I have sold stuff online for quite a few years, but I have never been scammed before! This incident will cause me to be more careful. TRUST NO ONE! Especially people who seem willing to pay hundreds of dollars just to ship something so common to another country.
Now this is what happened. I wanted to sell my iBounce (trampoline) I bought for my parents. They refuse to want to jump on it. Sian. So I posted a few ads online to try and sell it.
Got a reply from gumtree by this person: kanbongo@yahoo.com
Scammer: Hello how are you doing today, i want to know if this item is still available for sale reply asap.
Me: Yes it is still for sale. Please contact me directly at 9xxxxxxx for quicker replies. Thank you!
Scammer: Hello i am Mr J Balson from United State Of America. How are you today and how are your families? Hope all is good? Well i am interested in buying the item for my daughter in Greece (EUROPE), because it my daughter that need it and i hope she would like it, so kindly get to me with the total cost of the item including the shipping cost to her address below with post office, i pay through either Paypal or Bank transfer. Ok reply soon.
First Name: Janet
Last Name: Balson
Address: 10 Parkson Platinum Amerikis
City: Attiki
State: Athens
Zip-Code: 10446
Country: Greece
Me: It might cost quite a bit to get it packaged and shipped as the item is rather heavy and Singapore provides only DHL and FedEx services. I will check the prices and get back to you ASAP. But may I know it you have any budget/limit to the shipping charges you are willing to pay?
Scammer: I am thinking of the shipping through Post Office, because Fedex or DHL are more expensive, I will appreciate if you can check the shipping on the post office instead.
Me: The Rebounder weighs about 9.6kg in total. So I estimated the shipping charges for an item that weights 10kg using SingPost. I have attached the charges for shipping. Please let me know if you still want the item as the charges are quite expensive!
Scammer: Of course i still want it,kindly choose the 1 with tracking number for me and get back to me with the total cost and your payment details thanks.
Me: I will head down to Singpost today to check the exact charges for the package. Will fill you in with the details ASAP. I would prefer transaction via Paypal.
Scammer: Just get back to me with the total cost and your PayPal id thanks.
Thank goodness it was a long weekends and Singpost wasn’t open! Just out of curiousity I googled the address of the ‘daughter’ and found this website. That was when I realized that I almost got scammed! Haha.
Lesson learnt: only a fraud is willing to pay a few hundred dollars to get their items shipped. Hahaha.
absolute honesty 