Be very careful on Ebay

I was looking at another post about selling on IDA going on right now and wanted to mention a personal experience on Ebay this week but didn’t want to interfere with that one.

The other night I was looking through Ebay doing a little wishful dreaming at minus 3 meter accuracy GPSs ($2000 plus) as I chatted with Swede on MSN. I sent him the link to one that no one had bid on that opened at $250. It seemed odd the guy stated not to bother using the Ebay message system and to contact him via an email address he posted. I was curious so I sent him a message asking about shipping. Just after that Swede asked me if I had seen the other sales the guy had listed. Thank you Swede! First, up to that date the guy who’s account it was had 42 other auctions buying and selling things like drum sticks and odd stuff. All of a sudden he’s selling 262 high end electronics like electronic key boards and GIS GPSs, all starting at $250 and all ending with in 5 minutes of each other. I saw that on one other sale of a keyboard the bid had already reached with in a couple of bucks of just under $1000.

I was already sure of the answer but I quick contacted Ebay to see if all was kosher and about ten minutes later all the auctions were yanked. The only thing I ever heard back from Ebay was that they had seen I had emailed the guy and that I shouldn’t have any thing to do with him. I did get this email back from the guy about the shipping.

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Please name the price you would be happy to get this item for, considering it’s retail price, the fact that I will pay shipping and insurance using FedEx priority, and we’ll go from there. I am interested in a fast sale, let me know if you are ready to buy this item. For payment I would like to use Western Union as it’s fast and simple to use. You will get tracking information for your merchandise, after payment details are received. You will get a 15 day inspection period for the item, if you are not satisfied with the product, you can send it back and you will get a full refund. So the ball is in your court, let me know if you want it as well the price you want to offer and we could start this transaction right away if this is acceptable. Awaiting your reply,

Best Regards,

Scott.

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WarrenMN

Scam all the way. I post on Craigs list and get people wanting to send me money orders to ship to the UK. So I went with one and got a fake money order in the mail. The funny thing is they wanted me to ship out the item before I cashed the check. I wonder why?????

Most of this is just common sense. You just need to use your better judgement. If it sounds too good to be true, then you can guess what you could be in for.

What I wonder about is does Ebay report any of these scams to any law enforcement agencies.
WarrenMN

This is what happens when someones ebay account gets high jacked. Any time you see “Don’t contact me through ebay”, it’s usally a high jacked account. If you report it, it will get pulled asap.I’ve also contacted the person through ebay’s ask seller a question asking them if thier account was high jacked so the owner of the account will know to look.

My wife does a lot of selling on Ebay and has had her account highjacked twice. We have since learned to change passwords frequently, and, because we use a cable modem, keep our firewall up to date. Also is a good idea not to save your passwords for immediate log on.
Our last highjacking happened when some scumbag from Italy hacked into our email. From there, he was able to get into everything, including our paypal. Fortunately, my wife is ever vigilant and immediately suspended paypal and ebay until we could get things straightened out!
Vigilance and scrutiny are an absolute must on Ebay!

I missed a gold opporuntity to get back at one of these creeps back in June.

I had posted a digital projector for sale with a “buy it now” price. A buyer chose the buy it now option and stated that he wanted it ASAP for his son who was in college in Florida. My response was simple… as soon as I see a transfer to my paypal account I’d ship.

His reply was that to speed things up he was willing to have Fed Ex come to my residence to pick up the item at his expense.

I thought this was a good deal but of course I wasn’t going to do anything until I had the money in Pay Pal. I told the guy I would NOT except any other payment terms so his initial request to pay by check was shot down and he agree to go forward with payment by paypal.

About an hour later I get a very authentic looking notification from paypal that I had received a money transfer.

I immediately noticed the url in the browser window was NOT from Paypal.com so I knew immediately that this guy was a scammer.

Here’s what I did… I contracted Ebay, told them this user tried to pay with a phoney paypal transfer and the whole sale was voided.

Here’s what I should have done… I should have emailed the guy back, thanked him for the money by paypal and told him to arrange pick-up by Fed Ex so he could get his projector.

I would have, of course, spent the rest of that day picking up every piece of doggie poo I could lay hands on to put in that box that Fed Ex was going to deliver to this creep. In my mind there could be no finer justice than to turn a scam like this back around on him… making him pay shipping on a box o’ dog crap and knowing he was all excited to open it expecting to walk off with a $900 projector only to get stuck with a box like that would have made my month.

My girlfriend made me promise I wouldn’t do it because she was afraid this guy would show up at the house. I wasn’t worried about it but in the end she won out.

