Putting my West Africa hat on, Nigeria does get a bad reputation, but it is a little unfair, I think. With the largest population in Africa, 140m plus, and a high literacy rate in English ( subject to some grammatical idiosyncracies ! ) you might expect more crooks from that country. I doubt if they are inherently more criminal than anywhere else.

Andrew

I was contacted by the SAME email address for my iPhone eBay listing, asking if they can pay me outside of PayPal. Did a Google search for the email address to see if it was known anywhere, and your blog came up! I read about the scam and promptly deleted that message.

Thank you for saving me a lot of trouble and possibly money!

It describes the story of a guy who fought back against the scammers.

Spotted a wee typo, I think you mean crafty:

my crafy Gmail Spam filter

eBay seem to be quite heavy handed with all matters relating to terms violations / fraud / etc. I know they’ve been quick to remove your listings in the past because of apparent terms violations, without any real investigation or discussion.

I think this problem is endemic in any “private” community like eBay. It’s a bit like what I was saying about Google. eBay have created their own private world. They are the absolute masters of their land. The corporation is an absolute dictator.

Strictly speaking, eBay is governed by the law. But technology is a new frontier, the internet a new land to be conquered. The law doesn’t always apply, or isn’t always clear regarding modern transactions. eBay is a world-wide business, so it spans any single legal jurisdiction. The corporation is largely unanswerable to it’s customers, to the people, the users, it’s population.

I dare say, as with any tyrannical regime in history (except perhaps the current ones), it will fall in due course. People will only accept oppression for so long. Sooner or later something will be done.

PayPal, Google, eBay, Second Life, they’re all good examples of a new Machiavellian frontier. Conquer and keep lands, maintain absolute dictatorship for as long as possible. Generally keep people obedient and in line.

The beauty is that these systems work. They work well, efficiently, and arguably more efficiently than the chaotic alternative. A system that allowed free trading between parties on the internet would surely cause chaos. Fraud, scams, and other trickery would surely be rife. So in giving up our freedom, our autonomy, our rights, we do make a significant gain.

In my opinion, that trade is not a lasting solution though. Such is the nature of things, those in power will slowly accrue more power, provide less efficiency, and so create their own undoing.

“For we fight not for glory, nor riches, nor honours, but for freedom alone, for which no good man gives up except with his life!”