Is it safe to sell laptop to someone in Africa?

This should be investigated thoroughly. It is common practice for someone in Africa to have obtained stolen credit cards with which to make Western Union payments. When you go to collect your Western Union cash, the credit card will have been reported stolen and you will get nothing. You will have already shipped your laptop to Africa and will have no recourse. The buyer will insist you ship the laptop the moment you recieve your Western Union confirmation. If you tell the buyer you agree, but you must have 3 days to allow the Western Union transaction to clear and be cashed, then he will stop responding to your communications. PayPal protects you from this by requiring more stringent authorization of credit card information, in any case I would not ship anything to anyone out of the country, especially Africa, until I had cleared cash in my hands. I would not route any of this money in anyway to my bank account either, as this can incur additional charges if the transaction gets reversed and also may reveal your bank information to the "purchaser" which you would not want him to have.

http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/intl-payment.html

Avoid a foreign cashier's check .

This is a scam. Leave it alone....

If you get the cash in your hand I don't see that there would be a problem. So only send when you feel the green.

it's a scam

Heh yeah most likely a Scam...

I sell stuff on ebay, and its easy to tell if they are scammers. For the few items that I have sold, I get around 3 to 4 scam questions.

- They don't mention anything specific about your item, or your name. (ie. generic paragraph that can apply to pretty much any item on sale.)
- They offer an upfront price.. even though its a bid.
- They offer to pay by international cheque/money order, even though you do not have that as a option for the buyer.
- They want you to send them your mail address.
- They are from some 3rd-world country.
- Most of the time, the question they ask is full of grammar mistakes, and doesn't make sense. That just makes it easy to tell.

More than not, it is a scam. I have heard of many of these types of overseas deals, especially on ebay. However, as others have mentioned, if you get the CASHOLA in hand first . . . Then you are gold and do not have anything to worry about.

Good luck!

cash in hand, NOT money order or certified check...then you also need to bring up the exportation limitation on processor speeds to 3rd world states, import/export duties on the seller...do not take any thing like "i have a client who will pay you, and he will pay you more, so you just have to western union me the difference, but keeping a few hundred for yourself just for the inconvenience" kind of stuff.

i like to play with these folks a little..stipulate any client of theirs needs to have a written limited power of attorney to handle the transaction for them...charge a 20% commission if the buyer wants you to launder money for him...have him fax you a signed copy of agreement to be responsible for any and all import/export duties...have him send a real address to you, have communication in a subscription based email account

Just curious, was it the one where they need the laptop FAST and sent to Nigeria because their daughter is taking her exams next week? I got that one 2 weeks ago. Obvious SCAM.

It's going to be a fake check/money order, and they'll ask you to ship the item ahead of time with a tracking link to a fake site that looks legit. Don't do it.

Ebay

I sold to a few ebayers from other countries (small items) I will sell to anyone anywhere but i dont ship untill i see the money in my hand. no way to get screwed if u have the cash before you ship. and i allways sell AS-IS no returns no refunds no exceptions!

100% SCAM. I had this experience before. I took right step at right moment.

Well, I live in Africa (South Africa to be exact).

There are plenty of scams pulled by people living in Africa, so be careful. I would wait until you have the money, either in cash or transferred to another account (ie you are 100% sure it's cleared) before shipping. However, don't assume that just because the guy is from Africa it's a scam.

it takes up to a month to clear money order or cert. check in the federal banking system...so you could wait until it clears...then if it is bad you still have to pay bad check fee.

paypal transfer, ubid transfer, escrow, direct deposit is money in hand.

but i think we can all agree that this is a scam. the bait is always to end the auction early, higher amount than you listed if listing not on ebay, client in the states sending you money...etc, etc

the western union money order is a scam

the western union money orders are fake, but you won't know it until it is long gone...btw, im sure he said he'd arrange shipping via dhl right?

if you ever think something seems like a scam it is. it is even a scam when you dont think it is.

if you are ebaying, only sell to US (if you are in the US) and accept only paypal.

I don't know why you guys are saying WU is fake, or can be faked. I never heard of a WU money order, so i'm assuming you mean a WU money transfer? If so, it is so easy to check whether they sent you the money or not... just call your local WU where the money is due, and ask them if they've received it... if so, go there and pick it up, and you'll have the cash in hand. I've done lots of WU sales before, and aside from the fees, it's the best option (for the Seller... i would never buy anything that required WU unless i know the seller well)

i think there maybe some confusion on the scam...it is normally dealing with western union to transfer funds after you get a certified check or money order...the scam works like this: they thief asks to buy the item; tells you that he will have an associate give you a certified check or money order which is made out for more than what he offered to pay for the item; to wire transfer via western union the difference between the cost of the item and what the certified check or money order is made out for

since you have to pay cash upfront to wire western union money and since it is electronic, the wire transfer isn't the problem: it's the same thing as if you had someone wireing directly to your bank account, just higher fees.

the problem is the certified check or money order. since it takes several weeks to a month for the certified check to clear the federal reserve system, you will have sent a wire transfer via western union without knowing that the certified check is not valid. banks normally do not hold crediting your account for a certified check like they would personal checks, so the time gap between deposit and when the check actually clears is where you have the problem. You will then be assessed bounced check fee from your bank if the cert. check is bad.

money orders aren't faked as much...if you want a money order, have them get one from the USPS, that way if you try to cash it, you will know right away if it is valid or not, so there isn't a time gap.

another option is going threw escrow if there is no way for credit card or there is concern over wire transfers.

*********WARNING**********

SCAM ALERT!!

Unless you have the cash in HAND do NOT ship it off.

Well people. I'm from Argentina (for those who don't know where that is, and I know there is such people, it is in South America). I've bought a lap through eBay for my girlfriend, and had it shipped to McAllen, TX. When I won the auction, I mailed the seller and explained him the situation. Obviously, he was reluctant to do the operation because of all the scams going around. I offered him PayPal, Escrow, BidPay, but none of those methods satisfied him. So, I told him I could pay with a WU Money Transfer, he could ship the item AFTER having the money literally in his hands. After some "comings and goings" (hehe I don't know if such an expression exists in english, but it does in spanish :P), he decided to accept it, so I made the payment, and then he sent the laptop. To sum up, we were both very happy and no one was scammed

Moral of the story is: if he is willing to wait for you to have the money in your hands before shipping, go for it. IMHO there are as much "international" scammers (international from you people from the states' point of view) as local ones...