macmarauder Posted September 3, 2004 Report Share Posted September 3, 2004 I know this may be obvious to most of you that it's a scam but just in case. I have a Camcorder on eBay and I got and email from this guy: Dear seller, My name is Proffessor dacross of Bournemouth university i am interested in buying your item for my son in Africa as a birthday gift i will like to pay you via WESTERN UNION AUCTION PAYMENT otherwise known as BIDPAY.However you will have to ship the item as soon as you recieve the payment confirmation from western union.so get back if you are interested in selling the item to me with your name and address with the total amounts.You can check for my details in www.Bournemouth.ac.uk and get back Asap RegardsSo I thought OK. It's money from western union. Their repuable. So I replyed back with the usual stuff. Then He sent me this email: Hi, Thanks for your mail,can you pls do the calculation for 5 of the items including the shipping cost to Africa so that i can do the payment immediately.Moreso,your name and addess is needed for payment processing.However,You will have to ship the item immediately you recieve your payment confirmation from western union.Get back asap.My eBay auctions look very professional So i figured that here thought that I was a business. I replied back telling him that I had only one item and gave an estimate for shipping it to Africa through the cheapest way I could find and a buy it now price. He emailed me back with this: Got your mail,ok i will handle the shipment myself via my UPS accounts pls give me the amounts so that i can do the paynent Asap.RegardsNow my brain starts turning and I do a little research. The next thing I know I get an email suposedly from western union sating that payment has been sent. Then almost right after that I get one saying that payment is complete. They both have links that say western union but take you to a site called Bid Pay. Bid pay allows you check the status of the transaction but registration takes about 5 days and you have to register to see the status. So if I had shipped the item like he wanted me to I would have no way to easily back track him and I wouldn't know for five days that there wasn't even a payment. In my research Bid Pay shows up with several problems plenty of problems. A little later when I was trying to think of what to reply to him I get another email almost exactly the same as his first email (from a different email address of course) about my Apple iBook on eBay. Now I won't say anything bad about him even though he just tried to scam me because it's not my nature so I'll just warn you guys. Fortunantly I wasn't hurt and the iBook is safely nestled in my arms but beware guys and good luck. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
marko_tomas13 Posted September 3, 2004 Report Share Posted September 3, 2004 wow good thing you caught that before you were scammed Quote Link to post Share on other sites
tg1911 Posted September 3, 2004 Report Share Posted September 3, 2004 Thanks for the warning, macmarauder. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Besttechie Posted September 3, 2004 Report Share Posted September 3, 2004 Great warning. Lets hope noboady falls for this one.I moved it to the Securtiy Alerts forum because I think this is somewhat of a security alert.B Quote Link to post Share on other sites
robroy Posted September 4, 2004 Report Share Posted September 4, 2004 Good catch there macmarauder. Glad you didn't get burnedJD Quote Link to post Share on other sites
JSKY Posted September 4, 2004 Report Share Posted September 4, 2004 Never sold anything on ebay, so I'm glad to know what to look out for if I ever do. Thanks for sharing this with us. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Nerelda Posted September 4, 2004 Report Share Posted September 4, 2004 I had one idiot from out of the country, who sent me CASH.....1) this person hadn't even won the item yet2) I stated in the auction I don't accept cash as a payment3) I also stated that I didn't ship outside the US.I got a hold of ebay and notified them of the problem, along with the fact that every email I tried to send the person who sent me the money bounced back. Needless to say, they are no longer members of Ebay. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
macmarauder Posted September 4, 2004 Author Report Share Posted September 4, 2004 Great warning. Lets hope noboady falls for this one.I moved it to the Securtiy Alerts forum because I think this is somewhat of a security alert.B OK that's cool. I should've looked around more or asked. Sorry for you having to move it. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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