The Nigerian Email Scam

PayPal_Olivia
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9 REPLIES 9

maverick125
Contributor
Contributor
I am getting emails from this email address saying I have to send money to Nigeria because.the item I sent is being held. trackings. centers @ post.com Is that a fake or really paypal
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PayPal_Olivia
Moderator
Moderator

Important to note: Since it is impossible to discern what names belong to the fraudsters and what names belong to the victims of identity theft who are being used as a cover for the activity, please make sure that you are not posting anyone's full name, address, phone number, email address, or any other personally identifiable information. I understand that it somewhat limits the ability to discuss the scams if you can't compare the contact information, but the fact is that some information that has been shared previously has actually belonged to people who were themselves being victimized by the scammers in these situations. All posts must comply with the PayPal Community Forums Posting Guidelines. Posts that contain information that violates these guidelines may be edited or entirely removed.

 

Hello Community!

 

You may have noticed that there are a few threads that have been deleted, and one or more of your posts regarding "Nigeria Scams" may have been deleted. We've created this new thread as a place for you to discuss this type of scam.

 

So, what exactly is the Nigerian Email Scam?

 

There's a really great definition of this scam at the OnGuard Online email scams page. There's also a lot of information about it in this Wikipedia article. These definitions describe the original Nigerian Letter scam, also known as the 419 scam, or Advance Fee fraud.

 

There's another, more common scam that people sometimes refer to as a Nigerian Scam, simply because the shipping address is typically in Nigeria. Here's what to look out for:

 

Someone will contact you in response to an advertisement for an item that you're selling. They will ask you to ship the item to a family member in Nigeria. (The final shipping destination may vary, sometimes a third party shipping agent is involved. Sometimes the buyer claims to be working offshore or traveling.) They will then either send you a fake email designed to make you think you've already received payment, or will try to encourage you to ship before payment is made. Sometimes they will actually pay you, but with the financial instruments of someone whose identity they've stolen.

 

How do I protect myself?

 

The best way to protect yourself from this is to always check your PayPal account by logging in to make sure you've actually received a payment, and ONLY ship to the address in the transaction details. If a customer wants you to ship to a different address, you can refund the payment, ask them to add the address to their PayPal account, and re-send the payment. You can see what countries PayPal serves at https://www.paypal.com/worldwide. Only addresses in the countries listed on that page have the potential to be valid shipping addresses.

 

The best way to fight this type of scam is to remain educated and vigilant. If it sounds too good to be true, or if your gut is telling you to be wary, listen to your instincts! Examine your risk, the potential validity of their request, and see if there's a safer way to do what they ask. If there isn't, then it's almost always best to walk away. Remember this, the most likely explanation to the question of "Why would someone want to buy this big ticket item sight unseen?" is "Because they're not using their own money!"

 

If the scammer sends you a fake payment email, you can always send those to spoof@paypal.com.

 

I hope this helps! Feel free to post here, but make sure you're editing your posts before submitting them to remove any of the personally identifiable information described in the header and footer of this post.

 

Olivia

 

Important to note: Since it is impossible to discern what names belong to the fraudsters and what names belong to the victims of identity theft who are being used as a cover for the activity, please make sure that you are not posting anyone's full name, address, phone number, email address, or any other personally identifiable information. I understand that it somewhat limits the ability to discuss the scams if you can't compare the contact information, but the fact is that some information that has been shared previously has actually belonged to people who were themselves being victimized by the scammers in these situations. All posts must comply with the PayPal Community Forums Posting Guidelines. Posts that contain information that violates these guidelines may be edited or entirely removed.

If this post or any other was helpful, please enrich the Community by giving kudos to its author, accepting it as a solution, and/or coming back to assist others. Members make this Community great!
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bbooshay021
New Community Member

same thing alomost happend to me . well i hope its not going to anyways. The guy said he wanted me to ship to nigera and that it was for a friend or somrthing like that... same as what your email said . He had found my posting on craigslist. He kept sending emails from what appeared to be from paypal saying that i had a pending payment and that i would get my money once he had a tracking number.. well i got on my original paypal account to check it and there was no money received or any pending payments or any on hold or nothing thats why i figured it was a scam.. anyways i told the dude that if he had sent money or whatever to cancel it because i wasn't shipping to nigera and he said i sent u more money so ship it out now!! ... but like i said there isnt anything on my account just got those emails. is there anything i need to do ?

