eBay Fraud Vigilantes

Reg Free Link by Anonymous Coward · 2004-03-20 08:36 · Score: 5, Informative

I looked on eBay. by Anonymous Coward · 2004-03-20 08:38 · Score: 5, Funny

...and I couldn't find any "Viglanties".

I did get a super deal on my new compter, though.

Re:I looked on eBay. by crossconnects · 2004-03-20 08:39 · Score: 5, Funny

did you get it from michael's computers?

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no big sig

Expensive Electronics Cheap Scams, not taken down by setzman · 2004-03-20 08:39 · Score: 5, Informative

Like these "Alienware" scams I saw yesterday when looking for a system? By the way, these are still up now.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item =2795846600&category=52476

***Please note, this auction is not selling the electronics themselves,we're selling electronic book packages that get you listed on a revolving list at our website. For list information and any other questions please visit our webpage @ www.revbuys.com--$220.00

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item =2795844320&category=52476

**You are not buying the actual item, you are buying a link to a website where you can obtain the item for around a $250 US dollars. Link also includes lots of other good deals on nice electronics** $5.00

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item =2795281687&category=52476

Please Read Auction Carefully. Winner will recieve information on where they can buy an Alienware Area-51 Extreme for only 275$. This is perfectly legal and I am usuing mine right now. Only one Alienware 275$ computer per household, so you can see why I am not selling the computers, but I am working on that.--$49.99

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item =2795708246&category=40176

Please Read Description Carefully Before You Bid! you are not buying any electronics in this auction. Here are some examples of the amazing deals you will get upon winning this auction:

Products:

JL Audio 10w7 Subwoofer: $100
Sony DVD/CD Changer: $100
Sony Motorized indash 7" LCD: $100
Exhaust Systems from $50
NOS Kits: $100
Body Kits: $100
Playstation 2: $40
Video Games: $20
Gateway 42" Plasma TV: $200
Sony DVD Dream Surround System: $100
Sony Digital Camcorder: $100
40GB Apple iPod: $115
Compaq iPaq PDA: $50
Panasonic Portable DVD Player: $50
Alienware Desktop or Laptop: $275
Sony VIAO Desktop: $150
Sony VIAO Laptop: $100

AND MANY MANY MANY MORE!!!!

Shipping is absolutely free!, If you have any questions, please feel free to email us at http://TankDoggSC@aol.com $3.00

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item =2795726979&category=52476

The item for sale isnt the real PC.the highest bidder will recieve the link to the site where you can purchase it for 160/275$.WHOEVER SAID ''THIS ISNT A REAL PC JUST A BUNCH OF LINKS'' MEANS THEY DID NOT READ THIS. $5.50-6 bids

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C:\>

www.paypalsucks.com by Anonymous Coward · 2004-03-20 08:40 · Score: 5, Informative

Following is my opinion only:

Don't use paypal's "withdraw from bank account" option. Use the credit card option. If something goes wrong and you go past 30 days - your are screwed. My experience is that Paypal (an ebay company) is the worst in getting problems resolved.

www.paypalsucks.com

As long as they don't stop... by The-Dalai-LLama · 2004-03-20 08:45 · Score: 5, Funny

...the clever people who've sold things like "genuine air guitars" and "nothing".

Half the fun of e-bay is the really bizarre stuff.

The Dalai Llama
This .sig available for purchase: $100,000 USD -ebay auction #66666. Buyer pays shipping from Andorra.

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My sig could be your sig!

Re:As long as they don't stop... by Necrobruiser · 2004-03-20 09:26 · Score: 5, Funny

I'll never forget the first time I surfed Ebay. I ended up in the "Adult" section, and found an auction for a "5 Ball Butt Plug". Now, I know what a butt plug is, but I had no idea what a "5 Ball" butt plug is, so I checked out the description. There was a lovely picture, and I now know what a "5 Ball" butt plug looks like. However, the scary part was when I saw the descriptive phrase "Like New" next to the picture.

