Oh My God! The African Bank Scam Has Reached Ebay!

DCR · 03-21-2005, 07:48 PM

This is ridiculous...I am selling my laptop on Ebay, and I get this friggin' email in my inbox:

I am to inform you my interest in ur item on behalf of my client for $1200.I am an agent.My client has given me a quick to placed an order for ur item.i need to get in touch with you if u will personal check from my client as a mode of payment.If yes,send ur address & the name u want on the check.my client is going to send u check of an exess money which is $3,800.u will deduct ur item fees there and western union the rest to my client store manager in africa the same day asap the check is clear in ur bank.don"t about the shipping.my client store manager will arrange the shipping of the item to africa the same day u western the excess fund.if u agree to western the excess fund once the check is clear in ur bank.mail asap.u can call me on (+234-805-700-8489)

***? I can't even understand this jerk...but we are not safe.

epicbard · 03-21-2005, 07:55 PM

Wow... how stupid is that... and who uses an agent on e-bay?

stim141 · 03-21-2005, 08:29 PM

You would thing that with all the bad PR on the African Scams they would try something a little more original. Not the only scam going on in Ebay. A few months back I bid on and won an auction for a MS Optical Elite Keyboard (new and unopened) from some guy in Calif. Seemed to be "selling" a ton of Elite's and Optical Pro's as well as a bunch of Logitech stuff. Paid the same day by Paypal and expected to receive it in about a week or so. After about 15 days - emailed him and he replied in really broken English about some screwup in his "shipping" department and he would look into it. No reply after a day so I started to get a little suspicious although his feedback was pretty clean. Emailed again - and he said he was working on it. Threated to give bad feedback and have my credit card do an investigation since he could provide a tracking number or proof of shipment and he seemed to be really stalling. He finally replied and refunded my money - very quickly. Two days later a package shows up at my house which was shipped by Microsoft and inside was the keyboard that I had "purchased." Instead of contacting the seller I called MS's Fraud Division - using the order number on the box - it was determined that the keyboards were being sent from a non-MS fulfillment center that was sending out replacement keyboards for existing customers with defective keyboards. Seems this guy had some in or scam with MS and was shipping out about 500 units over a period of 6 months from what I could tell from his feedback. Feedback also indicated he was a little slow shipping and the orders were all coming out of somewhere in Indiana. Nothing like 100 percent profit plus the shipping charges that were provided by MS. He was quickly shut down and for my effort (big deal) MS gave me the keyboard for free instead of asking for it back. The funny thing about the whole incident was that when I spoke to the "fulfillment" warehouse's security/fraud person he insisted my case was an isolated incident but stated that almost all the MS stuff sold on Ebay was hot.

DCR · 03-21-2005, 08:52 PM

Wow...that kind of scares me.

3 of 7 · 03-21-2005, 09:10 PM

u bet he's an agent, I can tell by the spellin in ur letter.....My lawyer spells like that 2....you betcha....
danged kids anyways

DCR · 03-22-2005, 01:59 AM

..and here he is again....

thanx for ur reply,
i want u to send me ur name and address so that u can be able to recieve the check.if u can remove the item from ebay i will add 100$ to ur amount.immediately u get the check i want u to take the check to ur bank for clearance immediately it i will take 3-5days for the clearance of the check.when u cash the fund u will deduct 2000$ from the amount of the check and send the remaining to my store manager in africa. i will send u the shipping address and the payment information to send the money through western union .mail as soon as u recieve this mail.i want u to add me to ur yahoo messenger so that we can talk about the transaction.this my yahoo id life_goes_on2u@yahoo.com.so i want u to add me now cos am online .

Let's just say I responded with a rather harsh email this time.

DCR · 03-23-2005, 09:35 AM

and another....

Hello Seller, I am Ken located at Iowa,USA. I am contacting you regarding your item that is being advertised here : ITEM NAME: GATEWAY 7422GX Notebook/Laptop AMD 64, 1 Gig RAM ITEM NUMBER: 6753248298 I would be needing quite a number of these items for a small scale company i intend to establish in Africa. I am offering you US$1565.00 for a unit of these item. Email me back ASAP to know if you're okay with my offer while You also provide me the cost of the shipment through a Global Express mail service 3-5days only, because the package will be shipped to my Partner in Africa.!!! Please go to http://ircalc.usps.gov and calculate the shipping cost. I would be making payment immediately via Western Union BidPay(MO). Kindly reply today as I hope to have a mutaul long lasting business Relationship with you.I'll be glad if you end the auction on me. Thanks.

and another...

