I have a very expensive item of jewelry on craigslight right now & I've been contacted by no less than 2 different people offering me full price + $200 shipping to send the item to Africa - Nigeria to be specific. They want to pay me through Alertpay (which I have NO idea what that is) or Paypal. I do have a Paypal account but I am leary of giving out the information. What are the chances I'm being scammed & how can they do this through Paypal? Is there any way to cover myself to make sure I don't get ripped off?
2007-02-24 07:56:44 · 8 answers · asked by Pamela 5 in Computers & Internet ➔ Security
I wouldnt do any buisness with anyone in Africa especially nigeria.please check out http://www.snopes.com/crime/fraud/nigeria.asp...I think its sad when people try to scam honest people. I have read that alot of nigerian people have made scamming people a way of life. Please do not do buisness with these people....you will be scammed....best of luck
2007-02-24 08:09:40 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 1⤋
Could be a scam but I guess you have to decide how badly you want to sell this thing.
I have never heard of Alertpay but paypal (though has its problems) does try rather hard to keep you safe.
The 100% safe way would be to open up a new bank account and have a new paypal account assigned to that new empty account.
Normally if you are the one receiving the money all you need to do is give the guy your email address. The payer then goes to paypal and says "transfer $XX.xx to your@email.com” This way the payer never gets any account numbers or important info. And even if they do by some unknown hacker method get access to that bank account... well it’s a 100% empty account that you can easily close so who cares.
Once you receive payment then you can transfer the money into your normal bank account. Close the temporary paypal bank account you just opened and then mail off the object to be sold.
What you need to watch out for with paypal is that often these scammers will create a web site that looks EXACLY like paypal's and then email you a very convincing looking fake paypal email to your email address (the one that you gave them to pay you) saying that your money is received "click here to view the status". You then log into their fake paypal and in doing so you just gave them the username and password to access your accounts. So just always type in www.paypal.com manually rather then following links. But once again if you create a bank account and paypal account specifically for this transaction; who cares if they manage to hack into it... its garbage anyway.
2007-02-24 08:15:50 · answer #2 · answered by neo_t_virus 4 · 2⤊ 2⤋
Try dealing locally. Buy or sell. Don't send money via Western Union to any people. Don't send products abroad, specially to Africa or to Europe if they ask you to put the item as gift, so they don't need to pay customs taxes for it. They can tell you that Craigslist or eBay or XXXXXX will guarantee your purchase . Stories my friend. If you send money via Western Union or Money Gram , you are lost. Also, you can loose money by sending in USA, to local bank account. If the price is too good to be true and they don't want to meet with you or they want the money to be sent in USA account but they are in Europe for don't know what reason, avoid that. Deal locally.
2007-02-25 20:54:40 · answer #3 · answered by ManyMore_Ideas 1 · 1⤊ 1⤋
Pretty much everyone is right on this, almost certainly a scam. We have a lot of warnings up about this, but still wonder if we can do better.
We've worked with cops on this, including Secret Service, no luck so far.
Craig
craig@craigslist.org
2007-02-25 22:04:39 · answer #4 · answered by craig newmark 3 · 3⤊ 1⤋
I told you not to sell the rings... i'll sell julio and give you the money!!!! you know I love you... scam,, don't do it
2007-02-24 12:51:25 · answer #5 · answered by madre_de_isabella 2 · 1⤊ 1⤋
scam
2007-02-24 08:02:59 · answer #6 · answered by sammy 5 · 0⤊ 1⤋
yes,a nigerian scammer is on the prowel again
2007-02-24 08:02:09 · answer #7 · answered by david UK 4 · 0⤊ 1⤋
the nigerian scammers are well known ... dont do it ...
2007-02-24 07:59:37 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 1⤋