hi,

i recently sold a coat to a buyer on an online auction site - the buyer came from nigeria and said she would send the payment immediatly.

so i waited for the money to send the coat. all i got was an email from "the bank of america" that i should ship the coat and send them the shipping verification so they can activate the money on my account.

i sent the coat (which i would have donated to the clothing drive if it wasnt sold soon) to nigeria and sent them the shipping verification because i wanted to give it a try (i also was in a hurry because the post offices closed). so all i lost are 23eur for the shipping (and the coat but it wasnt sold so i would have donated it anyway).

then i got an email from "bank of america" which said that the minimum limit of money transfer was 500eur so i should pay THEM the different amout of 400eur (i sold coat + shipping for 100 which was a too lucky deal when i overthink it now :D) because they will refund the 400 to the buyer who has already paid to them and i will get the whole 500eur then.

thats the moment when my scam senses started tingling (very late, eh?)

i now was sure that it was a scam so i wrote to the "buyer" that i do not have so much money as i am a student curious for his answer. the email i got then made me laugh. he asked: "so, how much can you pay?"



i wrote back:

"congratulations - you are the first scammer i sent an item to!

i will pay you all the misfortune i have.

i will simply chalk it up as a donation - my lost coat and my lost shipping-costs! your bad carma will lead you to the destiny you deserve.

i hope nobody else will be as trustful as me to send you their items or their money.

i did everything to stop the shipment to you, i hope it will never arrive and i forwarded all that to the austrian police and the aution sites you are scamming on so nobody else will fall into your trap!

best regards

an online trader for many years"

and here is how the mail looks like (very crappy, but as i said: i was in a hurry and simply wanted to trust them as long as we here in austria hear much about the "bad" people in countries like nigeria and i didn't want to believe that + test it on my own):



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I'm so sorry! It sounds terribly familiar to all the Nigerian Prince scams that went on a few years ago. It totally makes me laugh though - send me $400 so I can send you $500...?! Really? *sigh*

I'm so glad that you clued into it before you got taken any further! Best of luck to you, and again I'm so sorry about this!

No offense, but I can't believe people still get taken by this. Never trust anyone from Nigeria.

ClosetAvalanche wrote:

No offense, but I can't believe people still get taken by this. Never trust anyone from Nigeria.

Er, my 'nieces' and 'nephew' speak Yoruba, it's their Nigerian parent's first language, please don't blame all Nigerians, Closet Avalanche, they tend to find it racially offensive!

(Yup, Cloud Weaver, scammers give Nigeria a bad name!). Scammers are all over the world, seemingly congregating on the internet!

Sorry you had this experience, Zora, but thank goodness you didn't part with any money!

I can tell you from reading that letter, it is def not from a bank. Certain phrases are simply not right, and things like 'has being': 2 different tenses, in English is would be either 'has been' or 'is being'. The word 'And' starting a sentence, not unusual in casual English, but a bank letter would be all formal English.

You should probably also forward it to the Bank of America's(yes, the bank is real!) fraud department; a large company stands more chances of getting the problem stopped!

Also, ClosetAvalanche, remember, just because a fraud is *based* in Nigeria, does NOT mean the people behind it are from there. In fact, they probably aren't, why would they give people their actual location?

i got warned by 2 people that i should not send to nigeria but i wanted to try it because for my opinion you cant blame a whole country for a bunch of scammers. i knew what risk i took by sending it but now i have the proof. i always told people about the good experiences i made with trading with people from ALL over the world (some trades i did here in the arena) and that i never made a bad experience.

it seems that i got a little blind on these things over the years

@lunar_scythe - have already reported it to abuse @ bankofamerica.com

I'm so sorry that happened. What a mess!

Oh my goodness! these scammers will try anything Both me and hubby have had a few dodgy scam emails over the last week or so as well *sigh* thanks for letting us know- I'm glad to hear you reported it already and that you didnt get scammed out of too much . Still I'm sorry you lost your coat and your shipping money

we have a word for lost money out of dumbness here: its "lehrgeld" (roughly translated with: money for learning) ^^

Hey, Zora, I'd have probably shipped it too;) It's a goal for me to ship to all 7 continents and Africa is one of the two left! I'd ship to a scammer just to say I shipped to Africa.

Glad you aren't out too much money!

eskara1862 - thank you

all my friends laughed at me when i told them the story

Eskara1862 wrote:

Hey, Zora, I'd have probably shipped it too;) It's a goal for me to ship to all 7 continents and Africa is one of the two left! I'd ship to a scammer just to say I shipped to Africa. Glad you aren't out too much money!

You'll never get Antarctica

RockinPrettyBeats wrote:

Eskara1862 wrote: Hey, Zora, I'd have probably shipped it too;) It's a goal for me to ship to all 7 continents and Africa is one of the two left! I'd ship to a scammer just to say I shipped to Africa. Glad you aren't out too much money! You'll never get Antarctica

Penguins need ponies too

I think the main lesson here is you NEVER ship anything without getting the full payment first.

That said I can see how you are thinking though that you would want to prove people wrong that you can have a good transaction to someone in Nigeria. I'm sad that you aren't able to say that you did.

If you shared any type of account information with them you should contact your bank immediately and I agree you should also send the e-mails to Bank of America. They have a fraud page here with info:
www.bankofamerica.com/...olve_fraud

It's sad how the scammers have given the country as a whole such a bad reputation but you should definitely be on your guard for any transactions from there just because of the high percentage of scamming that occurs.

I'm so sorry this happened to you!!
But...when i see or hear the word Nigeria...all red flags and bells get off...
And if I really did get all the money they promissed me, i must be a millionaire!!