Hello Seller,we just renovated one of our stores that got burnt, and we need to replace all the goods back to our store, all our customer are complaining bitterly.we will like to make payment via western union auction payments for $2000.we will like to ask if you would be able to ship as soon as payment is confirmed and approved by western union auction payments,this is due to the fact that its demand is high in our store and so we will want to complete the transaction in a very timely manner.if you can do this, email us with your name, contact address and your phone number so that we can proceed with payment right away.let us quickly say that we will be handling shipping with our ups/fedex/dhl account as we will be sending this unit to africa,So email us back Asap NB:we are using this avenue to tell you that we will be adding $100 to the money so that the auction can be ended cos the item is needed urgently,mail back.You can view our one of our stores(www.shopforless.com)

03-21-2005, 07:48 PM	#1
DCR Working For The Weekend Join Date: May 2001 Posts: 1,091	Oh My God! The African Bank Scam Has Reached Ebay! This is ridiculous...I am selling my laptop on Ebay, and I get this friggin' email in my inbox: I am to inform you my interest in ur item on behalf of my client for $1200.I am an agent.My client has given me a quick to placed an order for ur item.i need to get in touch with you if u will personal check from my client as a mode of payment.If yes,send ur address & the name u want on the check.my client is going to send u check of an exess money which is $3,800.u will deduct ur item fees there and western union the rest to my client store manager in africa the same day asap the check is clear in ur bank.don"t about the shipping.my client store manager will arrange the shipping of the item to africa the same day u western the excess fund.if u agree to western the excess fund once the check is clear in ur bank.mail asap.u can call me on (+234-805-700-8489) **? I can't even understand this jerk...but we are not safe. __________________ the above post possibly contains severe sarcasm, humor or stupidity....rarely will it contain helpful information or material. A64 3500+ Koolance Exos CPU and GPU Cooling MSI Neo Platinum 512 x 2 OCZ Performance Series RAM ATI X800XT PE WC Antec Lanboy w/OCZ 520 W PSU 200g and 120g Seagate 7200 HD's
(Offline)

03-21-2005, 07:55 PM	#2
epicbard mmm... bacon bits Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Treehouse Posts: 4,266	Wow... how stupid is that... and who uses an agent on e-bay? __________________
(Offline)

03-21-2005, 08:29 PM	#3
stim141 Registered User Join Date: Dec 2003 Location: St Louis, MO Posts: 64	You would thing that with all the bad PR on the African Scams they would try something a little more original. Not the only scam going on in Ebay. A few months back I bid on and won an auction for a MS Optical Elite Keyboard (new and unopened) from some guy in Calif. Seemed to be "selling" a ton of Elite's and Optical Pro's as well as a bunch of Logitech stuff. Paid the same day by Paypal and expected to receive it in about a week or so. After about 15 days - emailed him and he replied in really broken English about some screwup in his "shipping" department and he would look into it. No reply after a day so I started to get a little suspicious although his feedback was pretty clean. Emailed again - and he said he was working on it. Threated to give bad feedback and have my credit card do an investigation since he could provide a tracking number or proof of shipment and he seemed to be really stalling. He finally replied and refunded my money - very quickly. Two days later a package shows up at my house which was shipped by Microsoft and inside was the keyboard that I had "purchased." Instead of contacting the seller I called MS's Fraud Division - using the order number on the box - it was determined that the keyboards were being sent from a non-MS fulfillment center that was sending out replacement keyboards for existing customers with defective keyboards. Seems this guy had some in or scam with MS and was shipping out about 500 units over a period of 6 months from what I could tell from his feedback. Feedback also indicated he was a little slow shipping and the orders were all coming out of somewhere in Indiana. Nothing like 100 percent profit plus the shipping charges that were provided by MS. He was quickly shut down and for my effort (big deal) MS gave me the keyboard for free instead of asking for it back. The funny thing about the whole incident was that when I spoke to the "fulfillment" warehouse's security/fraud person he insisted my case was an isolated incident but stated that almost all the MS stuff sold on Ebay was hot. __________________ Asus P4C800-E DLX Rev 2.0 Intel P4 2.6 EE Corsair TwinX512 3200LL Intellistation Dual 2.4's HT with 4GB's 1 Terrabyte SCSI 320's.
(Offline)

