Seller Warnings:

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There have been reports of offers to purchase baby equipment coming from West Africa, and Nigeria in particular. The usual form is that the 'buyer' (who often has a .co.uk or other European email address), poses as a baby shop dealer and requests further information and pictures of the item being sold. Very soon after an offer is made in which it's usually stated that payment will be made by a bank cheque in Sterling and drawn on a British bank. At this point the buyer will usually mention that the amount of the cheque will be far in excess of the agreed amount for your equipment.  As you are an honest and trustworthy person (you are, aren't you?) the buyer will temporarily entrust you with the extra money, but asks you to return the difference to them.

Once you receive the cheque (which looks perfectly valid) you cash it at the bank, wait for it clear and once you have the money in your account you send the agreed balance back to the buyer.  They will almost always request that you pay the balance back to them using wire transfer or Western Union Money Transfer - both processes are virtually instant and irreversible.  However, several weeks later your bank may contact you to advise that the cheque was counterfeit, and you are required to repay the amount to the bank.  The buyer has disappeared (or now operating under another name from a different email address) and you're out of pocket for a lot of money - ouch!

Remember:  If you're approached with an offer like this it's highly likely to be either money laundering or some other illegal proposal. Don't get involved! It's a variation of a worldwide scam that has been running since the early 1980's - in it's more common form people usually receive an email, letter or fax promising you a cut of tens of millions of pounds/dollars if you help the person get money out of his country.  If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is!

Paypal Payments:
Beware when accepting paymens via paypal! Alot of scammers are purchasing items using paypal, then contacting their bank claiming it was a fraudulant transaction. The buyers bank reclaim the money from paypal who in turn take the money from you. This is normally done some weeks after the item has been recieved (however it can be upto 180 days), leaving you out of pocket and without an item. This type of scam is called CHARGEBACK.

Links:

• vnunet news item: Police warn of latest email fraud.
• The National Criminal Intelligence Service (NCIS) provides information on the more common "Advanced Fee Fraud" scam here.
• This newer fraud on the Internet has so many victims in America that a website has been set up to support victims. It makes interesting reading.
• Don't try this at home!  This person went along with an Advanced Fee Fraud scam just for fun.  Follow their tale here (warning: quite lengthy)

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