Absolutely No Machete Juggling

I use a projector for my home theater system. I recently upgraded to a Hi-Def projector, leaving me with an old, fully-functional InFocus X2 projector. Projectors are pretty expensive, so I wanted to get some money for it rather than just throw it away or give it to someone else. Thus, I decided to sell the InFocus projector on eBay. This was my first time selling something on eBay, and, given how it went, likely my last.

Making A Sale

The projector went up on eBay on Sunday night. On Tuesday, a user named 'hakim199' had used the Buy It Now option to purchase it for $300. The shipping address on that user account was for a hospital in Abu Dhabi. I had not planned on selling the projector internationally, but I didn't particularly care. I e-mailed the user to say thanks for buying the thing and I'll send the projector as soon as I get payment.

Shortly after this I received an e-mail from someone named "Mandy Pat" which said this:

From: "Mandy Pat" (omanpatXX@yahoo.com)
To: Rod

Hello Seller,

Am very happy to be the winning bidder of your lovely item which i just made an immediate payment for now as requested by eBay and more so i added extra $200 for the shipping of the item to my son that got married last week in Nigeria but due to my nature of work here am unable to get there so that is why am buying this item for him as a wedding gift from father to son and he called me last night about this item and i told him he will soon be receiving it and i don't want you to turn me to a lier in his face....So make sure you get the item shipped out immediately you receive the PayPal payment confirmation from PayPal and get back to either i or paypal with the shipment tracking number for them to verify and confirm in order for them to credit your PayPal account immediately.

Thanks and get it shipped out through USPS GLOBAL EXPRESS MAIL SERVICE[EMS] and here is the shipping address once again.

I believe that entire first paragraph is a single sentence. Impressive work. So, this person wanted me to rush the order, and they provided a shipping address in Nigeria (which was different from the Abu Dhabi address on file). This seemed rather fishy to me, so I e-mailed eBay to ask about it.

Before I could even hit send, I had an e-mail in my inbox, from eBay, which said this:

From: ended@ebay.com
To: Rod

The results of the following listing(s) have been cancelled due to bidding activity that took place without the account owner's authorization:

170185412579 Infocus X2 Projector with Ceiling Mount

We have canceled the listing(s) to maintain the integrity of the eBay site, your account, and the bidder?s account that was accessed. We are working to restore the bidding account to its rightful owner, and we are working with the account owner to prevent any additional unauthorized activity. Since the account owner did not initiate these bids, all fees resulting from the listings in question will be credited to your account within 7 days. If you do not see the credits posted to your account after 7 days, please feel free to contact us through ?Contact Us? in our Help section.

Unfortunately, it is not possible for us to automatically relist these items for you. Instead, to relist these items you will need to start from the beginning of the listing process, either through the "Sell Your Item" process or through your third party listing service. We know that this is an inconvenience and we apologize for the negative impact it may cause you. We are working on tools to allow you to relist your items without starting from the beginning, but they are not available at this time.

This mostly irritated me, as I saw no reason why eBay shouldn't automatically relist my item. Nonetheless, this looked like a legitimate e-mail from eBay (the address was right) and it addressed me by my real name (not shown), so I relisted my item. A day later, another user (who was interested in the original auction and posted a question to it) in Italy purchased the projector. At first I was concerned that this was all part of a large scam, but a great deal of investigation (plus the added input from three coworkers) helped me decide that the guy from Italy was legit, so I decided I would send it to him. He also deposited the money into my PayPal account, so it seemed quite real.

Not long after this, I received another e-mail from eBay:

From: "aw-confirm@eBay.com" (ebayresolutioncenter@mail2helpdesk.com)
To: Rod

This message was originated from the eBay and PayPal team. We appologise for the cancellation of your eBay item, it was formally canceled due an Error 908 on the eBay Data Base.The eBay & PayPal team has both agreed to erase the cancellation and re-activate the item from the eBay Data Base. We have confirmed that (Mandy Pat) is the rightful owner of the eBay account,which was accessed by an unauthorized person. So we gladly urge you to complete the transaction with him/her so as to receive your funds into your PayPal account.

