I'm selling an item online. Someone contacted me and, after a question about whether the item is available, said the following:

"Good,Am okay with the price. but right now am currently out of the country for a business trip ,I want you to help me shipping it out to my colleague as his birthday gift to WEST AFRICA.I’ll paying you €100 EURO which includes for the shipping fees through the POST OFFICE, can I send you the money through western Union money transfer?"

The item costs 8€. Shipping costs around 30-40€.

My question is, is it a scam and, if so, how does it work?

My question is, is it a scam and, if so, how does it work?

Yes this is a scam. No one pays EUR 100 for a EUR 8 item.

There are different ways this can proceed, once he knows someone is hooked into it.

• At some point there will be a request for refund as the transfer was
  by mistake for a larger amount,


• or indulge in identity theft; request for identification documents saying Western Union needs it


• or ask you to purchase few more items from someone, pay directly and
  he will cover this off and ship together as it is cheaper


• or show fake failed western union transfer


• or progress to asking your bank account credentials to make direct transfer as
  western union is becoming too clumsy ... etc

Stay away from these things.

This scam is a common one, typically called overpayment fraud. The usual route is the scammer sends you a money transfer for an amount much larger than the total cost of the purchase. They will then ask you to give them back the difference.

The scam is that a short while later, the cheque will bounce or payment will in some way be revoked, so you will be short not only the amount the scammer 'sent' you but also the difference you gave back to them. The form of payment varies, but they will always ask for a refund.

Simply insist that they send only the amount to cover the items and no more. As you said, that is about half of the amount they are trying to send you. There is simply no legitimate need to send any more than necessary.

Yes, it looks like a scam.

Normally, overpayment scams are said to request Western Union transfers from the victim so it cannot be reversed while the original payment to the victim can and is reversed. This leaves the scammer with whatever they paid the victim, plus whatever the victim paid them.

In your case, the original payment is said to be from Western Union. Here are some traps to watch out for:

• they ask you to make payments of any kind before paying you: your payment might never arrive;




• they paid Western Union from someone else’s account: you will be helping them gain access to someone else’s money; or




• they money was in their possession but was acquired illegally: you would be involving yourself in money laundering.

Now, there is a chance that this is legitimate, that they really want to pay you €50 including postage, and have the rest accompany the product as a present to the recipient. But this is unlikely, and you’d be taking a huge risk if you chose to participate in their scheme.

If you are earning €8 gross, your profit margin isn’t a lot. By the time you factor in your inconvenience with money handling etc and perhaps even fuel costs to drive to the post office and back, you might have been better off just throwing the item away - even if the buyer is legitimate.

Paying €42 postage for an €8 item sounds excessive. Adding an additional €50 of messy money opens the way for all sorts of scams, including money laundering.

To maximise whatever profit you get out of the €8 item, you are better off selling to a more straightforward cash buyer, especially if it is a one-off sale.

As everyone has mentioned, this is most likely a scam.

Personally, I like to go through all the steps until the fateful moment where YOU have to take out money from your pocket, so then I can analyze the scam and be more aware later on.

Once you know it's most likely a scam, and if you have some time to spare, you might find it useful to know how this works.

In your case, since he is mentioning Western Union, I don't really see how he would get his money back - up to you if you want to down the route and find out, or just stay away from it.