Crossing Paths With A Professional Nigerian Internet Scam Artist
If you are selling your iPod online like me, beware of this crook!
I have to share something with you today that has absolutely nothing at all to do with livin' la vida low-carb, but is too important for me not to share. Especially if you engage in selling items on the Internet on popular trading post sites like eBay and Amazon, then you will most definitely want to pay attention to the following story that just happened to me.
I've been regularly selling all kinds of products online for over ten years, including music CDs, DVDs, videos, as well as the occasional electronic device to pull in a little extra cash when money gets tight. For the most part, the transactions have been seamless and I've gotten paid sans the small percentage that eBay or Amazon takes to make their money.
It's an easy thing for virtually anyone to make out well, especially if you price your merchandise competitively against the competition. Don't you wish everything you bought was handled this way? Sure would make prices come down on those really expensive items you want.
Anywho, I recently put my iPod up for sale at Amazon
because I purchased the new iPhone (I'll be sharing my experience with this bad boy soon, but let's just say it's WORTH EVERY PENNY!) and no longer need it. The iPod was a little more costly than the CDs and DVDs I post, but I didn't think twice about listing it there.Within days, I received a flurry of e-mail inquiries about the iPod and what all came with it. All the questions people had about what I was specifically selling were promptly answered, but no sale. Then on Tuesday I received another message from Amazon that a potential buyer had a question for me about the iPod.
Here's that e-mail from Amazon and the prospective customer:
Hello from Amazon.com.
A potential buyer has sent you the following message about an item you have for sale on Amazon.com, or about your store at Amazon.com. Please respond to the individual directly by replying to this e-mail. For your reference, the buyer's e-mail address is mrssarasam02@yahoo.com.
Item: Apple Ipod 20GB 4th Generation [ASIN: B000JVWED6 ]
Important Notice: The following order payment methods are not covered for reimbursement by the Amazon.com A-to-z Guarantee: wire transfer, money orders, check, cash, or credit card transactions that occur off Amazon.com. Only orders using Amazon Payments are supported. This is the payment system used when you use 1-Click or the Shopping Cart to place orders through the Amazon.com Web site.
-------------- Begin message ---------------------
Apple Ipod 20GB 4th Generation
Used from $149.99
i an intrested in buying this item,can i pay to amazon?
-------------- End message ------------------------
Notice: Amazon.com may retain copies of all forwarded e-mails, and takes no responsibility and assumes no liability for the content of any messages forwarded to you.
Amazon.com will never e-mail you and ask you to disclose or verify your Amazon.com password, credit card, or banking account number. If you receive a suspicious e-mail with a link to update your account information, do not click on the link--instead report the e-mail to Amazon.com for investigation. Go to amazon.com/phish to find out more.
It was an odd question since most people already know you pay Amazon for the sale directly, but I graciously replied back with the following e-mail:
Sure! If you select my iPod to purchase, then you pay Amazon, I ship you the iPod and Amazon pays me. I look forward to your order. :) THANKS!
After sending that e-mail response late Tuesday night, I then received the following e-mail plea from the buyer whose name is "Mrs Sara Sam" on Wednesday morning with special instructions about how and where she wanted her iPod shipped:
Date: Wednesday, August 8, 2007 9:38 AM
From: Mrs Sara Sam
To: Jimmy Moore Livin' La Vida Low-Carb
Subject: Re: Product details inquiry from Amazon customer
Size: 5 KB
Thanks for the reply.I have just made my payment to amazon. Please this item is to be shipped to my husband who went on a forestry resarch in Nigeria he called me that the one he went along with to Nigeria dropped and got damaged so he asked me to help him send another one.But for now i am not in the state i am in Germany for a seminar from my working my office and i will not be back until next two week.
So i will like you to help me ship it to him in Nigeria directly i have paid enough to amazon for the shipping please kindly help me ship it out to him as soon as possible as he compalined he needs it urgently.And please king ship it with USPS Global express mail.
Here is my husband address in Nigeria where the item should be shipped to.
MR A.O Samson
P.O.Box 140
MOKWA
NIGER STATE
913001
NIGERIA.
Please email me for any question. THANKS FOR THE SALES
At this point, HUGE red flags were going off that something was just not right. Why was the buyer contacting me about these special instructions, hmmm? Wouldn't she just place the order through Amazon and then indicate how she wants it shipped with them?
Plus, the extremely poor English was a clever ruse and could very well be accurate for this person. But shipping to Nigeria would cost me a bundle, especially for overnight service. Nevertheless, "Mrs Sara Sam" assured me she included enough money to cover the shipping costs as well.
Now, as if all of that wasn't stranger than fiction, here's the really freaky part of the story that probably would have convinced an unsuspecting newbie seller to mail their iPod to Nigeria. Hopefully this will keep this from ever happening to you in the future!