We have been informed by PayPal Authority that the money will not be transfer into your PayPal account until they confirm the shipment details of the item. You are request to proceed with the shipment of the item within the next 12 - 24 Hours and get back to PayPal with the shipment tracking number for shipment verification so as to receive the funds into your PayPal account. Please Do not in anyway send the reference/tracking number of the item to the BUYER for the safety of your money.

Maybe I should have noticed that appologise was spelled wrong, but I didn't. Besides, eBay spelled "cancelled" in two different ways in their email.

The e-mail used the same layout and html template as the other e-mails from eBay. The only real difference was that the light gray name that it was addressed to was not my name any more, but "eBay Community Member". Considering this was gray and in the smallest font in the e-mail, I didn't notice it. I did, however, check the "from" address and noticed that, while the account NAME was "aw-confirm@eBay.com", the actual e-mail address was "ebayresolutioncenter@mail2helpdesk.com"

Clearly this was not legitimate. Not long after this, I got this e-mail from service@paypal.com:

From: "service@paypal.com" (paypal.consultants@accountantemail.com)
To: Rod

You ought to have shipped the item to the given address in Nigeria by now,You can now forward us the shipping verification(Tracking Number), so that we can credit your PayPal account with the total sum of $500.00,We hope to hear from you soon.
Thank you, PayPal Customer care

We are very sorry for the inconveniences this may cause.Please bear with us, this new measure is taken to secure our client's interest against lost of item or non payment eBayer. Send shipment details to us through this mail paypal.consultants@accountantemail.com and our customer service care will attend to you. As soon as you send us the shipment's tracking number to us for security purposes and the safety of the buyer and the seller,the money will be credited to your account.

Note: Please reply this mail between the next 12 hours.Failure to respond to this mail may leads to Limitation of your PayPal account.

Gosh, I don't want a Limitation of my account. Checking this e-mail address revealed it was actually from "paypal.consultants@accountantemail.com". Okay, I get it. Very cute. This is a good ol' fashioned Nigerian scam. You make me think that my money is being held by PayPal, I ship my item, I tell the buyer, then I get no money and you get my projector. Nice work. If I wasn't a technical person, I probably would have fallen for this. The deluge of e-mails I got from PayPal and eBay surrounding these TWO purchases of my item served to confuse me, especially considering I was new to this process.

I figured I would just ignore the scammer and send the package on its merry way to Italy.

But the scammer didn't stop there.

Turning The Tables

I get another e-mail from "Mandy".

From: "Mandy Pat" (omanpatXX@yahoo.com)
To: Rod

Hello Mate,
The payment has already been made to your PayPal account and i even add extra $200 for the shipping of the item to my son in Nigeria as i know is an international shipment and i hope you should have been contacted by PayPal by now with the payment confirmation mail.....So make sure you get the item shipped out now and get back to PayPal with the shipment tracking number so that they can release the payment to your account immediately.

Thanks and make sure you get it shipped out through Usps Global Express Mail Service Ems.

Now, my gut reaction here is to simply say "Fuck off, scammer asshole." and attach a picture of my balls to the e-mail, but I really don't want to engage this person any further. I figured if I "outed" him, I may have to deal with him for a while, so I decided to play along and explain "what happened" in a way that would get him to realize that this scam simply wasn't going to pan out and he should move on.

From: Rod
To: "Mandy Pat" (omanpatXX@yahoo.com)

I have bad news for you. Shortly after you purchased the item and I responded with the question below, eBay contacted me and told me the purchase originating from your account was fraudulent and the transaction was cancelled. eBay told me I should relist my item, so I did, and it was purchased by another member. Shortly after THAT, eBay informed me that they investigated your account and determined that it was NOT fradulent after all, and that I should pay you.

Unfortunately, this other member has already paid me, and I've shipped it to him. I apologize that eBay messed up this transaction so much. I think you should withdraw your payment to me and keep searching.

Good luck.

Now, obviously the second message saying the account was alright was not actually from eBay, but this scammer thought that I thought it was, so I had to play along if I wanted to avoid backing him into a corner and having him do something obnoxious with my e-mail address (such as, continue e-mailing it).