Needless to say, I'm still emotionally scarred.

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"I planned within my means and got a fixed rate mortgage, so where's MY bailout?" -cafepress

Ebay has let users work to close these fakes down. by Graemee · 2004-03-20 08:48 · Score: 5, Insightful

Many forums have a link right on the post that allows reporting of improper material. Ebay could use this feature.

I've found questionable sales, usually someone asks me "Hey, look at the deal", but when I've looked for a way to report it. Zip nothing. They did not list any contact in safeharbour for this.

Hell, it took way too much time to find the link to report the phish emails I got last year.

Yes, it will mean more overhead, but that's what it's going to take if Ebay expects people to continue to use the site. Allowing a group of moderators that can flag obvious problems will help.

I used to vigilante too by goombah99 · 2004-03-20 08:54 · Score: 5, Insightful

I got sick and tired of the acution frauds so i started finding them and bidding them up to inifity. Its not like you have too look hard to find them. Basically any high priced commodity item proably has frauds. One day while looking at apple powerbooks I notcies that over 90% of the auctions were definite frauds. Most of the other ones, probably real, maybe not.

its usually pretty easy to spot: only takes western union, item is new in box for absurdly low price, eithe rmultiple auctions or a "private auction". You used to tell by low feed back but its getting so that can be a misleader. You send them an e-mail and it gets answered during romanian daylight hours.

My favorite gambit is to ask them some absurd question that makes no sense like is this the power book that had the DVI fibrulator? They will answer "yes". Ask them if they take paypal and they dont answer.

I have to say that for all the problems and accusations about pay-pal, it is a hallmark of an honest seller.

E-bay claims a low fraud rate, but I think that is on a per-sale basis (most fruads dont result in sales, and there are many many honest auctions for $1.99 baseball cards, etc...). On a per dollar basis I'd bet it looks bad for e-bay. And certainly if you restrict the search to high vlaue commondity items i'd bet they average around fifty percent. E-bay needs to get sued and sued hard for knowing letting this go on.

Some lawyer should go get a job ther coverty, find out what they do internally to prevent this, then sue the shit out of them for negligence.

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Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.

Re:I used to vigilante too by PhotoBoy · 2004-03-20 09:29 · Score: 5, Interesting

I run a webmail system and I caught someone signing up multiple accounts and creating fake auctions on eBay. He had about 50 accounts when I caught him. I tried reporting the accounts he'd created to eBay but they didn't reply.

So instead I locked all his accounts and put an auto-responder message on them. This auto-responder would explain to the sender that the guy was a con-artist and that they should not under any circumstances send him money.

I wish I could have seen his face when he realised he'd lost all his correspondance with people he was planning to con.
Re:I used to vigilante too by haraldm · 2004-03-20 11:05 · Score: 5, Interesting

These FUDs against "fun bidding" are void, at least here in Germany. According to German law (Fernabsatzgesetz), you can devoid a remote buying contract within 14 days without any specific reason.
As far as eBay, these folks don't take their own terms and conditions serious. I don't remember how often I reported one specific seller due to duplicate auctions (still forbidden according to the German terms and conditions). All I get is form e-mails. A day or two later, the seller usually changes all but one of the dupes completely, and continues as usual. This specific seller also attempts to bully people in order to avoid negative feedback. eBay did nothing about it. The point is that eBay has a monopoly, and the lack of competition makes them talk not act.

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open (SIG, "</dev/zero"); $sig = <SIG>; close SIG;
Re:I used to vigilante too by PhotoBoy · 2004-03-20 23:46 · Score: 5, Informative

I didn't want to give many details since it might give scammers hints (not that I did anything really clever here), but since I've given the impression I spend my days snooping people's emails, I'll try to go into some detail. The first thing to tip me off was just the large number of signups from the same address. At first I thought it was another 419er.

Next I checked his sign up details, he'd created 50 accounts all with the same details (e.g. firstname, lastname, address were all identical). Finally, earlier that week I had noticed a large amount of traffic from eBay's mail system, delivering lots of emails to these accounts.

