Fraudsters

After being the victim of identity theft earlier in the year, I’ve had my fingers seriously burned. Fortunately, it has made me treat everything I do online with a lot more caution.

I tried selling something on eBay this weekend and got an instant Buy It Now offer. This was followed by two suspicious emails, purportedly from PayPal. The first one said that the money had been transferred to my account (I checked, it hadn’t). The second said that the funds would be released pending confirmation of shipment. This was followed up by an email from the “buyer” asking me to post the item to Nigeria.

Hello,I have made the payment for the item via PayPal, including the P&P fee.I made the P&P cost as £40 with your sales cost of £150 making £190 because i want the item to be sent to my partner’s son in West Africa as a birthday gift which will be dated very soon, I will like you to get the item posted this morning via royal mail int’l signed for to my partner address and get back to me with the tracking number.I will leave a positive feedback on your page and i hope you do the same, It’s my pleasure transacting business with you. Help me package the item very well so that it will be presentable .Thanks for your understanding.Here is the delivery address details…..Adewale Samson, No 10, Tonade st, ikeja Lagos,Nigeria,23401.Regards,God bless.Susan (MRS)

I’ve also got a car for sale on Autotrader and, after following up an initial enquiry, just got this response.

Good day

    Thank you for your e-mail,Sorry I will not be coming to view the car
    because of my Job okay, am okay with that.
    I have just contacted my agent to pay you by draft for the car,the
car is okay and lovely.
    Draft will take only 3 days to clear in your account, the Draft
will be sent to you early next week,once draft clears in your account
my agent will come over for the car.
    I will need you to send me the following details to enable me send the
    Bank Draft across to you:

    1,Full names
    2,Full Address
    3,Telephone numbers
    4,Last Price
    Thank you and hope to read from you the details. You can contact my
    agent on this no if you need to ask any questions:

    Name: Mr.Micheal
    Phone:+447024017797

    Best Regards

Why is the internet full of scammers, fraudsters, gangsters and arseholes?