I figured this was the end of it, and that he would simply give up and go try and scam someone else.

I was wrong. Mandy Pat was pissed.

From: "Mandy Pat" (omanpatXX@yahoo.com)
To: Rod

Hello Rod,
What the fuck are you telling me after i made the immediate payment for you and your money has been deducted from my PayPal account and i even add extra $200 for the shipping cost for you and i got a confirmation mail from paypal that they have send you the payment confirmation mail....That they are still waiting for your response......They even inform me that they cannot refund any money for me again since it has been deducted from my account....So make sure you buy the item for my son and get it shipped out immediately.

Thanks and get back to me with the tracking number.

Well, fine, if you're going to be a cock about it, maybe I will send you a picture of my balls after all. Before I could even reply, I got an e-mail from "service@paypal.com" (but not really). The subject was "PAYPAL LEGAL ACTION". Oh noes!

From: "service@paypal.com" (paypal.consultants@accountantemail.com)
To: Rod
Subject: PAYPAL LEGAL ACTION

It is important we know the status of the item bought otherwise, legal action may be taken against you since you have not replied to the confirmation of payment made to your account by Mandy Pat over time.

We believed you entered into bidding agreement by requesting money through PayPal,and by non response to the payment confirmation made to your account you have violated the eBay and PayPal agreement, because the payment has been made by the buyer and we have already contacted you with the payment confirmation mail, all you need to do is to get the item shipped and send the tracking number to us for shipment verification, so as to get the money deposited into your account. However the buyer has already contacted us in other to make report about your non response.We are ensuring to make PayPal a safer place, therefore we need to set confidence on our users. Although, an error occurred while processing your payment as an error came upon our transaction machine in which we sent you two transaction payments but this has been taken care of and everything is now in place. We request for the Scanned Receipt and the Tracking Number to prove postage of the item in less than 24hours and we will fund the money into your account or face the consequences of Legal action. This legal action might results to blockage of your PayPal account temporarily or permanently.
This is done in other to protect both the seller and buyer.

Wow, what an asshole. The guy didn't back down even after I told him his projector had been sent, so clearly he still wanted to see what he could get out of me. I mean, he basically told me to buy a new projector and send it to his kid in Nigeria for $500, so he obviously thinks I'm a special kind of moron.

This would be like trying to steal my wallet from my pocket, and then I catch you doing it and grab your wrist. Instead of saying "crap" and running away, imagine saying "Hello sir, I'm a Wallet Inspector with the FBI. I need to verify that your wallet is in Wallet Compliance." I mean, honestly - you lost. It's over. Walk away with your dignity, don't keep trying to run your game on me.

At this point in the day, I had been keeping my co-workers updated about this whole situation. I asked them what they thought I should do about this, and the answer was unanimous: Scam the Scammer.

The goal was to see if I could try to extract his bank account information from him, in the same way that Nigerian scammers traditionally do. The first suggestion was to explain I'd like to help him out, but my uncle (who is the Prince of America) recently died and left me a lot of money, so I need his account number to smuggle the money through, and I'll give him a cut.

In the end, I took a slightly more subtle approach:

From: Rod
To: "Mandy Pat" (omanpatXX@yahoo.com)

Oh my goodness!

Well, I'm very sorry you are so upset about this. I wish you wouldn't use that kind of language with me, but I can forgive it because I can tell you are very upset.

I would be, too. You have to understand, eBay told me that they cancelled the transaction and delisted my item, so I no longer thought it was a legitimate sale.

I got an e-mail from PayPal telling me that they may take legal action against me a little while ago. I definitely don't want to be sued because of this. It is unfortunate that PayPal won't return your money to you, I figured they would just let you back out of the sale.

I'll tell you what. If you tell PayPal that the item was received, you can release the funds to my account. Give me your personal bank account number and I will wire that money back to you as soon as I get it, plus $100 for all of your trouble. I don't want to go to jail, so I'm willing to pay more than $100 if you want.

I apologize for this inconvenience, and I hope we can work something out.

My co-workers and I couldn't help but wonder if Mandy, upon reading this, stood up in whatever internet cafe that scammers operate from and ask "Hey, is this anyone of you guys? Did we get cross-threaded here or something?"

