What's the scam?

[Steve Maskery]

I've just upgraded my mobile phone, becasue it's cheaper to get a new phone, with more minutes, and free texts, than to continue on my old contract and do nothing. Bonkers, but hey, that's the World.

So I decided to sell my (not that) old Nokia 6230 on eBay. Recent sales have gone for £2370 (I jest not) and other, similar, feelgood (from the seller's piont of view) prices. Mind you, more go in the £30 - £60 price range

Within an hour of listing I get a bloke offering to buy it for £170 as a present for his daughter in Nigeria. Don't laugh. All he wants is my PayPal account and all will be sweetness and light. He gets a second-hand mobile phone and I get rich. I've politely declined.

So what's the scam? And what's with these ridiculous prices? What do they get out of this?

 

[DaveL]

So Mr Maskery just how much money did you put though the washer, er I mean PayPal..............................

 

[A_n_g_e_l_a]

Several issues here. Large bids are usually a sign that the seller is a scam artist and has been spotted by a group that try to obstruct bogus eBay auctions. They make outrageous bids and help to stop the unwary getting caught. Look at the high bidders name - sometimes they make it obvious what they are up to. Since eBay do little to stop scammers it's arguable it might help a bit.

The Nigerian scammer will eventually tell you he has a problem with PayPal and ask if can he pay by Western Union instead. By now you think he is thoroughly nice going guy wanting to buy a phone for his ageing mother, sick father or young daughter off to school for the first time in the city. You accept his offer and post your phone. The Western Union money never arrives, of course.

There are Chinese scammers now that build up a feedback rating by trading amonst themselves for items costing pennies. Then they post an auction for a high-end avaition GPS or an upmarket HD TV or similar high value item - of course the 'winning bidder' never sees the goods.

So what do they get out of it? They get your money or your goods and you are left with nothing. It is not only scammers from overseas - we have a number in the UK. I got stung for a £250 laptop I never saw by a Brit. He and his girlfriend swore blind it had gone missing in the post. Eventually, after I found his phone number using Google he admitted he had sold the item twice. His name is Phillip Garlick of Doncaster - if anyone knows him tell him he still owes me £220!! (Note to moderator this is not libelous it happens to be true fact that I can substantiate.)

Be careful it's a lawless place out there in eBay land.

Angela

 

[Steve Maskery]

Thank you both for that. I could work out the laundering by buying my phone back myself (Hi guys, look, this 1k came from selling a mobile phone, not drugs, here is the eBay reference to prove it!), but I couldn't work out what a stranger could get from me.

Thanks very much
Steve