Scammers and dumb people

[anti_flag_army]

Sometimes i wonder how those nigerian scamms are still around, the email ones, the ebay ones, and the craigslist ones. Then today i get a good idea of why they still exist.

I work at fedex and today a family comes in to inquire about shipping. Before we can get to any of the shipping info they began to ask me questions about paypal and if it is safe and such. Since i have used paypal for a while now i had a bit of useful info for them. I get to the point where they say that they are supposed to ship over seas and i ask to where. Their response.... Nigeria. I stopped right there and said its a scam. They questioned me for a minute on it, but i kept telling them that it was for sure 100% scam. Then i asked what it was they were selling and from where. it was a computer sold on craigslist. The dad goes on to say "so what is it like 9 times out of 10 a scam?" I said no, its 10 times out of 10, then told him about the big blue letters that warn you that any offers to ship items are a scam on CL.

So thats it, i told them not to touch the money in the paypal account, not to ship it, and to only deal locally.

[PoorManQ45]

Hehe, reverse paypal scams FTW!!!

I bet this person will be back when you aren't there to ship it...

I have to wonder what kind fo computer it was that they would even consider shipping it.

[dre1507]

lerls. similar story here too. i got ready to ship my PS3 to NJ too when i found out it was a scam. a day later scammer e-mails me....."I never got the tracking number for the item, could you send it to me so we can get this transaction over". I replied: "are you that stupid to have not realized i know you're trying to scam me?" never heard from him again.

[Watermelonwarrior]

people who fall for them are worst...

[dre1507]

i wouldn't say they're the worst. not just saying so because i myself almost fell victim to such a scheme. Sometimes you get so desperate for cash that you decide to sell something and the first interested buyer gets you so excited, you may stop thinking rationally. You ignore all the warnings, because you're really desperate for that money.

When someone falls for a scam, the thing to do is not to bash them. well not before you've educated them a little about their mistake and what they can do to prevent it in the future. OP, you did a good thing there. You could've easily turned your eyes and watch them be scammed, but you decided to help a family who was just ignorant of a popular type of internet scam. So it's not that they're dumb, They may just have been a little too eager about the transaction and on top of that ignorant.

[Watermelonwarrior]

i wouldn't say they're the worst. not just saying so because i myself almost fell victim to such a scheme. Sometimes you get so desperate for cash that you decide to sell something and the first interested buyer gets you so excited, you may stop thinking rationally. You ignore all the warnings, because you're really desperate for that money.

Ya your right. I mean I could see it being the guys first time selling something on craigslist and he might think its pretty common to get an email from another country.

[MinisterofDOOM]

i got ready to ship my PS3 to NJ too when i found out it was a scam.