# Am I being scammed?



## fenurch (Sep 5, 2009)

So, I posted an add on Belfast (Northern Ireland/United Kingdom) gumtree and a person from Canada sent me a question a few days later asking if the PS2 for sale. I said Yes and she said that it's for her son in-law in Nigeria. I was surprised at that moment but I wasn't feeling suspicious. Next day after that I sent her my PayPal and she transfered £180 British Pounds in to my account (I asked £35 for the PS2 and around 15-20 for the shipping) but she done it so that the PayPal wouldn't actually transfer the money into my account unless I posted a tracking number of the parcel on PayPal (they required Royal Mail First Class tracking number when I had told the person that First Class is only within UK). After this I started to feel very suspicious thinking Why would she send me so much money? So I checked her IP address from the e-mails and looked it up on www.ip-address.com and it turns out that she's based somewhere in California (I think it was Oakland). This really didn't add up at all and I wasn't willing to lose a PS2 (it's not really that dear but it's still money) or pay for the shipping in case the person pulls a scam on me. When she transfered the money it was about 10:50am and I was still in bed so I hadn't read the e-mail which she sent me saying that she has transfered the money and said that I have to go and post out the PS2 today and send her the tracking number. After about 10 minutes I received another e-mail saying why haven't you replied and saying that if I don't send out the parcel today she will report me for fraud. Then I told her that I will send out the parcel and asked why has she transfered so much money to me (I wouldn't mind getting £180 instead of £65 but this was too dodgy and I thought it might be a trap). After that she replied that it doesn't matter, she has plenty of money. Also her spelling and standards of a letter are very poor which makes me doubt that she's Canadian unless she's partially French.

Now, this seems way too dodgy so that's why I'm posting here, to really see if should just tell her to go f*** her/himself and if I'm reporting them or just go through with the deal because at the minute I'm leaning towards the 1st option very much.

Sorry if this is the wrong forum to post this but I thought this would be the most appropriate one and if anyone wants me to post up some screenshots to see exactly what she said and what message I received from PayPal, just ask and I'll post them up.

Thanks


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## mudkip (Sep 5, 2009)

Nigeria = scam

dude,I can't believe you even fell for it


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## fenurch (Sep 5, 2009)

I guess  Nigeria does seem well dodgy D


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## CrAsHnBuRnXp (Sep 6, 2009)

I had a similar situation. I put an ad up in my local craigslist to sell a couple of WoW characters that I dont play anymore. I got this email from a person that was supposedly in the UK. Now why in the hell would someone from the UK be checking my local craigslist? I went along with it for the time being. I told this person to send the agreed upon amount via paypal. The person didnt have a paypal account so they had to make one. Three hours later I get an echeck for the amount we agreed upon. I let it sit a day. I wake up the following morning with an email from paypal saying that the money has been returned to the buyer because it went unclaimed for 30 days and it hadnt even been 24 hrs. 

Not to mention the whole time the person kept saying "ok i sent money can i have accnt info now?" even after i had told this person that I was not giving them any of the account information for my wow toon until AFTER the payment had cleared. When I went to tell the person that the money was sent back to them, they still wanted the account info. I told them that they needed to contact Paypal to get it sorted before i did anything. 

Needless to say, i never heard back.


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## IINexusII (Sep 6, 2009)

i had a nigerian send a fake paypal cheque to me when he bought my phone on ebay...

ebay address was in USA and was asking me to send to nigeria, and payment would be made once received


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## fenurch (Sep 6, 2009)

Ahh god, I was actually so close to losing a PS2 (value none the less). If she hadn't said she lives in Canada and if she hadn't had bad spelling and presentation my PS2 would probably be in the post by now.


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## Deleted member 24505 (Sep 6, 2009)

damned nigeria,should be nuked.


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## AphexDreamer (Sep 6, 2009)

I don't get it? She was giving you more money and you would have shipped the PS2 to a place she doesn't even exist at? 

Why would anyone want to do that? Isn't it more like she/he is scamming them self vs them scamming you? Or is my logic fuzzy today?


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## Deleted member 24505 (Sep 6, 2009)

She/he/it lives in nigeria.they put the money in your pp account,and demand a tracking no. You post it and send the tracking no. then they remove the money.I think thats how it works,unless i'm wrong.


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## erocker (Sep 6, 2009)

Send me two thousand dollars and I will give you a million once I'm able to get to the bank. Plus I'll keep you from getting scammed ever again. Sound fair? Good, now PM you your bank information.

kthnxbye.


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## twilyth (Sep 6, 2009)

You can't trust money orders and cashier's checks either.  There's even a bold face warning on every Craigslist ad in my area that these can be fake.  Your bank will take them but a month later when payment is declined, they stick you for the full amount plus fees.

My favorite was someone I know who was selling a boat motor.  The guy offered to pay the asking price by cashier's check and would have "courier" come to box it up.  Riiiight.  The "courier was probably the guy doing the scam and was using a fake check.

Rentals are another popular scam.  They give you the address of some vacant house and say they are "missionaries" living overseas so you have to send them the money before they can give you access.

Next time that happens, tell them you need to talk and give them the phone number of the FBI or other scary law enforcement organization.


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## fenurch (Sep 6, 2009)

tigger said:


> She/he/it lives in nigeria.they put the money in your pp account,and demand a tracking no. You post it and send the tracking no. then they remove the money.I think thats how it works,unless i'm wrong.



