Potential eBay dive gear scam

[wch]

I won and paid for a PlayStation 2 on Ebay. The seller had over 80 positive feedbacks. The seller never sent it and would not respond to emails. But... I paid with my credit card through PayPal, called my credit card company after three weeks and they credited my account the amount of purchase.

I use Ebay all the time. Especially for high mark-up items like sporting goods (scuba, snowboarding, backpacking), electronics, and custom car parts.

I love paying 50 cent on the dollar verses local retail.

My 2 cents would be to check you credit card companies refund policies, use an intermediate like PayPal, and only buy from sellers with a high % of positive feedback.

 

[Genesis]

a couple of months ago who I uncovered as an outright fraud.

eBAY played games with me for a good week and a half, but in the end they conceded that it was indeed a rip off and killed the account.

I didn't get burned, but the other bidders on his auctions might have.

The tripwire for me was when I offered to show up and pick up the unit in person, and hand him cash, he suddenly got REAL quiet and strange, then stopped respond to me at all.

Duh.

 

[Bob3]

Ebay is beginning to phase in a new way of reporting feedback; right by the seller's ID it will give the % of positive feedbacks, as well as length of time registered.

spiffy.

 

[Butch103]

check out the feedback......I love e-bay.....I have just bought and sold wnough items (flipped) to pay for my new set of regs......But I only buy from those with lots of positive feedback, with similar items previously sold............

as always BUYER BEWARE !!!!!!!!

 

[Lead_carrier]

I can understand the no feedback philosiphy.... but we all have to start somewhere. How about if I offer you my home phone#, home address, cell phone #. No, I'm not trying to be a smart A$$. Would that help ease the pressure?

I have a couple of items that I want to sell but because of scam artist I may be stuck with them.

 

[victoriawtx]

I have been on ebay for years, mainly buying and selling small ticket items. I love the community of ebay, as well as the convenience. I did get burned once, when I sold a woman something and went ahead and shipped it BEFORE I received payment. That was a stupid error on my part. She kept giving me excuses "the check's in the mail" for weeks and weeks, and then when I reported her to ebay, she had vanished.

I think that what the others say is the best advice, I always check someone's feedback whether I am buying from them, or selling something to them. I try to give the newbies to ebay the benefit of the doubt, if it is a small ticket item. But I would not buy an expensive dive computer from someone with no feedback. There are lots of scammers out there, you just have to keeps your wits about you. Don't get caught up in something that looks to good to be true.

thanks for the info on the scam,

Victoria

 

[Scubatooth]

i have been on ebay for a while and im always looking out for scams

especially since i do alot of digital photography and always looking for a good deal but when i see a 5k item being sold for 1800 buy it now i get suspicous in a hurry. so to combat this if i suspect fraud or a scam i report it to ebay.

some ebay tips

if the seller wants western union only and then also wants the name address and control number its a scam because once they have that the money is gone.

for escrow only use escrow.com and none other because they are scams and the same goes for bank transfers because thats like giving them a key to your bank account.


these are the main way to spot scams, but id it sounds to good to be true it is.

if anybody wants tips on spotting scams PM me and i will help outhte best i can

 

[Scubaroo]

Scubatooth once bubbled...
especially since i do alot of digital photography and always looking for a good deal but when i see a 5k item being sold for 1800 buy it now i get suspicous in a hurry. so to combat this if i suspect fraud or a scam i report it to ebay.

Just yesterday I saw a seller with EIGHT brand new Olympus 5050 cameras with Buy It Now of $499 each, no PayPal, money orders only - they usually go for $650+, so it sounded like a scam. Read the guys feedback, and he's only ever sold 1 thing in the past, and it was a used book or something. Had a look today and eBay had closed all of the auctions and killed the account. Either a ripoff or a hijacked account. I just did a search through completed items, and unfortunately someone had bought one - hopefully they haven't sent the money.

Digital cameras just seem too risky to buy off eBay - they're a high ticket item, and thousands of people sell them - so it's easy for a scam artist to set up shop and not be noticed.

 

[Boogie711]

... and saw a pair of turtles going for $90. I thought that was kind of ridiculous for an E-Bay auction so I looked at the bid history, and this one buyer with 0 feedback started showing up.

I check the sellers other auctions - surprise surprise - that same 0 feedback buyer was bidding on his stuff then, too! So I start looking at similar items on E-Bay, and that one buyer is nowhere to be found. For some 'inexplicable reason' he only bids on that one particular sellers auctions - and always bids in every auction that one seller holds. Funny, huh?

I reported it to E-Bay. Hopefully they'll kill it.