Spotting a Scamming Buyer

You’re probably thinking that you read that wrong… How on Earth can a BUYER be scamming you? They want to send you money for your item / product and it all seems easy and to good to be true.  They offer you MORE than what you wanted and they will send you payment immediately.  Unfortunately, it IS to good to be true.

I have a laptop for sale right now.  It’s an excellent laptop, in near new condition, and I’m asking $700 for it.  I’ve received about ten offers thus far but this one that came through had me cluing in quickly to the scam and writing them to let them know that I’m not interested in being a part of their scam.

Here is the e-mail I received:

Hey,glad you replied back and i am happy the item is still available for sale.I intend to come around and get the  item myself but as of now i am in a military camp and i will not be allowed to come for the pick up of this  item.Since our anniversary is at hand and my wife traveled to West Africa to complete her program,i will want  you to help me get this item to her there and because of the high cost of shipment  via Canada post to Lagos –  Nigeria, I will offer you $920 to cover both item and shipping expenses.

Also want you to know that i have been screwed before and because of these i will prefer payment terms to  go through PayPal so as to protect both buyer and seller.I will like to know if this is your pay pal address  (erin.blaskie@gmail.com) for immediate payment and if you are not PayPal user, you can set up one in few  minute through PayPal website. Kindly consider the item sold to me and take off the advert from Kijiji.

Now, how and why is this a scam?

Well, here’s what generally happens in these scams.  The buyer sends you money via PayPal.  You receive it, think to yourself, “All right!  Just need to ship the item…”  So, you ship it and withdraw your funds.  Your laptop is already making its way overseas when the buyer chooses to dispute the funds on PayPal.  PayPal (being a huge corporation that honors very few disputes) withdraws the money INSTANTLY from your account leaving it in a negative balance.  You provide paperwork, shipping documents, etc. but the buyer is rewarded after a long and tiring process.

So, now they have your item AND their money.

Did you notice how he was even grooming me on the technical side?  By explaining how easy it is for me to receive the funds, it makes the offer even more enticing.  Luckily, I was using my street smarts here.

Before selling an item, consider selling it locally and to someone that will pay you in cash.  That way, you can avoid any undue stress and a loss of item.  If you’re selling services, always get a credit card on file for the people who are using your company for services.

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