sellers be careful... eBay nigeria scam, fake paypal email

miss_k
Contributor
Contributor

Hello everyone, 

 

I was selling an apple iPhone 4s, i received an email from a person in Nigeria saying they can offer me a good price on the phone, i said how much? he replied saying £150 plus shipping, i though this is a bit dodgy. I said okay, they kept saying it's for their son as  Christmas present. 

 

They sent me an email, it's a fake email from Paypal.. 

 

the email address was has the words payproof....

 

it mentions in the email,

 

IMPORTANT NOTE: This PayPal® payment has been deducted from the buyer's 
account and has been "APPROVED" but will not be credited into your
account until the shipment reference/tracking number is sent to us for
verification so as to ensure both the buyer and the seller security.
Below are the necessary information required before your account will be
credited.
Send to us the Shipment's Tracking Number through our Customer
Representative email specified below and our Customer Security Service
Center will attend to you. As soon as you send us the Shipment's
Tracking Number for security purposes and buyer/seller safety, the money
will be credited into your account.

**PLEASE
NOTE**
Once item has been shipped and the Shipment's Tracking Number sent to
us,
You will receive a "CONFIRMATION EMAIL" from PayPal® Team informing you
that the Fund has been credited into your account.

 also they mention if we have a problem, contact the paypal person in charge and the email doesn't even include PayPal.

 

This is obviously not from Paypal - i have reported it anyway and hopefully this sick person gets caught - i would hate anyone to send phones or anything expensive and not receive the money they deserve. 

 

i didn't send the phone because i am careful in that sense, but i went along just to see what was going on so i can report it, my instincts was right... i just want sellers to know and be careful...

 

lots of scams come from Nigeria, so sellers do be careful please!!

 

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2 REPLIES 2

kernowlass
Esteemed Advisor
Esteemed Advisor

@miss_k

 

Glad you were not scammed, if you look at this forum this scam has been ongoing for years and is all over the internet.

 

Just google paypal / ebay / nigeria and you will see.

 

Pointless reporting them though as they use hijacked ebay accounts and do not use paypal at all.

 

They just use emails that they pretend are from paypal so nothing is done via paypals site so nothing paypal can do at all.


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miss_k
Contributor
Contributor

@kernowlass

 

thank you for your reply, 

 

i fowarded it to the email provided by paypal and it reports it from there, 

 

i only just came across this, had no idea it has been going on for years. 

 

it's a shame some people fall for it, because they are offered a huge amount of money...

 

they use hijacked accounts? that's just simply so wrong.

 

all i can hope is someone doesn't fall for it. 

 

i appreicate your response. 

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