What is it with ebay and the Nigerian connection?

rollsey1 · 29th November 2007, 08:30

Unlike many it would appear, I’m a big fan of ebay, but thought this cautionary tale may be of interest.

My friend auctioned a phone and it was bid up to £85. No sooner had the auction finished when ebay cancelled the final bid, quite correctly.

There then followed a series of spoof emails.
The 1st was apparently from ebay, suggesting that the bid was cancelled due to technical difficulties. A second followed asking for the item to be posted to Nigeria, (always a popular destination for some reason), and once a tracking number was received, funds would follow (funds couldn’t be moved the tracking number). A third came from “PayPal” suggesting funds had arrived in her account. A fourth again suggested technical difficulties and an instruction to post without delay, and so on. So far, some 10 emails have arrived and the end doesn’t appear to be in sight yet.

So for the inexperienced, never assume emails from ebay or PayPal are genuine. The clue is often in the way they are written as well as the web address. And never send goods without independently logging onto your PayPal account to check the funds arrival first.

JohnDotCom · 29th November 2007, 08:50

If you load down the EBay toolbar it also tells you if items, emails and PayPal messages are genuine or not,
when you try to open them plus some other facilities.

tourerfogey · 29th November 2007, 11:26

Always check the authenticity of emails supposedly from other ebayers by going direct to your 'messages' screen in 'My eBay' NOT by clicking a link in an email.

I was going to say something else too, but I've forgotten what it was now....

BMC123 · 29th November 2007, 11:27

"hover" your mouse over any links in those emails, and your browser will show where they are from. any links that have anything other than the ones you know are from ebay are to be avoided. I have seen ones that look perfect, right down to the correct fonts, layout and colours but the links always have an extra . or 2 in them ie: paypal.ru.com or ebay.ru.pi.com etc.
as a general rule, watch out for scammers with UK email accounts, they seem to be on the increase.

BMC123 · 2nd December 2007, 00:51

there was a story here recently about some woman who was duped by the scammers. It seems she fell for the oldest chestnut in the book, the old "please send to my sister in Nigeria" story

I mean, sorry.. but do these people not read the newspapers?

sylvester · 2nd December 2007, 10:18

Phew - have just sold a couple of items on ebay and sent them once notification of payment had been received from Paypal but without checking my account first. Thanks for the tip for the future. Fortunately the items were sent to UK addresses and they are both genuine.
My wife and I ran a Dot.com business upto a year ago. I am sorry to say that we soon learned to recognise a Nigerian accent and lost count of the number of times people tried to buy from us using stolen credit cards or wanted goods sending to Nigeria, seems to be something of a national pastime!

29th November 2007, 08:30	#1
rollsey1 Loves to post Honda Super Magna Join Date: May 2007 Location: Guildford Posts: 385 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts	What is it with ebay and the Nigerian connection? Unlike many it would appear, I’m a big fan of ebay, but thought this cautionary tale may be of interest. My friend auctioned a phone and it was bid up to £85. No sooner had the auction finished when ebay cancelled the final bid, quite correctly. There then followed a series of spoof emails. The 1st was apparently from ebay, suggesting that the bid was cancelled due to technical difficulties. A second followed asking for the item to be posted to Nigeria, (always a popular destination for some reason), and once a tracking number was received, funds would follow (funds couldn’t be moved the tracking number). A third came from “PayPal” suggesting funds had arrived in her account. A fourth again suggested technical difficulties and an instruction to post without delay, and so on. So far, some 10 emails have arrived and the end doesn’t appear to be in sight yet. So for the inexperienced, never assume emails from ebay or PayPal are genuine. The clue is often in the way they are written as well as the web address. And never send goods without independently logging onto your PayPal account to check the funds arrival first.

29th November 2007, 11:27	#4
BMC123 Posted a thing or two 2004 1.8 Connoisseur SE, 1999 XJ8 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Northern Ireland Posts: 1,163 Thanks: 0 Thanked 1 Time in 1 Post	"hover" your mouse over any links in those emails, and your browser will show where they are from. any links that have anything other than the ones you know are from ebay are to be avoided. I have seen ones that look perfect, right down to the correct fonts, layout and colours but the links always have an extra . or 2 in them ie: paypal.ru.com or ebay.ru.pi.com etc. as a general rule, watch out for scammers with UK email accounts, they seem to be on the increase. __________________ [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]

2nd December 2007, 00:51	#5
BMC123 Posted a thing or two 2004 1.8 Connoisseur SE, 1999 XJ8 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Northern Ireland Posts: 1,163 Thanks: 0 Thanked 1 Time in 1 Post	there was a story here recently about some woman who was duped by the scammers. It seems she fell for the oldest chestnut in the book, the old "please send to my sister in Nigeria" story I mean, sorry.. but do these people not read the newspapers? __________________ [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]

29th November 2007, 08:50	#2
JohnDotCom * Rover 75 FaceLift Tourer CDTi 170BHP Auto ConnSE 2005 Model Starlight Silver Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Abergele Posts: 28,735 Thanks: 0 Thanked 6 Times in 5 Posts	If you load down the EBay toolbar it also tells you if items, emails and PayPal messages are genuine or not, when you try to open them plus some other facilities.

29th November 2007, 11:26	#3
tourerfogey Banned Join Date: Nov 2006 Posts: 2 Thanks: 0 Thanked 1 Time in 1 Post	Always check the authenticity of emails supposedly from other ebayers by going direct to your 'messages' screen in 'My eBay' NOT by clicking a link in an email. I was going to say something else too, but I've forgotten what it was now....

2nd December 2007, 10:18	#6
sylvester Loves to post Rover 75 Tourer Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Rochester Kent Posts: 256 Thanks: 18 Thanked 22 Times in 9 Posts	Phew - have just sold a couple of items on ebay and sent them once notification of payment had been received from Paypal but without checking my account first. Thanks for the tip for the future. Fortunately the items were sent to UK addresses and they are both genuine. My wife and I ran a Dot.com business upto a year ago. I am sorry to say that we soon learned to recognise a Nigerian accent and lost count of the number of times people tried to buy from us using stolen credit cards or wanted goods sending to Nigeria, seems to be something of a national pastime!