Whole lot of eBay scams... why isnt eBay doing something?

[RobHague]

Apple Power Mac G5 2.7 + cinema display 30" BRAND NEW

*Brand New* POWERMAC G5 2.3 Ghz 2GB RAM & 23" Display

I was browsing the UK site to see how my own auction was going. And i found these two little gems ...

This 'seller' has two different account names, yet the same email address to contact - sweex009@aol.com. It gets better, he is one lucky guy (As well as an impulse buyer?) because not soon after buying his NEW 2.7Ghz that he does not want, he got that 2.3Ghz G5 as a prize in a 'contest'.

"The computer is a contest prize and it is in its original unopened packaging."

Well there must be a hell of a lot of contest's around because i see 'contest prizes' in the form of PowerMacs on eBay every week.

Did you notice that one 'buyer' is buying both systems too? fredy2aol has a mac fetish because he is not only buying the 2.7Ghz system for over £3000 but the 'contest' prize 2.3 too... or maybe he is actually just in it and trying to push the price up (since they started at £100).

It's irritating because it hurts sellers as well as buyers. Actual 'real' systems (like mine) appear overpriced because someone runs a scam like this offering maxed outs specs for super low prices. Results end up being 'potential buyers' overlook authentic deals, go for scams - lose money, think twice next time about buying anythig like that from eBay and the seller loses a potential sale and has to repay to rebook the item. If i look at other auctions i can find many more examples where things look dodgy.... why arent eBay doing anything about this? This seems to be a regular thing.

 

[MacRy]

It's dreadful isn't it! I see loads on there and wonder the same thing. Same goes for those bloody pyramid selling website links too. You know the ones - Get a new iMac for free!!! Send me a fiver and i'll tell you a website that will give you a free XBOX360!!! Just use Google and you'll find it and it's a scam. Ebay really does need to tighten up on some sellers. There is a shedload of knock off goods on there too. Do a search for Tiffany jewellery and you'll be amazed at the amount of counterfeit items.

 

[katie ta achoo]

eBay hosts millions of auctions per day. Scams may take a while to get taken care of.

Just report them as you see them, and someone from eBay will take care of it.

It may sound a little disheartening, but it's true.

Maybe one day, people will notice that if it's too good to be true, it probably is. (Where are you gonna get a PM with 30" for under $10000? GEEZ.)

 

[motherduce]

Yeah, I sell a lot on there, and I keep getting all these scam buyers who want to buy my auctions from nigeria and crap. It sucks because it interferes with the auctions and sometimes they even do the Buy It Now, then un-register, so I can't complete the sale and have to relist.

CRAP!

 

[Ibrin]

I think I saw the exact same listings last week, at least the first one. I can't be sure it was the same seller, but it had the same crappy bullets and everything. That person had three different auctions up. Two were for Powerbooks, one for a Power Mac + CD. Each listing looked identical, and said that he had a 2nd of each SKU, and that you could buy one directly for $1k.

I emailed and asked how he had two 15" PBs he was willing to let go so cheaply. He said he "basically got them for free in a contract." He wanted me to send him $1k straight through PayPal and he's send me the PB. Yeah, right. Later the next day all the auctions were down.

I did an eBay "member search" in the Community area. That email address isn't tied to any account.

 

[clayj]

Best thing you can do is (1) report them as you see them and (2) tell people you know that if they see a deal on eBay that seems to good to be true, they should run it past you before they bid or send any money.

We can't eliminate dishonesty or dishonest people (dang), but we can stop them from being able to hurt anyone else.

 

[FFTT]

There should at least be a convenient request to verify the product information including the product model number and serial number before you even consider a purchase on e-bay.

If for no other reason than to verify which Rev you're talking about.

At least then, you could ask Apple to check their "reported stolen " database.


If the product has been stolen, that seller is not about to give you the serial number.

 

[madmaxmedia]

Scam auctions are typically pretty easy to spot. Some giveaways-

1. The auction is for a PowerMac, but the category is cookware for some strange reason. I think scammers hope that EBay employees are monitoring only certain categories so their auction will escape detection.

2. The auction listing instructs potential buyers not to use the EBay listing button to ask the seller a question, but to send an email to an address in the listing. This is typically because the scammer has hijacked a legitimate seller's account, but can't change the email address for the account.

