GraphicsGuy Posted March 4, 2006 Share Posted March 4, 2006 I thought I had seen every Nigerian email scheme. Then I listed one of our used laptops on eBay. Now I am getting "Nigerian" purchase offers indicating they would prepay a rediculous high amount (many times what it is worth) by Western Union transfer. (fortunately, I have bid location restrictions in place that prevent them from bidding it up out of the legit bidders range) First off, it is a scam. That much I am certain of. Considering all of the Nigerian scams out there, I wouldn't sell used bathroom tissue to a "customer" from Nigeria. But I am curious how they turn a Western Union money transfer to their advantage. I have never received a Western Union money transfer, but if it was completed before the merchandise shipped, how would they scam their way out of that? Any thoughts? Rule #1: Without exception, backup your database and files before making any changes to your files or database. Rule #2: Make sure there are no exceptions to Rule #1. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobg7 Posted March 4, 2006 Share Posted March 4, 2006 Report this to [email protected] to start. If you look at eBay they highly suggest you don't do any business with anyone who wants to pay with Western Union due to the high amount of fraud and Western Union agrees with eBay on this issue. Installed Contributions: CCGV, Close Popup, Dynamic Meta Tags, Easy Populate, Froogle Data Feeder, Google Position, Infobox Header Entire Row, Live Support for OSC, PayPal Seal with CC images, Report_m Sales, Shop by Price Revised, SQL Updater, Who's Online Enhancement, Footer, GNA EP Assistant and still going. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
♥toyicebear Posted March 4, 2006 Share Posted March 4, 2006 Loosing your listing fee payed at ebay aside.... I would also like to know how they can scam you with Western Union Paytments. When you get payed by Western Union Payments , you simply go to your closest Western Union Office/Branch and take out the payment in Cash. After you have recieved your Cash, then you should be able to ship the item without any risk.... So..how does this scam work then?????? Basics for osC 2.2 Design - Basics for Design V2.3+ - Seo & Sef Url's - Meta Tags for Your osC Shop - Steps to prevent Fraud... - MS3 and Team News... - SEO, Meta Tags, SEF Urls and osCommerce - Commercial Support Inquiries - OSC 2.3+ How To To see what more i can do for you check out my profile [click here] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jenalcom Posted March 4, 2006 Share Posted March 4, 2006 From http://www.joewein.de/sw/fraud-western-union-bidpay-ebay.htm and I guess there's a lot more info out there! <quote> The way the scam works is that the seller is told the money will only be released by Western Union / Bidpay when the buyer supplies a tracking number, i.e. when he has already shipped the parcel. To get the seller to ship the parcel, the criminal himself poses as Western Union, sending an email from a free webmail service to the victim using an email address which mentions Western Union or BidPay, for example "[email protected]" or "[email protected]", assuring the seller that Western Union has received payment from the buyer and will release it as soon as he submits the tracking number as proof of shipping. A seller believing this message to be sent from Western Union will lose his merchandise and the shipping costs. </quote> AND <quote> The Western Union MTCN version of the scam In yet another variant of this scam, the buyer will provide a real Western Union Money Transfer Control Number (MCTN) to the seller, which can be checked on the Western Union website. However the buyer will not tell the seller who sent the money, thereby making it impossible to receive those funds. It's like showing someone a wad of dollar bills but not handing over the money. </quote> Basically don't ship anything until you get the money in your account and make sure the payment's not reversible. ALan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GraphicsGuy Posted March 4, 2006 Author Share Posted March 4, 2006 Alan, thanks for the link and info. That is interesting to know. There is no chance I would have shipped him anything. I just like to understand how the scams work so that I can be better able to spot derivatives. Rule #1: Without exception, backup your database and files before making any changes to your files or database. Rule #2: Make sure there are no exceptions to Rule #1. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
♥peterpil19 Posted March 15, 2006 Share Posted March 15, 2006 Just saw this post now and it scared me for a moment--I just collected a western union payment a few hours ago! The rule I think protects sellers always is of course never to send the item before receiving payment, regardless of the circumstances. --Peter CE PHOENIX SUPPORTER Support the Project, go PRO and get access to certified add ons Full-time I am a C-suite executive of a large retail company in Australia. In my spare time, I enjoying learning about web-design. Download the latest version of CE Phoenix from gitHub here Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dllmodz Posted March 27, 2006 Share Posted March 27, 2006 Another popular one is that they actually send you a fake Western Union (or some other company) check.. you deposit it.. it looks good to the banker... you get your money.. you send the product. Life is good.. until 1 week later. Thats when the bank calls you up to tell you that the $2000 you deposited last week was fake. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ksl8313 Posted March 27, 2006 Share Posted March 27, 2006 Another popular one is that they actually send you a fake Western Union (or some other company) check.. you deposit it.. it looks good to the banker... you get your money.. you send the product. Life is good.. until 1 week later. Thats when the bank calls you up to tell you that the $2000 you deposited last week was fake. exactly. my friend lost $3000 because of such scam. fake cashier's check. