I got scammed on eBay with a Noctilux auction

Epimetheus

Epimetheus

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Yep, lost 2415€.

Everything checked out or so I thought, good feedback and communication. Few days after sending the money I received a message from eBay that the sellers account might "have been accessed by an unauthorized third party". How do they know that by the way?

If he's stupid enough to use the same scam, here's some details of the auction so you can avoid it.
  • Listed on German eBay
  • Location Sweden
  • Payment by SEPA (Single Euro Payments Area) or IBAN/SWIFT
  • Listing text: "Leica NOCTILUX-M 50MM F/1. Neuwertiger Zustand, OVP , Geli Voll funktionsfдhig. Glas makellos, weitere Einzelheiten siehe Leica-homepage Privatverkauf , keine Garantie , keine Rьcknahme "
Unfortunately I didn't save the serial number of the lens he was selling but I did find one picture he used in the listing.

I have filed a complaint to The Internet Crime Complaint Center and I'm going to file a complaint to the police but I'll doubt I'll see the money again.
 

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Thats horrible. A gut punch before christmas to be sure. Iv never bought anything off E-bay for this very reason. I bought my Noctilux at KEH. Good guys to deal with. My question is, even with someone with a good record on E-bay how do you know they wont use your transaction to cash in? and just change user names and start the whole process of getting a good history and than do it again?

Gregory
 
Nikkor AIS said:
Thats horrible. A gut punch before christmas to be sure. Iv never bought anything off E-bay for this very reason. I bought my Noctilux at KEH. Good guys to deal with. My question is, even with someone with a good record on E-bay how do you know they wont use your transaction to cash in? and just change user names and start the whole process of getting a good history and than do it again?

Gregory
Click to expand...

I have bought a lot of stuff from eBay and had only good experiences and I probably got too trusting for that reason. I certainly learned a lesson.

I don't know how scamming works or how one can obtain some ones eBay account. I also made a complaint to eBay but they don't seem to care. They just removed all records of the listing. It even disappeared from "My eBay". As far as eBay is concerned this never happened. I of course have all emails stored.
 
You seem to be taking it well ... I'd have steam coming out of my ears at this stage!

I got scammed recently for a $400.00 lens for my Hasselblad ... the internet is a wild frontier for buyers at times and stuff like this really rocks your faith in human nature. Ebay paypal etc are no help at all!

Very sorry to hear about this ... I hope the scammer gets hit by a bus!
 
SO sorry to hear this. Good luck with getting the police on to him; if you can, try and identify the branch of the bank and call them directly. I know this is hard; I recently had $2000 of payments go astray, and the hardest part of getting it back was ID'ing where and when the holding branch was. Once you get to them they're often helpful.

AS usual, the lesson here is to take nothing on trust on eBay, especially when the photos look generic like this, so email early. I am buying a £100 bass guitar for my son,and have only bid on items where I can pick up myself, because there are so many dodgy, vague items on there.
 
Or here. The only time I've got scammed was on RFF. On the other hand some of the best items I've bought were also on RFF. It's not just eBay, scammers are everywhere.
 
That's a shame... I asked about the payment methods also for the same auction. Seller did not accept anything but IBAN / SWIFT transfer. Did not have the courage to proceed with buying.
 
Well, ID from which you purchase the lens have 100% positive feedback but last activity under that account was two years ago as a buyer and five (!) years ago as a seller.
They are probably hacking accounts that have been 100% positive feedback and not active for couple of years.
 
Epimetheus said:
I paid by SEPA. I would think that the real owner of the bank account can be traced because I don't think it's possible to open a bank account in a Swedish bank without identification.
Click to expand...

It is not possible to open a bank account in Sweden without proper ID. But you are not obliged to get the identity of the account holder. But (Finish/Swedish) police will have this authority. Report the case to the police.
 
Paul T. said:
By an established member? Worrying...
Click to expand...

Not very well established, but did have several relevant posts for over a year. There were a few of us that were victims of the same scam. Luckily, and mostly because there were a few of us (otherwise the scam might not have been discovered) we have put enough pressure on the guy to get our money back.

To the OP - definitely use IBAN/SWIFT as your weapon. Tell him that the authorities will track him down through those details. The unfortunate part is that it will be difficult to actually get the money back through the bank, but at least use it as a threat.
 
I really feel sorry for you.
I know it won't help much for the moment, but there were lots of elements pointing to a scam from the beginning :
- the user had a good rating but had a long period of inactivity (no activity since 2004). Frauders typically look for these accounts to hijack as they think the real member might not notice (or even be dead ...)
- the item country not the same as the seller country.
- no description in the item country language. Typically most items get sold within the home country, so lack of Swedish was suspicious.
- description was way too standard for such a specific and pricey item, pictures were lousy.
- no Paypal option, so no way to for the buyer to block funds.

If you still have doubt on a listing, ask yourself the question "Is it too good to be true?"
It it is too good... probably ain't true.

I saw a similar one a few months ago with a M6 + lenses. Exactly same patterns. I searched on the serial numbers and found the listing to be the copy of an ad posted on a French forum a few months before. I contacted Ebay and within minutes, the ad was gone.
 
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