3. The auction listing says that the seller has other units for sale, and that you can buy them direct from him for some outrageous price (say $1000 for a brand new latest 15 AluBook.)

4. The seller says your transaction will be guaranteed because it's going through some escrow service (which often means nothing.)

 

[ZoomZoomZoom]

Give them a bite of this.

http://www.zug.com/pranks/powerbook/

 

[Danksi]

Give them a bite of this.

http://www.zug.com/pranks/powerbook/

Sweeeet!

 

[Macky-Mac]

...I was browsing the UK site to see how my own auction was going. And i found these two little gems ..

.... why arent eBay doing anything about this? This seems to be a regular thing.

ebay will tell you they're just providing a technology that allows people to sell stuff....and it's not their job to police what people do....it's sort of like those p2p sites, bit torrent and all, saying they only provide technology and it's not their fault if people use it to violate copywrite laws

 

[MacRy]

Give them a bite of this.

http://www.zug.com/pranks/powerbook/

That's hilarious. Thanks for that

 

[wdlove]

The idea that if it looks to too good to be true it usually is true. This has been going on since the beginning of time. Have just figured it's best to stay away from eBay.

 

[Sdashiki]

eBay needs, like this forum has, a report this auction button.

it then gets sent to the fraud dept to be looked at.

abuse will get you a warning or banned (like reporting tons and none actually being scams)

In the end, its alot easier than searching for the "report a bad auction" page and putting in the item #.

A simple red button somewhere to report this auction, would be so much easier.

 

[chaos86]

heres what I do to drive up my prices from people who are skeptical about my auction. I say "send me a picture request, like me pointing at the apple logo or touching the power button with my pinky finger, and I'll post a photo of it ASAP". You'd be surprised how much more at ease people feel and how it affects bids after they've asked you to "touch the left usb port [on my Powerbook for sale] with your right index finger and the right one with your left middle finger while showing the about this mac box" for a really stupid looking pic but it verifies that you actually have the product. Also, get a sheet of paper and write your ebay name and email address on it and put it in the photo of the item, that helps too.

 

[tenorman1943]

Sweex009

Hi, I've just been scammed for £382.00 sterling by this scumbag Sweex009@aol on ebay. Can't believe I was so naive! He used a version of the escrow sting and I fell for it. What made him seem so plausible was his brilliant rating on ebay. I had no idea that this could be invented. If you type Sweex009 into Google he comes up on a French ebay list of scammers.

Apart from feeling stupid I'm also VERY angry with him/her and with ebay who don't seem able/willing to purge their sites of scammers. I've complained of course, but to no avail. Just a standard response.

I'm no computer expert, but surely there must be a way of tracking this ******* through aol?

The final answer of course is two-fold. 1) If something seems too good to be true it almost always is. 2) Don't use ebay.

 

[plasticparadox]

I'm no computer expert, but surely there must be a way of tracking this ******* through aol?

Watch your mouth.

 

[chaos86]

Apart from feeling stupid I'm also VERY angry with him/her and with ebay who don't seem able/willing to purge their sites of scammers. I've complained of course, but to no avail. Just a standard response.

I'm no computer expert, but surely there must be a way of tracking this ******* through aol?

Ever get those emails from 'ebay' with a link to an ebay.com webpage asking you to put in your username and password and verify your credit card details? Well the link text says http://www.ebay.com/... but the link location is to some IP address based website, with all the images pulled from ebay.com. It's called harvesting accounts. If they send that to 10000 people, and 200 are dumb enough to fill it out, then they watch those accounts, find one with a good score but without much recent activity and take it over, change the email notification address, make fake auctions with fake escrow sites (probably on the same IP address as the fake ebay site), and take as many people as possible for all they're worth before the original account owner gets in trouble, then they move on to another account.

The final answer of course is two-fold. 1) If something seems too good to be true it almost always is. 2) Don't use ebay.

1) true
2) use common sense and a little background research when it comes to big auctions (who scams for $20?) and you'll be fine. Ask the seller to stick a post-it note on the quad powermac g5 with his/her ebay username written on it and take a photo to verify they have it. dont use escrow services other than escrow.com (ebay associated).

 

[chaos86]

oh, and yes, google every ebay username you make a big bid on.

 

[Spievy]

eBay is too busy shutting down the auction for Britney Spears bra.