Molly’s laptop was stolen, and the thief didn’t even break into her house, or snag it from her at a coffeeshop, or hold a knife to her neck in a darkened alley. No, her laptop was stolen via email. In fact, she mailed it to thief, in Africa. OMG, you’re probably saying to yourself right now with your hands up by your face, how could this be? Discover the horrifying true story, inside…
Molly writes:
1. I posted my laptop for sale on Craigslist for $550.
2. Kaynero01@yahoo.com emailed me and said he’d send an extra $150 through Paypal for shipping to his cousin, a student in Nigeria.
3. Paypal sent me an email saying they needed the tracking # before they could post the $700 to my account, to protect the buyer and be fair to both parties. (I’ve since found out this email was a SCAM!)
4. I emailed the tracking # to the Paypal address they had provided and waited day in and day out. I’d paid $76.05 to ship the laptop.
5. Finally, I got frustrated enough today to call Paypal and demand the money. They said the buyer account did not exist and there was no $700. The only thing they had a record of was my request for $700 from the buyer.
6. So! Paypal couldn’t do shit. They told me to call USPS and recall the laptop.
7. USPS said the laptop left the US on September 22nd and cannot be recalled once it leaves. The insurance I’d put on the item was for lost or damaged goods. It does not protect against fraud.
8. So! USPS couldn’t do jack.
9. I reported this to the FTC, but what’s that gonna do? NOTHING!
10. I’m so livid that I am currently in an emotionless state.
That’s right, Molly, you’re fucked. Here’s a few things to remember so you don’t end up like Molly:
- Don’t mail anything to Africa and expect to get money back. Any email based around some kind of transaction wanting to have you do something involving Africa is probably a scam.
- Someone offering to buy something from you, then give you extra money over the sale price so you will ship it to a third party, is probably scamming you.
- If Paypal were really stepping in to mediate between you and the other party, a record of it would appear in your resolution center on paypal.com
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Never ship without payment. Then you can never get ripped off. Works for retailers, it’ll work for you.
Gee, no wonder the only response from putting up my laptop on Craigslist and Ebay was from a Nigerian scammer… With Paypal being the only douchebag middleman of choice on Ebay, it’s next to impossible to easily sell anything online anymore.
Unfortunately this is an expensive lesson for the victim, but it may still be relatively cheap if in all future dealings she now behaves properly.
And as for the excessively PC comments, sit down. Stereotypes exist for a reason and acknowledging them along with profiling help to keep you from being Darwin’d. Africans have dark skin. Nigerians are particularly famous for scamming Americans. If I got an African request to mail something I was selling on eBay? No way in hell. Sorry Africa, but that’s the way it’s gonna be for now.
@GregGates: One has to think that most Nigerians think that people in 1st World countries are greedy but stupid idiots.
These stories are so numerous and make it seem so easy to scam the dumb and greedy that I’m considering becoming a scammer myself.
How can there still be people with access to the internet that do not know that as soon as you see the word “Nigeria” you should run?
THERE ARE NO LEGITIMATE BUSINESSES IN NIGERIA!
I’m surprised Craigslist doesn’t just block all African I.P.’s from their sites.
I do not have the technical proficiency to let African-American men f*ck me.
I tell any scam-o-lets that I only accept “INTERNATIONAL MONEY ORDERS PAYABLE IN US DOLLARS” and that I will wait 30 days for the funds to be verified.
Also for the car sales scammers (I will send my agent to pick up your car) I always tell them to send me the “agents” name,phone number, address etc so that I may verify they have the correct dealer license to transfer the vehicle. That also throws the scammers for a loop.
[www.scamorama.com]
[forum.419eater.com]
ebolamonkeyman.com
[www.scambaits.com]
[en.wikipedia.org]
Some of the pictures received during scam baits are true classics…
Duh. Oldest scam in the book.
