I got scammed on eBay with a Noctilux auction

Did anybody else noticed the Cyrillic characters in the listing text? (They appear in the cashed pages also.)

It is triggering an alarm to me.

Epimetheus,

keep tough, wish you the best.
 
Pay Pal and my Noctilux

Pay Pal and my Noctilux

I bought a Noctilux earlier this year for $4,700 on Ebay from another pro photographer though Pay Pal which is insured against this kind of thing. I carefully check the history of the seller and pay attention to buyers comments. When I hit pay now for my Noct, I had a lump on my throat, but I did my homework and felt very safe using PayPal and American Express whom do not put up with this kind of thing. I had peice of mind and everything was fine for me (the seller went out of his way by having Leica adjust my Noctilux so I would be happy, matching it with my M8for free). In the future, check the sellers history, and use a secure payment option where if something goes wrong, they (American Express, etc) will take serious action.
 
Some points about eBay...

Some points about eBay...

yanidel said:
- no description in the item country language. Typically most items get sold within the home country, so lack of Swedish was suspicious.
- the item country not the same as the seller country.
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Good points there but I have to say some things are necessitated by eBay. I'm speaking from a Finnish seller's perspective:

If you want to offer the option of paying with IBAN/BIC and use prices in euros, you basically have to list it on ebay.de and if I as a Finn am selling something on eBay, I will write the text in English as it's an international buyer audience I'm targetting - that's why I'm putting it up for sale on eBay and not on some Finnish similar servide.
I guess you could also use ebay.fr, .es, .gr and some others but Germany seems to be the center of eBaying in euro-using Europe. And none of the above mentioned countries use English as a language and my German is better than my French, Greek and so on..


This is annoying because it does seem odd to the average buyer but also because then all the extra intelligence of eBay gets in your way - sometimes the automatic checks for shipping costs etc. force you to sell your item with underpriced shipping.
 
eBay's attitude doesn't surprise me. That's usually their way of dealing w/ problems. You'd think they would share some legal responsibility w/ what happens on their auctions, but good luck suing them. The message here, and I know it doesn't help you a bit, is to always fund online purchases w/ a credit card. Not sure how it works where you live, but here in the US you might be able to get the funds back in a credit card transaction if there's evidence of fraud. Don't count on PayPal if it's fraud either! They will only help you if there is a way to refund money. A hacked eBay account is not something they will do anything about to my knowledge.

I'm very sorry you had such a horrible experience right before the holidays, but on one level it's only money (what I always tell myself when something like this happens, and unfortunately I've had much worse losses). Don't stress over it so much it affects your health. W/o your health all the money in the world doesn't much matter.
 
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Big time bummer! I wish you well in recovering this. It doesn't look like it is going to be easy. Hang with it though.
 
This really Zukks.
Sorry to hear about such a misfortune.
Is there any way to get the money back?

I would not give up.
Write to the Board of Directors at ebay.

Good luck.
 
Very sorry, Ep.

For this kind of money I recommend to go through a reputable dealer, no ebay. KEH has 4 Noctiluxes available currently, the cheapest (EX) for the equivalent of EUR 2830.

Roland.
 
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im terribly sorry for this.. i hope you get your money back.. its hard to get scammed with a person you cant see or even reach.. i was scammed before, though the value wasnt that much, but the betrayal is hard to stomach..
 
The bank has got to be the best spot to get a handle on who the person is. Good luck on your fight to get justice. eBay will be no help. I was scammed for a small amount from an ebay person and he didn't run away, stayed an ebay member and ebay couldn't/wouldn't do sh*t to help me.

I wouldn't do such an expensive transaction without at least establishing some personal communication, or at least speak to someone that has dealt with the person before. I know that is difficult if someone steals a legit person'r ID, but a call to the ebay person first, would have exposed this before you sent any money. I know if I was going to receive such a large sum of money from a buyer I wouldn't be bothered in the least to talk to them and prove who I was.
 
In my case, two people sent me their lenses for several months to use and then buy. It is a matter of trust between individuals who know about each other through the photography websites, such as RFF and nelsonfoto. Maybe this example is an extreme case, but I did not buy from ebay expensive lenses.

I would put some pressure on ebay.
 
