Be warned, there is a scam on eBay and PayPal being operated by criminals based in Nigeria, they target people selling small electrical items either as Buy it Now or Auction on eBay, here’s what happened to me.
I recently listed my sons PSP on eBay, right at the very end of the auction a new bid was received from a UK eBay user who had no feedback and had only been a member of eBay for a day.
Within a few minutes I had an e-mail from PayPal saying the buyers payment had been made but PayPal were holding the money until I confirmed the item had been sent and provided the shipping number and details, although the e-mail display name gave the impression it was from PayPal, the actual email was sent from this address: customercarescentre@post.com, clearly nothing to do with PayPal.
The other tell tale sign something dodgy was going on were the spelling and grammar errors contained within the e-mails I received.
I then had a second e-mail, this time from the buyer asking that I ship the PSP to Lagos in Nigeria, if I wasn’t suspicious already, I certainly was now!
Logging back into eBay I noticed the buyer was now no longer a registered eBay user, I also checked PayPal and there was no record of the payment, even if a payment is held it would show in the account.
It was very clear to me this was a scam and if I actually sent the PSP and gave them the shipping details there would never be a payment, so be warned if you sell on eBay and are asked to ship to Lagos, Nigeria and have strange e-mails from “PayPal” telling you funds have been held.
I have now done a little research and it appears a lot of people selling items on eBay are being targeted with the same scam by these Nigerian criminals. They mainly seem to target small electrical items (handheld games, cameras, video camcorders etc’) as they are easy to sell on the Nigerian black market.
Below are a couple of the e-mails I received from my friends in Nigeria, just to summarize they work the eBay scam like this:
1) UK registered eBay user wins item
2) E-mail received from “PayPal” saying payment made but held until item shipping details provided
3) E-mail received from buyer requesting you ship to Lagos, Nigeria and provide shipping details so PayPal can release funds
4) You ship item, provide shipping details to buyer and PayPal
5) No payment arrives, you’ve just lost your item
6) Item arrives in Lagos, Nigeria and is sold on the black market
So what did I do? Firstly I reported the matter to eBay, then I did nothing, I didn’t reply to any e-mails and I suspect after a couple of further chaser messages from Nigeria they will get bored and move onto someone else.
Copies of the Ebay Nigerian scam email supposedly from PayPal below:
 service@paypal.co.uk
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63A Oloyede Stree,
Off Medical Road,
Ikeja,
Lagos-State,
Nigeria.
23401.
Europe ( United Kingdom )
This is one for the VERY unwary! Writing business english always seems to be such a problem for scammers:)
These Nigerians will never cease to amaze us. And many other people are fasting getting into scamming too.
Thanks for posting- I’ve just been targeted as I am trying to sell my wedding dress on a large used wedding dress site. They want me to send the dress to Lago, which would cost me (them) about $2k!! I was wondering how they would scam with paypal and now I know!
Lets just be alert and neutral on every e-mail we receive. Thanks for sharing.
had the same problem, sent a phone and some money how do we report these baffoons?
Thanks for posting this information I was just lucky that things click in my mind and i stoped.i was saleing Diamond ring on ebay and suddenly i had email from paypal and ebay it was sowing uk address when ring was sold and then i hed email from paypal saying that they money holding. and sand goods to NIGERIA (LAGOS) same post cod as posting.now i sand email to paypal and ebay saying that i will not post to NIGERIA. then i hed email from ebay saing that they hed contact to paypal reg payment and force me to sand parcale to NIGERIA or they will put me in black list. i call fedex to callecut pakage they calecuted after i came to know this post . thank you
This just happened to me too – from the same person, ADE RICHARD
It is quite obvious when something isn’t right, some tell-tale signs to look out for are:
1. Zero feeback in ebay
2. Only joined very recently (even the day the bid ends)
3. Never outbid (they obviously set high maximums)
4. No communication from them in the way other sales/ purcahses go
5. A story. We all love a story – such as the Paypal version above or “it’s a present and I’m out of the country etc etc”
Bottom line is be vary wary of anything that isn’t exactly how it should be.