If I ever get that opportunity again I’m not letting it slip through my fingers. I peeves me off to know these guys are out there AND they think I’m so stupid as to fall for such an obvious scam.

James,

I don’t care who you are, that right there is funny!!

Too bad you you weren’t able to follow through though!! These scumbags deserve something like this, and if I ever get the opportunity, I may have to modify the idea and give em what they deserve.

Please o Please promise us that you will tell us if you ever do it though

I woulda sent a picture of the projector and some Sonny’s. Much more insulting than dog doo

You should see what my lab can do with a mix of kibble, sticks, chew toys and small animals… lol

One thing that may help tip people off if the buyers are over-seas is if they use the closure of “Best Regards” instead of “Thank you” or just “Thanks”. I email a lot of people from over seas at work and they always use this closing line. Not that it is bad, it is just not used very much in the U.S.

Also be careful with Money Orders/Bank Checks. I heard there are very good fakes out there that even fool the banks for a little while. Why people have to do this is beyond me, but they are out there.

MM

James, How did you recognize a fake paypal gig? I have done thousands of Ebay transactions (mostly selling) and probably 1500 Paypal transactions….i didn’t even know that there was a way to fake that……glad that I am away from ebay now….

D

Well the surest way to know it is a fake is to close out your email (don’t use the links in the email to get to paypal) and type http://www.paypal.com into your browser windown and login to your account.

There’s no money there!

I spotted the faked url for the email coming off the mail server. The email had a “funny” url…. obviously not from the paypal mail server.

You should always, always, check the the return address after the @ to see where it came from and where its going. I’ve caught two bogus bank questionaires and a recent fake letter from Microsoft asking for info. One was Chase Bank that looked extactly right. Most of, if not all companies, will not ask for info via email.
As for the dog doo, there are laws about sending,not sure how to say it, unhealthy things. But I do like it.
I would have done like a street scam that happens every once in a while. Get the right box and staple it shut with a couple of bricks secured inside. Down in the cities they pull you over by the arm and ask if you want a GREAT! deal on a hot TV. Of course its an unopened box that when you scurry off, by the time you open it their long gone and how are you going to call the cops when you thought you were buying hot merchandise. I digress. Then he’s stuck with the shipping bill.
Paypal is definitely the way to go, and do just as James said.
WarrenMN

James,
A heavy brick comes to mind. Very expensive to ship.
Also works well for eliminating that annoying junk mail you get when they pay the return postage on the application, envelope, card or whatever it is you have to fill out and send in.
Just write not interested on the document, tape it to a boxed up brick and mail away.

Don J

To good to be true category. This just happen so I want to bring it up too. A cousin wanted to do some thing nice for my mom trying to help her with a label for her company. So when she saw one of those, almost to good to be true prices, she ordered a new version of the graphics program mom uses and had it sent directly to mom. When mom had trouble trying to register it I took a look and cringed. The software came in one of those brown paper pouches with the bubble plastic inside, three CD’s and a supposed sales slip printed out on a half sheet of printer paper. To register it mom was suppose to print out a sheet that had all her info on it and send it in to be scanned, yeah right. I called the phone numbers listed and all were disconnected so I got on the phone to Corel, the software. I explained I thought some thing was fishy and the agent said he’d help me with it. When he asked for the serial number I explained what I had and he agreed with me there was some thing wrong.
He told me to call the cousin and tell her if she paid with a credit card, which she had, to contact them and block the transaction and get her money back.
Oh, the return address was some guys name with a post office box. Now you might be asking why would she order from some one like that? Turns out she ordered it through Amazon dot com.
Always remember, if its seems to good to be true it likely is.
WarrenMN

I’m an ebay seller/buyer anything that is not in your ebay mailbox delete! Ebay sends warnings all the time but people arent listening . Ebay will not send important messages only to your email! Papal also I recieve aprox 100-150 fraudualant ebay emails weekly also never accept a second chance offer that is not on your homepage, also on your hompage of it will tell you if it was paid for and if you recieve cashiers check/ money order let it clear before shipping. Paypals the only way to fly.
p.s. on an auction page never ask seller a question thru his email addres (big red flag) if it smells fishy dont send money!!!! Better to recieve one bad feedback than out 100 bucks
ebay seller id
bj451

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James,
A heavy brick comes to mind. Very expensive to ship.
Also works well for eliminating that annoying junk mail you get when they pay the return postage on the application, envelope, card or whatever it is you have to fill out and send in.
Just write not interested on the document, tape it to a boxed up brick and mail away.

Don J

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I have done this very thing, I just taped it to the brick and you better believe that the junk mail from that place stopped!
The expression on the postmans face was pricless