I had a guy from a Lagos trading company contact us recently through our company's website. He wants to buy a fairly arbitrary amount of very specialised imaging dyes and developer chemicals from us, '10 drums of each' which comes to over 100,000 euros. No w no-one who knows anything about this specialised line of chemistry ever orders '10 of everything'. He's asking for an invoice so he can send us a cheque. This seems so obviously a scam, but I wondered how it worked, if he knows we won't release the goods until his cheque has cleared?
Anyone know about this scam? I have heard of other Nigerian ones where goods don't get cleared at the docks until extra funds are sent and the company remains liable for port charges. I've also heard of the ones where he says the money is held up in transfer from his bank and to get the 100k I need to send £50 or £100 clearing charge to help with the transfer.

I have no idea, I just dont recommend anyone ever deals with Africa, sadly :/ Those uneducated third world nations seem to have a complete grasp on our monetary systems.

Normally they send a fake cheque, and ask you to send the goods onwards, before you put the cheque in, quite why anyone would do that is a mystery to me.

All that said, we deal with Nigeria a fair bit at work, never had any trouble with payments or anything, although I have a sneaky suspiction that they are just laundering the money.........

Dan,

The only thing i can think of is he asked twice to confirm whose name I wanted him to write on the cheque. If the stupid are lured into suggesting their own name rather than their company, then the fraudster has you hooked.
The hotmail email addy is also a touch suspicious. i will confront him and see if he gets back to me. I guess if he doesn't then my suspicions are correct.

Don't do it. I've read many times about those Nigerian buying practices/scams and the one you described seems to fit exacly. Unusual large amount of a certain item, payed with cheque. I don't know the details anymore, but there was a big thread on SA about that, describing how they made money from these scams.

Hotmail addys seem the norm for Nigerian companies for some reason, does sound a bit iffy though, might be best to give it a wide bearth, ir try and get a phone number and speak with him personally.

Dan,

Quote from al heeley :

I had a guy from a Lagos trading company contact us recently through our company's website. He wants to buy a fairly arbitrary amount of very specialised imaging dyes and developer chemicals from us, '10 drums of each' which comes to over 100,000 euros. No w no-one who knows anything about this specialised line of chemistry ever orders '10 of everything'. He's asking for an invoice so he can send us a cheque. This seems so obviously a scam, but I wondered how it worked, if he knows we won't release the goods until his cheque has cleared?
Anyone know about this scam? I have heard of other Nigerian ones where goods don't get cleared at the docks until extra funds are sent and the company remains liable for port charges. I've also heard of the ones where he says the money is held up in transfer from his bank and to get the 100k I need to send £50 or £100 clearing charge to help with the transfer.

The cheque will clear OK but then 3 - 4 weeks later the banks will realise its a fake and you'll be out of pocket. That's how these things work apparently.

obviously a scam.
when i sell things on the karting.co.uk website i always get these.

it usually says something like 'ill get my courier to collect your (10 oxytetracycline barrels) i am relaly intrest in the item and can you tell me your final price.'

Heh, apparently my shares in an African dimond mine have gone up, and as a gift they have some dimonds to send me, but I need to pay £100 to get them through customs. Such a great deal to be honest. I think I'll send them the money now

I sent him an email outlining my concerns for his motives and the number of scams from Lagos hotmail accounts, I have not received my usual chase up email from him this morning. I said his details had been passed on to the 'export fraud enquiry service' for checking as a standard precaution before proceeding with the transaction.
Odd, I thought he was really keen to buy all these chemicals.
It's all gone quiet in Lagos.

The "niger letters" were IN, like in... 1995?
Fashion repeats itself

Obviously 99,99% of emails you get "from Nigeria" is bullshit, especially if it has something to do with money.

al its stilly to send them a email saying u think they are a scammer, they can virus your comp or do some other stuff

best just to not reply

I don't know if it happened to anyone else, about a month ago I redialed a number and it was someone in Nigeria. Then I got a call about 2 days later from the same poeple, but they kept hanging up straight away. Then the next day, another call.

I've also got that same email in my inbox that Al, has.

But I didnt give details over email cos if it looks too good to be true, it usually is..a scam.
I've also got a message saying I've won the Email lottery, don't think I'll be replying!

what exactly is with everyone and posting the scams they have come across lol?

kinda random actually

i cant wait to hear response Al

Quote from al heeley :

I sent him an email outlining my concerns for his motives and the number of scams from Lagos hotmail accounts, I have not received my usual chase up email from him this morning. I said his details had been passed on to the 'export fraud enquiry service' for checking as a standard precaution before proceeding with the transaction.
Odd, I thought he was really keen to buy all these chemicals.
It's all gone quiet in Lagos.

Then after a while you realise what a waste it was to confirm a scam as it was. And next time you get talked to by the Nigeria link you'll frown a little bit, and just tell them to FO. Well, if this comes a third time, it will be pure hate and fury.

At least that's what I've gone through from my eBay experience, I just got pissed off by those unbelievably obvious scams. What are those scammers thinking?! Rubbish!

Old link, but humour about the scammers

http://www.419eater.com/
http://www.ebolamonkeyman.com/