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OT - ebay ain't what it used to be


Myhamish

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Last week in regards to ebay, I reported two phishing scams that came in my email to their safe harbour . (2)

And on the weekend, there was a Nikon digital camera up for auction

closing Sunday night, so through ebay, I sent the seller an ebay

internal message asking if after the auction a personal pickup and a

cash deal was possible (town listed is 3 hours away). I get back

a email from ebay saying that going around the auction process was a

bad idea.(1)

So I bid on the camera near the closing - don't win it (thank

goodness), then notice a different auction with the same photo,

description and listing ending last night as well as a different camera

with the closing within minutes of the first one closing. So I

decide to watch it (didn't bid) just to see what was going on.

ebay pulls them both off at the last minute saying the auction's been

closed. (2)

Then this morning, there's an ebay email (real ones are also supposed

to appear in your 'my ebay' messages box, that says the Sunday night camera

that I bid on and lost was a scam). ebay did give information on

what action the winning bidder (lookout second chance) should take.(1)

Anyway, there's 6 (count'em) bad experiences and near misses in less than a week, so I

consider myself lucky. With ebay applying bandaid solutions after

the fact, there's great potential to get burned.

So, if you're reading this, take care. Hamish

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It seems like the big scam I see consistenly as a seller is people sending a second chance offer to ebayers that bid on someone's item but don't win.

As a buyer, be careful with these offers, and always ask the original seller if it's valid!

The big giveaway for scam emails on ebay for me are to look carefully at the font--scammers seem to have a hard time matching it exactly to a real ebay message, and also if responding to the email prompts a screen to enter your user name and password---don't respond!



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I won the auction for a pair of mint McIntosh MC30s from a zero

feedback seller. The seller had agreed to allow local pickup.

Danny from our klipschforum kindly agreed to pick them up

for me, and that was the reason I bid on them.

Then strange things started to happen. First, he was resisting to give

his address. I requested his address from eBay but his address did not

have any street name and number. Then he sent me his cellphone number

which was registered in DC, and eventually sent an address which

was 1.5 hours away from the one listed in eBay. There were too many red

flags so I told him that the only way I would buy them was for him to

deliver them to Danny, or he could re-list them. I see that he relisted

them again on eBay and I intend to inform the next highest bidder.

I've not been scammed before but this was the closest I came to. Buyers beware.

Kudret

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Yeah, it's really sad that you can't tell if something you're bidding on is real or not. They really should do something about it. Checking someone's feedback doesn't work, because their account could have been hijacked.

Kudret, you should report the seller to ebay, not just to the next highest bidder.

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Oh, I forgot one thing, he asked me to send the payPal payment to yet

another email address (different from the one he had on eBay).

toddvj: I thought about that, but these are all red flags (and no

concrete evidence), and from what I read on this forum, eBay doesn't

really care.

Kudret

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Oh, I forgot one thing, he asked me to send the payPal payment to yet another email address (different from the one he had on eBay).

toddvj: I thought about that, but these are all red flags (and no concrete evidence), and from what I read on this forum, eBay doesn't really care.

Kudret

Wow, that was squirrely.

I hope you will forward your documentation to Ebay. Hopefully someone who does care will take action.

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Oh, I forgot one thing, he asked me to send the payPal payment to yet another email address (different from the one he had on eBay).

toddvj: I thought about that, but these are all red flags (and no concrete evidence), and from what I read on this forum, eBay doesn't really care.

Kudret

Wow, that was squirrely.

I hope you will forward your documentation to Ebay. Hopefully someone who does care will take action.

Never gonna happen. I report things all of the time and don't ever see a response.

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Never gonna happen. I report things all of the time and don't ever see a response.

Kev, I got encouraged by the recommendation of my Klipsch buddies above

and reported the seller to eBay. I got the following canned BS reply

from eBay which makes me think that I wasted my time.

We understand how important it is that every eBay user has valid contact

information and we will investigate your report fully. In some instances

the member may have forgotten to update his or her information after a

move or change of phone number. The member may also be experiencing

temporary email address problems. We will work closely with the member

you are reporting to ensure the matter is brought to his or her

attention.

Kudret

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Never gonna happen. I report things all of the time and don't ever see a response.

Kev, I got encouraged by the recommendation of my Klipsch buddies above and reported the seller to eBay. I got the following canned BS reply from eBay which makes me think that I wasted my time.

We understand how important it is that every eBay user has valid contact information and we will investigate your report fully. In some instances the member may have forgotten to update his or her information after a move or change of phone number. The member may also be experiencing temporary email address problems. We will work closely with the member you are reporting to ensure the matter is brought to his or her attention.

Kudret

Oh yeah, you should definitely still report it. I do because there is no other recourse. I have never gotten anything more than what you just got though.

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