I received the following "official" e-mail confirmation from Amazon about 30 minutes prior to hearing from "Mrs Sara Sam" and her impassioned begging for me to mail the iPod as soon as possible:
Date: Wednesday, August 8, 2007 9:03 AM
From: Payment-message@amazon.com .
To: livinlowcarbman@charter.net
Subject: AMAZON PAYMENT CONFIRMATION APPROVED.
Size: 19 KB
Dear livinlowcarbman@charter.net,
You have been sent an Amazon Payment of $269.99 from one of our clients, Mrs Sara Sam for the item purchase from you (Apple Ipod 20GB 4th Generation).
BUYER PAYMENT STATUS
Order Status:
Amazon Order #72484884912434775180
Order Placed 08/07/2007
Buyer Billing Information:
Status Processed successfully
Card Type VISA
Card Number 4***********1166
Exp. Date 10/2008
Name on Card Mrs Sara Sam
Street Address 1127, West 9th Street
City, State, Zip Washington, Missouri 63090
Country USA
Seller Payment Information:
Amazon Item Description Apple Ipod 20GB 4th Generation
Quantity 1
Buyer's Price $149.99
Postage & Handling $120.00
Total Amount $269.99
Seller e-mail address livinlowcarbman@charter.net
Below is the shipment information as shown in the payment Master
Name: Mr A.O Sam
Address: P.O BOX 140
City: Mokwa
State: Niger
Zipcode: 913001
Country: Nigeria
This Amazon payment has been deducted from the buyer's account and has been"APPROVED" but will be credited to your account as soon we are able to recieve the shipment tracking number sent to our customer's service for shipment verification so as to Secure Both the Buyer and the Seller. Below are the necessary information requested before your account will be credited.
1: Make sure you receive the Amazon Payment comfirmation before any shipment.
2 : Make sure the approved mail contains the total amount for the item bought.
3 : Make sure you ship the item to the address the buyer gave to you which is written above, immediately you receive the approved comfirmation.
4 : Make sure the shipment tracking number is sent to our customers service for shipment verification so as to secure both the buyer and the seller. Make sure the shipment tracking number is sent to us ONLY through. ( amazonordercashtransfer@mailpanda.com)
5: Make sure the shipment tracking number is mailed to us ONLY and not the buyer.
You can contact our customer service at (amazonordercashtransfer@mailpanda.com)Thanks for using Amazon We look forward in serving your online payment. Amazon.com; An Amazon's Company
Copyright 1995-2007
Very official-looking...um, sorta. HA! I've dealt with Amazon long enough to know they wouldn't allow that many mistakes to get through in their very precise e-mail verbage.
Incidentally, that address in Washington, MO is legitimate according to Google Maps, but I didn't find a listing for A.O. or Sara Sam anywhere. Weird would be putting it very nicely at this point.
As if all of that wasn't throwing massive bells and whistles off in my mind (and it had long done before I got this far in the process), looky what I found at the very bottom of that last e-mail which supposedly came from Amazon:
Get your free email from http://freemail.asiamail.com
Why would Amazon, the world's largest online retailer, need a free email account, hmmm? Also, why would they need to use another web hosting service like mailpanda.com (notice the e-mail came from amazonordercashtransfer@mailpanda.com) when they've probably got unlimited e-mail accounts for amazon.com?
These professional Internet scam artists aren't exactly the brightest bunch in the world now are they? Of course, they're trying to hit the most gullible people who aren't privy to their devious and deceptive tactics.
I guess they didn't realize who they were messin' with this time! :D
My many years of experience being online and selling items prevented me from becoming yet another victim. Here are my five easy tips you need to be aware of so you don't ever get trapped by these idiotic crooks:
1. Always confirm orders through the selling agency. Amazon started requiring sellers a few months back to go online to complete their transactions in part, no doubt, because of these kinds of fraudulent practices that are happening. When I checked my Amazon seller account for this sale from "Mrs Sara Sam," there was no order for my iPod listed there. ALWAYS CHECK FIRST BEFORE SHIPPING!
2. NEVER follow the personal shipping instructions you receive from a buyer. All the details about your order will be provided by the selling agency and Amazon will even send you an e-mail to let you know you made a sale. They DO NOT send anything like a confirmation approval e-mail like these Nigerian shysters did.
3. This goes for any e-mail, but look out for punctuation in the subject line. That's usually a clear sign that there's something screwy going on around here. You'll notice in that e-mail that was allegedly from Amazon confirming the sale, the subject line read "AMAZON PAYMENT CONFIRMATION APPROVED." with the period at the end. Nobody puts a period in an e-mail subject line.
