Possible eBay Scam!

Torque Junkie · July 25, 2003

Its' a really really long story, but I'll try to keep it as short as possible.

My boss is looking for a 42-50" Plasma HDTV, and was looking at ebay. He doesn't have an account, and I have had an established account for about 4 years now, so I offred to help him buy one.

Come to find out, all of the reasonably priced ones will not deal through ebay. What they do is when you inquire about the TV's, they sometimes cancel, but always insist on dealing through e-mail instead of buying it on ebay. Two of them canceled their auctions when I inqured and then e-mailed me asking me if how I was going to pay for it. They ALL claim to be from the US in the auction, but in their respones they actually claim to be in Spain or Italy and right near the factory outlet thats bankrupt. They refuse normal forms of payment, such as paypal or money orders, and will only accept Western Union (a big no-no on eBay)

And it gets fishier. 75% of all the auctions required an e-mail to the seller for 'pre-approval' by the seller. This is when they give you the "close it quick w/ western union and I"ll over night it for free" schpeele. AND... All of their accounts have good feedback scores of 60-800, but if you look through their feedback, not one of their previous sales was a TV - and they were usually the buyer of piddeley little crap like Pokemon figurines.

Then, I did a Buy it Now on one, within an hour, I got this e-mail from ebay:

Please be aware that auction:3037177406 -New Hitachi 42" Plama TV Inc Speakers &
Tuner has been ended early and your bid has been cancelled. Please note that we

have recently ended all listings for the sellerzebellas it appears the account

has been compromised and used by an unauthorized third party. The seller's

privileges to trade on eBay may be temporarily suspended while we investigate

this matter further.

If this seller contacts you to complete a transaction outside of eBay, we

strongly recommend that you do not because it will not be covered under eBay's

Fraud Protection Program. If you have already sent payment, we advise you to

take steps to protect yourself depending on the nature of your payment. For

example, if you paid by personal check, you may stop payment on the check. If

you paid for this item with a credit card, you should contact your credit card

company's security department right away to inform them of the potential problem

with this payment -- most companies provide full protection from loss for online

purchases in these circumstances. If you have made a payment by money order or

wire transfer, you may contact that company for further information at

1-800-325-6000 (Western Union), or at 1-800-926-9400 (Money Gram).

We emphasize that there is no definitive information regarding the seller or

their items at this time, and our difficulties in confirming information about

the seller may be the result of a mistake or misunderstanding.

There are many tips on how to protect yourself with any Internet transaction on

our help page located at:

http://pages.ebay.com/help/buyerguide/bidd...dding-tips.html

If you have any questions, please reply directly to this email.

Regards,

Customer Support (Trust and Safety Department)

eBay Inc

Then today, I get this from the seller of that TV

Subject :
winner-New Hitachi 42" Plama TV Inc Speakers & Tuner

Hi there,

I want to congratulate you! You are the winner of my auction(NEC 61MP1 61"

Plasma Display HDTV).

I want to know if you are really interested to close the deal!

Reply soon

Regards from Italy,

Meco

Notice - its not even the same item.

Now, here is an example of a few of the respones I got from them:

Hello,

First of all I want to thank you for contact me and your interest in my

SAMSUNG 50" HDTV PLASMA PPM-50H2.

I know that are numerous offers on eBay and I'm glad that you choosed

to

contact me

regarding your willingness to purchase.

The listing was restricted for bidding as I had lots of problems in the

past

two months

with non paying bidders.Currently I'm in Madrid, Spain where me and my

partner supplied capital for the purchase of a bankrupt stores stock.

Now we

are trying to sell the remaining stock.The buy now price would be $1700

for

the SAMSUNG 50" HDTV PLASMA PPM-50H2(with all the shipping/handling and

insurance charges

included).

The product is brand new, in the original package, factory sealed. They

ship

with all the accessories provided by the manufacturer and have 1 year

of

warranty fully covered in UK&US by every SAMSUNG service center. All the

manuals

and the original documentation are

in English.You will receive your package in 2 working days. I send all

my

packages having written on them "display unit, no comercial value" or

as a

gift so you don't have to pay any additional taxes. (VAT

included).Please

let me know ASAP if you are interested and I will allow you to bid or

we can

arrange a private deal to save time and money.