With a give away like that I did one final check by looking up some of his addresses on eBay. He was selling satellite nav, plasma TVs etc, and all of it was way too cheap for what it was worth. At this point I thought that if he wasn't scamming, why set up 50 separate accounts? The whole point of the eBay feedback system is that lots of good feedback shows you are a trustworthy seller. So by then I was certain he was up to no good and checked one of his mailboxes, which revealed the last of his tricks:

The guy would open an auction, and invite potential buyers to email him any questions about the product. When he'd got enough "fish on the hook" he would close the auction and email the "fish" telling them he was having problems with eBay but he was still willing to sell if they were interested. He then asked if they would mind paying him directly.... Since he only had 1 of each product to sell on eBay it was clear he was trying to sell the same thing multiple times and by being paid directly he was skipping the relative safety of PayPal et al. At which point I slapped the auto-responders on and locked his accounts.

It is a condition in our T&Cs that we reserve the right to inspect an account if we suspect illegal activity, but I only exercise that right if I am absolutely sure there is something going on. Usually this means an email sent to the abuse address with headers that prove the email came from our system.

Now, if you think eBay scammers are bad, try keeping 419ers of your system. Luckily the rise of broadband means they usually have the same IP address for extended periods of time. So when we are informed of a scamming account we can find all of their other accounts at the same time.

Darn it, I was almost there, too! by Eberlin · 2004-03-20 08:56 · Score: 5, Funny

Here I was auctioning off evidence/information on whereabouts of WMDs in Iraq when people got all huffy and decided to shut it down. I nearly got some dude named Dubya bidding oodles of cash for the info but got shutdown before bidding was over.

Why can't you vigilantes just mind your own biz, damn it!!!

Yo, it's a joke -- no need to start a super-secret file on me.

Don't forget Paypal scams! by Genghis9 · 2004-03-20 09:03 · Score: 5, Informative

Recently bought a router, the seller shipped a hard drive to me by mistake. After emailing back and forth I sent the hd back, but no router. Seller stops responding to emails. So what happens when I fill out the Paypal form to try and get a refund?

They have an item asking if you received ANYTHING in the mail. So I checked that off. Bad mistake! They classified the report as "misrepresented item"!!!! Then a few days later closed the complaint saying they didn't do anything in those cases!

Paypal = SCAM CITY

Lesson: accept Paypal payments for expensive items and mail a jellybean to the buyer. Paypal will support you all the way.

Re:What were they expecting? by synergy3000 · 2004-03-20 09:05 · Score: 5, Interesting

I've put faith in those online auctions and have not been scammed in over 150 plus auctions. Mostly sales, a few purchases. If you are careful with who you buy from and walk away from deals too good to be true you should be fine. As for readily exploitable mechanisms like Paypal its a fricking bank account. If you lose your check book, your credit card number or even your SS number you can get exploited. Its not like it is all that much easier through paypal. Email scams have been asking for bank account numbers and what not in addition to paypal passwords. Run and hide in a cave and have no contact with the outside world and then your "financial assets" will be safe.

amazing by segment · 2004-03-20 09:06 · Score: 5, Funny

You mean that Paris Hilton action figure is a fraud!. People auctioning off their life, and those imginary girlfriends are frauds! I for one am shocked. And awed too

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MoFscker

Re:Expensive Electronics Cheap Scams, not taken do by LostCluster · 2004-03-20 09:07 · Score: 5, Informative

These are the latest variant on a pyramid scheme. Basically, people are paying today for a wait list for a product that will be delivered whenever the waiting list gets long enough to have enough money to buy your item. Early people on the list will in fact get their items, but as the list gets longer, the wait gets exponentially longer until the world runs out of fools to supply and the list stops growing. The people caught "below the line" when the scheme colapses end up paying to wait in a line that has stopped moving... they'll never get their stuff.

