I'm new here, but being scammed by a Nigerian

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Hello I'm New here! Joined: 23 Oct 2008 Posts: 6

Hi guys,
I'm so pleased I've found this site. I'll tell you what is going on here. Ok, I sold a Nokia N95 on Ebay, and it went for £155. The next day I get a geniune email from Ebay to say that they've had to close the account that bought my phone as it had been hacked and was being used my someone else.
I then got an email from the English winner (Mark) and from his real email address saying that he'd like me to post the phone to Nigeria to show his love for a family friend. He gave me the address to send to.
I straight away knew this to be a scam. When the phone was won I was sent a real email from Paypal which had Marks address, so I rang him. I spoke to his secretary and yes, his ebay and email accounts have been hacked...she was genuine. He was away on business, I'll speak to him later.
So, now I'm being emailed by a Nigerian who is pretending to be Mark. He has put £180 into my paypal account. Paypal have now emailed me (fake email, almost convincing) to say that the £180 will clear into my account once they have the shipping number that Royal Mail should give me.
Because I haven't replied to Mark for the last 12 hours, Paypal have now emailed me saying it's URGENT I send my phone and provide a shipping number or I will face legal action *oooh I'm scared*
Would you like to see the mails I've been sent? (I'll protect Marks address)
How do you advise I proceed?
I suspect I don't have long as I imagine the real Mark will be getting his email account back on his return, I've advised he calls me and explained all to his secretary.
Thanks for any advice.

Posted: Thu Oct 23, 2008 11:40 am

I say post the whole thing up, with headers from the email, just erase your personal details and let us see the IP. I'm sure a mod will be along shortly to help sort all of this out.

Posted: Thu Oct 23, 2008 11:41 am

Sounds like a twisted little drama.

It would be interesting to see the email contents the scammer was using. Yes remove all information that does point to 'Mark'.

Did the scammer use any other free web based email providers? Yahoo? Hotmail? If it was only 'Mark's hacked account there really isn't any point.

You also said that the scammer was faking a ebay address? If it wasn't spoofed, then we could use that. (Again, provided it's a free email account and not a real person - need to be 100%-ish certain that no real people get dragged into this)

A few of us would have no problem giving him some much needed attention and a crate of special Nokia GEN6 Lithium-Sabred Velocity Phones I have for sale. Not only can you make calls, but it will actually cut through 4 inches of armour plating.

Posted: Thu Oct 23, 2008 12:00 pm

hope you did not go to paypal via a link in the fake mail or your account will have been hijacked to.
go to your paypal account in the normal way and check to see if the payment is there.
forward the fake PP mail to [email protected] and they will tell you if it is real or not.

if you have logged into PP via a link in the fake mail contact PP NOW AND LET THEM KNOW.

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 23 Oct 2008 Posts: 6

*quiet chuckle* You people are great. Ok, here are the mails I have:

On finding out from Ebay that the winner had only won because his account had been hacked, I mailed the winner myself:

Morning Mark,

I hope you're well.

So what happened to you then? Am I right to understand that your ebay account was hacked in to and that the winning bid for my old phone was made by someone who hacked into your account?
I bet they won a few other things for you too.

Just before I relist I wanted to make sure that this was the case and that you're not interested in the phone.

All the best,

This is the more than suspicious reply I got:

Dear Seller,

I have contact ebay about the cancellation of the item that i won on ebay and we have resolve this..it my wife that use my account to bid on your item and i have contact ebay about this... and am sure ebay have contact you?The payment has been made for this item in GOOD FAITH from my paypal account and your money is already deduct from our account..so kindly get this item ship to the address given t you by paypal and ebay..cos we want to send this item for a family friend in West Africa,Nigeria..for their son birthday gift and this will determine the extent of our love to them.the address has been confirm by paypal and ebay and i have paid extra money for the shipping so kindly get this item ship first thing today via ROYAL MAIL nd get back to me Asap.

