Luckily, I'm very internet savvy so I saw this one a mile off. I'm selling some old mobile phones on eBay. One of them was a buy now sale, and, it soon sold unusually quick after listing - about 10 minutes. Next thing I know I get an email from Ebay confirming mine and my buyers contact information. All well and good so far, then I get a message from buyer through eBay messaging service asking me to email him my paypal email address and my personal email address, and to send some pictures of the phone. RED FLAG no. 1. I replied via eBay messages, I will not complete the transaction outside of eBay and he must complete checkout via the Ebay website. So I thought I would play along and used an email address that's been dormant for many years - I sent him the pictures, then he replied back with a fake Paypal payment notification. RED FLAG no. 2. Then he emailed again to say he had sent the payment by Paypal, could I send the phone this morning to Lagos. RED FLAG no. 3. The Paypal email address was a big giveaway, it was a europe.com address, not paypal.co.uk or paypal.com. BUT at first glance it looked a good forgery had it not been for the fraudulent paypal email address and the fact the email address I was using is not registered with Paypal or eBay, or anywhere else for that matter. Anyway, the spoof email was forwarded to Paypal, and the user reported to eBay, though my guess is this is a typical hit and run account, so they'll strike again. Oh, and the guy's email address was rediffmail, an email service based in India, very popular with spammers. Now I have the hassle of re listing the phone and reclaiming sellers fees, and to top it off, I have to tighten up buyer requirements such as having a valid Paypal account on file OR a valid credit card registered with ebay and a feedback score of more than 5.
