Flashes of Panic

I dusted off the eBay account last week to sell some accumulated stuff. The major item was A’s first professional digital camera, a Kodak DCS620 with no cards, no lenses, and just the one battery. The 620 was Kodak digital guts stuffed in the body of a Nikon F5, and therefore is a big, heavy monster of a camera, particularly next to the (relatively) sleek Nikon D series cameras A has been using since about 2003.

The price wasn’t bad, but things have started getting weird. The invoice address and the user’s shipping address don’t match, but they’re both relatively close to each other in the U.K. Then I got email from the email address listed with the buyer’s account, and it (a) uses a different name than the account does, and (b) asks me to ship to an address in Nigeria “for my son who is traveling in West Africa for a scholarship” and they’re in a hurry because they’re currently traveling in Portugal themselves.

By now the rat smells so bad you can probably smell it too. I’m now 95% certain this “buyer” is a scam, perhaps looting someone else’s PayPal account by converting it into expensive electronics. Here’s how I replied:

I can’t in good conscience send this camera for your son to travel with in West Africa. Did you read the listing carefully? This is one of the heaviest digital cameras ever made, and quite large even without the lens. There is no lens included in the sale, so I would have to assume you already own one. And West Africa, sadly, as you may know, has developed a reputation for fraudsters and scammers; a camera this large would be difficult for your son to protect. You should buy your son a smaller, less expensive camera where you are in Portugal, and send it to him yourself; as I’ve stated in my listing, I won’t be responsible for shipping overseas.

Let’s see how this plays out.

Now Playing: Departure from New Adventures In Hi-Fi by R.E.M.

Technorati Tags: ebay, camera