Nigerian Scamalot
I've recently had terrible trouble selling a mobile phone on eBay, most of it stemming from a scammer.
Over the last few months I've noticed a real increase in the amount of eBay listings stating at the top in larger than life letters "No Nigerians", or "I will not ship to Nigeria", or "Nigerians are banned from bidding". Until my experience I thought this to be a bit of a racist thing to say. Why would you tar an entire country with the same brush?
On my auctions I rarely ship worldwide but with something like a mobile phone it really does increase your market potential. So in this instance I said I would ship to UK, America, Europe and Australia (notice there is no mention of Africa).
The auction went well and somebody in the USA won.
Shortly after the auction I got an email from the winning bidder which read...
"Hi Mate,
Am the greatfull woman that won your item and i will like to buy this item to my husband in west africa(Nigeria 234020) as a birthday gift,i will like the item to be ship via Royalmail 1st class and i will be paying you via paypal so kindly get back to me with your full name and paypal email address including the shipping cost to Nigeia so that the payment can be made.
Thanks for the business.
waiting for your reply.
Jennifer.M."
Birthday present? Husband? Nigeria? OH NO!
I resonded by saying I would not ship to Nigeria and would only ship to her US address.
A day later another email came through from her/him saying they'd paid and her husband was looking forward to recieving the phone in Nigeria soon. Yeah, right. Then came the icing on the cake, a fake email from Paypal telling me what a wonderfully trustwothy person the winning bidder was.
Now I consider myself to be very careful and wary of such things but I just wonder just how many people they rip-off like this? For the uninitiated it would be very easy to look at that Paypal mail and think you'd been paid.
My point is are these Nigerians spoiling the reputation of every Nigerian on the planet or are they all really this corrupt?
I raise a challenge to any Nigerian to post a comment here and defend yourself and your country.
Go on I dare you!
posted by The Uncle at
11:46 am
5 Comments:
OK, you've won more views by bashing us. "I raise a challenge to any Nigerian to post a comment here and defend yourself and your country. Go on I dare you! ". There is so much me too "I can bash these crooks" out there, but then again there are progessive people who are helping to educate the few idiots that are Nigerian scammers. Here is one I defended earlier, http://surfingisfun.com/?p=216 . I dare you to visit my Tuesday, June 27, 2006 weblog and leave a comment.
By
Beauty, at July 14, 2006 1:10 am
Nice to hear some good stuff about Nigeria and its citizens.
Like you both alude to the actual Nigerians participating in scams really does have to be very small. What is unfair for you guys is the bad reputation generated within eBay must make it very difficult to buy goods.
It only takes one person in any country to try a scam, and it isn't long before the rumours spiral out of control and people are banning that country from bidding on their auctions.
English eBayers have faults just the same; poor communication, slow payments and yes there has to be scammers doing similar things over here too.
By
The Uncle, at July 14, 2006 1:38 pm
Many thanks for your comments.
"Thousands of Africans are risking their lives to reach Europe
French President Jacques Chirac has warned that Africans "will flood the world" unless more is done to develop the continent's economy." http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/5181080.stm. This from one of the countries that is responsible for the mess. Show me a progressive french speaking African country. But that is another story.
“Advance Fee Fraud”, “419″, Four-One-Nine named after the relevant section of the Criminal Code of Nigeria is a worldwide Scam which began in the early 1980’s and has run under successive governments of Nigeria. These same rulers are feted at Buckingham Palace the Queen's official residence. They have spawned chaos and the result is the bad image. There was a "branding Nigeria" conference at the London Hilton in June 2006 which I thought was daft. What is there to brand?
Your "I raise a challenge to any Nigerian to post a comment here and defend yourself and your country." is not necessary as a lot of us already are working on the shrinking leadership challenge. You can only be a part of the solution. What is stopping you from taking Tony Blair's job?
Our people are not free to think about choice let alone make it. It is not global white v black racism but sick tribalism where the people have been conditioned to servitude. The state of being completely subject to someone more powerful is still widespread in Nigeria in 2006.
Out of poverty, despair and disease came 419 which must be used in jest but “our” 419 can be used for good. Send an email to Tony Blair to withdraw all visiting visas to our public officials who deposit our stolen wealth into bank accounts in the UK. Get 1 million people to do the same and action to stop our people becoming 419ers might start. Below is one I did earlier.
Dear Prime Minister
“Nigeria is a country that does not work, Schools, universities, roads, hospitals, water, the economy, security, life.” World-famous Nigerian author Chinua Achebe
Our country has become a lawless fiefdom, our leaders have visited every progressive country on earth, yet after decades of PhDs and MBAs, these people go back home to only love their own group. They have forgotten their “racist” experiences in the countries visited. Inaction and ineptitude coupled with the sickness of Tribalism have meant zero progress. Special prayers have become their mantra; they have forgotten to serve all.
Unless you are ferrying $1M in cash (Plateau State governor Joshua Dariye and former Governor Diepreye Alamieyeseigha of Bayelsa state) there is no real need for any public official in Nigeria to travel abroad. Why celebrate mediocre? For health reasons, build a better hospital!
A solution to our problems would be for the UK and its friends to cancel visas to all Nigerian public officials for 24months until they have shown measurable benefits to their citizens in terms of basic infrastructures like schools, universities, roads, basic medical care, water, public transport, security, and life and power generation.
The UK needs trading partners in Africa where generic “people projects” are delivered and applied to the whole continent. It will not take a rocket scientist to calculate the benefits. Inaction will only maintain the status quo where illegal people trafficking, illegal drugs smuggling into the UK continue and the price of oil at £100/barrel.
Act now in order to help our people help themselves.
Yours faithfully
Beauty
Nigerian.
By
Beauty, at July 14, 2006 7:32 pm
hi mate, heres a conclusion of all these other folks have written.Nigeria is a fraudulent country engraven in the hearts of most of its citezens. Ive lived there for 22 years. The comments that say they are onlya few of thm who are crooks is an understatement. Live up to reality, something is seriously wrong with its people, they are materialistic and this is one aspect where i can say they are dead wrong. They are nice folks(im half nigerian by the way) but they love money. from the local markets and the various prices given to customers to the greatest robbers in the world who steal millions with the most sophisticated weapon i.e a pen. Fake documents and all are so easy to come by. When dealing with a nigerian if ur a foriegner also do deals with individuals whos trust has been known to you over the years. At the port harcourt airport last year, a custom personal had the guts to ask me for money in front of hundreds so i could take my christain literature back to London. My books were legal and yet bribes are normal. Its time to wake up to reality, nigerians like the most easy way out. They get students visas and disapper into the blue. For the folk whos set up this site know one thing, this is not a biased view of someone whos naive in the things of the country but of one whos partly nigerian and british. No amount of publicity can take of a zebras stripes. Take care
By
Anonymous, at August 01, 2006 12:50 pm
Wow, that's the complete opposite of what I was hoping to hear.
By
The Uncle, at August 01, 2006 1:19 pm
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