Here is the Adress Again:

Name:Dr Julius Bamidele
Address:No 12, Igbo Agbo,
City:Ile Ife,
State:Osun State
Country:Nigeria,
Zip Code:234036

Thanks for your understanding in this matter.

We to'd and fro'd a bit, then I got this:

Hello there..i have made the payment...so get the item ship first thing tomorrow to my friend address in West Africa,Nigeria via Royal Mail and Get Back To me Asap.

Here is the Address Again:

Julius Bamidele
No 12, Igbo Agbo
Ile Ife
Osun State
Nigeria
234036

Thanks

I then got a mail from Paypal which got me intrigued:

[email protected]
to me

show details 6:52 PM (18 hours ago)

Display images below - Always display images from [email protected]
PayPal

You've Received New Funds!

Dear Kieran,

This email confirms that you have received a payment of £180.00 GBP from Mark F******r (mark.f******r30@**********.com)

Receipt ID: 4612-3819-3729-9143

The number above is the buyer's receipt ID for this transaction. Please retain it for your records so that you will be able to reference this transaction for customer service.

View the details of this transaction online
It may take a few moments for this transaction to appear in the Recent Activity list on your Account Overview.
Payment Details
Total Price: £180 GBP
Currency: British Pounds
Transaction ID: 7Y0984839C7393504
Total Amount: £180 GBP
Quantity: 1
Item/Product Name: Nokia N95 mobile phone
Invoice ID: SFF-UK.1072843
Buyer: mark*******

Shipping Information
Address: Julius Bamidele
No 12, Igbo Agbo
Ile Ife
Osun State
Nigeria
234036

Address Status: Confirmed

Please Note:We wish to inform you that Mark F******r has made his intentions known to Paypal that she will like this item to be shipped to the recipient's address above and not the address on his credit card details.

Important Note: This PayPal® payment has been deducted from the buyer's account and has been " APPROVED" but will not be credited to your account until the shipment reference / tracking number is sent to us for SHIPMENT VERIFICATION so as to secure both the buyer and the seller. This is due to new security measures at PayPal® for shipment.This is to protect both buyer and seller from fraud, because some seller do receive money from buyer and will not ship the item purchased from them. We are working against the growing number of fraudulent transactions via the internet. Below are the necessary information requested before your account will be credited. Send the shipment reference / tracking number to us through this email: ([email protected] ) and our customer service care will attend to you. As soon as you send us the shipment's tracking number for security purposes and the safety of the buyer and the seller, the money will be credited to your account.

**PLEASE NOTE**
Once shipment has been verified and the tracking number sent to us, You will receive a "CONFIRMATION Email" from PayPal informing you that the Money has been credited.

Thank you for using PayPal!
The PayPal Team

I noticed that this email wasn't actually from [email protected], but from [email protected]
I hadn't responded to Mark during the night, and was greeted with a much sterner mail from "paypal" this morning

[email protected]
to daniel_towle

show details 10:47 AM (2 hours ago)

Display images below - Always display images from [email protected]
PayPal

Dear Customer,

One of the benefits of using PayPal is that we make every effort to alert you to potentially problematic transactions. Our goal is to help you make sound business decisions.

A review of recent transactions indicates that you entered transaction agreement with Mark F******r by requesting money through PayPal, which shows that the PayPal account holder have authorized the payment you received.

We would like to learn more about this transaction. It is important we know the status of the item bought concerning the information we requested from you, otherwise, legal action may be taken against you since you have not replied to the confirmation of payment made to your account by Mark F*****r over time.

However the buyer (Mark F******r) have already contacted us in other to make report about your non response.We are ensuring to make PayPal a safer place, therefore we need to set confidence on our users. We use proprietary technology - and constantly innovation - to help ensure every transactions are safe.

We strongly advise that you to ship the item that was purchase from you and send the Scanned Receipt and the Tracking Number to prove postage of the item in less than 12 hours so that this transaction can be complete and fund the money into your account or face the consequences of LEGAL ACTION.

