After a long wait I finally got an ebay account and began to sell items online. The very first item I listed was a digital camera. It wasn't a bad camera actually. I priced it nicely and was prepared to patiently wait for someone to click on the "buy it now" icon. It seemed so easy.... until...

After waiting for a while, a friend of mine informed me that I might have made some mistakes. In correcting these mistakes I listed an ipod online as well. Within the first day it SOLD!!! I had someone who wanted to buy it and I was thrilled. I received the confirmation email from ebay telling me that someone was purchasing the ipod. Then I received a message from the man who wanted to buy the ipod. He said his name was Frank Jon. The e-mail went something like this:

Hello,
Happy new year to you and your family.I am Mr. Frank jon from WI, but
Presently i am leading a conventional church program in Holland. I saw
your item ********** below and i will like to buy it for my son that will be
starting a Computer science course in University of Nigeria Next week. and
also i will like you to tell me how many item you have to sell, so you
can send me the total cost ok.Do not worry about the shipping, i have an
account with fedex and i will be sending you my fedex account number
for the shipping . Moreover i would have prefer to send you a cheque but
simply because i want you to ship the item first thing tomorrow
morning, i will be sending you payment via PayPal,so make sure you get the pa
ckage ready for tomorrow shipment ok?And kindly send me your paypal
email address ,so i can make the payment right away.
Thanks.
Frank jon.

The rules at ebay state that items should be sent to the address that is listen in their registered account. Yet, I played it off like it was nothing, letting the warning signs flashing in my head fade to a soft whisper.

After receiving the confirmation email I tried to retrieve my funds (it takes up to 3 days for the funds to be transferred to your checking/savings account) but noticed that nothing was listed in my "history" folder.

I then checked my email and received a message from paypal with the title reading, "Paypal Confirmation." Okay, I said to myself, it's time to get paid.

I opened the email and this is what it said:

You've got cash!

Dear Terry Snipes,

This email confirms that Mr,Frank Jon have paid the , $295.95 USD using PayPal.

Mr,Randy Frank Jon just sent you money with PayPal.

Mr,Frank Jon is a Verified buyer.

Mr,Frank Jon

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Payment Details.

Payment Confirmation # 0775-1108-9321-3941-9139

Purchased From:Terry Snipes

Item # Item Title Quantity Price

9716315800 Apple 40GB iPod+HP MP3 1 $295.95 USD
Shipping & Handling via Standard Delivery to :
$00.00
Shipping Insurance(included):

Total: $295.95

Note:This PayPal®payment has been deducted from the buyer's account and has been "APPROVED" but will not be credited to your account until the shipment tracking number is sent to our customers service for shipment verification so as to secure both the seller and the buyer. (pay-pal_verified@accountant.com)

Shipping Information

Address: Verified.

Address Status: Confirmed

There were two things I noticed which were funny about this email.

1. Ebay listed the user as unregistered since April 22, 2006, the same day the ipod was purchased, meaning he is not a verified paypal/ebay user.

2. Paypal's confirmation numbers are a mixture of letters and numbers. The confirmation number shown above is clearly not from paypal.

After a couple of hours of pondering over the email, I decided to call paypal's customer service and speak to someone about the email. I wrote an email to the buyer telling him that I thought a fraud was going on and I would appreciate if he could wait for moment until I could straighten everything out. I am aware that ebay allows it's users to give someone else negative or positive feedback and I didn't want my first transaction to be negative.

When I called paypal, they not only told me that I had not received the money, but that if they were going to hold my funds until I sent them a shipping number, it would show in the "history" folder. He went on to tell me that the confirmation number was a fake and that they had not sent an email to me at all.

The next day I received a message from Mr. Jon that said:

The payment has been made and will be credited to your account as soon as you send the shipping tracking number to paypal and then they will credit your account immediately.thanks

After reading this, I knew it was a fraud. This shipping tracking number is only given to someone after the ship out the package, meaning I would have shipped out the ipod without receiving payment first. He wanted me to send it to an address that could not be traced back to him. In layman's terms: he wanted to get a free ipod off of ebay from a dumb newcomer to ebay. The rushed amount of time I was given to send the item (speeding up time leaves a person with little time to think), the new address and the fake request from paypal to give them a shipping number before I would receive my money was all planned and plotted to get me for my item.

I was doing drop ship, so I would have ordered that ipod for nothing! I was going to put the ipod on my credit card (the limit might not have warranted it) just to pay the man and not have him give me a negative comment.

I sent the guy a return email saying:

I have contacted PayPal and ebay, and PayPal says there are no funds pending, and ebay says you are no longer a registered user. This transaction has not been completed and is no longer active. If you pursue this matter further I will contact ebay's dispute and resolution center for further action.

I have not heard from him since.

If you are doing business on ebay please watch out for things of this nature, especially if you are new to it. These people will try and con you into sending out the item before paying for it. Who ever that guy was (Frank Jon), he might have had a plan to get me with a fake check as well. Be careful and cautious and GOOD LUCK in your BUSINESS VENTURES!

Terry J. Snipes

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