Recieved Check in Mail - Should I Ship PC to Nigeria?

[shamrin]

I put a used computer on Craigslist a couple weeks ago and got two responses, both of them scams (I guess the price was too high for normal responses or something). Anyway, the first one was a standard PayPal scam where I am sure they will eventually reverse the payment and I'm out the computer. The second scam is impressively sophisticated so I thought I would share it.

The scammer has sent me a check, via FedEx no less, that is from a legitimate company called Plimus. Plimus are financial middlemen somehow along the lines of PayPal. Anyway, my "buyer" has sent me a check for $1650 for this $275 computer, the balance of which I am supposed to give to his "shipper" in cash. Apparently my greed and excitement upon receiving such a check are meant to overwhelm my logic of why a guy would pay $1400 to ship a $300 used computer - they must not have Best Buy in Nigeria I guess.

The check I have appears to be legitimate, it has the light printing on the back and some microprinting along the borders. I'm sure it's cashable but will bring it to my bank to see if it actually has the UV stuff on it. I spoke with Plimus and in spite of the fact that the Fedex had their address on it and really did ship from San Jose, their HQ, they say that they don't send out checks. Alas, my hopes of riches are dashed.

I'm sure most people here know this but it turns out that there are at least a dozen ways to get burned taking checks and a half-dozen more taking payments through PayPal. Seller beware!

/sch

 

[VladD]

Eep, that *is* a scam. I know this one - they pay a lot of money, sometimes a couple of hundred, for a good quality cheque or money order. The next step you know, you cash it, and it enters the system, you're able to draw the money and you do the deal.

Days later, however, the fraud is discovered by the bank, and they reverse the payment that went into your bank - you'll find it £1650 lighter than it was, and you'll get a nastygram from your bank, if the police don't show up first!

If I were you, I'd browse 419eater.com (nsfw) and educate yourself as to how inventive, creative, hardworking and idiotic these scammers can be.

 

[NickCat11]

Like Vlad said, it's a complete scam. Stay as far away as possible.

 

[RevivedCS]

+1. I was scammed on that same note in 2003. Get away, and stay away!

 

[ProTech Support]

I put a used computer on Craigslist a couple weeks ago and got two responses, both of them scams (I guess the price was too high for normal responses or something). Anyway, the first one was a standard PayPal scam where I am sure they will eventually reverse the payment and I'm out the computer. The second scam is impressively sophisticated so I thought I would share it.

The scammer has sent me a check, via FedEx no less, that is from a legitimate company called Plimus. Plimus are financial middlemen somehow along the lines of PayPal. Anyway, my "buyer" has sent me a check for $1650 for this $275 computer, the balance of which I am supposed to give to his "shipper" in cash. Apparently my greed and excitement upon receiving such a check are meant to overwhelm my logic of why a guy would pay $1400 to ship a $300 used computer - they must not have Best Buy in Nigeria I guess.

The check I have appears to be legitimate, it has the light printing on the back and some microprinting along the borders. I'm sure it's cashable but will bring it to my bank to see if it actually has the UV stuff on it. I spoke with Plimus and in spite of the fact that the Fedex had their address on it and really did ship from San Jose, their HQ, they say that they don't send out checks. Alas, my hopes of riches are dashed.

I'm sure most people here know this but it turns out that there are at least a dozen ways to get burned taking checks and a half-dozen more taking payments through PayPal. Seller beware!

/sch

As said above, this is a scam - here is how it works:

1. They send you a check to purchase an item.
2. The check is way higher then the amount of the item.
3. They contact you, tell you to deposit the check and send them the difference. For example if the item was $200, they send a $1000 check and tell you to send $800 back.
4. You deposit check, and send them money back.
5. A couple of days later bank denies check, and you are now out the $800 you sent them

The only thing you can do here is call the bank that the check is from, and let them know of the scam. They will close the account.

 

[xxsilk109xx]

I bet if you cash the check, then wait a week, the bank will call you and tell you that it didnt clear and then you are responsible for giving that money back.

I would call the issuing bank and verify the check.

I own a shipping company and we have actually shipped stuff to legit ebay buyers in Nigeria, but they always pay through paypal, no money orders or cashiers checks.

All you are doing is funding those damn terrorists! Do bad you just cant send them some anthrax in the mail huh? lol

 

[shamrin]

I bet if you cash the check, then wait a week, the bank will call you and tell you that it didnt clear and then you are responsible for giving that money back.

I would call the issuing bank and verify the check.

I own a shipping company and we have actually shipped stuff to legit ebay buyers in Nigeria, but they always pay through paypal, no money orders or cashiers checks.

