Beware the eBay scammers, for their numbers are legion!

The BBQ Pit
1

Or that’s what it seemed like this weekend when my husband was looking for a commercial espresso machine.

Machine #1) I don’t remember all the details of this one, but the guy wanted $1200 ( assume that was his reserve), free shipping. Mr. Accurate offered $1000 (his original high bid.) Great! They had a deal. Sellers says he’ll send an eBay invoice. Invoice comes in. Strange, why does it have several misspellings on the page. Oh well, it’s the Internet. Even major corporations make spelling errors at times. But wait, why does the guy want this done through Western Union? EBay specifically warns against using wire transfer services. Oh, it’s because the seller is in Ireland. WTF?! Ireland? Why would anyone want to ship something that weighs over a hundred pounds from Ireland to the US? A check of UPS shows that the cost would be about half the value of the item. A check of the auction shows that the seller’s location and the address where payment is supposed to go are two different locations. (Which makes sense; he wouldn’t have bid on something that would’ve had to be shipped from Europe.)

Email sent to eBay. (The header proves the “invoice” was sent from an anonymous emailer site.)

Machine #2) Mr. Accurate bids $655 on another machine (one that’s cheaper overall). Gets outbid and the price goes up to around $1000. Then he gets a “second chance auction” email. Strange, there were at least five other customers above him. And the seller’s address and payment address were two different states. And another request for Western Union payment. Damnit, another scammer.

Another email to eBay. (This one’s header shows his email came from yahoo.)

He’s about ready to give up on eBay altogether after that.

2

Have you tried searching the model number with http://froogle.google.com/? I’ve had some luck finding cheap stuff from vendors through those search results, but of course there’s still risk.

3

Second-chance offers are not necessarily scams, except perhaps against eBay. They can be used to sell extra copies of something without paying a extra listing fee.

But I’d agree to be cautious about someone who thinks it’s cost-effective to ship a machine from Ireland, espoecially since the Irish use a 220/240 volt electricity supply, so that a machine that works in Ireland probably won’t work in the US.

4

Except he claimed his second chance auction was through eBay (which I think offers a service like that if you have a non-paying winning bidder), and he pulled eBay images into his email to make it seem as if it had come through eBay.

I hadn’t even thought about the differences in electrical supplies between the two nations.

5

Was the second chance auction email just to tell you that the seller was having another auction of the same item? Doesn’t seem strange to me at all. Many sellers have multiple auctions of the same item. Well I don’t mean the same physical item, but the same brand style etc.

6

This was a second chance auction of the same item; he claimed the high bidder couldn’t pay. But more than that: Western Union, different states for the seller and the payment, email header that proves the email came from yahoo, but the From line and images claimed it was from eBay, and Mr. Accurate wasn’t even the fourth highest bidder, let alone the second or third.

7

Second chance offer is fully supported and recommended by eBay. They still get a cut of the final price and reduce the amount of off-site transactions. Second chance

DeadlyAccurate Mr. Accurate did very well in catching the scam. Unfortunately many people would’ve just sent the money. There’s talk that some scammers are trolling eBay, looking for higher priced items, contacting the sellers and ripping them off…the one thing they seem to have in common is the Western Union thing.

There’s nothing eBay can do about it. Their site is open and any scammer can take advantage of that. All you can do, is what Mr. Accurate did, be careful.

Good luck.

8

I’m pretty much done with eBay.

If the deals on something I really wanted were SO GREAT that it made it worth sifting through the noise to get to the signal, sure.

But, when I compare the ease of payment and peace of mind that comes from buying from an online source like Amazon versus the problems that go with buying something on eBay (the bidding process, an item not as promised, not on time, damaged, scam possibility, etc.). . .well, it’s just not worth it to me anymore.

As far as I’m concerned, when you actually find something you really need/want, the discount is never significant enough to warrant the hassle.

The OP is going to go through all this crap. She’s eventually going to wind up buying the thing from Amazon, which she should have done in the first place, or buying it on eBay for about $20 less than Amazon has it whle worrying whether it will show up for xMas, if at all.

9

I’ve bought a dozen or so items off of e-bay. In fact, I bought two items this past week. I mean, where else could I have found a miniature tent and sleeping bag? (It’s for a practical joke.) I’ve been lucky in that I’ve never been scammed.

I always pay with a credit card via PayPal. If the seller doesn’t accept PayPal, no sale. I can’t always protect myself from a scammer, but Visa offers buyer protection. I’d never pay with Western Union or a check.

Good luck finding that espresso machine.

10

He got hit up with a third one yesterday. Same schtick.

Thanks for all the advice, everyone. I’m sure he’ll find one eventually, whether new or used.

11

Ebay certainly seems to have experienced a downhill turn lately in terms of security and the authenticity of items offered; I was looking for the DVD of Robots for my son’s birthday and despite it having been on general release for a month or so, there were still about five bootleg listings to every genuine one.
Some of the obviously bootleg items were from sellers with large feedback ratings; how is it that these people are still trading. Ebay doesn’t really care is how.

12

In this case, the sellers aren’t even aware that these scammers are doing this. He contacted one of the sellers and gave him the name and address of the person who contacted him for payment, simply asking if they’re one and the same. She said she hadn’t heard of that person.

One of the scammers emailed him again asking if he’d sent payment yet. He signed the guy up for tons of spam. We figure he’s rendered the guy’s email account useless by now.