The plasma is brand new sealed in its original box and comes with all the
original accesories ( including HDTV receiver, speackers, remote, cables,

manuals and wall mounting brackets and also table stand ). The plasma comes with

a 1 year warranty extendable to 3 years. The warranty papers are in blank and I

will send them in the package. You will have to go to an authorized Sony dealer

and fill them out with your name.

Currently I'm in Madrid, Spain where me and my partner supplied capital for the

purchase of a bankrupt stores stock.

Now we are trying to sell the remaining stock.

Regarding shippment and payment here are the details :

1. SHIPPMENT :

There are 3 options of delivery services that are very

fast :

- UPS 2 days air insured

- FedEx 2 days air insured

- DHL insured

Any of those services are good, but I personaly

prefere UPS 2 days air, if you have other preference, there

is no problem.

2. PAYMENT :

For payment, the fastest ways to send money worldwide

are Western Union wire transfer. To arrange the transfer, you

must go in person to an Western Union agent (you cannot send money online to my

country, but please visit www.westernunion.com <http://www.westernunion.com> or

to find the nearest agent and hours of operation).

From Western Union , you will receive a number (MTCN - Money

Transfer Control Number), you must send me that number as

soon as you have arranged the payment so I can go to

www.westernunion.com to see if the transaction is arranged.

As soon as I have verifyed the transaction, I will ship you

the package with all the accesories with the delivery service

selected by you.

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:

Name: Bonnie Lambert

City : Madrid

Country : Spain

3. INSURANCE

The package will be insured at the delivery service for the amount of 8000 Euro.

If somethig happens on the road , you will receive the insurance from the

delivery service.

4. RETURN POLICY

As soon as the package arrives, you will test the product and if it does not

matches 100% to your expectations, you will return it in max. 5 days sience the

arrival date. In this case I will send you the full amount back and you will

send me the product in the original box and you will pay the return shipping and

insurance.

I can sell it to you right now for $1800(shipping and insurence included)

I'm waiting for your reply in order to close this deal as

soon as possible.

Regards!

Yes it is an US model.

We can close this deal fast using western union and UPS services. I can send you the package through UPS which is the fastest service of delivery from our country. The people from UPS deliver any package anywhere in the world in 48 hours maximum since I send it. I will go to the UPS in the moment that I receive the payment confirmation from you. You can pay online at www.westernunion.com using your credit card and the people from western union will give you a MTCN ( money transfer control number ) so that I can go on the site at www.westernunion.com and check if the funds were deposited. After I check on the site I will go at UPS and send you the package at the address that you want to receive it. I will pay all the shipping taxes you just have to pay the transfer taxes of the money.

When you receive the package you will check it and if the item doesn't match with you expectations you can send it back within 5 days ( but no more than 5 days ) and pick your money back from western union. If you keep the item you have to let me know. These are the fastest services in our country through which we can make this deal. If this is good for you please send me a mail with your full name and address so that I will prepare your package.

Reply asap

Hello,

I am glad that you write me and i am sorry for my delay.

If you agree with what i am going to propose to you we have a deal.

First of all i need your full name and address,so i can make a reservation at

UPS service for sending the package and you will have it two days at your place.

Look below are all the details I think you need to close this deal

quick and succesfully.

I'm sales representative for an US corporation that trades its products and

since the end of November l'm working for their italian office. I have three

for sale!

THE BUY IT NOW PRICE FOR THIS PRODUCT IS 2000 USD WITH SHIPPMENT INCLUDED and

you can buy it without winning the auction.

Right now l'm located in Palermo (country: Italy ) because here I meet my

source directly in the factory.

The product is brand new, factory sealed with ALL the accesories.It

is an US model and will come with warranty fully transferable to your name.

It will come with the receipt from the authorized dealer and there will be no

problem for you to use the warranty.

Shipping: l will ship via UPS but you can choose other mail

carrier .lt usually take max two days till the package arrives to your door. l

will cover the shipping and insurance costs.

