Selling something on eBay Scams - Mandy Coker, ashley_terpeza018

eBay and Classified Ad Scams:
Scammers Posing as Buyers
Selling something on eBay

Scams and scammers using these names: Mandy Coker, ashley_terpeza018, bbb
"The payment (Check)will contain some extra money which you will help me get across to the shipper as we have arranged with a shipper to come and pick up the item"

Are you looking to sell something on eBay? Did "Mandy Coker" contact you? Note that she says:

"The payment (Check)will contain some extra money which you will help me get across to the shipper as we have arranged with a shipper to come and pick up the item". 

That's a clue to a scam right there!

Here are the clues that this is a scam:

  1. The buyer claims that he or she is not currently in your country.
  2. They want to pay by check or money order
  3. They want to include extra money in the check
  4. The buyer wants you to send the extra money from the check by Western Union to someone else.  Western Union wires and Moneygrams are not only untraceable, they're irretrievable.  Once the recipient picks them up (which can be done at ANY Western Union office in the world), the money is gone, gone, gone!
  5. The buyer is willing to buy the item sight unseen.
  6. Often, the writing is poor, also.  Often, is it not pathetically bad, it's just plain strange. It looks like it was written by someone who is not a native English-speaker, and writes very rarely in English. This is very typical of scammers, who largely are in Nigeria and have little formal education and probably none in English.

An actual email that illustrate this type of CraigsList scam:

Any highlighted passages below are to draw your attention to typical scam clues:

Email 1 - from the victim:

I sold an item on ebay and was contacted by the buyer who said the following.

The buyer sent me a check for $3000 more than expected.  Apparently he or she wanted me to transfer money to their shipper (paynship) and get stuck with the fake check when it cleared. 

The emailer's name is Mandy Coker

Their ebay username was ashley_terpeza018 and ebay says she is no longer a registered user.

Email 2 - from the scammer:

I just bought your item on ebay,i am buying this for my son in the UK. Payment will be made via U S Cashiers Check or Money Order and will be sent you via Fedex Express Next Day Delivery as i will be living for Germany in the next few days.The payment (Check)will contain some extra money which you will help me get across to the shipper as we have arranged with a shipper to come and pick up the item from your address.I have few questions to ask you:1. Will you be able to cash the check the sameday?2. Will you be available when the shipping agency will come for the pick up3. Will you be able to help me get the extra money sent to the shipper upon cashing the check?4. Is the condition of the item the same as described in the auction.5. I will need you to email me Name,Address,cell phone,personal email address where you want the check sent.As soon as you get back to me with all this details,i will have the check sent to you via FEDEX NEXT DAY.Need a response ASAP

And please let us know about any suspicious calls or emails you receive.  We look for patterns so that we can alert the authorities and victims to new scams, before it is too late!

 

 

 

For a comprehensive list of national and international agencies to report scams, see this page.