I can 100% assure you that she only checked her email to see that the payment was received. There are people out there that make accounts like PayPal@hotmail.com or gmail or what not. Always check your PayPal account to confirm payment. NEVER EVER rely on just emails.
This is not PayPal’s fault in any shape or form. Blame yourself for not checking and understanding stuff. The Nigerian Scam has been around for a very very long time and if you are that stupid to send something like that, then it is your fault. PayPal does not cover any non-ebay transaction so you are out of luck
T-BAG!!!!
http://www.purepwnage.com
Is paypal or nigeria the scam? I can’t tell…
Craigs List warns people REPEATEDLY about this scam. I don’t feel bad for ANYONE this stupid.
Nigeria does have legitimate businesses. Unfortunately the amount of fraud even within the country is beyond the tipping point. A large percentage of prescription drugs in the country are counterfeit, for instance, which lends credence to clerics who opposed western medicine and vaccination. It is quite sad, and hopefully increasing world trade ties can help the people who suffer because of such fraud.
That said, if you are just selling an old laptop online, repairing those wounds is not your problem. When you ship something outside the U.S. (or outside your domestic market), you are not just shipping, you are EXPORTING. That is a major step for an expanding business, maybe including eBayers with thousands or tens of thousands of ratings after their screen name, not someone selling their old laptop.
“That’s right, Molly, you’re fucked” The consumerist doesnt pull any punches.
Folks, Ben has already noted to discard the racism chat, which has been played out. This is the second and last warning that’s going to be issued – please heed it – stop posting on this off-topic hijack.
Further, again, remember the comment code. Do not insult the victim, e.g. calling them an idiot, stupid, etc. Helpful and constructive suggestions are fine. Let’s tone it down and keep the comments civil.
@Consumerist-Moderator-Roz: WHEW. I was beginning to worry that you weren’t going to show up!
The #1 rule of internet commerce is “Don’t do business with Africa”
I realize that this person may be new, but jesus- this scam is older than the internet… if that’s possible.
It’s worth it to read through the P-p-p-powerbook story, whereby a bunch of SA goons sniffed out and then mocked an elaborate eBay laptop theft scam.
On another note, in the 70s Nigeria made some AWESOME music…
@Mr.Purple: +1 for this comment. Tony Allen!
I’m waiting for the major carriers to offer some kind of escrow service. The seller ships the package, buyer pays the carrier for shipping and the cost of the item. The item isn’t delivered until the buyer’s payment clears, and the shipper gets the package back if the buyer doesn’t pay. I’d pay a couple of bucks for something like that when selling.
Take it a step further – the seller takes the items sold list and items to be shipped to the carrier, who packs and ships the items. The buyer get’s an email with a filled packing list from the carrier so they know the box isn’t empty. Then follow the process above and everyone’s happy. Seller pays the fee.
@Xerloq: Add in there that the seller get’s a check (or refund on their card) when the buyer’s payment clears for the amount of the sale minus shipping.
Best sanity check I’ve ever read (from a Banker’s Forum) to protect yourself against this sort of fraud is to ask one question: “Why is my item for sale SO precious that the person can’t pick one up for himself in his home country?”
(The question was more along the lines of, “Explain to me again why some guy in Nigeria just HAD to have your ’73 Volkswagon Beetle?”)
Well you have the mailing address so you could ship some questionable goods somewhere with that return address.
How can someone become proficient enough with the intarwebz to use Craigslist and not know to avoid each and every anything that involves the word ‘Nigeria’?
Craigslist? Check.
Email? Check.
More Money? Check.
Paypal? Check.
Africa? Check.
Yep, sure did hit all of the scam requirements.
I have put computers on craigslist a couple times, and every time I get an email from these guys. It’s pretty obvious that it’s a scam, so it’s fun stringing them along for as long as possible. It’s very unfortunate that Molly didn’t notice until afterwards, but, like the article says, anyone that wants you to ship to Africa is a scam.
