Possible Ebay Scam? Opinions wanted

[Grace]

I am auctioning off a home theatre lcd projector i won through work. It's a discontinued model that retails for $2000 but is going up to $1000 on ebay with "buy it now"s. I got a "question from seller" email that I think is really weird and I'm pretty sure I've heard a scam, not through ebay, but in general. The user who emailed me through ebay is not a registered user. I'm seeing red flags all over which means that I shouldn't....but how secure is Western Union Bidpay Money Order? Any opinions would be greatly appreciated

Like anyone else, I could use that money...it would pay off a lot of credit card debt.

Dear Seller,

I was very impressed with the advert of the projector you placed on eBay, I am requesting it because i need very
urgently for my church conference which will be holding very shortly. I'm offering you $3000.00

I want you to estimate the cost of shipment through USPS Express Mail3-5days,
Because i only prefered this shipping company to be delivered to me in Nigeria. I will be making payment
through Western Union Bidpay Money Order . Because this is a matter of urgency.
I want you to quickly end the auction so that i can proceed with the payment , also funish your contact
email address for further correspondent in other for the payment to be made immediately i am in receipt of your response.

 

[user2]

IGNORE HIM!!!!

I had the same guy that wanted to buy my cell phone like this...

IMHO Western Union is a pretty unsafe way of sending money!

Here's a link that deals with this topic!
http://www.joewein.de/sw/fraud-weste...idpay-ebay.htm

Hth!

 

[Juneplum]

ITA with VV! there are A LOT of nigerian scams going on so please be VERY careful with emails like this. western union/bidpay is very unsafe.. only accept paypal..

 

[Grace]

yeah, that's what i figured. when i first read the email i was like $3000 and then i read nigeria and i was like "darn"...i've heard of that

i figured if he would send payment first and i were to actually get it but with the link you posted that's not the case. especially when you can use the "buy it now" for $1000 with other auctions. and i don't want to be out a projector cuz there's a reason why i'm selling it.

thanks a lot for the info, i figured i would ask cuz i knew someone would have info on it.

i did do some searching on ebay under fraud and found something with the same tune.

What to avoid
Paying with instant money transfer services such as Western Union and MoneyGram that send cash instantly from storefront locations, by telephone and over the Internet.

Transactions where the seller only accepts cash.

Unsolicited offers. If the seller offers to sell you the item directly without bidding on and winning the item on eBay, please don't respond.

Fake escrow services. Use caution when considering an escrow service to pay for your item. For eBay transactions, you should only use the following eBay approved escrow companies: www.escrow.com (US and UK); www.escrowaustralia.com.au (AU); www.escrow-europa.com (IT and ES); http://ebay.iloxx.de (DE); www.tripledeal.com (FR, NL, BE).

 

[Juneplum]

trust me when i say, i work for a major financial institution and we have a lot of problems with this. they will send u payment by money order/western union and overpay you, then they want u to send the overage to them by western union and once it's gone.. it's gone! of course, when u get your money order (if u even get it) it cannot be negotiated and u r out your item AND the money! don't do it!!! =)

 

[Ms. Z]

Ignore him! There is a place to report this on ebay.

 

[user2]

Most of the time they cancel the payment and in the end you lost your projector and your money!

 

[pumpkincat210]

Report it to ebay immediately! I hate scammers!

 

[caffn8me]

I think the golden rule with eBay is that if you have even the slightest suspicion that something is a scam don't go along with it. It's just not worth getting caught out. There are plenty of other honest buyers and sellers on eBay.

 

[Heather_Rae]

Classic Nigerian scam. Ignore him

 

[YvetteJeannine]

Step 1: You send him the expensive projector in a hurry for his "convenience".

Step 2: He gets the projector, sells it to a "fence"; or on the street..makes lots of money.

Step 3: He laughs because he never sent you any money...It's all a scam.

Earlier posters are right; if in doubt, just ignore him

Oh. I just realized this post was almost a year old. Ignore ME!!!!!!!

 

[Lady_MAC]

Lol..we learned about this stuff in Economics.

 

[bellaetoile]

western union, and other fgorms of instant money transfer, are really only safe when BOTH parties are very familiar with each other, and trustworthy. when i was living in seattle, i had to have my father western union me cash a couple times from his home in los angeles. it was a secure way of doing it, however it is also easy to scam people this way. i would ONLY use western union, like i say, if you KNOW the other party, and are sure there is no scam involved. any merchant transactions, where goods or services are being exchanged for a money transfer is generally somewhat shady. report them to ebay and steer clear of transactions of this nature.

 

[queenofdisaster]

i would definitely report it! and try as hard as u can to not let anybody get your email address unless you have completed a sale with them! they got my email address before, those bastards... it took me months to get rid of them after filing numerous reports... now i block my email address from everyone when responding to messages and whatnot. i wish you the best of luck in dealing with those scammers though hunny!

 

[IcesUltraGlam7]

No Way! Sounds like a Nigeria Scam.Cancel any correspondance with this person.This has been happening to alot of people they fall for it and lose bank money or merchandise.It would take two pages to explain but report it to ebay. definatly sounds like a scam.

 

[kaliraksha]

I know this is an old post but lots of good info can be found here:

http://www.snopes.com/crime/fraud/cashier.asp