Hi, I have a strange situation. I have been reading all these posts about scammers from Nigeria, and I think I might be getting scammed too. Here is what happened, in a nutshell... I'm a copy editor, and I was contacted by an author from Nigeria. He and I have talked back and forth about terms, he sent me 50 pages of his manuscript to check out, and everything seemed ok. He told me he needed 12 hours of editing and would pay in installments. I sent him a request for payment for the first installment, so that I could get started on his manuscript. He wrote back saying... "I tried crediting you through PayPal but unfortunately, for some bizarre reason, my country is not on the list! And there's no 'Other' on the country list. Is there another way I can credit you if this wont work?" I wrote back to him, giving him instructions on how to a) make a PayPal account, b) enter his VISA info into the account and c) send the money from his account to my account. So, today I get this: "Tried it. No dice. Apparently I just discovered that there is no paypal service in Nigeria. As an alternative, I suggest doing an electronic transfer to your company account. I will need the name of your bank, its address, your account number and routing number to enable me to deal. Thanks." Apparently he discovered there is no paypal service in Nigeria? He's got the internet, right? That's fishy, isn't it? And then this thing about doing an electronic transfer... which I would be skeptical about anyway. And then, after all, he's from Nigeria. Is this a scam? It doesn't look like the normal scams I've been seeing. And, he has given me his name, and he has a facebook account, and there is another webpage that has some of his writing on it. Is this guy for real, or is he just really clever? Thanks for your help. The Copy Cat www.copycateditor.com
... View more
