SCAMS!!! Don't Ship to Nigeria!!!

[Lady_Bug71]

A big thanks to the security and protection team at Pay-Pal, and to those of you who were unfortunately victims of these scammers... who posted your stories and saved me the hastle.  Thank you Thank you Thank you!  

Today, I joined pay-pal.  My son has decided to sell some of his old video games... and we posted in our local classifieds  last night.  Early this morning, I got a text from a very impatient man going by the name of Eric.  He was in such a rush to buy using either pay-pal or western union, and once a deal was made, the "buyer" actually added money to the total to help with shipping costs to his son's address.  When I asked for his son's address, he avoided the question, until receipt of a "pending payment" from him was emailed to me.  It was at this time that I learned I would be shipping to NIGERIA!  The email said that the payment was verified, and all I needed to do was enter the tracking number of the package for the funds to be released to my pay-pal account.  The buyer then started pressing me to get the package into the mail... kept asking when it would happen... kept saying he needed to hurry and pay... I kept wondering why such a hurry since shipping to Nigeria was going to take a couple of weeks anyway.   All of the sudden, this man started calling me... stating that he was calling from Pay-Pal and that I needed to enter the tracking number as soon as possible, and wanted to know when I would be sending the package.  He called from an international number, with a thick accent.... and at first was hard to hear/understand...  He must have called 15 times... in a row.  Each time, the part I could understand was him saying he was calling from Pay-pal to make sure I entered my tracking number.  One of the last times he called... I told him I could hear all the screaming kids in the background... but couldnt here him... and he hung up.  He called back moments later... and the background noise was completely gone... but again the message was the same.  I told him that I was at work, I couldnt continue with his interruptions.... and I would send the package asap when I got home... and not to continue calling. Then the texts kept coming... so I asked via text are you the one who is trying to call me?  Stupid man... sent back a text saying he was, but had a bad connection.... and to enter the tracking number asap so that I would get my money from pay-pal.  

Suddenly... nothing about this deal felt right.  First off, I felt like I was running a race... and almost being harrassed about this tracking number.... secondly, I caught that the purchaser who was texting me was also the one trying to call me and was claiming on the phone to be working for pay-pal.  For some reason though.... It wasnt until I was looking up online the instructions on how to write the address for nigeria.... that I began seeing the forums from previous Pay-pal customers who sent packages under the same circumstances... their packages got held up in customs, and they were being asked to pay money in the hundreds of dollars to clear the item through customs.  Many had written that they just wished they had verified things by calling pay-pal security... so I did.  I have since called of said transaction and will continue to try and sell my son's old games... to someone NOT in Nigeria.... and NOT trying to scam me!!!  According to the pay-pal employee that I spoke with.... anytime they start brining up western union, or Nigeria, or especially anytime your payment is being held for a "tracking number" it is a red flag for a scam.  She educated me that pay-pal will not hold money until items are shipped.... and if this happens.... its a scam.  

Thought I would share.... previous posts on this subject (from a couple of years ago) helped save me tonight.... hoping to help save someone else a headache... trying to pay it forward!!!!  🙂

[hawkleather]

Ok, people I have read all your nightmare stories but I am confused about one thing.  If you are paid a sum of money in your paypal account and then you ship the item.  How come your money is not still in your paypal account.  How are they getting the money back once they paid it.  

Confused

[PayPal_Olivia]

Hi hawkleather,

A couple of things could happen in a scam situation of this type.

The most common is that the money never comes to the seller's PayPal account. The fraudster will send a fake email to lead the seller to believe that a payment has been sent and that they must ship. Sometimes the fake email will show a payment over the agreed-upon amount, with instructions that the remainder should be sent via Western Union to pay the shipping agent. When this occurs, there's no transaction on record in the PayPal system at all.

Another possibility is that a real payment could be received, but that it would be funded with a stolen payment source. PayPal has security methods in place to prevent many payments like this from occurring, but not all can be found and prevented before they happen. If a fraudulent payment is able to be made and is found after the fact, it will be reversed to protect the person whose financial identity was used without authorization. PayPal offers protection to sellers in fraudulent transactions. The seller is protected only if they ship to the address in the transaction details (among other requirements designed to ensure a safer transaction). Since PayPal is not available in Nigeria, any shipments made to Nigeria would be made to addresses not in the transaction details.