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted May 12, 2006 Share Posted May 12, 2006 exactly. my friend lost $3000 because of such scam. fake cashier's check. i get these nigerian orders and stuff all the time.. it frustrates me SOO Much check out this : -----Original Message----- From: Mrs. Mary Mark [mailto:[email protected]] To: [email protected] Subject: Enquiry from One Stop Adultshop Pty Ltd Dear Sales, Goood Day to you, i m interested in buying some items from your store, i want to confirm your shipping plan and cost to Lagos, Nigeria. you have a nice biz webpage. waiting to hear from you asap. thanks. hrmm sure sure.. sure ill send it BLAH! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted May 12, 2006 Share Posted May 12, 2006 the last variant is the overpayment scam, they say they are sending a wu check/cheque for 5000 when the bid is 3000 and ask you to send them 1000 back, the check will be part of some other deal of a friend that he cant cash for some reason, you send them 100 back having cashed yours (and seeing the money in your account), then a week later bank phones to say the check was a fraud. see 419eaters.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bargainbox Posted November 25, 2007 Share Posted November 25, 2007 Have recently had a Bank issue similar to others. Several emails came thru the "contact us" page purporting to be from a Rev Church Minister Customers may not always give we retailers quite the detail required to satisfy their every desire, but this is rather extreme.......we have several thousand stock items !!! 1 Hello, This is Rev John Brown i will like to order woven fabric for the renovation of our church so i want you to email me with the price range of the fabric you have in stock and plz do including your tel phone number when reply me with the price ok. Thanks and God bless. 2 Hi Mr Sam, How are you doing?please let me know if u have Chiffon or Spandex and their prices if you dont have i will purchase the poly/cotton and let you to how many miter i need so i will be waiting to hear back from you . Thanks and God bless. Rev John. 3 Hi Mr Sam, How are you doing today?i'm ok with spandex and please let me know the price range per miter and if you can get me this color let me know have attacted it i will be waiting to hear back from you. Thanks and God bless. Rev John. OK so there are not many churches I know that want to redecorate with Spandex or Lycra, or even Chiffon for that matter, so I'm thinking a bit dodgy....especially as the attached image of the fabric required is a Australian Northern Territory Aboriginal Fabric Print of Stingrays !!!! > See Aboriginal Stingray Fabric Print < yes, ... just the thing for a mediaeval church in northern Italy I'm sure you'll agree !! So far I have replied politely with prices etc.& asking for contact info, to no avail..........2 days later there is a transaction "approved" by the our bank merchant facility for $670 AUD worth of these Stingray prints to go to some fellow called (First Name) Smith (Last Name) dikko in the Lombardy Region of Nthn Italy.........hmmmmm methinks.......the cash is in my bank account.........so I googled "dikko" and had a few interesting returns to suggest not uncommon......in NIGERIA......Google Earth came up with a real address, a real Internet Provider was used for transmission. I am now almost convinced that it might just be coincidence and is all kosher.... so I decided to wait 2 weeks for any email/phone contact....then 3, then 4.....after 6 weeks of nothing, the bank (to whom we pay not inconsiderable fees) sends a letter to say that it is fraud and we will have the money withdrawn within 7 days.........OK, so I have had the cash in a high interest account for 6 or 7 weeks and made maybe $4 interest with which to pay for the phonecalls to the bank to say... "HEY wait a minute !! you are the ones with the system, providing us with a service for which we pay and you tell me that with all the algorithms and echeck potentials at your disposal that I am entirely liable for this ??" "Yes sir, it's not us, it's VISA and Mastercard who make the rules" And to top it off, BANKS HAVE 120 DAYS to change their minds under our system in Australia, ......sobering thought......you may want to ask first what you local regulations are. The nice lady at Merchant Fraud suggested that when in doubt, do a refund and contact the customer asking for an EFT direct to your account, if they baulk at that, then maybe you don't want their business. Stay sane Martyn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
♥toyicebear Posted November 25, 2007 Share Posted November 25, 2007 If you are in doubt of the validity of a sale done by cc, its usually better to cancel and refund it. Then ask the customer to pay you by direct bank transfeer or alternatively by Western Union money transfer or MoneyGram money transfer. (For the later two make sure that you have collected the money at your local office before shipping any merhandise) If you wish to respond to "dubious" emails about purchasing from your shop, just reply that you can indeed provide the wanted services/products providing they pre-pay by Western Union or MoneyGram. (Both available world wide). Basics for osC 2.2 Design - Basics for Design V2.3+ - Seo & Sef Url's - Meta Tags for Your osC Shop - Steps to prevent Fraud... - MS3 and Team News... - SEO, Meta Tags, SEF Urls and osCommerce - Commercial Support Inquiries - OSC 2.3+ How To To see what more i can do for you check out my profile [click here] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
♥Vger Posted November 25, 2007 Share Posted November 25, 2007 The answer is quite simple - if the order comes from Nigera don't ship it, especially if they are stupid enough to offer you the choice of half a dozen different credit cards the money can be taken from. Vger Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 12, 2008 Share Posted January 12, 2008 If they use stolen cc cards to fund the Western Union payment, the stolen money could be clawed back from you, the receiver who signed for it. Even though you already have the money. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.