Is this a scam?

[injanear]

This was a email i recently received:

dont worry about the shipping charges i will be using my fedex
account for that.I will arrange the payment using western union
auction payment otherwise known as bidpay.(www.bidpay.com).Do send me
the following details.Your full name and address plus a telephone
number.Thanks i await that.Bye for now.


Edit: I forgot to say that i m trying to sell my laptop to this person. She/He is in the US... or so they said.

[v00d00]

scam

[i6s1]

Is this through ebay or did they contact you another way? I'm thinking scam. Anything over $100 I only sell local for cash.

[D.NGUYEN]

scam

[i6s1]

Since they're using a fedex account, send him a 20# box Early AM Express, Saturday delevery, adult signature requried, insured $3000.

p-p-powerbook!

[injanear]

so this is a scam... I would really like to ship them a box of rocks but then i would have to give them my address which i dont think its a good idea. Unless any of you want to lol...

[v00d00]

If you are selling locally and advertise in local media, yet you still get foreign inqueries.. assume they're scams. Don't even waste your time..

What IF they're legit? It's possible.. but in most cases they're not legit and are trying to rip you off.

Would you rather keep the laptop longer maybe even sell for slightly less, locally.. or get scammed for a good price, internationally.

(of course, unless you were specifically advertising to an international audience, via ebay or the sort, then disregard.. as long as its your buyer from ebay, it's probably okay? MAYBE!)

[injanear]

forgot to add that it was listed on a buyandsell site for vancouver and never on ebay or any other auctions.

[v00d00]

Stick to selling in Vancouver then, and preferably sell it to a person face to face.

[Iron Chef Ajax]

Scam - ship them rocks.

[HowEver]

Western Union is insecure.

If the buyer agrees to pay you in advance via a secure method, and you can have your bank verify that the funds are in place and safe, fine. But that does not look like what is happening here.

Likely had this gone further you would have got a notice to ship to a third country, where the buyer really is, and once you ship you would find out the funds did not materialize.

[TinyTank]

SCAM. Don't fall in his trap.

[rai_dei]

Western Union is insecure.

yup its a well-known scam, do a search on google for 'western union scam'

[injanear]

i've did some reading, trying to find out how they are scaming people. Seems like they could be using stolen Credit Cards but are there any thing else?

and has anyone every heard of or had experience with Escrow.com? Will Escrow protect the buyer from fake credit cards or anything else? From reading their faq, they said they will make sure the funds are "good" before telling the buyer to ship but how long does it take for them to find out if the credit card is legit or not? There price isnt really that expensive i guess if they can keep either side from getting scammed like laptops and stuff.

[HowEver]

Go to

419eater.com
and
thescambaiter.org

if you want to find out more about escrow scams.

And a lot more besides.