Raid,
I sent someone out of state several lenses to try out and then pick one or two, pay me, and then send the others back. This was a person active on an internet site with whom I had spoken with thru the site many times. Well, he kept everything and ignored my emails for a couple of months. I was lucky because I had police connections. A detective from my town made a call to a detective from his town and they paid him a visit that evening and simply asked him if he was running an internet scam of some kind. It really scared the p*ss out of him, because I don't know how he accomplished it, but he FedExed me everything back, perfectly wrapped and packaged and I had the items back in my hands a little over 12 hours after the police paid him a visit.
 
timpppa said:
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.
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That is the number one way to know it is a scam. Seriously.
 
It is a hard lesson but now something good will come to you.
Use the IBAN link to get the *******! Normally they ask for Western Union I hope this is his mistake and you can get to him.

One thing should attract attention,

The ebay account was dormant since 2004 and then a +2000 euro item appears!!!

contact the seller using the link on the top right then you get to te owner of the account and not the hyjacker.

Paypal is expensive but I have been refunded twice after not receiving the item, now if I buy something expensive I insist on Paypal and gladly pay some% extra.
 
George S. said:
Raid,
I sent someone out of state several lenses to try out and then pick one or two, pay me, and then send the others back. This was a person active on an internet site with whom I had spoken with thru the site many times. Well, he kept everything and ignored my emails for a couple of months. I was lucky because I had police connections. A detective from my town made a call to a detective from his town and they paid him a visit that evening and simply asked him if he was running an internet scam of some kind. It really scared the p*ss out of him, because I don't know how he accomplished it, but he FedExed me everything back, perfectly wrapped and packaged and I had the items back in my hands a little over 12 hours after the police paid him a visit.
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Hi George,
Your experience is a scary one!
It is important to have some trust left in people, and I understand how bad you must have felt to be tricked and to be cheated out of what belongs to you.

What a bummer.
 
Sellers are being hit by scammers too, ugh you don't know who to trust.

I don't use ebay anymore to buy nor to sell. I sold an item the awhile back, and recieved the guy's money in my paypal account so I proceeded to ship the item. A week later the guy files that the "item never came." The tracking number said that the item was PROCESSED at a Post Office in his zip code, but was never scanned.

I emailed paypal and they basically said that I cannot win this because as long as the item was never scanned for pick up, then the seller will always lose.

So I asked "So if an item reaches my front door, but I notice that it wasn't scanned or signed, I can go on my computer and in 5 minutes, I can get my money back?"

Paypal replied "Yes."


Just be extra careful out there, it's a rough place on the internet!
 
Almost every single day i turn in fake auctions.(i call ebay) The German accounts were hacked for awhile and several different pics of Nocts were used. The American accounts have the same problems. It is all mostly inside jobs. Anytime you see a listing with no feedaback for over 90 days except for a $4 item, DO NOT SEND MONEY. NEVER SEND MONEY TO A BANK OR WIRE TRANSFER. When they ask for a Buy it now price in the description you know it is a fake auction. If you see a listing like this that says "will accept bank transfer or wire transfer" IT IS FAKE. The hackers have gotten very sneaky and can now hide this wording from the ebay network. When you see fake auctions, report them or move on. I bid tens of thousands of dollars on fake auctions so that people will notice there is something wrong and not attempt to send money. Ebay eventually pulls the auctions, but sometimes people like yourself have already sent money to the crooks. It happens every day on ebay. These hackers are very good at what they do and make a very large amount of money doing it.
 
Most of the time the pics are from previous legit auctions that sold for large amounts on ebay. The hackers reuse item descriptions an pics, so they can be very convincing. Calling ebay and asking about the auction will not help you. They do not always see the complete listing like you do. What they see is a very normal looking auction. The point is, the ONLY way they can steal your money is if you send it by any other means than paying through ebay to paypal. That is the ONLY way you are protected as a buyer. Any other way and you risk loosing your $$$$$
 
I'm really sorry for you.
It's an awfull lot of money.

Isn't bank transfer traceable, and thus safer?
I mean, if the problem is that you need a name to sue, the bank should be a good resource (even if not to you, maybe to the police), right?
 
My understanding is that bank TT /wire is traceable through authorize such as the police.
But those are questionable bank account that are opened for such scammed. The funds will be out of that bank account as soon as the funds reach it.
Once in a while we get spammed email that as us to open up banks account.....I guess we now know what those are for....
 
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