Craigslist Nigeria Scam

I posted an Ad on Craigslist Los Angeles yesterday hoping to sell and old camera of mine – some dude called Mark Paul tried to scam me into sending the camera to Nigeria….it all look a bit suspicious so I used the google voice search application on my iPhone “craigslist Nigeria Scam” and found loads of postings about exactly what was happening to me (Links below). After reading the posts I saw what the deal was……these guys use a hacked paypal account to pay you…..you see the funds are in your account, send the stuff to Nigeria. As soon as the funds go through they are marked as fraud and are returned to the hacked users account. Awesome….you have just sent your item to Nigeria and there is no way of getting you stuff back….

Here are two links that I read that where usefull:

http://www.fraudguides.com/internet-craigslist-scams.asp
http://forums.gumtree.com/topic73431.html

And here is the email conversation with this guy:

On Tue, Nov 18, 2008 at 5:37 PM, mark paul <mcpaul01@msn.com> wrote: ** CRAIGSLIST ADVISORY — AVOID SCAMS BY DEALING LOCALLY ** Avoid: wiring money, cross-border deals, work-at-home ** Beware: cashier checks, money orders, escrow, shipping ** More Info: http://www.craigslist.org/about/scams.html Let me know your firm price?

— On Wed, 11/19/08, Murry> wrote:
From: Kurt Heim
Subject: Re: Canon 20D + Grip + 28-135 Canon Lens – $600 (Santa Monica)
To: mcpaul020@yahoo.com
Cc: sale-924768625@craigslist.org
Date: Wednesday, November 19, 2008, 3:06 AM

its firm at 600 – whats your offer?
On Tue, Nov 18, 2008 at 7:15 PM, Mark Paul <mcpaul020@yahoo.com> wrote:

I am glad to recieve your mail,And i hope we can do business,any way am ok with the amount you want to sell the item.i would have love to come and pick it up by myself but due to the nature of my job that made me to be out of town right now.So i need you to do me a favour now,Provide me with your via paypal address for the payment or your full Name and You Home Address for the payment, i want you to consider the item sold to me.And I will like you to remove your item from the  craiglist site and have it package in other for the shipment because as soon as i have the information of the payment i demanded,i will do the payment immediatly,including the shipping fee. so that you will ship it fast to enable My son David to have it before his Birthday party.

Waiting to recieve the information.

Thanks and regards

— On Wed, 11/19/08, Murry wrote:

From: Murry
Subject: Re: Canon 20D + Grip + 28-135 Canon Lens – $600 (Santa Monica)
To: mcpaul020@yahoo.com

Date: Wednesday, November 19, 2008, 3:38 AMhey Mark,

Ok – consider it sold to you – where am I going to ship the package to so that I can include the shipping fee?

Murry

On Tue, Nov 18, 2008 at 8:07 PM, Mark Paul <mcpaul020@yahoo.com> wrote:

Thanks for the assurance.I want the package shipped to my son who will be celebrating his B day in Nigeria.I will take care of the shipment cost.

Just go ahead and provide me with your payment information for immediate payment.

Regards

— On Wed, 11/19/08, Murry> wrote:

From: Murry
Subject: Re: Canon 20D + Grip + 28-135 Canon Lens – $600 (Santa Monica)
To: mcpaul020@yahoo.com

Date: Wednesday, November 19, 2008, 4:20 AMokay but we need a shipping address…..

On Tue, Nov 18, 2008 at 8:27 PM, Mark Paul <mcpaul020@yahoo.com> wrote:
Below is the address as stated:Address:26 Peter Okoye Street Uwani
City:Enugu
State:Enugu State
Country:Nigeria
Postal code:400001

I will be waiting to hear from you asap.

And the I said:

his is way to close to this:http://www.fraudguides.com/internet-craigslist-scams.asp
http://forums.gumtree.com/topic73431.html

consider this item not for sale.

Thank you for your time and please do not contact me again

Never heard back from him – I posted this just because in talking with friends about this today, I am not the only one who had this experience….