Is this genuine?

Got an email from someone who saw my camera ad in gumtree. Got this fist :-

"hello seller is this item still for sale?can you get back to me at
jackweb34
at
yahoo
dot
com
so we can talk about the picking up the item..
Thanks
jack

From: jack"

I emailed him asking to arrange to come round and I got this:-


"Thanks for getting back to me..I would have loved to handle this item
myself but unfortunately I?m busy with my job,i work in a studio.
As i think the safest way to make payment online is through paypal money transfer
Or Bank Transfer?I want to send it to my Business Partner who is on
a training course in West Africa,i want to send it as a Birthday Gift,
I will like you to get back to me with the total cost of the item
and postage via royal-mail courier service nearby and also info of the
payment you want to be made..

Hope To Read From You Soon...
Thanks".

Smells fishy to me. What do you think

Barge-pole, touch, don't, with, a, it (re-arrange into a well known phrase or saying).

The scam relies on you feeling secure because the payment will appear in your account before the goods are sent, but the buyer uses a bent card or account, resulting in a charge-back from the bank, by which time your goods are long gone.

Offer to meet him at his place of employment and for him to pay cash. Bet he'll go very quiet/cancel at the last moment/have a death in the family, etc.

I think it's from the same guy who wanted to put $20,000,000 in my bank account

I have asked where his studio is so I can bring it round for him.

I expect that will end it.

Forewarned is forearmed

I think this email you received is either from someone high up in the Nigerian Armed Forces (Chief xxxx), or perhaps even from a member of the Nigerian Royal Family (Prince xxx). Unfortunately, I sold my last 10ft bargepole on Ebay recently. I think you will have to politely decline by offering a quotation from the Holy Bible - I think the passage goes something like "go forth, and multiply".

Basically, if it swims like a fish, tastes like a fish, and smells like a fish - it's most definitely fishy!!

Lagos probably But, you never know, maybe I'm just getting very cynical these days.

Now, someone wants to send me £1,000,000....

I hear Lagos is nice at this time of the year!!

Its a very common operation out of Africa, TT to your account, whatever it is do not ever give your bank details for TT operation, in fact, just forget about the deal

Oso

To coin an oft uttered local colloquialism :-

"Ah widnae poke that wi a shitty stick"

..Wi' yir tackity-bits oan!! (or is it only in Auchinleck they say that, Rab??)

You never can tell. I once put a Takumar wide-angle for sale on eBay and the "winner" was a guy with a dodgy email address, a non-European name, who said that his PayPal account was not working and he wanted to pay by bank transfer or something.

I replied "nothing doing; PayPal or nil". Within 24 hours I had the cash via PayPal, a good feedback from him, and it was all OK. But it pays to be very very cautious.

Good luck,

Martin

Auchinlek - Ah ken it weel, a braw wee toon. But dinae fash yersel', we kin be guye coorse doon here an aw'.

I won't bother asking for a translation, Rab... Ah'm a Weegie in exile!!

Lagos is never nice ... at any time of year