All you are doing is funding those damn terrorists! Do bad you just cant send them some anthrax in the mail huh? lol

The biggest disappointment I've had in running this business has been the dishonesty I've seen. These scammers are pretty annoying and it's a shame that no one really cares enough about what they are doing to track them down and put them out of business. I think worse are guys who will look you in the eye and pass you a cold check that they never intend to make good on. I can't get my head around that.

BTW, being paid in PayPal is no protection from being scammed. If they've used a stolen credit card, PayPal can and will come back to you to refund the money. And they can do it months after the transaction occurred.

/sch

 

[AML]

You have received tremendous advice from the above posters. Common sense tells you and you suspected it that it is a scam. You will start to get the calls now for shipping, they may even have someone come to your store or home to get the money. Good Luck

 

[ell]

I use paypal all the time for remote services, and now customers from other states are sending me their laptops for repair, I'm going to have them pay with my paypal button on my site, has anyone been burned with paypal? how often? how can you know?

 

[AML]

I use paypal all the time for remote services, and now customers from other states are sending me their laptops for repair, I'm going to have them pay with my paypal button on my site, has anyone been burned with paypal? how often? how can you know?

Paypal is set up for the protection of the buyer more so than the seller.
I have over 600 paypal transactions and never had a dispute or chargeback but it can happen. Go to paypal and read the chargeback and dispute settlement procedure. You will see it is there for the protection of the buyer first seller second. That being said I have been successful and if I get burned once in a while its not worth losing sleep over.
I'm not sure I would take paypal for anything but service that way your only out time.

 

[MobileTechie]

I've had a Paypal dispute go against me as a seller. The item I dispatched did supposedly did not arrive and I could not find the postage proof. Paypal just took the money out of my account.

 

[JeffersonPCMedic]

I too have come across a couple of these scams. Like someone once said----"If it sounds too good to be true.....avoid it like the plague!" LOL

 

[PcTek9]

A neighbor of mine was hit in a nigerian scam for a large sum of money. The local police said there was nothing they could do. The fbi said there was nothing they could do. The u.s. dept. of commerce said there was nothing they could do. The washington d.c. based consumer protection agency said there was nothing they could do.

So I began to investigate. I found that these people had ripped off thousands of Americans. I found a website someone had started complaining about these people. They posed as a legitimate bank in canada. This 'canadian bank' would loan an american with bad credit $$ if you made the first down payment on the loan.

I read these stories... Page after page of people now sleeping in cars with their kids, b/c their bank account was emptied and their id was stolen. Extremely worried depressed people who didn't see that they had been had by con men. They weren't sharp enough to catch the glint of the knife in the shadows.

I thought about my elderly neighbors with their old 2002 computer in their 70's and the money they lost to these people. I don't want to call them people, I want to call them "nigerians".

I got mad. I found out their website was hosted by an american hosting provider. The more I researched, I found out there bank was in canada, but did not exist, that people had went to the location to find only an empty lot.

I saw that even computer people were trying to track these guys, and nobody could find them.

I saw my elderly neighbor sitting on the concrete bench by his house staring at a patch of clover all day.

So the governments and enforcement agencies can do nothing. The canadian bank was a scam, they had an individual there who shipped the money to... Nigeria.

So since these computer hackers could not find these people, and no agency could do any thing about it, I decided to.

I knew their host provider was in the usa, I called them repeatedly and they stated they could not take the site down b/c they would be sued.

So I contacted a U.S. senator and asked him to bring the host provider up on charges of enabling financial fraud and embezzlement, citing what had happened to my elderly neighbors as one example, and then forwarding a list of thousands of americans in dire straights over these con artists. The U.S. Attorney General's office got involved and ordered the host provider to cease the hosting or be subject to the full wrath and anger of the United States Government.

I want you to know the site was down the next day, the contact information was handed over to the u.s. government, and a strange nigerian person moved into a house 3 houses away from me just a few months ago.

I didn't get their money back... But at least I stopped it from happening to other people. Beleiving the fbi is after them in cooperation with canadian authorities, they have fled the U.S. and canada.

 

[MHCG]

Awesome, I would frame the check.

 

[Mr I]

If you don't mind, who was the hosting provider? Many in here should avoid this type of providers

 

[Reviver]

I want you to know the site was down the next day, the contact information was handed over to the u.s. government, and a strange nigerian person moved into a house 3 houses away from me just a few months ago.

I didn't get their money back... But at least I stopped it from happening to other people. Beleiving the fbi is after them in cooperation with canadian authorities, they have fled the U.S. and canada.

Woah, care to elaborate a bit on the bolded text?

A strange Nigerian person moved into a house near you shortly after you helped shut down some 411 scamming going on?

You suspect he is somehow involved, or possibly watching you?

 

[Blues]

Id think that purely coincidence