I think I've been scammed

[wokkies]

Sold big ds's moby which had a cracked screen on it on ebay, checked emails this morning and discovered this email:
Hello, I have just sent payment through paypal, Please send me an email as soon as you have confirmed it so we can proceed with shipping. I must also tell you this that I would love to use my own Fedex account for shipping because I prefer fedex so let me have your full name and address and the weight of the item so I can send you a shipping label in order for you to send the item tomorrow morning as soon as possible
Thanks
Naomi
and this, the phonesold for £27
Naomi Cole just sent you money with PayPal.
Naomi Cole (niyiforu@yahoo.com ) is a Verified buyer.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Payment Details

Amount: £200.00 GBP

Transaction ID: 5Y758872CS5622206

Subject: Ship before 03/04/2007

Note: You have been paid for
samsung d500 mobile slide phone






Delivery Information





Address: Niyi James
No 9 opeki road
Ipaja - Lagos
23401
Nigeria


Address Status: confirmed



N.B The buyer Prefers to use her FedEx Account, So please get back to her and make shipping arrangements

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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 reference/tracking
number is sent to us 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. Send tracking number to us or email us through this mail talk2customer_response@consultant.com

And our customer service care will attend to you. As soon as you send us the shipment's tracking number to us for security purposes and the safety of the buyer and the seller,the money will be credited to your account.
**PLEASE NOTE**
Once shipment has been verified and the tracking number sent to us,
You will receive a "CONFIRMATION E-mail" from PayPal® informing you that the Money has been credited



The "official" PayPal corporate offices are at:
Centennial Hall 128
1000 S. Franklin
Kirksville, MO 63501
Thank you for using paypal ® . We look forward serving your online auction payment needs in the future.
Sincerely,
Williams Green
Paypal Customer Care.

Thank you for using PayPal!
The PayPal Team
Its defineatly a scam isnt it?????:confused: :help2:
what do I do now to avoid negative feedback?? Have now offered to second bidder who seems to buy mobiles

[smirnoff]

I think you need to contact ebay on this one babe... good luck...

[Bunny]

looks like a scam to me

[wokkies]

just found my invoice,and its an address in scotland, stranger and stranger, offto contact ebay now

[rsbh]

It's definitely a scam. I had the same earlier this year. Paypal NEVER holds money until you provide tracking info. Don't send it and report to e-bay. E-bay will refund your listing fees. Don't worry about negative feedback - if e-bay do their job the person will be kicked off e-bay and unable to leave you feedback anyway.

[Lemon]

Oh dear wokkies ! What a pain in the backside ! I hope your second chance offer takes it up.

[wokkies]

how do i report it??? have looked everywhere? Help

[duck_egg]

i had exactly the same with a mobile phone i sold a while back, i got in touch with paypal as it seemed to be a fake paypal email, they confirmed it was and dealt with it for me.....x x x x

[wkdfraggle]

There is a big thing at the moment with someone with a UK address buying and asking for the item to be sent to Nigeria!
I think you need to contact customer services but i dont know how you go about it hun sorry.

Hope you get it sorted soon.

Simone
xxx

[rsbh]

Taken from e-bay community Q&A board. Hope this helps.

This advice relates to a particular scam carried out by some people living in Nigeria but elements of it may be useful when dealing with other scam buyers.

HOW THE SCAM WORKS

The scammer lives in Nigeria but because they're pretending to live somewhere else they ask for the item to be sent to a relative or friend in Nigeria (really themselves).

They persuade the seller to send the goods on receipt of a fake payment confirmation email, usually from Paypal but also from Nochex, various banks, Western Union or other payment services. The seller sends the item to Nigeria but the promised payment never materialises. They target new sellers of relatively expensive items, especially mobile phones and other electronic goods.

Some of them will have newly registered IDs with fake addresses in various countries. A growing number are now also using hi-jacked accounts. These can be identified by the ID having been dormant for some time and/or a sudden change in items being bought.

Check the rest of their purchases using Advanced Search (top right of any page) > Items by Bidder (include completed items). If they have bought a large number of similar expensive items over one or two days then the odds are they're scammers. Due to ebay's restrictions you will not see any bids on listings that are still running.


HOW TO DEAL WITH THEM

1. The idea is to get the scammer suspended first to make it quicker for you to do the Unpaid Item process in order to get your final value fee back. So first report to eBay using this link:

http://pages.ebay.co.uk/help/contact_us/_base/index.html

Select: Selling and managing your item > Continue > Problems with buyers or sale > Buyer paid or tried to pay with fake or stolen funds > Continue > Email Us.

And then report their fake contact details here (the report link is at the bottom):

http://pages.ebay.co.uk/help/policies/identity-false.html

If they are using a hi-jacked account also report here (there is no harm in using the above reports as well to get things moving):

http://pages.ebay.co.uk/help/contact_us/_base/index.html

Select: Account Security > Continue > Unauthorised Account Activity > Report Another Member's Account as Stolen > Continue > Email Us


2. After that they should be suspended within a couple of days. Do not bother to reply to their emails. Keep an eye on their ID and when it says "No longer registered with eBay" beside it you will be able to do the Unpaid Item process immediately to get your final value fees back, here's that link:

http://feedback.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?CreateDispute

3. Once you have your final value fee refund you can relist and if it sells the second time your relisting fee will be refunded too. If you relist before completing the Unpaid Item process you will not be eligible for a relisting fee refund. If for some reason the scammer is not suspended quickly you will have to wait seven days to start the Unpaid Item process in the usual way.