The same scammers have just tried the scam with me. I was selling a diamond ring on ebay.I had a bid from a new ebayer based in Lancashire. He emailed me to say the money had been payed to my paypal account, Another email came from services@paypal.com to say they were holding the money until a tracking number was given by me to say that I had sent it. Then I was asked to mail the ring to Nigeria, not as I would,but the reason was that the buyer was out of the country and it was needed urgently in Nigeria, again the same address as the first ebayer spoke about. I then had a threatening email saying if I did not send the ring immediately I would be black listed on ebay and would not be able to use them in the future.I have reported this to ebay ,and also paypal . Awaiting a response.I know in future I will be more aware of these scammers and be a little fussy who I have bidding. thank you.
hey really great article, good work.
I get targeted often by these criminals. Latest names include Allan Collin, Peter Clark and Andrew Smith, all lovely British names that in reailty have been made up by Nigerian criminals. One way I have made myself feel slightly better about having my time wasted by these people is to subscribe their spam email addresses (the supposed paypal and ebay ones too) to as many spamming websites as possible. Let them wade through rubbish too! Makes me smile anyway
Transaction successful
Dear Sagar Pardeshi,
You have been sent a PayPal® payment of € 150,00 EUR for an eBay item#290416210472. From one of our Member, “Mrs Tesse Link (tesselinkstore10@yahoo.com) for a recent item purchased from you.
Money Request Details
—————————————————————————————————-
Buyer’s Payment Information:
—————————————————————————————————-
Payment Type Mastercard
Name on Card Mrs Tesse Link
Card Number 5491*******67212
Expiry Date mm/yy 09/08/2011
Card Holder Address ***************
—————————————————————————————————-
Shipping Information:
—————————————————————————————————-
Shipping Method : ANPOST IRELAND REGISTER POST.
BUYERS SHIPPING ADDRESS
SUNDAY ADEKUNLE
112 AINA STREET
OJOTA
LAGOS STATE
NIGERIA
23401
Confirmed
—————————————————————————————————-
Payment to: taquilasunrise2006 (taquilasunrise2006@gmail.com)
Item Amount: € 100,00 EUR
Postage & Packing: € 50,00 EUR
Postal Insurance: € 0,00 EUR
Total Amount: € 150,00 EUR
Item Title : O2 XDA HTC P3300 Unlocked.
—————————————————————————————————-
Money Paid Details:
—————————————————————————————————-
Payment from: teeyi10101 (tesselinkstore10@yahoo.com)
Item Amount: € 100,00 EUR
Postage & Packing: € 50,00 EUR
Postal Insurance: € 0,00 EUR
Total Amount: € 150,00 EUR
Item Title : O2 XDA HTC P3300 Unlocked.
This PayPal® payment has been deducted from the buyer’s account and has been “APPROVED” but will not be credited to your account until the shipment tracking number is sent to our customer’s service for shipment verification so as to secure both the buyer and the seller. Below are the necessary information requested before your account will be credited.
1 : Make sure the approved mail contains the total amount for the item bought.
2 : Make sure you ship the item to the address the buyers given address above, immediately you receive the approved confirmation.
3 : Make sure the shipment tracking number is sent to our customer’s service for shipment verification so as to secure both the buyer and the seller. Make sure the shipment tracking number is sent to us ONLY through our MONEY PROCESSING DEPARTMENT: (provenotification@mail.com)
4: Make sure the shipment tracking number is mailed to us ONLY and not the buyer..
We thank you for your prompt attention. Please understand that this is a security measure intended to help protect you and your account. We apologize for any inconvenience.
You can contact our MONEY PROCESSING DEPARTMENT customer service care at: (provenotification@mail.com)
5 : The shipment tracking number is the number on the receipt given to you at the post office,check this number and send this to our MONEY PROCESSING DEPARTMENT customer service at (provenotification@mail.com) OR SCAN receipt for verification.
Thanks for using PayPal®. We look forward in serving your online payment.
Pay with PayPal
Tessen Link would like to sent you payment via PayPal – the safer, easier way to pay and get paid online.
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I’ve seen many of these scams also – the good thing is that they are pretty easy to catch, since most of these Nigerians cannot spell properly. Be sure to read the emails you get carefully and make sure they are from ebay or paypal and not the scammers. I’ve been tricked once before, but will never be tricked again.
thankyou so much for this! I had just put my package in the post office when I saw this and realised it was a scam, I ran back there and thankfully everything was fine! I had a story was that it was a birthday present for his son and the money was in the account. I would of sent it if it wasn’t for this!