[allymac123]

I've bought a number of items off ebay and never had any problems. However, I put my first item up for sale this week and it sold last night via buy it now.

As soon as I saw the buyer had no feedback and had only just joined that day I started to get a wee bit more worried. But everyone on ebay has no feedabck at some point so I sent him an invoice to chase him up with payment.

I've now just had an ebay message from him saying this:

Dear Seller,
Its my pleasure transacting business with you.I am new on ebay and i am very happy to inform you that am the winning buyer of your ebay item.i want to know the condition of the item,because i want it send to my bussiness partner son in west africa country {NIGERIA},presently i am out of UK i am on a bussiness trip to united state of america(US) here is the delivering address of my partner
JOHN DAVID
12 ADEBOLA STREET,
IKEJA,LAGOS.
NIGERIA.
23401.
I have confirm the shipping via royalmail international signed for is 30.00GBP,And i will make the payment via paypal because is fast and secure way of making payment on ebay,i will make the payment as soon as possible,so immedately you receive confirmation of payment from paypal get the item posted out and get back to me with tracking number so that i can leave POSITIVE FEEDBACK for you, i look forward to hear from you soon.
Thanks..............



Hhmm Nigeria eh?! That doesn't look to good.

Anyway I don't really know what to do next. Surely if he pay's via paypal and I don't ship until the money has cleared into my bank account there will be no problem? Otherwise what would I have to do to relist or whatever as I did say in my auction I would only ship to UK. Would I have to repay the fee's again? Would he be able to leave me -ive feedback?

Any help much appreciated.

Here'sthe page of my listed item.

I do have a UK address and phone number for the buyer. (nothing to say its his though)

melissa mark
chigwell
chigwell, , Essex IG76ET United Kingdom

actually looking at that address I don't think it exists does it. And there's no house number.

[calypso69er]

A friend had something similar when selling a mobile phone. They got an email, from Paypal, saying the noney was in, so they posted it away. The email wasn't from Paypal though, and they didn't check their account before they sent, so the guy in Nigeria got a free phone.

I think, though I'm not 100%, that Ebay will refund your listing fee as it looks like a scam (although we might be doing the buyer an injustice).

Have a look here http://www.zug.com/pranks/powerbook/. Famous story of a guy who scammed his scammer!

[wobblebottom]

report it to Ebay.. see what they decide... (dont do anything rash..)



cancel the bid... Re list stating uk bidders only and min feedback (your choice on amount) required to bid next time

DONT SEND ANYTHING>>>

[booyaka]

Originally Posted by wobblebottom

report it to Ebay.. see what they decide... (dont do anything rash..)



cancel the bid... Re list stating uk bidders only and min feedback (your choice on amount) required to bid next time

DONT SEND ANYTHING>>>

agreed - do not send anything even if the money is in your paypal account. Report to ebay.

Bascially what happens is they hijack someones paypal account - pay you the £300 or whatever. You send the item, paypal then reclaim the money back to the hijack account and you end up with no money and no camera.

Happens all the time with laptops and electrical items.

[ijd]

as long as you get full payment upfront, and make sure the postage includes an insurance, which of course the seller needs to pay, and it is all done via paypal then you should not have to much to worry about, but i bet that item supposedly never reaches its destination in which case it is up to the insurance to sort out, but it could still mean a bit of a headache for you, although no loss of funds.

[ijd]

Originally Posted by ijd

as long as you get full payment upfront, and make sure the postage includes an insurance, which of course the seller needs to pay, and it is all done via paypal then you should not have to much to worry about, but i bet that item supposedly never reaches its destination in which case it is up to the insurance to sort out, but it could still mean a bit of a headache for you, although no loss of funds.

ok, just finished reading the above I to would be very sceptable ,

[Alphatoner]

Originally Posted by ijd

as long as you get full payment upfront, and make sure the postage includes an insurance, which of course the seller needs to pay, and it is all done via paypal then you should not have to much to worry about, but i bet that item supposedly never reaches its destination in which case it is up to the insurance to sort out, but it could still mean a bit of a headache for you, although no loss of funds.

"you should not have to much to worry about", are you mad?? DO NOT SEND under any circumstances. The genuine account owner will notice the money missing from there account file a complaint and then get a refund. YOu will be left with no money & no camera.

Message the buyer Informing him your listing was for UK only and you will not send outside the UK, if he does send any money refund it straight away.

Lodge a complaint with ebay (buyer not based in UK as per lising requirements)

Technically he can still leave you a neg but I would bet that's very unlikely. Even if he does isn't that better than losing your camera to a scam.

[jonnypb]

Ally,

It's a scam, report it to ebay and don't give any details to them. Ebay will refund you the listing fee and final valuation fee. Ignore at all costs. Even if they pay via paypal it will be funded with a stolen credit card. Paypal will catch onto this within a couple of months and although you won't get in trouble as you won't know it's funded by a stolen credit card your account may be blocked while it's investigated.

When you set up an item to sell on buy it now there are a few things worth setting. Can't remember them off hand but it's something like block buyers with no feedback, that don't have a registered paypal account and a couple of other options

Some tips here and here

a quick google will bring up lots of info on nigerian scammers

[bodoman]

Its a 100% scam, the same guy tried it on me last year, joined the same day as he tried to buy my camera.