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moses7797
New Community Member

just received this today. the broken english was a dead give awat....IDIOTS!

medila  to me
show details 11:15 AM (2 hours ago)
 

I so much appreciate your response to my earlier mail.Am Ok with the price
for the item i wish to let you know that I'm satisfied with the
condition.Like I said there's no doubt I'm going to purchase it if you are
ready to sale it for me.Therefore I want you to consider it sold by
withdrawing the advert.Note that you will not be responsible for shipping
and handling.My pick up agent will come to your location for pick up.Kindly
provide me your name and full address,so i can forward it to pick up agent
to calculate the cost of pick up for me.I would like you to know that the
payment will be made via PayPal because is fast and secured to send and
received money online, All you have to send me now is your full address
where the item we be pick-up and your PayPal email address so that i can
proceed with the payment immediately.Hope to hear from you soon.

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RayBox12199
New Community Member

This scam has happened to me and I do not want to send the item. It says legal action and deadlines and things, but I know it's a scam and shouldnt have to send the item. They are using a fake paypal account, so I've decided to ignore anymore emails to do with the item. Is there any advice you can give, or anything I should do, as I don't want to get into trouble for something as stupid as scams and losing money, but am worried that something might.
Thanks. 

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Moxenbury
Member
Member

Is there a way to get these people? Surely it's not that easy to open a paypal account.

 

I just had a guy try the scam on me, I wrote back and let him have it. I have an address he gave me to send the payment and I googled it - it's a UK Hostel. I am now going to see what else I may be able to do to make this guy's life miserable. Just something to do for the next couple hours. 🙂

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Moxenbury
Member
Member

To Whom It May Concern:


I am writing from Canada. I am attempting to sell my automobile on a "buy-sell" website. I had a person attempt to pull a "Nigerian Internet Scam" on me. 
The Nigerian scam is where the buyer says they have deposited money into the seller's PayPal account and that they have included extra funds for the seller to pay the shipping costs. Of course once the money from the seller is sent, they find out there was never any money sent to them from the buyer.
This man, when I gave him my PayPal account, then gave me his address to send the money to, and it is the following:
Xxxxxxxx Xxxxxx
xxx Xxxxxxx Street,
London
Post code: XXX XXX
Country: United Kingdom

I found the address belonged to your Hostel thanks to our friends at Google of course.

In some of the scam attempt emails to me he is using the name Xxxxx Xxxxx (and email address)

I have reported him to PayPal as he has sent fake emails to me that look initially like they are sent from PayPal.

I am definitely able to elaborate or answer any inquiries you may have about this concern!

Thanks in advance for your attention to this. I thought I would try to put a stop to this guy's activities before he actually fools someone.

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PayPal_Olivia
Moderator
Moderator

Everyone,

 

In an effort to tidy up and make it easier to find the information, Andy has consolidated one thread with a lot of example emails that people have posted all over the forums. If you'd like to see examples that others have posted to look for common elements, that would be a great place to browse!

 

https://www.paypal-community.com/t5/Fraud-phishing-and-spoof/Fraud-Examples/td-p/271370

 

There are many, many pages of examples, most of them pretty much like the others, so it's probably not necessary to post your own example email unless it's significantly different from the others. If you do choose to post, make sure you strip out any last names, addresses, phone numbers, etc., whether yours or another person's - even if you think it's the scammer's! Remember that scammers are hiding behind fake identities, and by publishing the contact info they give you, you may be unwittingly re-victimizing someone else!

 

Olivia

If this post or any other was helpful, please enrich the Community by giving kudos to its author, accepting it as a solution, and/or coming back to assist others. Members make this Community great!
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etorruella
Contributor
Contributor

I just give two laptop sent to an address in Nigeria. And I lost the money.

The buyer dont have Paypal account.

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