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Woman Loses Good Sum of Money to Nigerian Scammers

A woman residing in south of Perth is robbed off $9,000 after being targeted by a huge Nigerian scam, when she was trying to sell a Sony PlayStation via eBay.

The scam comprised bogus mails which claimed to have come from government's WA ScamNet Service, PayPal, eBay, the Nigerian Police, and Customs and Central Bank.

The scamming started when the woman posted an ad on eBay in April 2010 about selling a PlayStation with movies and games for $250.

A fake buyer purchased the item and asked the item to be sent to Nigeria. It further stated that the payment has been made through PayPal. After this, the seller got a phony PayPal mail wrongly claming that the funds had already been deposited.

The woman is then asked by the hacker to help him by paying for customs duty and shipping charges.

Anticipating a scam, the victim contacted the Consumer Protection's WA ScamNet service, where she was asked to stop transacting with the scammers. However, her report led to several other forged mails abusing the name of higher authorities, which left her defrauded of $8700.

While talking about the technique adopted to create a scam mail, Anne Driscoll, Consumer Protection Commissioner, said that she was surprised by seeing that the international hackers have become more skilled, as per the news published by thewest.com.au on May 13, 2010.

She also added that the hackers will keep on robbing the online users and will continue disguising as govt. authorities in forged mails. She said that it's very difficult to get the money back once transferred.

Further, Ms. Driscoll told that this particular case was intricate, but users are being cheated everyday by hackers disguising as lovers, sellers, buyers or holders of lottery winnings and inheritance funds.

Ms. Driscoll suggested that users should check the authenticity of a mail before making any payment. Also, users should always check the official sites and should not reply or click links attached with unfamiliar mails.

Related article: Woman Lying As Pregnant, Frauds Adoptive Couples

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