In real life, I have met a few people from Nigeria. They were all very nice. But on the net, I have yet to come in contact with one who isn’t trying to cheat me out of life and limb.

Today I got a PayPal ‘payment’ for an Ebay auction. The buyer purchased the auction a few days ago and I have been waiting for payment. After sending a gentle reminder this morning, I finally got the payment plus $50 for “Royal Mail - EMX Global Overnight Services” to… Nigeria. How nice. The winner’s profile said ’she’ was in Texas.

I would find this a little amusing if it weren’t for a major auction that I really wanted to have sold last week. The worst thing is I had a number of watchers. That usually means the auction will sell towards the end. Well, since this guy did a ‘buy now’ and all those watchers are gone…

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A few months ago I had another experience with Ebay and the Nigerians. This time I sold a $40 Japanese grammar book. A few weeks later I received a money order for $1400 in the mail. (If I can find the money order, I’ll scan it and post it so others can be aware). Now this isn’t too unusual since we sometimes deal with schools with large book orders, but for the life of me, I couldn’t remember an purchase order for that much. You’d think I would remember a $1400 order! The envelope had no message; just this money order. It didn’t even have a shipping address or what it was for. It did look authentic with a seal and even a watermark, but it wasn’t just fishy, it was downright stinky.

The very next day I got an email from the winner of the $40 auction telling me he had sent me a money order for the $40 and asked for a cash refund for the balance. Let’s see… That works out to be $1360 he was hoping to get. Oh, and he also wanted it shipped to Nigeria.

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I really feel bad for legitimate business people in Nigeria and other countries prone to fraud. These fraudsters are frauding the future of Nigeria more than anything else.

To see just how bad this is and to read about a few people getting revenge (not recommended) see 419 Eater.