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Is this an ebay scam? Sounds fishy or am I just skeptical

E

erch63

macrumors member
Original poster
Aug 21, 2007
56
0
I am listing a new 8Gb iPhone on ebay. The phone is not unlocked, or even unboxed. I received this email from a potential buyer. I have a current buy now price a the high $450 mark. What do you think? http://images.macrumors.com/vb/images/smilies/confused.gif

Here is the email:

"Hi,
I am interested in your item displayed on eBay, i want to get this item for my friend's child who is currently studying in Africa as a congratulatory gift.I would have love to bid like others but the nature of my job will not allow me to do this at this time, I will be offering you $950.00 for this item. So please if you are interested in selling this item to me, kindly send me your PayPal email address so that I can send out payment immediately via PayPal or you can forward your full information for me to send the payment via PAYPAL, As i said earlier am offering you $950.00 for this item this will include both the shipping and handling cost to West Africa.Your urgent response will be highly appreciated.
Thanks and God bless."
 
scammiest scam ever.

Ebay has become a horrible place to sell big ticket items such as this.
 
definitely a scam... i had the same problem with 2 different people wanting me to ship to some African country. I had to list my item 3 different times.
 
UPDATE: I looked this lady up and she has 40 positive feedbacks no negatives.
I have listed this as a US ship only item.

What exactly is the risk? I have never sold anything on ebay before. Once she pays using paypal doesn't the money become mine upon providing a tracking number for a package. Sorry for the most likely obvious questions.
 
OMG, I can't beleive you even have to ask.... Take a breath and don't even bother responding.
 
They're probably going to ask you to ship it to Ghana, West Africa or Nigeria, West Africa. If you look in your junk-mail in your e-mail, I bet you probably have some scam e-mails from them too. They're all over the place. I use to work for a telephone company, and we get fraud calls all the time from Nigerians or people from Ghana wanting to place calls to American businesses. They would order in bulk with a stolen credit card that would be cancelled in a few days after the products were already shipped, so those funds never actually reachc the businesses. They use fishy aliases too; for example, I had one call pretending to be a part of a church and his name was Rev. Internet. I feel really bad for those businesses, but due to company regulations, I have no option but to place the call. I hated seeing so many people ripped off that I quit.
 
I've had similar problems when selling things on eBay. One guy bought an item from me and wanted it shipped to Africa, another to Israel. After having to re-list these items each time and wait ANOTHER week for the auction to end, I finally got fed up and blocked ANYONE with a zip code outside of the United States from even bidding.

I currently have my 8GB iPhone on eBay and i've already recieved a few messages asking me if I'll "ship it to their cousin in Florida. They're in Nigeria and their cousin is going to ship it to them"...I just give them a quick hell no, and report the email to eBay. Man it's become a massive pain on eBay.
 
I was 99% sure it was a scam, but I had to check. Makes little difference because I got a full price buy it now sale, in the last 10 minutes. Thanks.
 
Most definitely a scam, I tried to sell my PSP and had the exact same thing, I like the person above me, had to list it about 4 times until it just got too expensive to list and never ended up selling it :(
 
Without a doubt a SCAM! Anytime it sounds to good to be true, it is! No face to face, no local phone number, and PayPal never "holds" the money until you ensure that the buyer has a "tracking number" from UPS. If they buy via PayPal, your money is there immediately! :eek::eek::eek:
 
as others have said it is a scam.

don't be surprised when you get emails from "paypal" saying they have deposited the money and you must ship. These are also scam emails. They are betting you won't actually check your paypal account.

this kind of stuff makes selling electronics on ebay pretty much a waste of time.
 
I got one just like that, it was for $650 and it was for the Samsung Sync, worth less than half that.

It's absolutely ridiculous and I wouldn't let those people get any personal information.
 
When in doubt, don't do it. I've never regretted not buying something but is it worth the risk, stress etc. of a potential ripoff?
 
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