FRAUD Alert!

[Dolf]

Dave,

Well done! I bet they never bothered you again!...

Dolf

[medaldude]

Greetings!

I am Itty Bowonga. The son of General Biga Bowonga the late Foreign Minister of Nigeria. As you know Nigeria broke diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union in 1982 due to their support of the rebel forces. On orders of my father troops seized the Soviet embassy. For all these years the family has kept the confiscated uniforms, medals and orders of the embassy staff. As I look through this material I see orders with names such as Nakhimov, Kutuzov and Khmelnitsky I also have full diplomatic uniform of the ambassador himself with his Order of Victory still on the tunic.

My family has fallen on hard time. We wish to get these items out of the country. I have been told you are a trustworthy person. I will ship all mentioned item to you but need you to send $5000 to pay for the legal and customs fees. Please send funds (certified only) to

Itty Bowonga
PO Box 69
Abuja Nigeria

[new world]

Wow! That must have been the hell of Ambassador to deserve Victory order! All this for mere $5000.

How do they come up with crap like this? Had they not mention Victory order - the story would have looked so original comparing to the common Nigerian bull****.

Willaim

[otlichnik]

Itty,

You have a deal! I am sending the funds today. They are drawn off the First (and only) National Bank of Fantastan. Unfortunately, due to Fantastan's odd national banking laws I had to make the draft out to their minimum of $50,000. So hopefully you won't mind sending $45,000 cash back to me when you send the medals. I am sure that my draft will clear very soon afterwards....

[HuliganRS]

ROFLMAO :p

For my non US friends:

Rolling
on the
Floor
Laughing
my
Ass
Off

Rusty.

[Tretov]

Well, seems it has happened again.

I won an eBay auction where a seller had 30 positive feedbacks, registered in Utah USA. The auction was for a Soviet uniform of high rank. The item was said to be shipped from Russia. I sent payment to the bank he instructed me. He had 100% positive feedbacks. At the same time he sold three other uniforms on eBay. Two of them were won by another person. He confirmed that my payment had been recieved, and said at the same time that this person had problems with his payment and that I could buy one of the other two tunics as well. Did so, send payment, he confirmed. Then nada, over one week has passed. Not a word, nothing. I contacted the other guy. He said he had not had any payment problems and was waiting for his two uniforms. He had sent this guy over 500 USD. So have I.

The eBay seller is registered in Utah, but the name of the eBay seller and the person I have been in touch with does not match. The bank to which the money was sent is in Latvia, and the person said his wife lived in Latvia. He has 30 positive feedbacks, 100%. Damn, nobody can be trusted anymore.

I'm afraid forum rules prevents me from revealing any further details. However, if the moderators agree, I can post the details and you may contribute. Otherwise, please PM me for details.

I had learned the lesson to never deal with 0 feedback persons, but this guy had a flawless record, and now this!

[rboomsma]

Lesson learned.

Never buy from anyone who only accepts bank transfers, money orders.
If they don't accept paypal and you can't charge your credit card, you will eventually get stung.

This way you can charge back if you don't get your goods. I don't trust anyone whos says I don't accept paypal. Especially a seller from the former Soviet Union.

At least you can make a claim through ebay fraud department for up to $200 USD. Better than nothing.

[RussiaBoy]

Sometimes ordering things from there takes a loooooong time. Example, I ordered an officers belt from Ukraine and it said 2-3 weeks shipping. I didn't get it until 4 months later. Perhaps maybe this is the case?

Justin.

[Lapa]

Don't know if that will help make you feel (somewhat) better, but postacards have recently taken 2 months to travel from St Petersburg to Western Europe (that's all of 1500 miles/2500 kms). Same for packages: airmail packages took over 6 weeks to arrive.
The local Post Office must have reverted to bicycles lately

Marc

[Tretov]

What makes me confident in the fact this is a FRAUD is this:

"He said he had not had any payment problems and was waiting for his two uniforms. He had sent this guy over 500 USD. So have I. "

The guy hadn't any payment problems. He had purchased (or, more correctly, PAID) his two tunics. What connection does the Latvian seller have to the person in Utah, USA?


The PayPal thing is a lesson - BUT: Most countries in former SSSR cannot take PayPal... Honest sellers in former SSSR have to use either bank or WU. Everyone ain't connected to WesternBid or other organizations offering Paypal services.