Ebay sellers at risk from African scam artists
Brit?s who offer items for sale on popular internet sites like eBay are the subject of scammers who try to convince sellers to ship their items abroad before sending payment.
Security experts have warned that African countries are one of the leading sources of the scams as fraudsters have become more sophisticated than simply asking for credit or cash details through email phishing schemes.
As more people become wary of handing over their details in the previous email schemes, criminals are now attempting to make money by convincing people with high end products such as digital cameras and laptops for sale to ship their goods early without the intent of ever sending payment.
The scam works by buyers offering a higher price than usual for an item and then emailing the seller stating that cash is in the process of being transferred. At this point, a fake email that appears to be from Paypal or another trusted payment source is sent to state payment is pending.
At this point a delivery address is given somewhere in Africa for the goods and sellers are encouraged to immediately post an item or become susceptible to a barrage of abusive emails asking why the item has not yet been posted.
A Trend Micro analyst, Rik Ferguson stated that the scammer?s main object is to force a seller to post their object quickly after which the scam is complete and the buyer is never heard of again not to mention payment is never made.