Here is the Shipping Address Below:

Name:Dr Julius Bamidele
Address:No 12, Igbo Agbo,
City:Ile Ife,
State:Osun State
Country:Nigeria,
Zip Code:234036

We have placed a temporary hold on the funds until the verification is complete.

------------------------------ -----
Transaction Details
------------------------------ -----

Case Number: PP-304-718-247
Buyer's Name:Mark F******r
Buyer's Email: mark.f******r30@**********.com
Response deadline: 10/23/08

Sincerely,
PayPal Fraud Team

------------------------------

PayPal Email ID PP94

So there you go...cheeky blighters. I have no idea who 'daniel_towle' is by the way, but his name was at the top of the latest email, maybe he is being scammed too.

Now I can just ignore this, but I'm more than willing to play along and have some fun.
I'm not sure what to do though, get a fake tracking number? Mail "Mark" and say that I'm a bit miffed that he's reporting me to paypal?

As for the original Ebay account, that actually was a genuine honest account that had been hacked, I'm 100% sure about that. I belive that the real Mark is a decent fellow, but his email account has clearly been hacked into.

Posted: Thu Oct 23, 2008 12:10 pm

as the scammer knows your real details it is not safe. make sure your PP account is ok and then do not reply to the scammer

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 23 Oct 2008 Posts: 6

He only knows my email address.
I'll take your advice and contact paypal just to be sure.
Thankyou

Posted: Thu Oct 23, 2008 12:26 pm

one important thing to do if you want to do any baiting is to get an anonymous email addy like G mail or hushmail that hide your IP address and register with totally fake details.
(had allready sent the usual about stickies and mentors by pm)

Baiting Guru Joined: 07 Jan 2007 Posts: 2922

~ Magic Man,

It's amazing what someone can find out from just an email addy if they really wanted to...

Just drop the lad and ignore whatever BS he sends your way.

If you want to know where he is then check this out...

Quote:

If you want to find out where his email comes from then have a read here how to find headers, then copy and paste the header into this http://headertool.apelord.com/

After that take the last (bottom) number and put it in here http://www.ip-adress.com/ipaddresstolocation/

Posted: Thu Oct 23, 2008 12:46 pm

^^^ and save these links as they may be usefull later

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 23 Oct 2008 Posts: 6

Most interesting. I've got the headers from Gmail. Mark, who is supposed to live in England is mailing me from Ibadan in Nigeria. The paypal emails are coming from Abeokuta which is just down the road.
I'll save those sites, they're very handy

Thanks again for your advice. I'll leave the lad alone and ignore all future mails as I'm not really geared up to play the game just yet.

I'll let you know if I hear anything more.

All the best.

Elite Baiter Joined: 16 Jul 2008 Posts: 1407

The only other thing that you might do, is email the person (scammer) one more time.

Tell them that all the confusion upset you, and you decided to simply sell it to a friend. Suggest they just contact paypal to cancel the payment, and bid them farewell.

After that just ignore them. This way, they may just drop you and your email as the goods are gone.

Posted: Thu Oct 23, 2008 1:28 pm

I am an eBay Powerseller as well as a trainee baiter. From my dealings with Paypal they take these things very seriously. You should definately report everything to Paypal. If nothing else you might get them to do some work and justify all of the $$ I pay them in commissions!!!

Cheers,

Blue

Posted: Fri Oct 24, 2008 3:20 am

Your spot-on Blue,,,

Our friend should forward his complete file to Pay Pal for investigation, by them.

As for the line ,

Quote:

send the Scanned Receipt and the Tracking Number to prove postage

This in it'self tells you it's shonky.

As for proof of payment "Magic-man", simply access your Pay-pal account to see what transactions have taken place and more importantly what have been payed for.

