Scammers on eBay
Last night I posted a listing on eBay for the Nokia N90 phone which I do not wish to keep. Since the posting last night at 10:30pm or so, I’ve now received four questions all seeking to purchase the phone. However, in all cases, they are from out of the country and do not wish to go through the auction process.
Now of course, I smell a scam. Here’s an example "question":
Hello Seller,am peter carew and i
would like to buy your phone for my dad who has just been posted to the
United Nation Headquarters in Nigeria.i’m willing to pay for $650.00
including shipping cost.let me have your paypal info so that i ca make
the payment straight away.reply expected.
In every case, they want my full name and PayPal information. Of course, I won’t give them either, but what are they likely to do with this information? While I can sense the scam, I cannot figure it out. Anyone have any ideas?
UPDATE: I have done subsequent research on this and found this blog entry which spelled it out for me. Its doubtful that I would have fallen for these, but its all good to know. I have posted an addendum to my listing advising would-be scammers to move on. We’ll see if that helps. Between the time I originally posted this and this update, I have received another such message. I had no idea how rampant this was!