Recently, I have posted an auction to sell my Canon photo printer. Then this guy sent me a question through Yahoo Auction:
"Hello good day to you,I Am Mr Dennis Anderson From USA,i am interested buying your items from you and i want to know the condition of the items and how nay ( Me: think should be "how many") do you have for sell....i will offer you $1,500usd including the shipment via EMS SPEED POST to my store in Nigeria...kindly get back to me in my personal mail address or you can also add me so that we can be able to chat i will be waiting for your mail thanks."
For ease of differentiating, his replies would be in blue font, and mine will be in pink. My extra comments would be in black font.
"Here are the answer for your enquiries:
1) Condition of the item Good. As I have only used the item once since the purchase.
2) Number of item for sale As stated in the auction, I only have one colour printer
If you are still interested, please confirm the following:
1) Price that you are willing to pay for 1 colour printer
2) The full address you would need me to send the item over ( so that I can check the delivery charges from Singapore to Nigeria)
Please note that I would need to receive the payment first before sending the item over. "
Well, the guy simply igored my first question and just gave me his address and asked for my bank details. Anyway, I heard from my colleague that there were many bogus transactions going on, particularly from Nigeria. So I was kinda sceptical and sent him an email, stating my term & conditions. Below is an summary of my T&C
1) The total price would include
- Quoted price per Yahoo Auction = S$150
- Air parcel rate based on estimated 1.5kg ( include weight of packaging) = S$ 48.50
- Bank Commission quoted by DBS Bank (SG) = S$10
Total = S$150 + S$48.50 + S$10 = S$208.50
Based on DBS rate of 1.3505 = USD155 (
Me: Actually come to think of it, why would anyone in a sane state, would wan to pay extra $50 more for sth that cost like $150. That was about 33% more than the quoted price. SO that actually increased my suspicious against this buyer. Made me happy for nth, HUMPT!! )
2) Shipment would be arranged only when the fund is credited into my Singapore account. I have to emphasize here that shipment would only be done when payment is received by me (i.e credited into my account) and NOT when payment is made by you.
3) Full payment as stated in No (1) would need to be received by me before shipment is made. If not, I would need you to top up the difference in amount before I make the shipment, together with the additional bank commissions.
4) I would not accept any document from Nigeria as proof of fund transfer. Only when the money is credited into my account, then I would be making the shipment, which I would give you the parcel tracking ID for you to track the parcel.
5) I would not be held responsible for any lost in mail. If you need to have insurance on the parcel, you can include the amount as stated in No (1) when you make the fund transfer. Again, this has to be received in full amount before any shipment is been made. Anyway, Dennis's so-called bank sent me a so-called bank confirmation:
TRANSFER ORDERTransfer Order from Colony Bank Online Payment Transfer Confirmation.
TRANSFER NUMBER: SW3100571978KMS
Dear XXXX, We have received a TRANSFER ORDER placed by our Customer ( Dennis Anderson) have the sum of ($2,50USD) transfered to you (XXXX) as a payment for{Canon Colour Printer } has been successfully processed and has consequently been APPROVED..The Money will be TRANSFER to the name and account details below,Please verify that the Name and Account (As entered by the buyer) are correct:
ACCOUNT NAME: XXXX
ACCOUNT NUMBER; XXXX
COUNTRY: XXXX
BANK NAME: XXXX
BANK ADDRESS: XXXX
ZIPE CODE: XXXX
TOTAL AMOUNT: $2,500USD
E-MAIL: XXXX This is Our Procedure
1.You must know that once the payment has been made by the buyer the money now belongs to the seller and it will be transfered immediately to his or her account as soon as the seller follow our procedure.
2.Once shipment has been verified, the money will be delivered to seller account information given to us by you and hence from now on ,You did not have control on the money paid by you to the seller as we are the one to handle everything yours is to receive your item, we are using this policy to protect both the seller and buyer from internet fraud.You can go ahead and ship out your buyer's item{s} and send Colony Bank 簧 the shipment tracking number in order to activate your bank account within the next 24 hours time and to finish the final process for us to transfer your full money into your bank account,you will receive your money as soon as you have send us the tracking number or a scanned copy of the shipment receipt ,You will have to ship the item to the shipping address provided by the buyer. Me: The above were the exact wordings from the bank confirmation.
Firstly, which bank would actually have a typo error on the bank confirmation, particularly the amount?? So did the bank transfer $2,500 USD or $2,50USD?
Secondly, I dunno where the hell is there a chinese character ( or wat)? What kind of bank confirmation is that?
Thirdly, I thought I stressed that no money credit = no shipment. If he was not happy with my T&C, then forget it lor.. Not that I need to sell so desperately. "As I mentioned in my earlier email, I would only be making the shipment upon receipt of the money in my Singapore account. Hence, if you are not comfortable with such an arrangement, then I suppose you can ask your bank to transmit your money back into your account and we can considered that the deal is off. For further conditions, please refer to my earlier email. For your information, your "bank document" has typo error. Did the bank deducted USD250 or USD2,500 from your bank? It seemed that the bank is not very clear on that. Once again, I thank you for your interest."
"Hello, you have to understand that my bank have deducted the money into my account and you have to go ahead with shipment and mail the the shipment tracking number for the verification in order to remit the money into your account kindly contact my bank and know what u are going to do next and make the shipment today." ( Me: It sound threatening to me... why was it " I have to go ahead with shipment"?? So wat your stupid bank had approved your transfer. I did not receive the payment and so I was definitely not going to be scared by your bank confirmation. Anyway at this point, I was certain that this was definitely not a genuine transaction, but I decided to play along with it..) "I'm not comfortable with international transaction, hence that's why I have emphasized again and again that I will only ship out my item upon receipt of the payment. And you must be joking right? Why would you want to pay USD $2,500 for a item that probably cost one or two hundred? I'm too honest a guy to accept such an overpayment. I have no choice but to decline your generous offer. Please contact your own bank to get your money refunded." "Hello,you have to understand hat the money have been transfer already and my bank cannot refund the money in fully i know you honest person but you have to trust bank and make the shipment now and mail thebank.....the money have been deducted into my account and they have collected the charges from me kindly get it done now and make the shipment." "Sorry, But I have made myself very clearly that I would only make shipment upon receipt of money in my bank account.If you cannot concur with such an arrangement, you should have transact with someone else. And if you insist of making the bank transfer, knowing very well that your bank cannot transfer without the shipment ID, you cannot blame me for not informing you my T&C earlier and not fulfilling the transactions. In other words, I am not obliged to the transaction. Anyway, if you are someone who can pay USD2500 for a old model Canon colour printer, I'm sure you can afford whatever that your bank is going to charge you. I'm surprise that you actually read my email now, since apparently you have not been reading my term & conditions earlier. If you have done so, you would not have incurred any charges anyway. " "Hello thanks for the mail, i have to inform you now that if you want me to collect the money back from my bank i will make sure i get it back...but can i send the money via western union money transfer which you are going toget it in that sasame day i send it and i will mail u the western union information and te questionand answer...you have to pay for the bank charges cos amhaving the total amount with me $2,500usd and the bank charges is $1,20usd once you send the money to me via western union and i will pick it up and send you the $2,500usd i hope is clear with you right now...i will be waiting for your mail thanks."
I'm the seller, so why am I supposed to pay $$ now???? WTF
Anyway I'm jolly well going to ignore this guy. I only included this entry to alert others who is using Yahoo Auction that such scam cases are going on. Dun be intimidated by any so-called bank confirmation. If you come across any such cases, just simply ask the person to GET LOST!
