- Wednesday, 10 February 2010
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Time is what keeps everything from happening at once - Karamazov Brothers
Nigerian 419 scams now hitting Paypal
A VARIANT of the extremely popular Nigerian 419 scam is possible via Paypal, the INQ has discovered. On paper it looks bulletproof but it's still a big con.
The 419 scam is named after the relevant section of the Nigerian Criminal Code and the premise is always the same. Somebody offers to pay money into your account and give you a cut when you send it back.
In truth the whole thing is money laundering but this latest twist – using Paypal – is significant because, on the surface, it looks like there's no catch.
An INQ reader, who nearly became a victim, explained how it works. Instead of receiving the offer via email (as is normally the case), this person was approached over a Skype chat session.
The perpetuator (presumably a male) wanted to transfer funds out a Paypal account and convert them back into US dollars. All the victim needed to do was check his Paypal account and when the money arrived and send a significantly lower amount back via Western Union.
Our victim pinpointed Paypal's payment reversal policy as the loophole which enabled the scam to work. As the payment would be classified as 'services' rather than goods, there would be no proof that the the victim – who becomes the 'vendor' – provided any goods. So the 'buyer' – in this case the scammer – gets the money back.
In the meantime, the vendor has sent the dollars via Western Union and then finds himself stuck with no means of recourse.
One of the e-commerce experts the INQ talked to was Dave Birch from Consult Hyperion who complained the real problem was with Western Union because that company made it too easy to send and receive money anonymously.
However, Jennifer Perry from E-victims (which specialises in supporting victims of cybercrime) blamed Paypal's dispute resolution procedure system calling it a "very crude automated system."
"Paypal's guarantee doesn't really live up to expectations," Perry explained. "The public feel it [Paypal] is a gold-plated service like M&S or a credit card, but it isn't."
Perry hadn't heard of this particular 419 scam claiming a victim but she had encountered several people who had been fooled by spoof emails into thinking that money had been paid into their Paypal account when it hadn't.
"Paypal relies heavily on the courier companies to establish whether or not goods have been received." Perry suggested. "You can sign for an empty box and it is extremely difficult to prove you haven't actually received the goods."
Interestingly, security expert, Rick Ferguson from Trend Micro, pointed out that not all 419 scams are actually false.
"In some cases they really do send the money but you've actually committed a crime by effectively 'washing' the money." µ
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I'm still surprised that people actually trust anything which involves Western Union... all the scammers seem to use it. 
Western union makes money on con operations like these, because they forced one of my relatives into bankruptcy, because of the e-mail version of this scam, they are looking the other way!!

I challenge Western Union to prove me wrong by closing their offices in Nigeria! And any other countries that launders money and eludes the law in doing it

And don't give me that punishing everyone wouldn't justify closing it down!!! Routine!!!!

FLUSH EM OUT! That how you treat the criminal toilet matter!!
OK folks, let's all agree that Paypal is a gold mine for EBay and quit using it. Paypal is nothing more than a debit card. Ebay gets a (huge) cut and the Paypal users bear all the risk.

When's the last time you heard of Paypal assuming any debt from a bogus transaction? Credit card companies do it all the time when their protection systems fail.

When people use Paypal, they have essentially none of the protections provided by governments to credit card users. Dumb.

Paypal: the sucker bet.

sj


I was sent an email saying the kings son or whatever needed 100US buks, so he could get out of the country, he would then send me 1 million dollars from his fathers account, and I could keep 10% , but he needed the 100 buks desperatly. 

so I emailed him back saying I was in africa atm and I would love to help him, so i waited a few days, then he sent me back a great thanks blah blah, then he sent me all the details for western union. 
then I emailed him back saying I had fallen gravely ill, and I needed some medicing, but it cost US300, and that if he needed my help with this money then I would need the 300 to get the medical help I really needed, suffice to say I never heard from him again lol, but I just love wasting their time
This says it all:

http://www.paypalsucks.com/

Makes a good read. Unfortunately, there are so many gullible people on the internet who are oblivious to scams.
Like someone already said, Paypal's dispute system is archaic and complete BS. I had an issue with a buyer on Ebay a few years back, we both solved it outside of paypal because we not only had to wait forever to get updates via paypal with our official responses, but they refused to acknowledge some simple facts in the dispute (which their web interface REFUSED to provide click-in-the-blank responses to because our issue was considered "volatile").

paypal + ebay is a gross display of a monopoly controlling the system. Pure BS and everyone loses. I have not used paypal in 5 years which is unfortunately a hassle because it's so widely shoved down everyone's throat on the internets.
Let's shamelessly blame everybody else when we get conned while we try to get money in an illegal/immoral manner, yes indeed, blame everybody but yourself, it's the 'now' way of doing things.
Also, let's blame the government when we are stupid, although.. that makes some sense since it's the people's stupidity that got them in office in the first place I guess.
"In truth the whole thing is money laundering.."

er.. I don't think so.. its just a classic theft/con.
don't mislead the readers..
This whole article is about a dangerous class of stupidity only to be rivaled by 5th grade logic.
1. Why isn't your spam blocker on? I never receive e-mails like this because I REPORT spam.
2. Why are you participating in this? Is it blind kindness or boredom? If you won't give money to a bum on the street, why are you going out of your way to wire money to NIGERIA?
3. I've never had an issue with Paypal or Google Check out. Why? Because Im a competent consumer and don't fall for blantant scams or bad e-bay sellers. For me, Paypal is POINT AND CLICK, how hard is that for you folks?
I'd love to see everyone start using more than 1% of their brain.
Jeeze dude, learn to spell when you dish it out!
I have an ebay feed back of 589 @ 100% on one account and another with a feed back of 234 @ 100%, my total transactions including ones with no feed back are over 1000 so i consider that I am an experienced ebay and paypal user. I have been conned a couple of times and both Paypal and Ebay have been totally useless. When people like Ellie leave comments to the effect that only idiots get conned it gets right up my nose, just because you she has not been conned YET does not mean that she wont ever be a victim ! I can guarantee that when she does get scammed she will also be furious with the lack of after care from both Ebay & Paypal.