Nigerian Order Scam--Can Anyone explain?

I've been getting rather weird emails lately to my store and I know it is some kind of scam but I just can't figure it out. People are asking me to ship items to them internationally. They want shipping information, etc. Here is one of two emails that I received today and just one of many that I have been receiving lately. Can anyone explain what is going on to me?

Hello,
i am Mrs Faith Johnson,i am a businesswoman and i deal in different type of products.
i got your contact information and from the information i got i found that you have some products that you wish to sell.
i will like to order for some products from your store and i will like you to calculate the cost of the shipping to NIGERIA via usps global express 3-5 days delivery.
i will like you to get back to me soon so that i can send my creditcard( MASTERCARD/VISA).
information to you so that you can charge my card and ship my orders ASAP.
I will like you to get back to me soon so that i can send the items i need to you.
i await your response soon.
Regards,
Faith Johnson

Second example:

HELLO SALES,
I MRS STACY BROWN OF STACY PRIVATE STORE LOCATED IN TEXAS(USA)YOU ARE INTRODUCED TO ME BY ONE OF YOUR CLIENT,HE SAID YOU HAVE BEEN A GOOD CUSTOMER TO HIME OVER THE YEARS THAT I CAN MAKE ORDER FROM YOU VIA EMAIL,PLEASE I WILL LIKE TO PLACE AN ORDER WITH YOU ,ALSO TO KNOW THE SHIPPING COST TO LAGOS,NIGERIA ALONG WITH YOUR COURIER SERVICE VIA DHL OR UPS EXPRESS MAIL.

I WILL LIKE TO ORDER FOR COMPUTER ACC.

I WILL LIKE YOU TO GIVE ME THE TOTAL COST PLUS THE SHIPPING CHERGES,SO THAT I CAN PROCCED WITH THE THE PAYMENT.AND ALSO THE MODE OF PAYMENT WILL BE BY MY PERSONAL CREDIT CARD.
STACY............
STORE OWNER.......

They are on a sucker hunt. Those are 100% scams.

I got these kinds of scams everyday, and most of them say they have lots of money and will give you a lot if you help them move the money out of Africa.

Anyway, interesting story

No, the "moving money out of Africa" is a totally different story.

The one Renee is talking about involves credit card fraud. These are stolen credit cards. There have been hundreds of people that have been scamed by these crooks. The forums at Ebay are full of complaints and people crying about how they sent thousands of dollars worth of mercahdise and ended up with a cargeback from a stolen credit card.

I just send them an e-mail back telling them to drop dead.

Just so you can verify this... tell them you will be happy to send them the products, but you don't accept credit cards from Nigeria, and ask them to send you a money order... I can bet you 1000 bucks you never hear from them again.

WARNING, unfortunally I have seen a lot of this. I have actually been to Nigeria when I was working in the oil business, not all of them are scammers but its like a cultural thing over there. Our airtravel site is plauged by this. We dont sell tickets to Nigeria without faxed verifications of the CC and Ids. What you are seeing is for sure scams with stolen (I would guess US) credit cards and there will for sure be a charge back so you will never get any money for the products you send.
We are actualy having a lot of problems with the charge backs for the ringtones we sell in US with CC. As from now we dont do that anymore, only Paypal.
As Fryman says, there are other bigger scams going on. The Nigeria letters that has been flowing around for at least 20 years and there are extensive check frauds going on in the US. Nigerians are also deeply involved in the drug trafficking and other shady businesses.

We had a load of those emails a while back. We decided the best thing was to only ship to the billing address. I can't understand why companies will allow a seperate shipping and billing address, knowing the risk of fraud. We still ship internationally but only to the US, Cananda, Europe and Australia/New Zealand. After we put that notice on our site the emails stopped coming in.

I knew it was some kind of scam, but just wondered exactly how it worked. I wasn't going to fall for it, but it did just get me a wee bit curious.

Just delete them. It happens to every online store. They always want to order 'x pieces' of your product and have it shipped straight away. It is never worth the risk!

Moneyorders are just as easy to make as a stolen credit card. Plain and simple make sure the money is in the bank long enough to see it is clean. Best to stay away from all international orders that will not fax or scan verification of address. 99.999999% are stolen. God Bless Joe

Stay away for Nigerian, Indonesian, Largo, Singapore. Just delete the email.

It's almost best to NEVER ship Internationally. Why would anyone order your products across the ocean, pay more for shipping, when they can get it at their local country? (This excludes the online stores that sells VERY unique items, but most of us sell common items used every day.)

yer, stick to US, Europe, china and japan.

Be wary of Swiss sites also! Swiss Bank Accounts, lol, dey reli gd as dey dnt keep records or nuttin, which for us (if you are not doing a scam) is a bad thing!!!


Dan

I wouldn't advise NEVER shipping internationally and definately wouldn't agree that 99.999999% is fake. I order a lot of stuff from the US here in Ireland as 1.) There are a lot of things you can't get here or in the UK that would be considered ordinary by an American (I am also an American - growing up there) and 2.) Believe it or not, shipping is cheaper from the US rather than the UK most times (It boggles the mind).

I've also recieved requests from these people and one they even forgot to use Bcc: so I saw the hundreds they also sent to. Of course they wouldnt do it if it didn't work so it is never a waste to keep up awareness.

Jason

You can also put through an authorization first and query the issuing bank for card verification. What they will then do is contact the owner of the card to verify the authorization. So if it turns out to be bogus...

hi friends!!

I dont agree of saying that .. " dont do international shipping" we are company based in nepal and we sell handicrafts and garments only international.

We take payemnt form wire transfer for the large quantity and for the small quantity we take from credit card.

So far i am lucky enough not to get any charge backs but for the nigeria people i suggest all to ask for the wire transfer or Western union money tranfer , coz they have western union money transfer every where...

And as my experience in export business ,... no buyer will just ask you to ship product , they will first go with series of conversation and it normally takes 2-3 conversation before going for buying products.


As far as cheater concern .. I am just cheated by the US payment gateway called Pay-line.com by not paying my money to me. I used this site just for 15 days. and they stop working.. now they are saying that they have some problems but its been six month and they are not responding my emails / phone calls .

So friends cheaters are every where.. Just be aware that you wont get cheated



Ananda Raj Pandey

Basics
====

Order is made from Nigeria at a high prices. A check is sent, and you cash it. You send the goods. A few days later the check bounces (fake) and the bank wants the money from you.

The goods are gone, and you have no money.

Variations involve you sending funds via Western Union for an overpayment.

Search google.com - Nigerian scams export.