Re:Ebay has let users work to close these fakes do by LostCluster · 2004-03-20 09:14 · Score: 5, Insightful

eBay could very easily design a "Click here if this looks bogus" button for registered users, and then place the auctions that are reported in a queue for moderator review, with additional trust given to those who have successfully reported violations in the past, and less value given to those who false report.

Re:What were they expecting? by Penguin's+Advocate · 2004-03-20 09:17 · Score: 5, Interesting

I've used ebay and paypal to buy and sell a lot of things, and never had any problems whatsoever. Then one day my brother decided to buy a computer on ebay (which I do regularly). He found a good system for a good price, looked entirely legit, plenty of positive feedbacks for the same or similar computers, my friend built a similar system for himself for around that same price. So it looked legit, but my bro is now out $1060 with no computer and the guy has disappeared, and the weirdest part is, the guy contacted my brother 2 months later, after fraud charges had long been filed with paypal, ebay, and the IFCC, and told him that he was embarrassed by this and promised to ship the computer the next day, which of course he did not. But WHY would he do that? He didn't ask for more money or try to sell anything else, he just promised to ship it after we'd already done everything we could think of to get him.

On that note, don't ever buy anything from StudentCompSolutions.com, Jeff Bellisimo, or jeffyjimmy@*.*
And if anyone lives near 5150 Argus Dr. in LA, and would like to pay Jeff a visit for me I'd be much obliged.

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Frag 'em all...

No problems with lawnsale-ish junk. by dpbsmith · 2004-03-20 09:18 · Score: 5, Insightful

I've been buying and selling low-value items on eBay for some time with nothing but good results. It's fun.

The other day, I remembered an LP I found fascinating when I was a kid, called "Hearing is Believing." RCA put it out--I believe they gave it away for free--in the early fifties. It was an introduction to hi-fi. I suddenly "I'd get a kick out of hearing that again." I went on to eBay, there was a copy up for bid at a starting bid of $3.00, nobody else bid, I got it for $3.00 plus $3.50 shipping, and experienced a intense burst of pleasurable nostalgia at hearing it again.

Nobody can make a fortune scamming people $3 at a time, so most of the low-value weird junk items are legit. And if they aren't--so you're out a few dollars, who cares?

I won't say there are easy answers, but by far the largest number of horror stories seem to all be about one specific category: people that believe they can get new or practically new electronic gadgets for substantially below the new price. Indeed, no doubt you sometimes can, but that is the kind of item where the risk is high.

Of course, trading junk doesn't appeal to everyone, but I think it is one of eBay's highest and best uses.

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"How to Do Nothing," kids activities, back in print!

Re:Expensive Electronics Cheap Scams, not taken do by EinarH · 2004-03-20 09:38 · Score: 5, Interesting

Yup, it's a pyramid scheme. They call it "a matrix" but it's the same shit in a new wrapping.

Some of the schemes invlove selling of ebooks other are driven entirely like a pyramid with people entering at a low cost, below $50, and then relying on the "members" (fraud victims) marketing the scheme to get their goods.

Examples of schemes like this:
Electronicmatrix.com or Ezdeal4u.com

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Melius mori in libertate quam vivere in servitute.

eBay great for the right stuff by tomatoguy · 2004-03-20 09:49 · Score: 5, Interesting

I've been on eBay for I think 5 years now (feedback rating of 530+), buying memorabilia for a particular marque of British auto. Like another poster I buy pretty small things and out of nearly 1000 transactions I've had only a couple items in my "Stiffed" file - 1 from a seller who (apparently) died, 3 or 4 lost in the mail, and a 2 from a seller that was woefully disorganized for their volume. I've paid by PayPal, US$ cheque and cash, and only 1 payment went astray and it was a cheque that I cancelled. I have sent money to various spots around the world that would make people a bit leery, but anything like this is a gamble. I deal in a niche, not in the mainstream consumer products market, so that's probably why my experience is so good. Nobody's wanting to get rich off the stuff I buy. People chasing "deals" on the same stuff everyone else is chasing will always be targets for the unscrupulous.

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