FRAUD EBAY ALERT: Complex EBAY scam explained! (Reason for all those email hoaxes)

[EXman]

this crap ain't new...

 

[IshmaelLeaver]

Ebay scams = Hot Deal?

 

[VirtualLarry]

Originally posted by: guinea101
I think this is important for people to know ASAP because I know most anandtechers usually buy from Ebay, and if you weren't as scrupolous as me, you could easily be scammed, as I almost was.

(scan info snipped for brevity)

Now, after looking at this carefully I immediately recognized the Western Union -> foreign country scam and he is using the "change from friends name to his name" when you get merchandise scam. I saw this in a news report, but basically they ask u to send the money in a "friends name" and then change it to their name only after you supposedly receive the merchandise. (sounds reasonable). However, what's happened is they fake your friend's name ID and take the money without shipping the merchandise, and there is no insurance to cover your loss.

Another thing I noticed is that these auctions are then quickly pulled so that there are no records of it. Another clue is that these people selling expensive laptops or electronics does not match the usual merchandise that they have sold (usually cheap low end stuff).

Good call, all around. Foreign country + Western Union == DANGER, DANGER. Do not buy.

Originally posted by: guinea101
Also, I combined this info with other stuff in the news (and on these anandtech forums) is that scammers have been able to steal real people's (honest sellers) ebay account through those FAKE HOAX EBAY EMAILS. They then email people these offers, which many people may fall for (fooled by the high feedback ratings).

Interesting. I had always assumed that most of those scams were created by foreign (non-US) criminals, hoping to drain sellers' bank accounts. In this case, hijacking the account is more effective and worth more in the long run, if they can pull off a couple of these scams successfully using the acct.

Originally posted by: guinea101
Taken together Ebay should remove THE PRE-APPROVED BIDDER OPTION ASAP!!!

I don't understand the issue here. These scams exist regardless of that option, don't they? I don't see how they are related.

Originally posted by: guinea101
Again, I justify this post because a) plp here use ebay a lot b) its good to give a headsup on something that all inter-relates and show how complex and sophisticated these scammers have become. Plz post any stories, and ideas to shut out these fake auctions.

Yes. Some people still don't know, or are conned by, those "Nigerian 414" scams. I've read a few that are almost convincing, but mostly they are just hilarious, due to their use of non-standard english grammar. Thanks for the heads-up.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Originally posted by: SinMen

I do not justify this post because it's way too easy to spot this as a scam. When something is too good to be true, it usually is. All scam is based on people's greed. If you are not trying to be greedy, you would not even have emailed this guy. Who in the world would have sell you a high end lappy at an unblieveble low price?

Well, considering how many people in ATHD are "greedy", then perhaps these posts serve a useful purpose after all. If getting something for an "impossibly cheap" price was the only gauge of a scam, then 99% of the threads on ATHD are scams. Welcome to the Ferengi Zone.

PS. $1K US isn't exactly an unbelievably low price, on supposedly clearance laptops. It's actually probably about right, somewhere between $1-1.5K for modern high-end ones. That's about what most OEMs sell them for to the major labels, AFAIK. LCD panels and CPUs and RAM aren't as much as they used to be.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Originally posted by: guinea101
well of course you should use your common sense. However it is interesting to note the new twist which these scammers are using.

The pre-approved bidder REQUIRES you to email them for approval, so I bet multiple people can easily fall for this scam if they are not diligent.

Ahhh, so that's how it works. That gets the unwitting consumer to send an e-mail to the scammer, and they reply with the offer, outside of eBay's system, basically.

Originally posted by: guinea101
The Western Union thing is the obvious clue that it is a scam.
However, if you think about it, when the scammers get even more sophisticated and smarter, they can offer Paypal/ Credit Cards. Also they can make catchy ebay descriptions and prices aren't too outrageous that can probably fool most people.

So I'm basically hoping that more people can alert ebay to these things, and do something about it before people are victimized.

The funny thing is, from what I mostly understand, unless it costs eBay money, they generally don't care. They'll post a disclaimer or two, and that's that.

 

[ktjc]

I am a newbie.

Can someone explain to me the westernunion scam thing....I really want to know?

Does this mean if on ebay the seller suggests payment by westernunion, then I have to avoid at all cost?

 

[Bendawg]

Me being scammed:

When I was 14 I sent $60 to wisconson for a 2x CDRW drive...done through aol CARDING services...anyone remember this shit?

Recently (bout a year ago) I sent $500 to romania. This was an ebay/western union scam. This guy had a notebook for $1000 buy it now...way cheap for a dell 8200 at the time. I emailed him asking why it was so cheap, he told me he would sell it to me out of ebay...so I told him I would only send him $500 half payment until I got it. I actually fell for it and sent him $500 to romania via western union.

JUST recently, I almost sent this guy $900 for a canon 10d with this new ebay scam thing. He had valid ebay name, and he offered me this item. I decided to be smart this time and I went onto ebay and sent him an email through his ebay name. A few days later I got a guy telling me NOT to deal with him as he had his account hacked into and had all of these problems. Easy solution...saved myself $900 as well.

It's sick, and its not cool at all.
All we need is love.
But yea, i'd support a site to help people get their money back from all of these frauds...I'd like that $500 back from romania man.

Ben

 

[AkumaX]

did you actually get the 2x cdrw from carding?

hint: use AIM and try to create a chat room called "carding"