Posted: Fri Oct 24, 2008 6:22 am

While it's easy to become paranoid and find a scam under every rock, if your instincts tell you (or even just whisper) that there's something not quite right then there's almost certainly something fishy going on. If only a few more people followed their instincts... Crying or Very sad

Master Baiter Joined: 07 Oct 2008 Posts: 116

I've been with Paypal almost since their beginning - they take spoofers very seriously so they will want to see everything Fake Mark has sent you.

They're not hacker-proof. For a while I was doing business infrequently so it was obvious the spoof mail was only generated when I had activity. The same day I bought or sold something, I'd get a phisher. Never on a day when there was no activity. To me, that says the hackers were inside their system.

One time my Paypal debit card number was stolen, and I had never even used the card to make a purchase. Wasn't a keystroke logger either, because I typed the numbers offline on a non-networked computer, brought it over to this one on a thumbdrive and and then copy-pasted them into the fields. They were going to make me file a separate claim on each of the dozen little purchases and then wait months for re-imbursement, but when they realized it was an inside job, they cleared it up in minutes instead of weeks.

Overall I would say Paypal has come a long way. They finally understand that e-commerce is not done the same way as Ebay, and that we sellers are not the end user - our customers are.

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 23 Oct 2008 Posts: 6

Ok, so I relisted my Nokia N95 phone again on Ebay. It was won yesterday by a Helen Williams....Ebay emailed me shortly afterwards to say that this is a suspicious bidder and their accound is closed.
Guess what...we now have a Nigerian Helen - aaaaargh, this phone is cursed!

I'll show you the email with the header:

Delivered-To: k******@gmail.com
Received: by 10.142.105.14 with SMTP id d14cs33102wfc;
Thu, 30 Oct 2008 02:41:23 -0700 (PDT)
Received: by 10.142.155.4 with SMTP id c4mr4195872wfe.8.1225359683639;
Thu, 30 Oct 2008 02:41:23 -0700 (PDT)
Return-Path: <[email protected]>
Received: from n3d.bullet.mail.ac4.yahoo.com (n3d.bullet.mail.ac4.yahoo.com [76.13.13.87])
by mx.google.com with SMTP id k37si30580505rvb.1.2008.10.30.02.41.21;
Thu, 30 Oct 2008 02:41:22 -0700 (PDT)
Received-SPF: pass (google.com: domain of [email protected] designates 76.13.13.87 as permitted sender) client-ip=76.13.13.87;
DomainKey-Status: good (test mode)
Authentication-Results: mx.google.com; spf=pass (google.com: domain of [email protected] designates 76.13.13.87 as permitted sender) [email protected]; domainkeys=pass (test mode) [email protected]
Received: from [76.13.13.25] by n3.bullet.mail.ac4.yahoo.com with NNFMP; 30 Oct 2008 09:41:21 -0000
Received: from [76.13.10.166] by t4.bullet.mail.ac4.yahoo.com with NNFMP; 30 Oct 2008 09:41:21 -0000
Received: from [127.0.0.1] by omp107.mail.ac4.yahoo.com with NNFMP; 30 Oct 2008 09:41:21 -0000
X-Yahoo-Newman-Property: ymail-5
X-Yahoo-Newman-Id: [email protected]
Received: (qmail 325 invoked by uid 60001); 30 Oct 2008 09:41:21 -0000
DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; q=dns; c=nofws;
s=s1024; d=yahoo.com;
h=X-YMail-OSG:Received:X-Mailer:Date:From:Reply-To:Subject:To:MIME-Version:Content-Type:

Message-ID; Deleted - Page Blowout

Received: from [193.219.226.27] by web59613.mail.ac4.yahoo.com via HTTP; Thu, 30 Oct 2008 02:41:21 PDT
X-Mailer: YahooMailWebService/0.7.247.3
Date: Thu, 30 Oct 2008 02:41:21 -0700 (PDT)
From: Helen Williams <[email protected]>
Reply-To: [email protected]
Subject: Payment has been mad via PayPal, so post first thing torrow morning
To: [email protected]
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary="0-1321139030-1225359681=:99136"
Message-ID: <[email protected]>

Dear Seller,

How are you doing today, i am very happy to inform you that i have just made the payment for the item to you through Paypal to your account, which you must have gotten a confirmation from paypal concerning the payment to your mail, so i want you to proceed with the postage of the item immediately to the paypal verified address in Nigeria as in the confirmation sent to you. Below is the postage address once again to confirm the postage of the item today.

