Another ebay scam ?!?

Hi to all.

Wille browsing ebay looking for a flash bracket, i found this, with i think it's verry.... hummm.... wierd...:

Items for Sale by marcmargaret :

Canon Telephoto EF 200mm f1.8L USM Autofocus Lens

CANON 300mm 2.8 PROFESSIONAL LENS WITH CASE ,AND HOOD

PLEASE CONTACT ME DIRECTLY AT span style="text-decoration: underline;"saleslot@aol.comINSTEAD OF USING "ASK THE SELLER A QUESTION" AS YOU WILL NOT RECEIVE A RESPONSE!!

Every "contact me directly" is a scam. You should report it to eBay and steer away from it. Unless the seller turns out to be your neighbour and you can exchange money and goods directly

But then, who sells an item that is worth of thousands for merely hundreds?

P.

This I find interesting.

The Seller has been on EBay for just over 2 years. In 2 years he has had about 200 transactions. (A lot of golf equipment - shirts, clubs, etc.) Now he has 442 pieces of electronics up for sale. ALL of them went on sale within a one hour time frame. That is a LOT of posting in such a short time. So in 1 hour he has done more than double 2 years worth of transactions.

I would be cautious.

Rad

I found one similar to this for a 70-200 IS lens. I e-mailed him inquiring and the response was to send a check/money order for $600 and I'll get my brand new lens w/ warranty. Wow, what a deal!!!! I quickly reported it to e-bay and the listing was removed in under a min.

This is either a get-rich fast scam by the seller, or a highjacked account.

I've reported it to ebay, be interesting to see what happens to the seller.

can you imagine getting hundreds of angry negs while being totally unaware that any 'sales' were taking place under your name?

Yes, it will be a hijacked account. It happened to a friend of mine, he suddenly found a load of cheap cameras etc on his account. They are always contact direct and at ridiculous prices (£700 for a 1DS II ??) so anybody with half a brain should spot them and steer well clear. Sadly there are many people who DON'T have half a brain and let greed overide caution.

"Wow, a five grand camera for £700 - I'll have to be quick and grab that before anybody else spots it"

"You want me to transfer funds straight into your bank account, then you'll mail me the camera? Great, I'll do that now"

Transfers funds and goes home dreaming of the super new camera he is getting and how the seller was a sucker for not realising how much it was worth

Ebay usually pulls these off very quickly, but sometimes the quick reacting, greedy and gullible still manage to send the money first.


EDIT: I just checked the account, I can get a brand new 1DS II plus two lenses (although the seller doesn't actually mention which lenses, but hey they are added value) for just £700 , Woohoo, I can save loadsamoney. It might even be cheaper as the current bid is only $399 (£211) .

sandpiper wrote:
EDIT: I just checked the account, I can get a brand new 1DS II plus two lenses (although the seller doesn't actually mention which lenses, but hey they are added value) for just £700 , Woohoo, I can save loadsamoney. It might even be cheaper as the current bid is only $399 (£211) .

You'll be too late - I just checked and ebay has pulled the whole auction!

I only reported this 2 hours ago - perhaps I wasn't the first - but it's sickening that there is so much of this BS on ebay. But I am impressed that they take action when things like this are pointed out to them.

Yes, they are VERY fast when these things get reported. When I checked the account earlier, I was actually expecting it to have already been pulled. I see a lot of these posts about ebay scams and usually the scam is pulled by ebay before the virtual ink is dry onthe post.

It is frustrating that they go on there like this, it makes it harder to sell genuine cameras.

I'm not sure who are the bigger idiots, the people who fall for this or the ones who post them as such OBVIOUS scams. It shouldn't take much doing to put a realistic looking listing up and ask a realistic price, which would be harder to spot. I would be very cautious buying expensive gear off ebay.

That wouldn't stop me buying though. I bought my 20D along with a 100-400L IS lens from ebay (two simultaneous auctions from one seller). Everything looked completely legit but I still drove a 200 mile round trip to go and get them in person, cash on collection, just in case. It was well worth it, I saved around £550 compared to buying from warehouseexpress.

One thing e-bay should do, is increase their security system login. Too many people are getting e-mails that send them to a fake login and well, they are screwed then.

I'd certainly only do a high $ transaction if there was Paypal protection in place, and also I'd use a credit card as in the Uk that gives added protection against fraud.
On the whole, I only risk money I can afford to lose - which means I don't buy lenses or bodies on ebay.

A friend of mine who is an e-bay powerseller as her current career and who has a masters in forensic psych pointed out that a large factor in these scams is the protection afforded the scammer just by the scammee's feelings of "well, I deserved that" - they feel like THEY were trying to scam the poor unwary ignorant soul who was selling a fortune's worth of equipment (or whatever) for pennies on the dollar, keeps many from taking proper action when they do get burned. Add that to those that are too embarassed to report it, and I'd bet a great many go unreported, let alone uninvestigated due to lack of resources or leads.

They also say it's impossible to con an honest man ( I mean person)

If people weren't greedily expecting to take advantage in the first place they wouldn't get burned in the second place.

What's greed got to do with it? Any sensible person would try to get a decent bargain where possible. You seem to be tarring everyone who bids on these items as greedy unscrupulous individuals. I was scammed after bidding up to a fair price for a 5D. The fact that my maximum bid wasn't reached isn't my fault. Yes - I got stung for a helluva lot of cash, but not because I was greedy - simply because I was looking for a bargain.

(See this post: http://www.photography​-on-the.net/forum/showthre​ad.php?t=207864)

Yes - I know I was a tit - but that doesn't excuse the scammer. Nor does it mean he should get off scot-free just because there are gullible idiots like me out there. My (very poor - but I feel relevant) analogy runs like this: Who would leave a mugging victim lying in the gutter and let the perpetrator go free, just because the victim shouldn't really have been out at night in that area?

............... and eBay doesn't pull auctions NEARLY quickly enough. I reported a couple of items last night which I were certain were scams, only to find they hadn't been pulled until a couple of poor sods had been caught out. Now these guys are going to have to wait for the whole sluggish eBay system to kick into action - and then, maybe after about 60 days, get some p**s poor compensation......

Sorry - do I come over as a wee bit miffed?:o

Grumpyhaggis - I'm sorry, I should have been more careful in my comments, I read your story with alarm, and in no way did I mean to imply that everyone who gets scammed was asking for it. you bid honestly for goods that were apparently kosher, the only warning sign was the feedback status. Your bid was a fair one, as i recall, not for a buy-it-now of £300 for kit worth ten times that - that is all the 'point' I was trying to make.

To be honest stories like yours make me even warier of ebay - and I do hope you come out OK. I think ebay should have some sort of active policing of the lists rather than relying on other users to report dodgey auctions.