Hi everyone
Thank you for reading this I really appreciate it and i'd love your opinion on the topic.
- So, I recently put an XBOX ONE up for sale on Bargain pages.
- I get an email from a guy called Lt Mike Miner saying he is interested in purchasing the item but he can not collect so he said he would arrange for a pick up agent and shipping.
- I said yeah sure, it didn't seem like anything at the time.
- I then receive an email from PayPal and a company called StarGold Shipping and Moving ( I cant seem to locate them) stating that in order for me to gain access to the £410 Lt Mike had sent, I must go down to my local Western Union Store and pay the £110 shipping fee...which Lt Mike said was included within the transaction and I would get the money back as soon as I gave the receipt details etc to PayPal...
- It was the employee at Thomson who alerted me that it was dangerous doing this type of transaction and she recommended telling the buyer (Lt Mike) to cancel the transaction and get his money back.
- I then have a change of heart about selling the XBOX ONE, catching on to a few things....1) this is the address Lt Mike wanted me to send money to
Name : John Saka,
Addres : 32, Omoluabi ave. Oke-Ado,
City : Ibadan,
State : Oyo state,
Zip-Code : 23402,
Country : Nigeria.
Why would the pick up shipping agent be living in Nigeria...(I'm in the UK)???
- I then told Lt Mike that the sale would no longer be happening and that he should cancel his transaction. I also told the PayPal email account which had emailed the exact same conditions of sending money via Western Union to this place in Nigeria.
- Both replied stating that I should continue with the transaction and send the £110 to the shipping company so that I could gain access to the UNCLAIMED £410 and then refund it back to the buyer.
- The buyer replied stating that he was unable to cancel the transaction because of the type of PayPal account he had ( A premium account that disallowed refunds...why would PayPal stop a buyer from cancelling a payment...it makes no sense :S) and said it would be in my best interest to continue the transaction... at this point he brought a friend in...he was buying the XBOX ONE using a friends account or something weird like that.
-PayPal also told me the same
- I reluctantly said I would at a later date...I wanted to look a few things up first.
Anyway, it turns out that the £410 had not been credited to my account like the buyer stated. My account still said £0.00 with no activity as well as this the PayPal account stated that the money would not be credited to my account until I had paid the pick up agent in Nigeria. Contradicting much? - CLUE 1
The PayPal account kept talking about it's 'new policies' which prevented cancelations on transactions. They wanted me to pay £110 to the Agent in Nigeria via Western Union so that I could then gain access and refund the money to the buyer (Lt Mike). How would this benefit both the seller and buyer...it completely messes me around and takes money away from me which I won't get back. It also prevents the buyer from cancelling a transaction - CLUE 2
It turns out that PayPal has a policy on cancelling transactions as shown at this link, https://www.paypal.com/selfhelp/topic/SENDING_MONEY
It states that if money from a transaction goes unclaimed for 30 days it is instantly refunded to the buyer. Given that I took no further steps to claim the £410, it means the transaction is currently pending and not credited to anyone...It will be refunded to Lt Mike in 30 days - CLUE 3
A few more clues were, Lt Mike (The buyer) who I believe lives in the UK, has the worst english language skills I have seen, I can show you some/ all of the emails to prove this. (It may be nothing but it sure does give off a big hint). The Shipping company, I can not find for the life of me and to top it off ive noticed the same Nigerian address posted in a few other forums on this site. CLUE 4, 5 AND 6
I'd really appreciate it if someone gave their view on this matter, i'd really like a second, third or forth opinion
Thanks for going out of your way to read this, I know it was a bit long winded
Best Regards
Shaun
