We've all had those emails were someone said I've inherited a bajillion dollaersin moneys form the pasing of mi grandfarther (sic).

Well, I sold my PS2 on eBay today and lo and behold, the buyer is Nigerian, with terrible english and wants me to overnight the package to Nigeria for her grandson. She says she'll pay me using PayPal when I include overnight shipping costs to Nigeria in the invoice. Soooo...wtf?

Here's the email she sent me:

Quote :

"Hello, Greetings to you.I am Mrs Melisssa from Riverbank ,CA .I'm contacting you concerning your item on Ebay which i eventually became the winning bidder for your item.Morever i'm presently serving our beloved nation here in CA with the United Nation and i intend sending this item to my GrandSon as suprise gift who works with the American Embassy in Lagos,Nigeria as a consular.I will be making my payment to you via PayPal and calculate how much it will take you in sending this item to him in Lagos Nigeria and add it to the cost of the item okay,So get the package ready for immediate shipment for next day shipment okay?and don't forget to send me your PayPal Email Address so i can immediately make out my payment.Plz i want the item to be shipped via EMS Speed Post or USPS Global Express.Mail me back it's urgent. Regards Here Is My GrandSon Shpping Address NAME: FRANCIS TUNDE ADDRESS: No 12 Obakran CITY: IKEJA STATE: LAGOS COUNTRY: NIGERIA ZIP CODE: 23401 So just find the shipping cost to Lagos Nigeria and get back to me immediatly...."

any thoughts?

3/12/2007 10:18:29 AM

Wait for her payment to clear in paypal before you ship. By clear, I mean be fully processed, not just a pending transfer.

3/12/2007 10:20:09 AM

^are you crazy?

don't ship it at ALL - it's clearly clearly clearly clearly a fake

3/12/2007 10:21:04 AM

If you get the money there should be no problem shipping it.

3/12/2007 10:21:43 AM

freakin shipping rates to nigeria are outrageous

^^that was my first thought. how exactly should i handle this situation then? report to ebay, for sure.

this is my first encounter with this crap on ebay.

nigerian bitches.

[Edited on March 12, 2007 at 10:26 AM. Reason : ]

3/12/2007 10:25:22 AM

ok, first off, its a scam.

did you say in your auction that you don't sell to internation buyers (probably not, though you should in the future).

in the future, you can restrict your buyers to people in the US and I suggest doing so in your ebay options unless you've a big-time ebay seller...this change will avoid these situations.

if i were you i would either

1) say screw it and relist...no further contact.

2) say you don't ship to nigeria, and tell her you'll ship to to her confirmed paypal address in CA (even though i'm sure "she" doesn't have one.)
http://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_contact-phone

only reason i would do 2 is to possibly protect feedback so they can't say you didn't follow up on your end of the deal.

maybe reporting to ebay is a good idea too...i dunno.
http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rls=SUNA,SUNA:2006-25,SUNA:en&q=ebay+phone+number


[Edited on March 12, 2007 at 10:30 AM. Reason : did i metion its a scam?]

3/12/2007 10:26:48 AM

I didn't explicitly state no international, as I offered selling to canadians (eh). But it said I only sold to US or Canada. I'm gonna go with option 2 right now, let you know how it goes.

3/12/2007 10:30:30 AM

Do not sell your item to this scam.

Even if the money clears at somepoint they can issue a chargeback and Paypal is notorious for screwing the seller even after shipment.

I would, however, have them send the money with an outrageous shipping and insurance fee to an alternate Paypal account. Let the money sit in there for a while and make the 4.5%.

3/12/2007 10:31:09 AM

I wonder if there are any legitimate people in Nigeria that try to use eBay. It must suck to be them.

3/12/2007 10:31:42 AM

ok wait, new plan. quote them like $500 for shipping, they've overpay "by accident" for like $1000 and ask you to return the rest. agree and post all the emails to this thread so we can get a laugh.

3/12/2007 10:32:05 AM

Sounds dodgey as crap, what terms did you put on the listing?

You don't have to send it until payment is recieved, you can go get an estimate of the shipping they want then send an invoice via paypal. If they don't pay you can open an unpaid item dispute. Even if you didn't include it in the terms the norm on ebay is that things don't get sent until payment is recieved.

I've had an unpaid item dispute, ebay's usually pretty good about taking care of it quickly. When you relist the item you might want to think about revising your terms (e.g. sorry no foreign shipping or foreign bidding).

3/12/2007 10:33:17 AM

you are an idiot for even thinking about doing this

3/12/2007 10:33:18 AM