Examples of Suspected Fraud/Fake Emails

[PayPal_Adrian]

Hello everyone!

One of the greatest strengths consumers possess against fraud and phishing is education and collaboration.  To help support your safety online, I'm going to open this special thread up for you.  Here, you can post examples of what you believe to be attempts by individuals to defraud you or others of their hard earned valuables and money. 

Before we begin, a few housekeeping points:

• We will be using this as a "master thread," so if we find an example in other areas of the boards, we may merge the post into this one.

• For everyone's safety, please remove any last names or contact information (including email addresses) from your examples.  In many instances, the names provided by fraudsters are fake or may actually be the name of someone they already defrauded. 

• On that same note, please don't ever attempt to confront a fraudster or attempt to track them down.  Instead, turn the information you do have over to your local authorities. 

• Please also remove any links from your posts, as these could potentially go to spoofed or phishing websites.

Other than that, we only ask that you keep it productive and stay within the Forum Decorum and posting guidelines.  I'll be stopping in on a regular basis to clean house and comment on posts, so don't be surprised if you see my mug - or another moderator - stopping in to say hello! 

With that said, I'm going to start moving posts in, so you might see some older examples mixed in with the new posts.  I hope this thread becomes a great resource for everyone!

Stay safe,

Adrian

[jessicabahiags]

Hey you guys! It just happened with me yesterday. I'm selling my camera and this guy asks me to talk to him through email. And he was talking to me in Portuguese (I'm Brazilian) but it wasn't quite accurate so I imagined he was a foreigner. But I was a little smarter and asked him where he wanted me to send the package. He send me the address saying that it was in Lagos, Nigeria. But then when I looked up the zip code he send me for the same address it was for Keller, Virginia. When I typed the code, first thing was the name of the city and the second this topic about this scam. We have to be very careful. Wish you all the best.

[Zelex]

 Hi All,

I have been going through this thread and I thought I would give a some input. 

Having lived in Nigeria, there is a huge demand for authentic foreign goods so there are definitely genuine buyers hence the reason why Amazon despite the reputation of the country have started offering "limited" shipping services (one a few African countries).

The most important point I would like to make is that genuine buyers based abroad that want to send items to their relatives will use a service called procurement, for instance say I want to buy a laptop and send it to my cousin in Nigeria. I have an arrangement with a freight forwarder (UK address) who would would recieve item I bought online directly and then arrange shipment to the address in Nigeria. So you as a buyer wouldn't even know that your item was for someone in Nigeria as you are always dealing with a UK address. This procurement service is also available to those living in Nigeria.

The advice on this thread is solid, the only thing I would add, is that purchases on highly technical/professional books etc in my experience are more of likely to be genuine compared to phones/electronics which are mostly available (not all) on Jumia/Konga (Africa's Amazon & eBay equivalent).

[kernowlass]

@Zelex

You may well have a UK address but you still would not be able to buy from me as your bid would come from an international country yours is one that i have blocked.

Most UK sellers use the Ebay or website blocks.

[Zelex]

@kernowlass

You're right. In that scenario.

I didn't quite explain myself properly but the service I'm referring to is where by the freight forwarder (based in the UK) makes the bid on your behalf sends it to you in Nigeria. Usually shipments have to be a minimum weight of 10kg. Many individuals do this as well, for example I receive orders from Nigerian buyers, me being based in the UK uses my eBay account to make these purchases and then send them to each respective Nigerian address. You wouldn't know as a UK seller that your item is ending up in Nigeria. This is the method genuine Nigerian buyers would mostly use.

[mahw]

(Edited by moderator)

Nigeria

23041

another one.

[Temp20230526ao]

Had similar issue selling my laptop. Said they'd pay the postage as well to this address. Man I'm glad I googled the address. Was literally just boxing it up to send

[VanDi2]

Same here, was selling a computer and they tried to scam us.
email looks like that:

From: <removed>
"You have received a payment of $590.00 CAD from <removed>>
Thank you for using PayPal. To see all the transaction details, log into your PayPal account.
 
It may take a few moments for this transaction to appear in your account.
 
Seller Protection - eligible
Seller
Instructions to Seller
This payment is currently PENDING (awaiting shipment verification) as shown on your PayPal History, so send us the tracking details of the package once its shipped and the payment will reflect in your account as soon as the shipment has been verified
   
Shipping address - Confirmed
Name: Charles <removed>
Address: <removed>
City: Surulere
State:  Lagos
Country: Nigeria
Zipcode: +23401

[Cfldjamie]

Looking at the emails I noticed suddenly a ebay profile name so looked it up an contacted the person.

He turned out to be a chat actually in Germany.

He informed me that a woman named K*** (the same woman who contacted me), emailed him a week previously asking to Buy a camera with the same story she used on me buying for her cousin and could I post to him in Nigeria.

So be warned if you reply to her/them your ebay reply showing your profile name will be used in their next scam.

[Robert_Dinca]

Be Aware!

I've had a similar problem, this time I was contacted for a local listing I was selling .... my MacBook Pro. The nigerian had a story that he is traveling through London in a business trip and wants to purchase a laptop for his cousin in Nigeria.

His address and name:

Name: (Post edited by Moderator)
Address: (Post edited by Moderator)
City: (Post edited by Moderator)
State: (Post edited by Moderator)
Country: Nigeria
Zip-code: (Post edited by Moderator)

[CalvinWright]

I had exactly the same thing. I was selling a PS4 pro and literally 2hours after listing someone bought it with the name dgsherwood1. He was in America and he was apparently moving to South America and needed it sent to a missionary in Africa. The funny thing is is that it had exactly the same address/area as everyone else on here. I told him to **bleep** off and cancelled the order.