[fizzlemynizzle]

Man, I nearly got duped on eBay and I am pretty scam-wary.. these scams are getting more and more complex.

the story:

Guy on ebay has a dual 2.0ghz G5 listed, new in box. He has 221 feedback, all positive. It's still at a good price so I bid. With about 5 minutes left I get outbid. I bid again but the price is now above my max, so I let it go.

The next day I get an email from the seller saying the winning bidder fell through. I say "No, I won't buy it from you off Ebay because I have no protection then." He says "I totally understand, I'll relist it with a buy it now price of what we agreed on, just watch your email and I'll let you know when I list it." Seems OK to me as I'll be protected, etc. He relists and I buy it now. The auction says that Paypal is the preferred method of payment. I send him a paypal eCheck for the agreed upon amount. It takes about 5 days for one of those to clear.

I notify the guy and he says "No, I can't take Paypal. I can only take Ebay Secured Transactions." I call Paypal and tell them I want to cancel the eCheck. They say they cannot cancel any transactions. More on this in a second.

Then I get this email supposedly from eBay with the next steps in buying: I'm supposed to western union the guy the money and do this and that and the other. Now my BS meter is -pegged-. There's no way eBay would support Western Union! eBay -owns- paypal, it makes no sense. So I do a google on this email I got and of course it's a known scam. I check the headers and the message was sent from a cellphone in Romania. Nice try, guy.

I call my bank and have them stop payment on paypal transactions in the specified amount for 6 months. I then email the scammer and congratulate him on nearly having gotten me. I gave him a solid A for effort, the using a second account to shill bid to try to get me to buy off eBay was really clever.. and then relisting it ON ebay when I wouldn't bite was even smarter. But that romania cellphone thing blew it for him. Obviously he was running this off a hijacked ebay/paypal account..

These guys are getting good, though. If I had been Joe Average shopping on eBay I would have gotten taken for sure.

What's really weak though is Paypal. They offer you absolutely no recourse to stop a transaction. If you realize someone's out to defraud you, you have no way of stopping the transaction unless you go to your source of funds (credit card company or bank). And if you pay using funds IN your paypal account, you're completely screwed! Just be aware of this, that even their eChecks offer you little real protection.

[gorickey]

Phew, glad you didn't get shelled...that's pretty amazing what they are trying now...

[fireside]

just another reason why PayPal is spawn of satan. pal my ass. should be renamed "PayB�tch"

[f1000]

That's why when one gets caught, he needs to be publicly executed.

That'll teach 'em.

[ambush]

Originally posted by gorickey:
Phew, glad you didn't get shelled...that's pretty amazing what they are trying now...

holy **** rickey.. that sig..

it blows my mind away!

[gorickey]

Originally posted by ambush:
holy **** rickey.. that sig..

it blows my mind away!

Is that a good thing? You like?

[ambush]

Originally posted by gorickey:
Is that a good thing? You like?

YA! The previous one was getting old.

[Lateralus]

I almost got taken a few weeks back at a PC Buy/Sell message board.

I had posted a WTB thread asking for a certain optical drive. I got a private message from a guy who said he had exactly what I wanted. After deciding that he seemed a little too eager to make the sale, I asked him if he had any online feedback. He linked me to his heatware. I noticed that the heatware he linked me to belonged to a different e-mail address than he wanted me to send the PayPal to. So I sent an e-mail to the address listed by Heatware and told him to check that account and reply to that e-mail so that I knew it was him. He never replied to me again.

Found out about an hour later that he had tried to scam many-many people on the board that night, and actually screwed a good many.

Luckily, he was an idiot, and by the end of the night a board member had found out his real name, phone number and street address.

[gorickey]

Originally posted by ambush:
YA! The previous one was getting old.

Agreed.

[mdc]

damn, that's crazy. nice work on noticing it all. good idea about calling your credit card company / bank and telling them not to let any paypal stuff go through. clever.

and f1000... i agree with you. all these people are doing is ruining it for everyone else

[york28]

This is why I get nervous buyingn any high-ticket items on eBay. Although I'm sure that some sellers don't like the idea, I'd use on escrow account of some kind for anything expensive. I've never used one personally, but that's probably because I never buy anything over a few hundred dollars.

I also don't like PayPal, but it's a lot faster than sending a check or getting a money order.

[bradoesch]

I don't think I'd buy anything expensive online. I don't mind selling on eBay, I figure I'm pretty safe once I have the money in my account. But I've also had problems with buyers complaining the item doesn't work (which means they can't get it to work) and wanting their money back. It wasn't as easy as I thought.

[olePigeon]

Just a few tips about PayPal, but fizzle pretty much outlined them already.