Just inform ebay and they will refund your fee

Edit
The paypal notice of payment was also phoney.

DO NOT SEND THE CAMERA

[tontoshorse]

Agree with others a definite scam. Don't send, at least your ad stated posting to uk, not anywhere else.

Good luck.

[werewolf40]

I had the SAME thing happen to me.................its a complete SCAM!!! believe me i wouldnt Send anything.report it to e-bay.

EDIT:i f you do re-list,put quite clearly in the ad "Will post to UK only,will not post to NIGERIA" thats what i put and it puts scammers off as they know your on to them.

[Strobe]

This is so obviously a scam.

As a rule I state clearly on my listings that goods will only be sent on receipt of cleared funds. I wait until payment from Paypal has been confirmed, then transfer it my current account, wait 4/5 days for it to clear, and then send the goods!

Can't be too careful these days.

[Blue.Rocket]

Have nothing to do with it, report them to ebay, I have a similar issue with Auto Trader.

[Luffy]

On no account should you send it. You have stated UK only so you are not breaking any contracts.
As far as I am aware you can cancel the bid and send a second chance option to one of the other bidders that way you may not have to relist the item or pay any further fees.

[andy_fozzy]

Like everyone else says, DO NOT SEND IT.
And don't fall for the old e-cheque thing.
(Not 100% sure what it is, but something to do with paypal)
That happened to me, and although it appeared the money was in my account, it actually wasn't.

[hot-fuzz]

Anyone that mentions Nigeria is a scammer. 100%.

[Brummy1875]

DONT SEND ANYTHING......... Its a scam

[davemurgatroyd2]

Do NOT send the camera - if you check back on ebay he is no longer a registered user. I have also received scam bids from scum such as he appears to be.

Interesting that the address gives on Google

CIB Insurance Brokers ltd
Address: 12 Adebola Street, Anifowoshe, Ikeja, Lagos.
Phone: +234 1 4708134

AND this from another site

Name: Bamol Rowland
Your Gender: Male
Your Age: 25
Email: bamolrowland@yahoo.com
Country (& Address if you want snail mail): 10/12 Adebola Street, CarWash/Baba-Oba Bus-Stop, Lagos-State.Nigeria. P.O.Box 1819, Ipaja,Lagos.Nigeria.
Homepage URL (OPTIONAL):
Tell us a little about yourself (interests, hobbies, whatever!): i'm a musician, a ,modelist,Civil-Engineering/Architectural. Swimning, Football,Travelling, reading , a poetry writer, script writer, musical composer and many more
Type of contact you are looking for: see below


Definitely very suspicious it would appear that the address is nothing but a mail drop..

[allymac123]

sub-human scum.

Thanks for all your advice guys.

Now I've got to wait 7days at least for me to get the funds back before I can relist.

And nothing's gonna happen to him either. People like him don't deserve to live.

[GarryF]

As everyone else stated, clearly a scam and it looks like ebay caught up with him.

I had a look at your bid and noticed he was the only bidder, that's probably why he picked you, a high starting price and no one else intrested so he thinks you'll take his wonderful offer.

I've sold maybe half a dozen things now on ebay without hassles, generally it's best just to start the bidding at £0.99, this gets a lot more intrest, people add it to watched items etc. If your worried about it going for 0.99 instead of £100 then you can always set a reserve, I did a quick search and there were no old auctions of your camera so that's always tough to value, there's another auction running now though
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Olympus-C-770-...QQcmdZViewItem
It started at 99p and has 18 bids currently at £100, that'll get other people intrested and I'd expect that to go for around what you wanted in the first place, mainly because of the 99p starting price.

With that auction above as a guide price if you relist at 99p with reserve at something your comfortable with if you feel you need it I'm sure people will pay similar to what that camera goes for, you'll be in good shape for putting it up next week.

Generally though I never get what I want from selling on ebay, I always think things go to cheap but it's better that than sitting in a cupboard until it's binned in 10 years time.

[allymac123]

Maybe its because I'd included a buy it now price. There was a couple in completed item one had gone for £140 by it now and another £160 buy it now.

It had only been on for a few hours so I hadn't really been expecting any bids till a bit later. I kinda thought that if you start it higher its got less to go to reach a higher price but I might put a lower starting price when I relist.

Thanks

[jonnypb]

I had the same problem a couple of years ago when I listed a mobile phone on a buy it now. Some %*$% from holland bought it - He wanted me to give him my bank details to transfer the money then ship to nigeria

Relisted it as an auction and put a reserve on. ended up going for more than what I put it as for the buy it now price 1st time round.

I'm using flea bay less and less now, it's not what it use to be

[jtotheb]

Definitely agree. Do not send it even if
a) you get the money in your Paypal account
b) you transfer it to your bank account and
c) even if it still clears in there

You may well received a chargeback request from Paypal 4 - 6 weeks after the money has left your Paypal account and long since you've sent the item - they will then take the money from your account (plus an admin fee) and if that then takes your account into the red, they'll demand you pay money in to bring the balance back to zero. If you don't they'll threaten you with debt collectors etc.

This is all from personal experience. The only answer is to only send goods to the buyer's registered Paypal address. You'll then be covered by Paypal's seller protection policy.