Item won by Nigerian buyer wanting to pay cash on collection

[crazycrazy]

I've just sold a highchair on ebay (listing offered only Paypal as payment method). The same buyer has just also won a steriliser

The winner emailed me saying he would pick up the item and pay me cash on collection. As he had no feedback and had only registered last week on ebay, I looked up his email address on google and found he was nigerian (don't want to generalise, but alarm bells started to ring).

I emailed him back saying paypal only and he has now replied asking me to ring him on his mobile. I'm really reluctant to call him so I emailed back saying I wasn't able to call, but is he able to pay on paypal

The invoice details on ebay state his registered address is in Staffordshire, yet on his email to me he says he lives in the city I live in (not in or near Staffordshire!). I'm pretty convinced there's something dodgy going on here so I don't want to sell my things to him (not only do I stand to lose about £50 worth, but I really don't now want to sell my baby's stuff to him)

WWYD?

I have suggested sensible ways for you to ensure that you are not conned. But I am still enjoying the thread.

I am not being conned as I have withdrawn the sale. If you are enjoying the thread so much perhaps you could actually read the content

I did read that. Doesn't mean my suggestions were't constructive, or useful to bear in mind for any future sale.

No need to get cross.

oh sorry, didn't realise you were looking to have you ego massaged

yes crumpet, of course, your comments were very helpful. Thank you every so much for your advice

Its a scam - do not engage at all.

It has been a pleasure

Who said anything about money laundering?

Is that the only kind of scam that there is?

er, the op for one

But Pp is DEF more dodgy for collection, you are obviously willing to risk someone saying they didn't get the items and a full refund.

If it is dodgy someone coming round to your house, I am not sure how we would have managed to sell our camper van.........not sure DH would have fancied driving it 400 miles!!!!

clearly there are many sorts of cash related scams - fraud, theft, money laundering all included (someone had specifically asked me to list potential issues with cash and I had listed them)

agreed maxybrown, however this issue also exists even when you post recorded delivery. I found this out by bitter experience and lost £25 a number of years ago (even though I had evidence of the royal mail website that the buyer had signed for receipt)

maybe but couldn't send camper van by recorded delivery anyway

Postman pat would bring it - and lose it on a mountain

Postman Pat should be sacked for gross incompetence. No Wonder the Royal Mail are in such a mess

tsh! And I was wondering why we didn't opt to post it!!

Ach, I thought this thread might go this way when I read the title.

A disproportionate number of email scams do originate in Nigeria.

The most common scams, such as e-mails with a bogus request to move funds to an offshore bank, ask for the recipient?s account number in exchange for lucrative profit.

The con, which originated in Lagos, represents the perversion of talent and initiative in a society where normal paths of opportunity are closed to all but the well connected.

Corruption is intrinsic to getting anything done in Lagos: after taking college-board exams it is usual to have to negotiate a price to obtain the results. Even morgues demand bribes for the release of corpses.

What I'm saying is that it's not racist to acknowledge that much of internet scamming crime originates in Nigeria - that's just a fact.

It's probably a bit heartless to ignore the very clear circumstancial reasons which explain this fact, and assume that Nigerians = crooks. It's more like Nigerian = someone living in a society riddled by extreme poverty and corruption possibly doing whatever it takes to make ends meet.

It's also a bit thick to extrapolate from this that all Nigerians are scammers.

But it's wise to be careful. If something feels suspicious, then all of the evidence needs to be looked at carefully to see if it "adds up" to something dodgy. The fact that this internet contact involves a link with Nigeria may well be worth careful examination.

Of course if the only alarm bell is the fact that they are of Nigerian nationality then that's clearly a loony bigoted way to conduct oneself - professionally or personally. But it doesn't seem as if that is the case in this instance.