After many hours, I finally got another e-mail from Mandy Pat. As you can imagine, he did not enjoy this plan.

From: "Mandy Pat" (omanpatXX@yahoo.com)
To: Rod

Hello Rod,

What are u still telling me..........I should inform PayPal that the item has been received...when have not received it and they cannot refund my money back for me unless you send them the tracking number and they will credit your account.....Am not in the state presently....So i can even give you my personal bank account........What i want you to do now and i will even inform PayPal now.....I want you to send the money out to my son in Nigeria through Western Union Money Transfer and get back to PayPal with the MTCN code with the secret question and answer so that they can credit your account immediately...As am tired with all this ship....after i made the payment for you.

I can barely understand this incomprehensible babble, but it seems like he's buying the idea that I'm willing to send him money. He is tired of his ship though. Well so am I. Now I just want him to go away and leave my e-mail address alone.

From: Rod
To: "Mandy Pat" (omanpatXX@yahoo.com)

Pat!

I have great news! I got an e-mail from the guy who purchased my
projector, and he said he actually found a projector online for
cheaper and bought that. He asked if I wouldn't mind taking my
projector back and giving him a refund.

I told him about our predicament, and he said he's happy to help.
Rather than wait for him to get the package (it's still on it's way to
him), then send it back to me, then wait for me to send it to your
son, he's willing to send it directly to your son. This will help it
arrive in time for his wedding!

He said I can go ahead and give his information to you. His name is
Remus MacSuftin, and he lives in Ireland. You can e-mail him at
RemMacSufXX@yahoo.com and work out the details.

I'm so glad we could get this mess worked out! Enjoy the projector!

I figured, if he sent me any more e-mails, I could tell him to just take it up with Remus. By the way, I really did create the e-mail account (remmacsuf is F.U. Scammer backwards), but he never e-mailed it. I guess he figured this effort was no longer worth his time.

Lessons Learned

I don't know if I'll be using eBay ever again. I am told by friends you can specify that only confirmed shipping addresses can bid/buy eBay auctions, but I didn't see that option when I was setting up the auction originally. Certainly this experience has made me hesitant to screw around with it again, particularly because people doing the Buy It Now option and then failing forces me to to relist the item, costing me approximately 6 bucks every time (eBay charges you for pictures, thumbnails, html, layouts, etc).

Certainly I have two suggestions for improvement, one for eBay and one for Google. eBay starts e-mails by addressing you by your real name, then explaining that they do that so you know the e-mail is legit. That's handy, except that it's in gray rather than black text, and it's the smallest font in the e-mail. More attention should be drawn to this.

More importantly, Google's gmail service does little to help the situation. The "From" column uses the name someone gives for their e-mail address. So if I send a message as from "Rod (email.address@domain.com)" it shows up as from "Rod". When actually reading the e-mail, it still only shows "Rod" unless you specifically click to show details. This allows someone to provide a name that resembles an e-mail address, and have it look to the recipient as though it was from that address. This is so easy to fix, I don't honestly know why Google hasn't done it. When displaying the "From", check to see if the name looks like an e-mail address. If it does, and the name e-mail address domain is different from the actual e-mail address domain, color the message yellow or red and put some kind of warning on it that says it seems to be a forgery attempt. Or, if the from name resembles an e-mail address, don't display it at all: instead display the actual address the message is from. Granted, both the name and e-mail address in the From field can be forged, but at least this would help with scams like these.

As a final note, I forwarded nearly all of these scam e-mails to eBay, and I've e-mailed them with my concerns a number of times. I still have not recieved any non-automated response. eBay should probably make a larger effort to deal with this kind of thing, or eBay will simply become a place scammers try to scam each other.

If my mother, or someone else nontechnical, had tried to do this, I can't imagine them not being taken advantage of. All of the fake e-mails looked legitimate (they used the same layouts and colors as PayPal and eBay) and, aside from some misspellings, seemed fine. If a nontechnical person were to ask me for advice selling something online, I'd have to advice them to use craigslist instead and sell it locally.