No, she's claiming she lives in Canada but once I checked her e-mail IP address I found out that she lives in California instead. And she's claiming she's ordering it for her son in-law who lives in Nigeria


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## AphexDreamer (Sep 6, 2009)

ATZ said:


> No, she's claiming she lives in Canada but once I checked her e-mail IP address I found out that she lives in California instead. And she's claiming she's ordering it for her son in-law who lives in Nigeria



Yes but why would should want you to send it away from her? She gets nothing out of this, unless she knows someone who lives in Canada or the UK where ever that shit is going.


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## erocker (Sep 6, 2009)

Leave it be. Don't even waste your time with correspondence anymore.


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## BroBQ (Sep 6, 2009)

To prevent any type of scam, deal with local buyers only. Its that easy...


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## regg187 (Sep 6, 2009)

The notice you received from paypal is a fake there is no money waiting, you send it off, someone gets it for free, and everybody but you splits  the value of the  ps2!


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## KainXS (Sep 6, 2009)

getting scammed by nigerians is becoming a ritual now, they almost got me too when I first started using craigslist

whenever someone sends you the wrong payment and you start wondering "this can't be a scam im in" its usually a scam


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## Mussels (Sep 6, 2009)

regg187 said:


> The notice you received from paypal is a fake there is no money waiting, you send it off, someone gets it for free, and everybody but you splits  the value of the  ps2!



thats pretty much it. if you log into paypal, there will be no evidence of this 'payment'



I cleaned up a lot of language in the thread - we all dislike nigerian princes, but c'mon guys... you were getting pretty racist/hateful there.


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## choppy (Sep 6, 2009)

Mussels said:


> thats pretty much it. if you log into paypal, there will be no evidence of this 'payment'
> 
> 
> 
> I cleaned up a lot of language in the thread - we all dislike nigerian princes, but c'mon guys... you were getting pretty racist/hateful there.




thank you - i'm glad somebody took notice


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## Sir_Real (Sep 6, 2009)

mudkip said:


> Nigeria = scam
> 
> dude,I can't believe you even fell for it




Yeah any deal involving any Nigerian is a scam !


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## dr emulator (madmax) (Sep 6, 2009)

yes no racist coments please they are a definate 
 here
my auntie sold a phone to someone in nigeria and it was also a scam, silly b should have sold it to me instead but was in such a rush she lost out 
oh and by the way we do have people from all over the world here at tpu 
(some from african regions)so they aren't all dodgy just some


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## Mussels (Sep 6, 2009)

dr emulator (madmax) said:


> yes no racist coments please they are a definate View attachment 28225 here
> my auntie sold a phone to someone in nigeria and it was also a scam, silly bView attachment 28226 should have sold it to me instead but was in such a rush she lost out
> oh and by the way we do have people from all over the world here at tpu
> (some from african regions)so they aren't all dodgy just some



its only the princes who are the scammers


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## dr emulator (madmax) (Sep 6, 2009)

Mussels said:


> its only the princes who are the scammers


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## kylzer (Sep 6, 2009)

I got an email not to long ago saying that they bought a phone of ebay i think it was a nokia n96 or something and they had not received it and they would take me to court if i didn't send or give a refund. 

Funny thing is i don't have a ebay account.........


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## Mussels (Sep 6, 2009)

kylzer said:


> I got an email not to long ago saying that they bought a phone of ebay i think it was a nokia n96 or something and they had not received it and they would take me to court if i didn't send or give a refund.
> 
> Funny thing is i don't have a ebay account.........



send them one back saying they've been identified as a scammers and reported to all the local authorities, and any further attempts to extort money will result in police action.


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## andrewsmc (Sep 6, 2009)

erocker said:


> Send me two thousand dollars and I will give you a million once I'm able to get to the bank. Plus I'll keep you from getting scammed ever again. Sound fair? Good, now PM you your bank information.
> 
> kthnxbye.




ROFL.


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## twilyth (Sep 6, 2009)

Since most of these people will never be caught, I think you should have some fun with these scammers.  Send them some bogus tracking information and when it doesn't show up on line, pretend like you don't understand what is happening.  At the very least you waste their time and you might even be able to get some info to give to law enforcement.


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## fenurch (Sep 6, 2009)

Nah, wouldn't work. Sent the c*** a msg saying couple things about a day ago and he hasn't answered DD


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## kylzer (Sep 6, 2009)

Mussels said:


> send them one back saying they've been identified as a scammers and reported to all the local authorities, and any further attempts to extort money will result in police action.



I did better than that i put his email on /b/


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## dr emulator (madmax) (Sep 6, 2009)

erocker said:


> Send me two thousand dollars and I will give you a million once I'm able to get to the bank. Plus I'll keep you from getting scammed ever again. Sound fair? Good, now PM you your bank information.
> 
> kthnxbye.



better still send me the ps2 and i promise to look after it for you


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## t77snapshot (Sep 6, 2009)

Mussels said:


> send them one back saying they've been identified as a scammers and reported to all the local authorities, and any further attempts to extort money will result in police action.



That is exactly what you should do!


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## regg187 (Sep 9, 2009)

t77snapshot said:


> That is exactly what you should do!



and they will shake in their sandals, most of these scammers are sending you this from some dingy internet 'cafe' on rented equip. they can't afford their own PC and  a high speed internet connection, some one where they live would probably kill them for it. 
locating them is probably impossible. They won't reply ,cuz whats the sense, that is time they could be sending out 3 more of there scam 'letters', getting a chance at 3 more is better that replying to 1!  thats a short version of it!


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## Marineborn (Sep 9, 2009)

Mussels said:


> send them one back saying they've been identified as a scammers and reported to all the local authorities, and any further attempts to extort money will result in police action.



i was just about to say that, if she doesnt respond you know why. lol


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