PayPal is safe if, and ONLY if, you:

1) Don't store any amount of money on PayPal, period.
2) If you receive money, cash out any amount ASAP, or no later than 12 hours of the original transaction.
3) Do NOT pay with money stored inside your PayPal account.
4) Make sure your PayPal account is verified through a CC company that has fraud protection, or, if through a checking account, a Bank that offers fraud protection.
5) Change your password every now and then.
6) PayPal, eBay, and any other respectable company will NEVER EVER IN YOUR LIFE NO MATTER WHAT ask you for you username or password. If you're unclear, call them. Don't email.
7) Wester Union is PayPal's even more evil twin, NEVER pay through them. Ever.
8) PayPal is not a bank. Even though they operate like one, they do not have to be FDIC insured, do not have to offer fraud protection, and do not, under any circumstances, have to refund any amount of money for any reason.

[kcmac]

I rarely use ebay because I think it is more for sellers than buyers and I ain't got much to sell.

Went on the other day and have been pounded with junk mail.

That will make me hurry back.

[SeSawaya]

something I've seen as of late are "Feedback sellers"

Buy my "product" for $2-3 and I'll give you glowing feedback instantly. seems there are a lot of these people so its really easy to get a high feedback count and then ensure trust with people on selling big ticket items. I saw this many times while looking for a camera this week. Really got to check a sellers feedback, look at what he bought (or sold) and make a decision off of that.

I hate to say it but I feel much more confortable buying through a larger seller/corporation any more than the average joe like me.

[Zimphire]

Originally posted by kcmac:
I rarely use ebay because I think it is more for sellers than buyers and I ain't got much to sell.

Went on the other day and have been pounded with junk mail.

That will make me hurry back.

Yeah, ebay sells things for usually 2x the amount.

[gorickey]

Originally posted by Zimphire:
Yeah, ebay sells things for usually 2x the amount.

That's why, as a seller, I absolutely adore eBay....if people are truly that stupid to buy it at 2x the price, more power to the sellers who are raking in the profits...

There is ALOT of money to be made off of stupid people on eBay!

[-Q-]

Originally posted by gorickey:
There is ALOT of money to be made off of stupid people on eBay!

I need to get posting some auctions then!

BTW, more kudos on the sig gorickey. Very classy.

[dreilly1]

Originally posted by Zimphire:
Yeah, ebay sells things for usually 2x the amount.

It usually depends on the item. I've seen lots of new Macs go at more than list price there. I think that some people get "auction fever", and bid more than they were planning just to get the thrill of winning an auction.

When I try to find something on eBay, I usually determine how high I want to go on each auction (including shipping and any taxes!), and I won't go one cent higher. I'll also wait weeks sometimes to get an auction that looks reasonable. Patience is the key.

[gorickey]

Originally posted by -Q-:
BTW, more kudos on the sig gorickey. Very classy.

Thanks again...

[Tomster]

Originally posted by f1000:
That's why when one gets caught, he needs to be publicly executed.

Hey, I'd bid to see that.

[GoGoReggieXPowars]

Originally posted by gorickey:
There is ALOT of money to be made off of stupid people on eBay!

That's what I keep saying. (PS nice sig.)

Originally posted by Zimphire:
Yeah, ebay sells things for usually 2x the amount.

eBay doesn't sell anything.

Personally I've had zero problems with both eBay and PayPal; but then again I never try to buy expensive things.

I still amazed me how many people treat eBay as a store rather than an auction block. Oh well, more power to the sellers and us smart bidders.

[GoGoReggieXPowars]

Originally posted by GoGoReggieXPowars:
That's what I keep saying. (PS nice sig.)

eBay doesn't sell anything.

Personally I've had zero problems with both eBay and PayPal; but then again I never try to buy expensive things.

I still amazed me how many people treat eBay as a store rather than an auction block. Oh well, more power to the sellers and us smart bidders.

Originally posted by dreilly1:
When I try to find something on eBay, I usually determine how high I want to go on each auction (including shipping and any taxes!), and I won't go one cent higher. I'll also wait weeks sometimes to get an auction that looks reasonable. Patience is the key.

Exactly. Too many people are lazy and simply want something NOW rather than put a bit of effort in to find the same thing at a better price. A few year ago some guy outbid me on a Laserdisc that I was winning for cheap, and later emailed me offering to sell it to me because he wanted a VHS! I also managed to scoop a few movies for not much more than the asking bid because there were a number of the exact same item for bid at the same time, and the one I eventually won was simply being ignored.

[CIA]

Scams are scary, but remember there are many positive transactions on eBay everyday tho. I have personally bought and sold 2 machines on ebay (sold, Beige G3, upgraded, and bought a Quicksilver DP800) with no problems.

[DeathToWindows]

Originally posted by PowerMacMan:


Luckily, he was an idiot, and by the end of the night a board member had found out his real name, phone number and street address.

why do I smell a beatdown?

[ThinkInsane]

Oh the irony. I just finished reading this thread, checked my mail, and found this from paypal in my inbox:

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