To learn more about protecting yourself from situations like these, take a look at this article: Is this too good to be true? Spotting a scam.

I hope this helps! 🙂

Olivia

[birdmanrandy]

I wanna know why you don't ship to Nogeria "after they paid you your money"?

[PayPal_Olivia]

Hi birdmanrandy,

To be covered by Seller Protection, it is a requirement to ship to the address in the transaction details. PayPal is not currently available in Nigeria. A shipping address in Nigeria would either be:

• requested outside of the transaction (and therefore not Seller Protection eligible)
• found on a fraudulent email intended to look like a payment notification email

If a payment exists in your PayPal account that would require that you sacrifice your protections from PayPal, it is important to consider the risks.

I hope this helps!

Olivia

[barkerbabe11]

i have been trying so hard to sell my car to get a cheaper one so me and my two kids can get a place to live... this guy contacted me and said he would pay all the money i just needed a pappal account so i made one and was so happy that things were going to go that smoothe and easy and i did what he asked.. but felt funny so i have been looking into dofferent scams and such and i am now conviced that i will bve turning him in first thing in the am it is extremely sad that i was trying to help him out so that "his son could get the car for his birthday cuz he would be away" and the whole time he has been trying to steal what little bit my babies and i do have!!

 thank you so much for the heads up

[SamanthaSantoro]

I have someone from nigeria who is asking me to send them a cellphone, they already wired me the movey before i sent oue the phone & everything is comformed. should i not go through with it it seems like a legit email?

[catherineyronwo]

I have bbeen shipping worldwide for 40-some years. For the past 15 years i have not shipped to Nigeria for the reasons given above:

Just to clarify why you should not ship the merchandise, even if the money seems to be in your Paypal account:

The credit card that the scammer is using to back up the Paypal account may be a hot stolen card, hence the rush-rush technique -- the scammer needs to have you complete the transaction and make the shipment before the card is listed as stolen. However, even if the money hits your account, there will be a chargeback later and there is nothing you can do about it.

Also, some of these scammers don't want you to hear their Nigerian accent, so they will abuse the TTY deaf services and involve an operator to read you their text as if they were a hearing imparied person. The operators are not allowed to comment on the nature of the TTY conversation, but i once said to an operator, "This call is sounding like a Nigerian scam," and she said, "We get a lot of those." I followed with, "Do you think this particular call is a Nigerian scam?" and she said, very discreetly, "I am not allowed to state an opinion, but i can tell you that if you hang up, that would end the call." So i thanked her and did just that.

I also do not ship to Ghana, because i had the same scam attempted on me from Ghana. I recognized the technigue and bailed on the transaction.

[panther5]

Best way do not deal with anbody in Africa they are all land PIRATES !  If look at your spam once in a while you will see somebody from Nigeria with no imagination usins a name like Mabel David Ha Ha saying you could inherit Milllions  if you send him Only $4,000. I alawys cancel transactions from that part of the world. There are plenty of scammers in the United States Due to the bad economy. So Beware !

[Meredith56]

I have just been involved in trying to sell my son's toys on Gumtree and emailed by a woman by the name of Jennifer Short who claims to be an Air Cmdr in RAF!! She says she is involved with training recruits for SERE?? Too much information and alarm bells rang in my head but i thought I'd go along with it and see where it goes. Well when she offered to pay £105 to have an item worth £150 collected the bells really started to ring. Western Union seemed to be the problem she said and she would ask me to pay the shipping. I then receive d an email supposedly from Paypal saying they were holding the money pending my payment to Nigeria of the shipping costs. I questioned why it couldn't be delivered by collect+ she said she preferred to use a courier as it was next day! If it is being sent to Nigeria it certainly won't be delivered next day. I am now being hassled for progress. Be warned, if it sounds too good to be true - you can be sure it is!! So glad I read up on this via your forum.