eBay scams

[garote]

I've got three things on the burner, essay wise. Here's one of them. Comments welcome.

eBay scams

1. The 'Informational' Auction

   Easy to spot. You're not bidding on the item -- you're bidding on a badly compiled e-book listing the seller's favorite pyramid scheme or 'track matrix distributon channel' or what the hell ever. Miscategorized and irritating.
   

2. The Western-Union Grab-n-Blow

   So you place a bid on some hot item. A day later, you get an email from someone who claims he's selling exactly the same item, at a bizzarely low price. "I saw you bidding on that, and I think I can sell it to you for less." The seller will only do business through Western Union, because, he says, "It's the safest."

   • Since he contacted you directly, he may not actually have an eBay account. No feedback, no confirmed address.
   • You can neither reverse, nor trace, any money sent through Western Union. Once you send it, it's gone. Most likely to a crook with a fake name and an address that doesn't exist.
   • Want to aggravate him? Tell him you'll pay cash, but you'll only do it in person. Then subscribe his email to ten porn-spam lists.
   
   
3. The PayPal Reverse-o-Rama

   Say you've got a shiny little iPod, and you put it up for sale. Someone asks you if you're willing to ship it overnight, and you say - "What the hell, why not?". The buyer immediately purchases the item, at your asking price, and immediately pays you, through PayPal. At the bottom of the payment receipt, a note is attached: "Please ship to blah-de-blah address at blah-de-blah state, blah blah." Wow, your item is already sold and paid for! Time to send it out!

   • Your item only looks like it was paid for. The money is not safe until it is actually out of the PayPal system, and in your bank account. And perhaps not even then. Why? The PayPal support staff will mindlessley reverse or suspend any transactions made by a user who claims his account was 'hacked into' or 'stolen'.
   • If you send your item out overnight-shipping, it will arrive in the crook's hands in time for him to file such a complaint - and suspend his transaction indefinitely. You lose your money. He keeps your item.
   • PayPal has tried to combat this situation by making their users confirm their home address, through an elaborate system involving their bank statement. Buried in their site is a cautionary note that eBay sellers should never ship to anything but the confirmed address. Not that it matters ... even a crook with a confirmed address can still complain his account was 'haxored', and stop you from getting your money.
   • PayPal won't do jack-crap to help you. They won't help you stop your package from arriving. They will not let you have the payment. They'd rather "protect" their users from fraudulent transactions -- with the very mechanism that allows them to happen in the first place.
   • How to avoid this? Easy. Never ship the item until the money is OUT OF PAYPAL. Even if it's to a 'confirmed address'.
   
   
4. The 'Private Auction' Redirect

   Look! It's an Apple laptop, on sale for a ridiculous buy-it-now price! But the auction is private! Let's send an email to the seller, asking how we can be approved to bid!

   • Weeellll, you don't actually buy-it-now on eBay. However, if you send the money Western Union, to this address... Pffft.
   • Oh it's easy! Just sign up for my newsletter and join my ponzi-pyramid, or subscribe to my e-book distribution site... Arrrrggh
   • Oh sorry I sold it already! In the meantime, your email has been logged by my spam server, for future mailings.
   
   
5. The Creep-up-and Shaft 'Em Maneuver

   Hrmm, he's selling five expensive laptops at a really good price. He'll accept PayPal, Western Union, casheir's check, maybe even personal checks. But not credit cards. His feedback is stellar, and from a diverse range of people, and he's got a lot of it. Wow, looks perfect! I'll take two!

   • All the feedback is for items worth a couple bucks. Selling or buying, he's never made a transaction larger than five bucks.
   • He's racked up a lot of transactions in the last few months ... and his account is only a few months old.
   • You guessed it. Once he receives ten checks for $2000 each, and clears all the funds, he's outta here.
   
   
6. The Escrow Screw

   Say you put your rather expensive item online. A few days in, you get an offer from someone who is willing to buy, perhaps even at an inflated price, because he really wants this item. However, since it's so expensive, he's worried about the security of his money, so he wants to do escrow. Good idea, but there's a catch.

   • He insists on using his most trusted paid escrow service: www.paid-escrow.net - or whatever.
   • Look, he's set it up already! There's his money, in a page on the site! All you have to do is ship it out, and enter your tracking and bank information in the page, and soon the prize will be yours.
   • Yeah right. You're totally screwed now.
   • Do NOT use an escrow service you are not ONE HUNDRED percent certain of.
   
   
7. The Sudden Section Buyout

   So you want to buy a particular expensive item, like a laptop. You go to the laptop section and there are a dozen good auctions running. Perfect! You place a bid on a few, and sit back. A few days later, you log in, and - damn! - user F0RKBOY79 has outbid you. In fact, they've outbid everyone. In fact, they've bought almost every laptop for sale, or made outrageous offers for them. You've been priced right out of the market! Hrmm. Well, -- except for that one. Somehow, it slipped through the cracks. The price is a bit higher than you'd pay, but what the heck, it's the cheapest one available, now.

   • You check back in a week - F0RKBOY79 has an avalanche of bad feedback. He didn't pay for any of the laptops he won.
   • It's clear now that he was a seller -- messing with the competition, so he'd get a better price on his own sale.
   • Not much you can do except wait for the bastard to sell his product, and clear out. In the meantime, he's wasted everyone's time and listing fees.

Comments

SCAMING at its best

[(Anonymous)]

While shopping on ebay for a late model motorcycle. I hooked up with the following person who I thought lived in Minneapolis, MN


Subj: Re: Answer
Date: 10/9/2003 3:14:35 PM Eastern Daylight Time
From: Hgnz51
To: ...