Payment: l'm a serious seller with more than 2 years of experience in

this field. l'm a fair trader with a very good feedback on ebay which is the

proof that l have closed a lot of sucessful deals.

During this period l learned that best deals are made when the

risk involved is minimum.

You will arrange payment through western union(www.westernunion.com).

I have something safe for you because I want you to be sure that

you will receive the product and I hope we will colaborate in the

future too because I want to develop this bussines as soon as possible.

Look what I can do for you: -you will make the transfer to my location but not

to my name(you will use your best friends name for example as receiver's name)

so you can be sure that I will not pick up the money untill you get the product.

So you make a deposit at western union and you will give me the transfer's

details(SENDER'S NAME,RECEIVER'S NAME,MTCN) so i can check that the deposit was

made .

After i verify I will send you the product imediately and email

you the tracking number from UPS.

-only after you will receive the product and check if it ok you will

have to change the of the transfer to my name so i can collect my money.So

untill you will NOT have the product in your hands money will be deposited in

your best friend's name at an western union agent.

I think it is better not inform western union that you will change the

receiver's name in a few days because they will probably ask you to pay the

fees twice.

My old buyers of course make the transfer at western union directly to my

name which is easier and i will be happy if you can trust me in doing so but

because it is our first deal i proposed you this very safe and efficient method

so you can only deposit the money first and after you will get the product to

allowe me to cash it.

Probably this payment method it is not very familiar to you but since i

am in Italy (where is a lot of birocracy ) l am used to it each of my customers

being satisfied with it. l have to admit that it is the most efficient process

to go through.

Return policy: 20 days.my suppliers only approved this kind of

deal and that is why i have to follow his desire.

This is my full name and address:

First name : Mark

Last name : Bates

Address: via Bandiera 25

Post code: 90133

City : Palermo

Country : Italy

Mail me asap ,if you are still interested!

Thanks!

hello,
Here is my usual payment method: You will send the

money with WireTranser via WesternUnion(you will send me the MTCN -money transfer control number with full adresses and names of the sender and reciver) on my adress

but you will put whatever name you want as the

receiver, so that I will not be able to receieve the

money until you received the packege. After you will

receive and inspect the product you will tell

WesternUnion to change the name of the receiever with

my own so that I will be able to collect the payment

for the product I haved sented in your direction. I

offer you 3 options of delivery services that are very

fast : - UPS 2 days air insured - FedEx 2 days air

insured - DHL insured Any of those services are good,

but I personaly prefere UPS 2 days air, because I used

this method until now, and I haved been very satisfied

by this service. This is the reason why I am asking

you to use this method. If you have other preference,

there is no problem. Because this is our first contact

and because we are in a business relationship please

let me introduce my self. Here is my full personal

info:

this is my name:LUIS ALCAZAR

and adress for the payment:

C/JOAN MIRO 7

MADRID

28020

SPAIN

waiting your answer.............

As always, and especially online BUYER BEWARE

k1500chevy97 · July 25, 2003

i'll be on the lookout . thanks for the info

pacodiablo · July 25, 2003

I have had the same issue with the mowing deck I am trying to sell. 3 people who claim to be from Africa have contacted me about it. All seem phony. It is pretty sad when people try to rip you off left and right.

bowtie_pasta · July 25, 2003

My advice is that any international business is unsafe, stay away.

99silveradoz71 · July 25, 2003

If it sounds to good to be true, or if it just doesn't feel right...have to use your intuition as Jewel says.

Wingnut · July 25, 2003

....have to use your intuition as Jewel says.

Thanks man....Thanks a lot.

I hadn't thought of that d@mn song all day....Or of that waste of oxygen that sings it.

You are a bad, bad man.

Josh · July 28, 2003

I sold a completely decked out JPS Clodbuster remote control car on ebay for 1400 bucks and the buyer claimed "he never got it" but couldnt prove it to ups. Seemed real shady and i never heard anything from him after that. If i bought a $1400 rc car from someone i would be on the phone trying to work something out!

E-Buyer beware!