Is this email a scam (ebay)?
Hello ,I have paid for the item i bought on ebay via paypal. The payment has been made including shipment cost which amount to $58.00 (shipment/insurance= $58.00) for USPS Express International Mail.I bought this item for my uncle that is working with UNICEF and is presently in Accra, Ghana. The item is for his coming birthday.So, I want you to ship it to him directly in order to avoid delay and double shipment cost. I will be happy if this item is ship without any delay. This is address below;BOBOYE BAMIDELE24 KISSIEMAN ROADACHIMOTA ACCRA.GHANA23321.Please as soon as payment confirmation has been sent to you from the paypal, i will like you to get the item ship as soon as possible and get back to me so i can know what to do about this....Many thanks and God bless.
Comments
100% scam.
There is no buyer.
Notice how the scammer doesn't call what you are selling by name? He uses the generic word "item", that is because he sends the same stock copy/paste email to anyone selling everything that he can find and he has no idea what you are selling and doesn't care.
There is only a scammer trying to steal your possession, your electronic item, name brand clothing or jewelry.
The scammer isn't interested in your identity or bank account only in convincing you to ship your possession to him without him sending you a penny.
The next email will be from another of the scammer's fake names and free email addresses pretending to be "Paypal" saying "kindly send the tracking number and we will release the funds".
Paypal does NOT send such emails, ever. Paypal does NOT have escrow or money holding services like that scammer describes. Paypal does NOT demand you send a tracking number before money is sent. EVER. No exceptions.
Now that you have responded to a scammer, you are on his 'potential sucker' list, he will try again to separate you from your cash. He will send you more emails from his other free email addresses using another of his fake names with all kinds of stories of being the perfect buyer, great jobs, lottery winnings, millions in the bank and desperate, lonely, sexy singles. He will sell your email address to all his scamming buddies who will also send you dozens of fake emails all with the exact same goal, you sending them your cash via Western Union or moneygram.
You could post up the email address and the emails themselves that the scammer is using, it will help make your post more googlable for other suspicious potential victims to find when looking for information.
Do you know how to check the header of a received email? If not, you could google for information. Being able to read the header to determine the geographic location an email originated from will help you weed out the most obvious scams and scammers. Then delete and block that scammer. Don't bother to tell him that you know he is a scammer, it isn't worth your effort. He has one job in life, convincing victims to send him their hard-earned cash.
Whenever suspicious or just plain curious, google everything, website addresses, names used, companies mentioned, phone numbers given, all email addresses, even sentences from the emails as you might be unpleasantly surprised at what you find already posted online. You can also post/ask here and every scam-warner-anti-fraud-busting site you can find before taking a chance and losing money to a scammer.
If you google "cragislist buyer scam", "fake paypal email scam", "ebay escrow fraud" or something similar you will find hundreds of posts from victims and near victims of this type of scam.
Check out the one and only official paypal website, read up on what paypal does and how it really works.
This IS a scam. Paypal does not allow any transactions with Ghana and you have NO protection from Ebay or Paypal unless you ship to a verified address. If someone wants an item shipped to an uncle in another country it's THEIR responsibility to ship, not yours.
Write back to say that as per Ebay's user agreement you will ONLY ship to a verified address and will CALL Paypal to verify their address and only send to the address on record with Paypal. Say if they want sent anywhere else that is their responsibility after you ship to them
I would also contact Ebay to report the buyer for wanting you to send to a country where Ebay does not do any business and is trying to get you to an unverified address.
What they will do is after you send the item they will file a chargeback with Ebay/Paypal claiming their account was hacked. Paypal will contact you asking for proof of delivery to the buyer's verified address. If you do not have this, even if you have a signature at another address, paypal will refund the buyer
This is one of the most common scams out there
Also be sure your settings show you do not ship internationally and put in your listing that you ONLY ship to verified addresses
i grew to become into watching decide Judy sooner or later and the comparable undertaking got here approximately to a woman and her daughter. Notify ebay approximately what got here approximately and record the fraud to them alongside with the guy who sent u the e-mail. save a duplicate of the e-mail they sent and get a police record besides. The police will look into the fraud scam and bypass into extra learn on whether this may well be a typical prepare with this guy or woman. in case you sent a postal money order, you may get your a reimbursement and the police will help. If no longer, decrease your losses yet record those people who did this and ebay will cancel their account and ban them from ebay consistently. optimistically, this scam artist will study from this lesson and get a possible way of having earnings somewhat of scamming others with the aid of fraud. stable success ok? record that record!
Yes, it's a scam.
As a eBay seller, you only ship to the buyer's registered address. If you ship anywhere else, the buyer can claim item was never received.
Avoid selling to people who don't live in your country. It's far too easy to be scammed.