13

I concur most wholeheartedly - I repeatedly turned in the same person for listing a bootleg copy of the out-of-print ‘State’ (from MTV), which was described as such in the listing as a disclaimer. Each time ebay sent me a thank you email and removed the listing, which popped right back up within hours. Nothing seems to be done to keep out that lister or to check the listing for the catchphrases which would alert even a bot to the presence of a bootleg. Now that Half & ebay are combined, I had to drop the item off my wish list b/c the bootlegs keep prompting email alerts b/c they’re ‘available’.

14

Unless the copyright holder complains to ebay, nothing will be done about bootlegs.

15

Heard this on Stern the other day:

'Tis the season.

16

I’m pretty sure I was just scammed on ebay. I’ve used it quite a bit over the last few years for Christmas shopping, with pretty good results.

But I just got one of those second chance things and bought. Only later realising that likely, working in tandem, they had bid up the price to determine what my highest offer was and then claimed the other bidder backed out, approaching me.

It’s pretty simple and obvious and yet ebay doesn’t seem to care at all. I find you have to be much more cautious and there seems to be way, way more misrepresentation than I ever noticed before. I am pretty much done with it now.

17

My last purchase from eBay was on June 22. That was also the last thing I bid on. And get up to a half a dozen messages a week from “sellers” on eBay threatening me with negative feedback and so forth because I haven’t paid for the item I just won. Or giving me a chance to buy something at a second chance auction because the first bidder backed out. :dubious:

Plus the 1 or 2 Paypal phishing emails I get every week. And these are just the ones that make it though my spam filters. :stuck_out_tongue:

18

eBay seller here to chime in about the great scams worked on our end. I work for a large Animation Art Gallery as their eBay sales manager, eBay is a very small part of our business but we do have around 400 auctions up at any one time. On an almost DAILY basis I get emails that claim to be from eBay saying that I need to verify some of my account information (usually my password and Credit Card number) or else eBay is going to sue my ass off. It has gotten so bad that I have a quick link on my desktop so I can go to eBay’s fraud services with a single click. Some of them were good enough that they actually managed to scare me while reading them they looked so official. My favorite though had, in small print at the bottom, a disclaimer that read “eBay will always ask you for password and billing information” (bolding mine).

What makes me sad is that these things must work some of the time or people wouldn’t place the effort into creating them. (and by the looks of them some of them took a lot of effort)

Then of course there are the people who win things on the 3rd of November and immediately send me an email saying “I have overspent this month so I am not going to pay till December” But that is another rant entirely.

19

I’m pretty well done with eBay as well. I sold some things, bought some things, and I feel lucky I had no problems there, but the non-stop barrage of fake eBay e-mails threatening me with suspension of my account and various other consequences if I don’t click the link and confirm my information Right.Now.Or.Else is just exhausting.

I like to bid just once. I bid the max I’m willing to pay and if I get outbid, I get outbid. I’m not going to go into a bidding frenzy for the privilege of paying twice the item is worth just so I can say, “I won!!”

The scam stories have become so widespread that I just don’t feel that comfortable buying or selling on eBay anymore. I’ll wander around from time to time just to see what’s out there, but I haven’t bought or sold anything in ages. It’s just not that much fun anymore when I have to jump through so many hoops to make sure I’m not getting scammed. Sad - it used to be lots of fun.

20

First thing with EBAY is to know your subject, have an idea of what something is worth, if its too good to be true…yadda yadda yadda.

Check past history, is the sellers suddenly offering items that do not fit in with their past - this could easily be a phished account.

Has there been a long break in the sellers history, could be an overlooked account that has been hijacked.

Are they showing actual images of the item for sale, or is it lifted either from a manufacturers site or a collectors/enthisiast site.

Spelling, why is it that scammers can’t spell, but its so true.

Expensive items, will they take cash on collection, you may not live anywhere near but it doesn’t stop you asking, scammers never allow cash on collection so ask them, get an address from them or perhaps ask them for a phone number so you can discuss the item, even better, if you are given a number call it and ask questions that can only be answered by someone who has the item in front of them.

If they put any email address on their ad, its always a phished account, they don’t want you to send questions using the account holders registered email, obvious really.

Ask technical questions to which you already know the answer on specialist items, such as mains supply voltage and frequency, or the reciever bands of the equipment, one good one is to ask for the serial number of the item, scammers never ever have an actual example of the item and so cannot give you the serial number in the correct format for that particular manufacturer.

Item location, and currency, do they all match ? Sometimes you’ll find that when you look at a sellers history, their location changes, and very often their nationality its a real giveaway.

Ask the seller what the cost of shipping is, or even better, ask them if they will allow you to arrange collection by carrier as you can get it cheaper, of course you’ll need their address for that.

Second chance offers, are just a way to scam lots of folk in one go, there will always be another item on offer so walk away every time, you may be wrong, but you will not be scammed this way.

Is it a one day listing ? - don’t be stupid, use your head.

Moneygrams, Western Union etc are all out, credit cards are generally legit and you are protected.

Don’t be impatient, there will always be another one on offer, always buy CDs DVDs etc second hand from Amazon, much cheaper and not copies.

If you know how, always check any email headers from anything sent by EBAY, never send any details or passwords on an email purporting to be from EBAY.

Do not volunteer any information to EBAY, it might be legit, but who knows, if you want to do anything at all to your account, then do it on the EBAY user area only, always check your credit cards are actually in date when you get an email from EBAY that warns you that they are going out of date, and only change these details on the EBAY website, never on Email.

If there are multiple users in your household, especially multiple occupancy where others may have access to the machine, make sure to turn off autocomplete on password, better still, delete all cookies after use or you may end up paying for things you hadn’t bargained upon.
Anyone got any others to add ??