Hello,

I have an idea that it may work. Instead of sending the money directly to me which offers no protection for you I suggest you to send the money through Western Union,because this is the fastest way,and we will proceed as follows.You will make the deposit into another name,chosen by you(ie. your best friend)and having Germany as the destination country so I can see that the transfer has been made correctly.After doing that just email
me the dates of the transfer(sender and receiver name and mtcn) to allow me to check the transfer on the Western Union website.If everything is OK, I'll ship you the bike.Moreover you are in perfect control over the transaction until you receive the package!This is actually what you want, isn't it?For the reason that you will pay some money for the Western
Union wire transfer fee, I will cover shipping and insurance.

Here are my details that you need for money transfer,again:

Name:Wish Kevin
Adress:KOPPENSTR. 6
City:BERLIN
Zip :10243
Country:GERMANY

TAXES:
There may be some customs duties for you to pay, but if you wish we can avoid them : I will declare the shipping as a gift/donation and you'll declare you send money to a friend.It is a very important thing for both of us to follow this mutual agreement in order to avoid to pay further additional taxes that will appear (customs duties and import taxes which will be about 19 % from the sale price).I guarantee you that i´ll respect my word on this agreement and i hope you´ll do the same.I am a serious ebayer, with great reputation here - I had no problems till now and my feedback shows this very clear. My intentions are to make my sales here on ebay permanent and start a business, so any problem/negative feedback won't do me too good. You have my personal guarantee that you'll receive the bike as soon as I have a payment confirmation .
INSURANCE

The package will be insured at the delivery service.If something happens on the road , you will receive the insurance from the delivery service.

RETURN POLICY

As soon as the bike arrives, you will test it and if it does not matches 100% to your expectations and as I described it to be, you will return it in max.7 days since the arrival date. In this case I will send you the full amount back and you will send me the bike.Also,you will pay the return shipping and insurance. If you keep the item you'll have to let me know.

If this is good for you please send me an mail with your full name and address so that I can prepare your Harley.

I look forward in completing this deal successfully and more in the future.
Best Regards,
p.s:if you realy are interested ,I can email you a scan copy of the title

DO YOU THINK I SHOULD BUY THIS????hummmm!! God are they clever!!

Re: SCAMING at its best

[garote]

Sheesh, that's pretty bad.

Re: SCAMING at its best

[(Anonymous)]

THE ESSAY IS WONDERFUL AND SO VERY TIMELY!!!
I AM SOOOOO EMBARASSED THAT I ALMOST FELL FOR AN IDENTICAL SCAM-THIS ONE INVOLVED A VINTAGE VETTE FOR A RIDICULOUS LOW PRICE AND WAS OF COURSE LOCATED IN POLAND. THE SELLER WANTED WESTERN UNION FUNDS ONLY FOR THE DEPOSIT OF $3000.00 AND WE SHOULD SEND IT TO A NAME OF OUR CHOICE BUT TO EMAIL HIM THE INFO ON IT WITH THE # (OF COURSE). NOT BEING TOTAL IDIOTS (BUT WANTING SOMETHING SPECIAL FOR MY HUSBAND WHO DESERVES THAT VETTE!!!)WE WERE EXTREMELY CLOSE TO WIRING THE MONEY WHEN WE DECIDED WE SHOULD MAKE A FEW PHONE CALLS FIRST TO SEE IF THERE WAS ANY SAFER WAY TO DO IT. WHEN WESTERN UNION THANKED US FOR CALLING BEFORE BEING SCAMMED, I KNEW THE VETTE DREAM HAD BEEN KILLED. THEY REFERRED ME TO THE FRAUD DIVISION TO DISCUSS THE SITUATION AND THEY TOLD US THAT THIS SCAM IS HUGE AND WERE SO GLAD WE HADN'T DONE IT YET.
I THEN PROCEEDED TO EMAIL OUR "SELLER" AND TELL HIM THAT LUCKY FOR BOTH OF US WE HAD A FRIEND IN WARSAW WHO WAS COMING TO BRING THE MONEY TO HIM AND TO PLEASE EMAIL US BACK. I THEN WENT A STEP FURTHER AND SAID I WAS GOING TO FLY THERE IF THAT WOULD WORK OUT BETTER. FUNNY THING-OUR "SELLER" HASN'T RESPONDED!!!!! (IF I WAS A SELLER I WOULD BE THRILLED!!! GUARANTEED FUNDS AND SOMEONE COMING TO CEMENT A DEAL!!)
I HAVE NOT TOLD ANYONE ABOUT US ALMOST LOSING THIS RIDICULOUS AMOUNT OF MONEY AND HOPE THIS STORY WILL HELP SOMEONE!!!!
I HOPE SOMEONE DOES GET THAT "ONE-IN-A-MILLION" DEAL ON EBAY BECAUSE I BELIEVE THEY PROBABLY DO EXIST!!!
THANKS FOR YOUR TIME-SORRY THIS WAS SO LENGTHY BUT I AM STILL A LITTLE FRAZZLED.

ALMOST AN IDIOT

Re: SCAMING at its best

[garote]

Good for you, for checking things out beforehand! Asking to do business "in person" is a very good way to unearth a scammer.

Re: SCAMING at its best

[(Anonymous)]

This exact same scam happened to me. I lost 11,000 US dollors plus the fee for the western union transfer. We have had no help getting our money back, if anyone has any suggestions, I would really appreciate it.