Re: [NTLK] A Close call how to spot an Ebay Scammer - The Aussie Idiot's Guide

From: W. Sierke (ws_at_senet.com.au)
Date: Wed Nov 05 2003 - 17:29:11 PST


> They must put something in the water in Australia.

Heh, you're in Adelaide, too? (Do they still classify that stuff that nearly
flows in the Murray as water?) :)

My contribution to the scary eBay stories...

Briefly - saw some PC RAM at a good (but not "too" good) price. Seller had
been trading for about 5 months and had around a 600 feedback rating with
barely a handful of negatives. Had 2 or 3 emails with seller, sounded
perfectly reasonable, no cause for suspicion at all. Paid via PayPal.

A couple of weeks later, no goods yet but not unusual for delivery to Aus
from US - receive warning email from eBay, lots of complaints about this
seller, don't finalise any transactions with them. Uh oh, a tad late for
that!

Of course, I had entered the picture at exactly the "right" time. Looking at
their past auctions, they had sold hundreds of low value (<US$5) items.
Honourable service, everyone was happy, lots of praise heaped upon them for
prompt delivery and good items. Come D-day (enter our bunny, stage left),
put up for auction lots of high value computer items (I was at the low end
of the scale, around US$35-40) up to $100's.

A very deliberate and planned scam and it would seem quite difficult to
guard against without considerable effort.

Wayne

P.S. The "feds" are chasing this one up. Seems to me that there must be less
stressful ways of making a buck (or even ten thousand or so of them) than
having to spend life looking over your shoulder.

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