This is social engineering. I love Molly, but Molly has too much money and possessions. Natural selection has provided Molly with a cure for those things.
From craigslist.org/about/scams:
* DEAL LOCALLY WITH FOLKS YOU CAN MEET IN PERSON – follow this one simple rule and you will avoid 99% of the scam attempts on craigslist.
* NEVER WIRE FUNDS VIA WESTERN UNION, MONEYGRAM or any other wire service – anyone who asks you to do so is a scammer.
* FAKE CASHIER CHECKS & MONEY ORDERS ARE COMMON, and BANKS WILL CASH THEM AND THEN HOLD YOU RESPONSIBLE when the fake is discovered weeks later.
* CRAIGSLIST IS NOT INVOLVED IN ANY TRANSACTION, and does not handle payments, guarantee transactions, provide escrow services, or offer “buyer protection” or “seller certification”
* NEVER GIVE OUT FINANCIAL INFORMATION (bank account number, social security number, eBay/PayPal info, etc.)
* AVOID DEALS INVOLVING SHIPPING OR ESCROW SERVICES and know that ONLY A SCAMMER WILL “GUARANTEE” YOUR TRANSACTION.
I simply CANNOT feel any sympathy for Molly. She broke nearly all of these guidelines.
hahahahahaha.
I did not know people actually fell for these scams. Shows why they’re still doing it after so long.
I resent this story.
It baffles me that people STILL fall for these scams every single day. It’s been a known fact that anything monetarily Nigerian related is a scam. It’s so sad, but true. Wires, cashiers checks, mail. People need to really be more cautious of this. Especially in these economic times, I’m sure there’s plenty of new and scary scams created each day to prey on the guillible.
If the item was shipped thru usps then they do give a shit. Since it was shipped thru usps it is a felony. If it was shipped thru fedex, ups, dhl etc. then you would be fucked but since its usps go higher up and it make take a long while but things will get better. A long time ago I got n’sync tickets for my sister with a backstage pass, well turns out the tickets were fake(this was like 10 years ago). Well since the guy used usps they caught him and turns out he had being doing this alot. The postal inspectors take this stuff seriously and I have since recovered 800 of the initial 1600 I forked over. And that fucker is in jail for mail fraud.
These things happen everywhere, not only in Africa. I have received scam emails from England, Australia, China, USA etc. So I do not think its an African issue. To me, I believe that things should be done the right way. Let everyone of us be careful and not want to reap where we didi not sow.
USPS blows. PayPal blows more. Nigerian scam artists blow most
Paypal is such a terrible company. There is so much fraud that goes on with Paypal. I’ve had so many bad experiences selling stuff on Ebay with it, that I just sell everything on Amazon so I can take credit cards and not have to deal with all the garbage. Paypal is the most scam-friendly company there is out there. Any time you dispute anything, they freeze your account until the dispute is resolved. Most of the stuff they don’t resolve, so your money is frozen permanently. Paypal actually still has a lot of money frozen of mine.
@xthexlanternx: PayPal isn’t involved in this, though. It’s just that the scammer sent an email pretending to be PayPal. Nothing PayPal could do about that.
i’m guessing Molly just awoke from her coma, it’s the only excuse i can make up for her mistake.
When you get emails from PayPal or any website, ALWAYS go directly to that website (ie. http://www.paypal.com) and then proceed to look up the message after logging in.
Either that or when you place your cursor over the link from whatever website, check to see where it’s leading if you’re comfortable reading urls.
@ninjatoddler: That’s mostly for phishing, though. Forgeries for something like this are often perfectly happy to include genuine PayPal links copied from genuine PayPal email, because they’re not using the website to perform the fraud.
It almost happened when I was selling GTA: Liberty City Stories on Craigslist. But I knew better.
ll gt t sy s ldy y r mrn!!
I didn’t know people actually fell for this.