03-21-2005, 08:52 PM	#4
DCR Working For The Weekend Join Date: May 2001 Posts: 1,091	Wow...that kind of scares me. __________________ *the above post possibly contains severe sarcasm, humor or stupidity....rarely will it contain helpful information or material. A64 3500+ Koolance Exos CPU and GPU Cooling MSI Neo Platinum 512 x 2 OCZ Performance Series RAM ATI X800XT PE WC Antec Lanboy w/OCZ 520 W PSU 200g and 120g Seagate 7200 HD's
(Offline)

03-21-2005, 09:10 PM	#5
3 of 7 You can run..... Join Date: Feb 2004 Posts: 4,660	u bet he's an agent, I can tell by the spellin in ur letter.....My lawyer spells like that 2....you betcha.... danged kids anyways __________________
(Offline)

03-22-2005, 01:59 AM	#6
DCR Working For The Weekend Join Date: May 2001 Posts: 1,091	..and here he is again.... thanx for ur reply, i want u to send me ur name and address so that u can be able to recieve the check.if u can remove the item from ebay i will add 100$ to ur amount.immediately u get the check i want u to take the check to ur bank for clearance immediately it i will take 3-5days for the clearance of the check.when u cash the fund u will deduct 2000$ from the amount of the check and send the remaining to my store manager in africa. i will send u the shipping address and the payment information to send the money through western union .mail as soon as u recieve this mail.i want u to add me to ur yahoo messenger so that we can talk about the transaction.this my yahoo id *life_goes_on2u@yahoo.com.so* *i want u to add me now cos am online .* Let's just say I responded with a rather harsh email this time. __________________ *the above post possibly contains severe sarcasm, humor or stupidity....rarely will it contain helpful information or material. A64 3500+ Koolance Exos CPU and GPU Cooling MSI Neo Platinum 512 x 2 OCZ Performance Series RAM ATI X800XT PE WC Antec Lanboy w/OCZ 520 W PSU 200g and 120g Seagate 7200 HD's
(Offline)

03-23-2005, 09:35 AM	#7
DCR Working For The Weekend Join Date: May 2001 Posts: 1,091	and another.... Hello Seller, I am Ken located at Iowa,USA. I am contacting you regarding your item that is being advertised here : ITEM NAME: GATEWAY 7422GX Notebook/Laptop AMD 64, 1 Gig RAM ITEM NUMBER: 6753248298 I would be needing quite a number of these items for a small scale company i intend to establish in Africa. I am offering you US$1565.00 for a unit of these item. Email me back ASAP to know if you're okay with my offer while You also provide me the cost of the shipment through a Global Express mail service 3-5days only, because the package will be shipped to my Partner in Africa.!!! Please go to http://ircalc.usps.gov and calculate the shipping cost. I would be making payment immediately via Western Union BidPay(MO). Kindly reply today as I hope to have a mutaul long lasting business Relationship with you.I'll be glad if you end the auction on me. Thanks. and another... Hello Seller,we just renovated one of our stores that got burnt, and we need to replace all the goods back to our store, all our customer are complaining bitterly.we will like to make payment via western union auction payments for $2000.we will like to ask if you would be able to ship as soon as payment is confirmed and approved by western union auction payments,this is due to the fact that its demand is high in our store and so we will want to complete the transaction in a very timely manner.if you can do this, email us with your name, contact address and your phone number so that we can proceed with payment right away.let us quickly say that we will be handling shipping with our ups/fedex/dhl account as we will be sending this unit to africa,So email us back Asap NB:we are using this avenue to tell you that we will be adding $100 to the money so that the auction can be ended cos the item is needed urgently,mail back.You can view our one of our stores(www.shopforless.com) __________________ *the above post possibly contains severe sarcasm, humor or stupidity....rarely will it contain helpful information or material. A64 3500+ Koolance Exos CPU and GPU Cooling MSI Neo Platinum 512 x 2 OCZ Performance Series RAM ATI X800XT PE WC Antec Lanboy w/OCZ 520 W PSU 200g and 120g Seagate 7200 HD's
(Offline)

Thread Tools
Show Printable Version Email this Page
Display Modes
Linear Mode Switch to Hybrid Mode Switch to Threaded Mode