be daft enough to send the item before checking that the money has actually hit your account.
-Chargeback for non-delivery; as I understand it, PayPal will pretty much automatically refund your buyer’s payment if he claims the item wasn’t received and you can’t prove otherwise - getting a signature at point of delivery abroad can be tricky/expensive and some sellers just take a chance; the scammer might also spin some yarn about not being able to sign for it when it arrives, so please could you send it by ordinary methods.
That’s the first thing I do actually; as soon as I receive a payment notification I open my browser and go to PayPal manually to check. Not because I suspect fraud right away, but I like to check my balance because there’s usually something on eBay I’m waiting to buy pending sufficient balance in my PayPal account. Plus, I never click links in PayPal or eBay E-Mails, even when I know they’re legit. It’s just a good practice to maintain.
Even then, the first whiff I get of Nigeria on any of my auctions gets an automatic ban from me. If I can’t pick them off the bidder list preemptively (due to last second snipe or BIN) then they’ll get added to my blocked bidder list immediately. Frankly, even if they were a legitimate buyer who just happened to actually be from Nigeria, let’s face it … what are the odds? No smart person would even take the chance. To the consuming public, Nigeria is the Enron of countries, and every potential buyer is Kenneth Lay.
Stupid Nigerians.
First the 419, now they’re messing with eBay!
What is it with these people? How will I know, next time I sell something, it’s not some Nigerian idiot?
I’d never bid on someone selling a Nigerian idiot.
Don’t even try.
Wasson, I really, really hope you didn’t follow the PayPal link that you received regarding the auction.
Nope, this guy is a complete amateur and hasn’t even sent me an email from PayPal. He actually asked for my email address that I use for PayPal… that was one of the red flags. If he was making a legit purchase, I assume he’d use the “Pay now with PayPal” link.
I already sold the item to the bidder who bid $.54 less than he did, so I’m not really out anything. Just still bothered he’s trying to sucker me out of a broken camcorder.
I told him I only ship to confirmed PayPal addresses, so he’ll have to send me a personal check, money order, or wire me the money. I don’t actually believe I’ll get any cash, but if he wastes enough money to print up a fake check and pay for postage to Illinois, I’ll feel vindicated. I’ll frame the fake check and put it on my wall in memory of my first scam.
Well if you’re going to go to all that length then you might as well ship him something. Do you know any incontinent dogs?