What's the catch? (eBay question)

General Questions
#1

I don’t think this question breaks the rules, but if it does I apologize…

What’s the catch here?

I can’t seem to figure out what’s wrong with this listing. Anybody have any ideas? It seems unlikely that this person would be able to sell new 60gb iPod Videos for under $200 (USD)… If I can’t find anything sneaky I’m thinking about buying this…

–FCOD

#2

I can’t look at the listing because I’m at work, but my guess is either they’re not new, they’re stolen, they’re not what they say they are, any combination of these, or it’s a complete scam altogether and the buyer won’t receive anything.

#3

Look at his feedback. He only has feedback from sellers with zero history, they’re all on the same day, and it’s all for crap out of China. It’s a scam.

#4
  1. He’s not operating in America, he’s operating in Poland. Which means he could try to get you to sign up for a phony escrow, because “international transfers are unsecure”. Also, American laws for recovery of your money may not apply in Poland.
  2. Look at his feedback. It all comes from users with zero feedback, all from the same item sold a month earlier, and none are currently registered users. What are the odds they all cancelled their accounts at the same time, versus he created shells to give himself good feedback?

It’s a scam.

#5

Oh, and to add to this: The feedback is from yesterday and every single seller is no longer a registered user. Run away.

#6

I suppose it is helpful to actually look at the feedback details…

Thanks everyone…guess there will be no iPod for me :frowning:

–FCOD

#7

All of his 10 positive feedback replies are from people with just 0 and 1 feedback which is highly unusual and the products sold have no descriptions, so the assumption is that these buyers paid for items that only had a picture and a price. :dubious: He has 12 of these super cheap video ipods for sale at present.
This is a generally the type of scam where he (or she) generates fake positive feedback (and the dida lazy job of it) in order to get people to but the sexy, super cheap Ipods which will never be shipped.

#8

The other scam in this listing is that shipping is EUR 45, which is the most expensive shipping that I’ve seen for an item as small as an iPod. When I see prices on eBay much lower than normal market prices, the first thing I look at is shipping costs.

#9

Yeah, I noticed the expensive shipping cost too. That’s a pretty common tactic for making an item seem really cheap. I’m used to that sort of thing. My BS detector went off because even accounting for the shipping (~$60 USD I think) the total price was still under $200 USD.

–FCOD

#10

As stated earlier, you would think the scammer would have the brains to make his phony feedback look a little bit believable- 10 items, all about 50 cents each , all on the same day- what an asshole. :wally

#11

I e-mailed the asshole to ask what the deal is, will advise if he responds.

#12

Not only on the same day, but the same hour! All with basically 3 or 4 minute intervals between the postings.

#13

Luckily no one seems to be taken in as none of the 10 have bids- which goes to show again what an idiot he/she is- you would think he would get some shill bids going from one of his fake accounts to make it seem legit…

#14

It is a picture of an Ipod nano box, but the description is for a 60 gig ipod.

#15

I used the link at the bottom of the page to report it to ebay.

Did my civic duty for the day. :smiley:

#16

And if there is still any doubt, he only accepts “other forms of payment”…

#17

Good move! It is now an “Invalid Item”

#18

It’s gone. Am I right in thinking this was a Chinese scammer with the ‘magic 10’ feedback?

They set up a bunch of IDs and buy nonexistent items from each other, enabling creation of a 10-point feedback rating, because until you hit 10, you can’t create Buy It Now listings and can’t scam people quickly enough.

#19

Mangetout, the seller claimed to be in Poland, but the 10 feedbacks were all for small Chinese items with pictures only, no descriptions, and all of the 10 had e-mail adresses that were Chinese.