Yesterday, I received a private message from a DigitalPoint Forums member that was asking for help. The member said he is from Egypt and has a PayPal account used for online transactions. He said his PayPal account "got limited" and the only way for him to withdraw funds from his account is to mail the check to a US address.
He said that when I get the check, I can then send him the money via e-gold, moneybookers, or western union.
He then ends:
Please be sure of that, the account is %100 legal, and I am not a scammer.
Typically, when someone needs to explain that they are a 100% legal and not a scammer, you need to be worried about something.
But after doing some research, it appears that this person may just need some help. He started a DigitalPoint Forums thread asking for help and as you can see, he has over 200 posts at DigitalPoint Fourms, clearly some history there.
Will I help? No way. It still seems to fishy for me. Typically, in the Nigeria scams, they send you money, it initially clears with your bank and then 2 weeks later you learn that it bounced. By then it is too late and you sent them real money. This is called advance fee fraud.
I still think this guy may be legit, but I won't be risking it. Beware of such possible scams in SEO/SEM forums.
Forum discussion at DigitalPoint Forums