If you get an email saying they put money in your account, go to [www.paypal.com] and CHECK. Paypal has pretty expansive documentation on how they operate on their website, and demanding proof that you shipped the item is definitely not on any of it.
Do some research, take simple precautions. There’s no reason for this to ever happen.
If something sounds too good to be true, it probably is. I wouldn’t ship anything anywhere before having money-in-hand (nevermind overseas), and louder alarm bells would have gone off in my head as soon as the buyer offered me an extra $150 to ship it to a strange place (be that an address in Africa or a PO Box in Jersey).
It’s a tough way to learn a lesson, I’ll give it that.
Sadly, Craigslist become a real haven for scammers and con artists.
LMAO I can’t believe people fall for this.
I very nearly fell for this exact scam too. I even got fake Paypal email notifications saying that money had been put in, despite that I saw no money deposited. Thinking it was something that would show up a few days later, I decided to ship my Gamecube to Lagos anyway.
Thankfully, the people at the FedEx store let me know about shady stuff going on in Lagos and decided at the last moment to back away.
“Don’t mail anything to Africa and expect to get money back. Any email based around some kind of transaction wanting to have you do something involving Africa is probably a scam.”
Well… that’s awkward. Yes, I realise that a lot of emails like this are scams. But there are also a lot of honest, non-scammers who live in Africa and like to buy stuff on the net (since we don’t get the same products you guys do in the US). To say “don’t sell to anyone in Africa” is somewhat unfair to an entire continent. Be careful, yes, but don’t just write us all off.
Its a shame that people in Nigeria still give us a hard time to do legitimate business online. If there is a tracking number and name used to send the laptop to Nigeria, please write a petition laying your complaint to info@efccnigeria.org, you might be lucky to get your item back. Next time please until you clear your funds do not send items and do not send over paid money back.
I’m sorry for the lady’s loss but she was dumb as a bag of rocks. It clearly says on the craigslist page when you try to sell something to NEVER ship things out of the country. Only do cash meetings in public places with lots of people, mall or supermarket parking lots for one. Also I only do cash and I bring a counterfeit pen.
UPS can do an intercept even once it is on a truck about to be delivered. I had to one the other week and was able to get it forwarded to my other office. Although this may be because of our corporate account but I would think any shipper could do this.
@SKURRY: Went and re-read, subby said USPS not UPS. I still think USPS is pulling your leg.
Yeah, this happened to me, well almost. I sold an Asus eeepc on ebay and someone won the auction.
Then i got a seperate email from them asking me to send it to nigeria. psh, yeah right!
Then i got a spoofed email saying the $ was posted to my paypal acct. When i checked paypal it said $0. I waited and waited, then checked the header of the spoofed email and saw it wasnt from paypal at all it was from an APNIC IP (asian). So, i contacted paypal and they said someone tried to scam me and to relist the item on ebay. – seriously, don’t be scammed by just a spoofed email.
There’s a reason craigslist has that warning on the top about taking wire transfers and the like. This isn’t ebay, there’s no guarantees.
I’m guessing Molly is new to the internet. I think most of us spotted the warning signs.
When listing on Craigslist, always make it CASH AND CARRY!
There’s a reason why it was created for local sellers and buyers.
I’m not jumping on the bandwagon of blaming the consumer (or the scam-ee, in this case), but holy smokes – can this transaction have any more red flags on it?
For starters – ANYTHING going to, coming from, or dealing with Nigeria should have killed the deal stone cold dead. While I’m sure there are plenty of legitimate transactions coming from the country every day, there’s a reason that every prince than needs getting his money laundered comes from there.
Second – paypal gets it’s dirty little hands in the deal. Call me a luddite, but I prefer the old school way where you got a check or money order or cash and had the money in hand before you even thought about sending a package. With Paypal’s propensity to screw the end user at every chance they get, it’s no wonder that they can’t help here. It’s not a question of if you’ll be fucked by pay-pal, but when.