4. Additionally, check the specifics of the e-mail address in the "From" for any e-mail you receive. The one in the example above showed "Payment-message@amazon.com .
5. Don't ship internationally unless you are absolutely CERTAIN of the sale. The cost to ship that iPod would have run about as much as what I was asking for it. So not only would "Mrs Sara Sam" run off with my iPod and deprive me of my money for it, but I'd also be out over $100 for the expedited Global shipping. Double whammy!
You'll be pleased to know I didn't fall for this trick and ironically sold the iPod while writing this blog post. See, everything works out in the end after all! That is, if you stay alert, be smart, and refuse to get taken by the professional Nigerian scam artists that are out there.
They're waiting for their next victim...don't let it be YOU!!!
Labels: Amazon, crook, eBay, Internet, Nigeria, online, scam, sell, selling
posted by Jimmy Moore at
8/08/2007 11:34:00 PM
8 Comments:
I sell on eBay and craigslist and I have been looking at Amazon. I buy quite a bit on all three of them.
They are all plagued by the scam artists, and I do mean scam 'artists'.
All we got to do to beat them is to stay within the norms off all three of these sites. The scam artists have a really hard time operating inside of these perimeters.
Anything odd or unusual or different in any way just click delete.
Don't forget that the best of the best of these con artists can 'look' to be very much inside of these perimeters.
It's better to take a 'hit' now and then n the form of money lost rather than to go around spooked all the time and not doing things or limiting what we do.
If we do that, we have really let them poison us!
They feed off from all of the 'newbies' and poison them right out of the gate.
Also keep all of your equipment up to date and all of your software and security stuff current and active.
I also highly recommend that every computer household keep 'new' everything. The most current 'new' computers and software and everything else, along with next day tech and hardware and software warranties. If it don't work they are right there on the phone to fix it and if they can't fix it they send somebody to your house that can fix it.
With all of this in place you are free to use and experiment and try all of the new services and updates that are so marvously available.
You are afraid of nothing. You can try anything without fear. They will fix it for you and they will fix it right now.
Now you are a computer literate family. You can do anything!
The cost for all of this?
$10 a week!
That's for computers and printers and monitors and cameras and camcorders and the latest software, everything!
$10 a week!
That's $520 a year for three years! $1560
You can be state of the art and trouble free for $10 a week!
It will save you more money than that!
Your Internet connection will cost you about the same amount for broadband, or only $10 a month for dial up. Both are great!
You are up for anything and everything!
You could sit right down beside the President of the United States and do the same thing he does, everything! (he does have another level that he can go too!)
(If you are really poor you can do the same thing for half!)
$5 a week!
Love it!
I got scammed by this same Amazon scam, and I feel like a dope. Amazon stated it was the best one they've seen (as if that makes me feel better). Good luck getting ahold of the Nigerian post office or customs to stop the shipment!! Long story short, Nigeria has a brand new $1000 camera and I got, well.....nothing. Sad but true.
I'm sorry that happened to you, Allison. It's a hard lesson learned, but maybe your story and my blog post here will save others from becoming victims, too.
Thanks-hope this helps other sellers from getting duped. I received a similar email today asking me to ship my SLR camera to Nigeria "first thing in the morning". I usually treat requests to ship abroad with a little caution and rightly so. There was no payment made to my seller account and I knew this had to be a scam. The email address appears to be from "Amazon Payment" but is really a third party account. Please check your seller account before initiating any shipment and if it is outside the country, be extra careful. I wonder if these scamsters can be reported to the police?
Hey everyone. Sadly, i probably am the newest member. I was JUST doped. In a way, it makes me really angry. As much as i didn't get A DIME from this... I can only learn from it. Now i know better to warn other people about it. You are so right.. they target NEW sellers. I realized that I clicked on 'No international sales' but this person wanted me to ship it to Nigeria. I should've listened to the guy from the post office asking me, 'Are you sure you want to sent this to Nigeria?'
:(
Nice blog post. VERY VERY HELPFUL.
Same scam was attempted to be pulled on me this week... I guess they find enough uninformed people to keep trying!
Seller Beware!!
Something similar was tried on me today! They are getting more confincing - to make me think i'd actually made a sale I had an enquiry from another person. Once the first person had supposedly 'confirmed' payment, the other emailed me saying amazon had informed her the item had been sold and if I had any more products to inform her!!
They also wanted me to send the product to Nigeria!
Haha you'll have to get up very early in the morning to fool me! One other thing I noticed was that emails from these supposed buyers came through in the middle of the night UK time - not very normal for sales!
Seller Beware!
thanks for this report.
Same scam was tried on me today for my dSLR.
As soon as i saw nigeria i tried google and found your page.
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