Helen Adebayo.
23 Airport Road,
Ikeja, Lagos.
Nigeria.
23401.

So get back to me as soon as the item is sent out via RoyalMail international signed for.
Regard
Helen Williams

Such a pain. I knew there were Nigerian scammers out there but to get two in a row on the same item just shows how prevalent it is.
I see I now have some emails from "paypal"

Delivered-To: k*********@gmail.com
Received: by 10.142.105.14 with SMTP id d14cs32613wfc;
Thu, 30 Oct 2008 02:34:36 -0700 (PDT)
Received: by 10.140.204.7 with SMTP id b7mr5519401rvg.149.1225359276119;
Thu, 30 Oct 2008 02:34:36 -0700 (PDT)
Return-Path: <[email protected]>
Received: from n57.bullet.mail.sp1.yahoo.com (n57.bullet.mail.sp1.yahoo.com [98.136.44.49])
by mx.google.com with SMTP id f42si1750534rvb.6.2008.10.30.02.34.35;
Thu, 30 Oct 2008 02:34:36 -0700 (PDT)
Received-SPF: neutral (google.com: 98.136.44.49 is neither permitted nor denied by best guess record for domain of [email protected]) client-ip=98.136.44.49;
Authentication-Results: mx.google.com; spf=neutral (google.com: 98.136.44.49 is neither permitted nor denied by best guess record for domain of [email protected]) [email protected]
Received: from [216.252.122.217] by n57.bullet.mail.sp1.yahoo.com with NNFMP; 30 Oct 2008 09:34:35 -0000
Received: from [69.147.84.114] by t2.bullet.sp1.yahoo.com with NNFMP; 30 Oct 2008 09:34:35 -0000
Received: from [127.0.0.1] by omp203.mail.sp1.yahoo.com with NNFMP; 30 Oct 2008 09:34:35 -0000
X-Yahoo-Newman-Property: ymail-5
X-Yahoo-Newman-Id: [email protected]
Received: (qmail 54470 invoked by uid 60001); 30 Oct 2008 09:34:35 -0000
Received: from [193.219.226.27] by web45706.mail.sp1.yahoo.com via HTTP; Thu, 30 Oct 2008 02:34:35 PDT
X-RocketYMMF: reb_m001
X-Mailer: YahooMailWebService/0.7.247.3
Date: Thu, 30 Oct 2008 02:34:35 -0700 (PDT)
From: "[email protected]" <[email protected]>
Reply-To: [email protected]
Subject: PayPal Payment Receipt for An eBay item:130264068665***(Routing-Code: C276-L004-Q999-T5350)***
To: [email protected]
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary="0-865627967-1225359275=:53914"
Message-ID: <[email protected]>

Dear K*****,
-----------------------------------
Details of Transaction
-----------------------------------

Seller's eBay ID: k********
Seller's Email: k********@gmail.com
Date of Transaction:October 29, 2008
Transaction ID: 71373114H6595403P
Transaction Amount: 175.55 GBP
Case #: PP-091-962-521
-----------------------------------
What to Do Next
-----------------------------------
The funds has been deducted from Mrs Helen Williams Account and will be credited into your account immediately the shipment is confirmed .Get back to us with the shipping tracking number and the money will be credited immediately. Mail the tracking number to our customercare at: [email protected]

-----------------------------------
Dates Issued: October 30, 2008
-----------------------------------

Please respond within the next 24hrs.

