Lessons on not getting Scammed

Well, here it is less then one month away. I was able to acquire all the necessary funds to go!!!! However, it wasn't by selling my laptop. No that was an interesting story of which I am now goinig to tell. So, I posted my laptop onto KSL.com where within a few days I recieved a message from someone interested in buying my laptop. I thought, "Great! I'm going to get this sold sooner then I thought." . . . . Well, after responding I got another e-mail saying that this lady wanted me to ship it to South Africa, without meeting her, and that once i shipped it she'd reimburse me the cost. After talking with my family I responded with the facts that I would prefer to meet in person and allow her the "joy" of mailing it that far away. The e-mail became invalid after that. SOMONE TRIED TO SCAM ME!!

So, attempt two. I posted the laptop on e-bay, five day auction, I set a reserve price to protect myself from losing it. So, one-two days go by no bids. Third day very low and just rediculous bids. It's not even close to my reserve. I keep getting messages with people wanted to buy it from me if I'll stop the auction (which I can't do) and they want me to ship it to Africa! All I believe six of them, that I never responded to, wanted me to ship it to some overseas place. Yea right!

Then about ten hours before the bid closes, someone bid the exact price of my reserve. I thougth this kind of odd because you normally see odd bids and I didn't expect it to jump that much. I was ok. I thought, "oh well that's kind of weird, but at least I'll have my money and maybe others will keep going". The bid closes and it hasn't moved, so I send him an invoice. He actually ended up being in England so I sent him an invoice with the correct shipping prices.

Next day, I get an e-mail from e-bay telling me that the transaction has been cancelled and that the bid was invalid because the username who bid the winning bid didn't authorize the bid!!! Then I get an e-mail from the supposed guy saying he deposited the money into my paypal account. but not only did he deposit the bid price but an additional 100 dollars plus almost double the shipping costs. I don't get it. . . .so I go check my paypal account. . . . there's nothing there! I decided to just lay low. Next day, I get an e-mail from e-bay telling me to go ahead and ship the item that everythings been squared away. I get an e-mail from paypal saying they need the tracking number in order to transfer the funds into my account. . . I thought to myself. . . "No, I"m going to double check on this" So, I went to e-bay and in my inbox the only thing was the cancellation e-mail. Nothing else. I double checked the response from the guy and guess what the shipping address had been changed to.... Africa!!! Now, I was really not happy. I called paypal and they clearified that all e-mails that they send have my first and last name in it. The e-mails I got, my e-bay username!!! I was freaken getting scammed AGAIN!!!! This time though I went through and reported all the e-mails, changed all my passwords, and prayed that they didn't get any information on me!!!!

So, lesson to learn. Really double and triple check your sources and what's going on. I was so lucky not to have lost anything but my time. However, through it all the Lord has blessed me with the money to go!! And I get to keep my laptop. Yea.