scam alert!
As usual, scammers are on the loose, but one of them almost got a friend of mine. I wasn't very confident at first, but was 99% sure that she was on the verge of giving away her item for free after some analysis. How is this carried out? Ok. There are different kinds of scammers, but the one that i will be talking about are those lurking in the auction pages, preying on unsuspecting victims. Why is this viable? This is because, for all, if not most, of the auction-based companies do not get themselves involved in the transaction between buyers and sellers. They provide only a place for the auctions to take place and are not willing to be responsible for any scams or fraud. This should be stated somewhere on any auction websites. Anyone who has access to someone else's credit cards could easily place a bid and have the items sent over to the place he wanted. Its natural that auction-based companies shrug off any responsibility regarding the transactions. Rating does help to an extent, but for some, the offers were too good to resist and often they will place their trust in unrated buyers, thus losing their items instead. There have been several cases floating around, but its no biggie nowsaday. Its so common that no one talks about it anymore. But, those who know about this are the minority. For greenhorn, this knowledge isn't shared publicly. I will be trying to provide a few guidelines regarding auctions and maybe a few tips to prevent you from getting scammed.
Firstly, i have noticed something in common in most of the scams. Most of them originated from Nigeria. Take the inheritance email for instance. Most of them talked about an influencial guy from somewhere died without mentioning an inheritor and he is tasked to find an inheritor. You are the lucky one who can inherit the VAST amount, on a condition that he takes 20% of it. The amounts goes up to millions, but before that, you must give the Nigerian a few grands to pay for admistrations. How to see if that guy is a Nigerian? Nigerian scammers have very very bad english. Maybe got something to do with their deformed brains or whatever. Bad grammers, horrible spellings and erratic abbreviated words are the tell-tale signs that the guy is from Nigeria. In my knowledge, everything that sounds good and comes from Nigeria is nothing but scam. Scammers in Nigeria is to AVs in Japan.
When you are handling auction bids, try to refrain from accepting offers from unrated users unless they offered to pay up first. Even then, make sure he pay up first before you send any items over. Do not put your trust in unrated users easily. Most scammers are lazy and will only go to the extent of creating a new account without going into details to make his scam more convincing.
TEMPTING and IRRESISTABLE offer. This is the main culprit of the crime. Often, people would be gloating over the stupidity of the buyers and fantasizing about the money they will be making if they were to sell the items to the 'thick' buyers. Most of the time, the scammers will be giving an out-of-the-world offer. Cases like, promising the offer in US$ whereas the seller is trying to sell it off in SG$. Eg, the scammer will insist on offering US$200 despite the seller putting the buyout at SG$200. They will promise to provide all the shipping fees once the items reached. They will be telling you that they are willing to offer a price that is so ridiculous, that if he were to buy that thing in his own country, he could probably buy 5-10 of that particular item. This is the biggest lure used by scammers. Who will not succumb to the huge amount of money promised? Most of the sellers are either desperate or very eager to offload their items and when such a propitious scenario appears, it would take a fool to turn it down. It isn't very hard for most to see through the consipiracy, but desperate sellers are as good as chess players. Only the audiences can see the situation clearly, the players are not entitled to such privilege.
Anyway, i am very tired now, 8am in the morning and i did not even catch a wink as i was watching world cup earlier on. Hopefully this helps a bit, i will try to update more on it if i managed to recall it after waking up. Sorry for my poor english too. My brain isn't working well without enough rest.
Below are some links you can refer to.
http://www.bidorbuy.co.za/jsp/item/Item.jsp?Trade_TradeId=1675443
http://www.bidorbuy.co.za/jsp/item/Item.jsp?Trade_TradeId=1678117
http://help.yahoo.com/help/us/auct/abid/abid-21.html
http://help.yahoo.com/help/us/auct/agen/agen-08.html
Firstly, i have noticed something in common in most of the scams. Most of them originated from Nigeria. Take the inheritance email for instance. Most of them talked about an influencial guy from somewhere died without mentioning an inheritor and he is tasked to find an inheritor. You are the lucky one who can inherit the VAST amount, on a condition that he takes 20% of it. The amounts goes up to millions, but before that, you must give the Nigerian a few grands to pay for admistrations. How to see if that guy is a Nigerian? Nigerian scammers have very very bad english. Maybe got something to do with their deformed brains or whatever. Bad grammers, horrible spellings and erratic abbreviated words are the tell-tale signs that the guy is from Nigeria. In my knowledge, everything that sounds good and comes from Nigeria is nothing but scam. Scammers in Nigeria is to AVs in Japan.
When you are handling auction bids, try to refrain from accepting offers from unrated users unless they offered to pay up first. Even then, make sure he pay up first before you send any items over. Do not put your trust in unrated users easily. Most scammers are lazy and will only go to the extent of creating a new account without going into details to make his scam more convincing.
TEMPTING and IRRESISTABLE offer. This is the main culprit of the crime. Often, people would be gloating over the stupidity of the buyers and fantasizing about the money they will be making if they were to sell the items to the 'thick' buyers. Most of the time, the scammers will be giving an out-of-the-world offer. Cases like, promising the offer in US$ whereas the seller is trying to sell it off in SG$. Eg, the scammer will insist on offering US$200 despite the seller putting the buyout at SG$200. They will promise to provide all the shipping fees once the items reached. They will be telling you that they are willing to offer a price that is so ridiculous, that if he were to buy that thing in his own country, he could probably buy 5-10 of that particular item. This is the biggest lure used by scammers. Who will not succumb to the huge amount of money promised? Most of the sellers are either desperate or very eager to offload their items and when such a propitious scenario appears, it would take a fool to turn it down. It isn't very hard for most to see through the consipiracy, but desperate sellers are as good as chess players. Only the audiences can see the situation clearly, the players are not entitled to such privilege.
Anyway, i am very tired now, 8am in the morning and i did not even catch a wink as i was watching world cup earlier on. Hopefully this helps a bit, i will try to update more on it if i managed to recall it after waking up. Sorry for my poor english too. My brain isn't working well without enough rest.
Below are some links you can refer to.
http://www.bidorbuy.co.za/jsp/item/Item.jsp?Trade_TradeId=1675443
http://www.bidorbuy.co.za/jsp/item/Item.jsp?Trade_TradeId=1678117
http://help.yahoo.com/help/us/auct/abid/abid-21.html
http://help.yahoo.com/help/us/auct/agen/agen-08.html
posted by -=]-snoopy-[=- at 7:23 AM
1 Comments:
hmm... experienced a scam sent to my letter box... from the far far spain.... stamp of 70 cents... o.O| about some lucky draw... winning 2nd prize or wat of pounds... hahaa... i wonder how they got my address.... scary... the name of my father and address were correct... juz.. the postal code not written... really weird... my father dont use the net... and there is this thing out of nowhere...
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