Thank you for using paypal Â® . We look forward serving your online auction payment needs in the future.
Sincerely,

Gene Briant
Paypal Customer Care,
Europe.(United Kingdom)

I'll pass this on to the spoof team at the real paypal. But wow, this really has opened my eyes to how common this is, it is just criminal.

I'm keen to join your crusade.

As for this particular case, I'll leave it well alone as my real details are involved.

Mod edit: x's out further instances of personal email address of member -Ima

Posted: Thu Oct 30, 2008 11:05 am

I'm no paypal expert and I don't like using something I am not familiar with, but I have seen a fake cheque scammer ask for details of my paypal account as an alternative to my bank account details for handling his fake cheques.

Obviously I am quite safe and the best the scammer will get from me is aching balls, and if he's unlucky, a lot worse.

I presume that one angle they can use is to funnel receipts for fake sales to my account for me to pass on to them. It doesn't matter to them if I am dishonest, as they are not risking their money. It's a bit like fishing, if they get a bite it's pure 100% profit to them - unless they meet a baiter, then what they get is 100% suffering and pain.

Posted: Thu Oct 30, 2008 1:37 pm

I have some dummy cell phones you could send him ...

Trophy Videos · Posted: Thu Oct 30, 2008 1:52 pm

Welcome to Eater, Magic Man. Very Happy

I'm glad you had your radar on and were wearing your tin foil hat when these two came calling. A lot of people fall for these types of scams. I hope you stick around, and learn how to bait the lads and have some fun doing it with us. Very Happy

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 23 Oct 2008 Posts: 6

Oh I'll be sticking around and learning for sure. I love what you do and how organised you are.
I love the fact that Nester Viper has some dummy phones for just such an occasion and your whole signature symbol system, it's like being back at cubs again...I want my badges Smile

You're all such a pleasant and helpful bunch too.

I can't imagine how many people fall for such scams, I'll keep reading and learning. For every scambait project you do you maybe make the scammers think twice....plus it's hilarious too Smile

Trophy Videos · Posted: Fri Oct 31, 2008 9:08 pm

MM- oops! I accidentally emailed your helen this email from my fake lad account. Wink

http://forum.419eater.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=1253854#1253854

If I get an insult back, I'll let you know. Smile

Posted: Fri Oct 31, 2008 11:44 pm

What with fake bidders, fake PayPal receipts, quite probably fake clawbacks if you do successfully sell your N95, plus outrageous fees, there's a huge amount to be said for selling for cash in the local newspaper...

Bit bloody tiring isn't it - there must be some legitimate purchasers from Nigeria who get turned away in ebay listings such as my own for �1000 of kit advising them not to bid as their countryfolk have sadly earned their transactions too often fraudulent to be worth the hassle. I used to say that I'd accept orders from West Africa only if payment was via Western Union, but ebay refuses listings even mentioning the reverend Onion.

Posted: Sat Nov 01, 2008 9:20 am

@Magic Man - You have a PM... Very Happy

Trophy Videos · Posted: Sun Nov 02, 2008 2:33 am

Well, one lad wasn't so sure about putting his phone in a microwave oven to supercharge it...

from Helen Williams <[email protected]>
to Ewuznut Bowny1sterd1
date Sat, Nov 1, 2008 at 2:30 PM
subject Re: MOBILE PHONE SUPERCHARGE

what do you mean with this rubbish you call supercharge..

Call me on 08027551324
---
...I replied to her

BRODA IS TRUE. A AFRIKA SCIENTIST FOUND IT WORKS.
THEY TRY TO KEEP IT QUIET SO THEY SELL MORE BATTERIES.
THE WORD IS GETTING OUT. THE WHITE MEN TRY TO TAKE US 4 FOOLS. I MICROWAVE 5 PHONES OF MINE AT ONCE. BEEN WORKING 8 DAYS SINCE NOW. DO IT YOU BE GLAD YOU DID.

EWUZ

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