4. You can make a Second Chance Offer before they're suspended and before doing the Unpaid Item process if that's what you prefer to do as long the underbidder isn't a scammer too.

5. If the scammer has used a hi-jacked account eBay will temporarily suspend the account and the transaction will often be removed from their database. If so your final value fee may automatically be refunded to your seller account and there will be no need to do the Unpaid Item process. Check for your fee refund at My eBay > Seller Account > View Account Status. If it has not been refunded contact eBay's live help and ask them to do it manually. Here's their link:

https://cschatlb-na.corp.ebay.com/chat.asp?profile=15

If the transaction has not been removed you will need to do the Unpaid Item process to get your final value fee back. If you have received notification from eBay that the account was hi-jacked it should mean that by then the account has been returned to its rightful owner. In that case if possible use the "mutual consent" option which the real account holder has to agree to. Email them first to warn them.

If you get no reply or you believe the account has not been returned to the rightful owner do NOT use the "mutual consent" option. Do it in the usual way, starting seven days after end of auction.


TO PREVENT IT HAPPENING AGAIN

1. Block zero or low feedback bidders with no credit card on file - the last option on here:

http://offer.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?BuyerBlockPreferences

2. You can also list to sell in the UK only and use the "Buyers in countries to which I don't ship" option on the above link to block bidders from outside the UK (although don't rely on that one, some of these scammers register fake addresses in the UK to get around the block).

3. If you prefer Paypal anyway you can use Immediate (Paypal) Payment on your listing, then the listing cannot end without payment being made. To do that during the listing process select to sell Fixed Price Only (or Buy It Now and auction but then you must use a reserve - minimum £50 - to keep the BIN and Immediate Payment if a bid is placed.) and you'll see the link to use Immediate Payment on the payment page, just below the Paypal logo. You have to be an "established seller" with an account "in good standing" to be able to use that.

4. If you are a new seller and cannot use Immediate Payment you can use another option on the link in #1 to block buyers without Paypal accounts (because Nigerian scammers very rarely have Paypal accounts). That doesn't mean your buyer has to pay with Paypal, it just means they can't bid if they don't have an account.

5. If you are not using Immediate Payment do not use Buy It Now.

Please also be aware of credit card scams, usually (but not only) from Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia, where they pay using Paypal but use stolen or fake credit cards so the money is withdrawn by Paypal later. Do not accept Paypal payment for expensive items from these and other scam areas. If necessary issue a refund and report fake funds to eBay as above.

If in doubt about a buyer please ask for advice on one of the Community boards.

[kathyhinsh]

wot pone is it Christine?
Dh broke the screen on his Sony Ericsson http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.proporta.com/phpThumb.php%3Fsrc%3Dhttp://www.proporta.com/F03/i/k750i_crystal3.jpg%26w%3D55%26h%3D44%26q%3D100&imgrefurl=http://www.proporta.com/F02/PPF02P05.php%3Ft_id%3D1601%26t_mode%3Ddes&h=403&w=450&sz=27&hl=en&sig2=VH9eHSiLuzq--YWtZyKOaQ&start=8&um=1&tbnid=OgykDI0zgWiRWM:&tbnh=114&tbnw=127&ei=uiMSRr6OOZLs0QTv1_WaAw&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dsony%2Bericsson%2B750%26svnum%3D10%26 um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26rls%3Dcom.microsoft:en-gb:IE-SearchBox%26sa%3DX & it only cost £50 4 a new screen, which he fitted himself...works lovely now!

[denise1981]

yeap this happened to me too with a pink razr mobile, its so annoying

[wokkies]

wot pone is it Christine?
Dh broke the screen on his Sony Ericsson http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.proporta.com/phpThumb.php%3Fsrc%3Dhttp://www.proporta.com/F03/i/k750i_crystal3.jpg%26w%3D55%26h%3D44%26q%3D100&imgrefurl=http://www.proporta.com/F02/PPF02P05.php%3Ft_id%3D1601%26t_mode%3Ddes&h=403&w=450&sz=27&hl=en&sig2=VH9eHSiLuzq--YWtZyKOaQ&start=8&um=1&tbnid=OgykDI0zgWiRWM:&tbnh=114&tbnw=127&ei=uiMSRr6OOZLs0QTv1_WaAw&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dsony%2Bericsson%2B750%26svnum%3D10%26 um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26rls%3Dcom.microsoft:en-gb:IE-SearchBox%26sa%3DX & it only cost £50 4 a new screen, which he fitted himself...works lovely now!

this was it kathy,
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ih=015&sspagename=STRK%3AMESO%3AIT&viewitem=&item=250097638024&rd=1&rd=1
have nowoffered to the bidder before the scammer, went on live ebay chat, and they gave me the links to report him,and said defineately sounded like a scam. Thanks for everyones help:happy72:

[Sarah]

Mobile phones always attract scammers. It's definately a scam hun. Change your settings and put a big notice to say that you DO NOT SHIP OVERSEAS. We had loads of trouble trying to sell a mobile phone once.