Ebay RF scams

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peterrm

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In the past 24 hours I have seen numerous items on ebay following the same gereral theme. A desirable piece of rf gear(50mm f1.1 Nikkor w/ hood!, M-6 w/ 4 lenses etc.)
is posted with a very low opening bid.
When you look at the ad a the wording is always similar to "don't bid-contact us directly at various emails" and then in every ad "the price is now 700 GBP"-always the same price.
Wierd. I actually contacted one of the address and recieved a reply with elaborate instructions to send money by Western Union.
These are obiviously scams-a 50 1.1 w/ hood for $1500!-but it suprises me that ebay isn't somehow more aware of this.
 
E-bay must be a favorite place for scamers to ply their trade. I received two second chance offers within minutes of each other. In both cases they asked to have the money wired to some guy in Athens Greece. Right! As it turned out they were scams. Too bad because I really wanted that GA617.🙁
 
peterrm said:
These are obiviously scams-a 50 1.1 w/ hood for $1500!-but it suprises me that ebay isn't somehow more aware of this.
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How would ebay know anything about RF lenses? What about those crazy ass protoype Leica lenses that were asking for $35,000? Should Ebay close those down automatically as well?
 
My boss was looking for a Canon 300mm f2.8L IS a month or so ago on Ebay and kept running into the same people doing that kind of crap. Always wanting him to western union the money etc. He reported them a few times to Ebay and saw the listings removed, but after a while he started watching and discovered they were making new listings at a rate of about 50 a day! There is no way Ebay can keep up with that even with people letting them know, and that was just one person doing the ads! There are probably 1000 other guys doing the same thing.
 
I've seen more Coolscan 8000's sold on the bay than could have ever been made. Mostly for sale through the same people... Since, I decided that the bay IS a scam. I'd just stay away.
 
Ebay has the same attitude as US Credit Card companies and banks. They could make the internet and transactions far safer, but they've made a cost benefit analysis. Right now, they make more money from lax standards than from high standards.

Look at Singapore's banking system, where the government mandated much higher security levels. The technology is there, the will is not.

Lobbyists on K street in Washington will fight this until they are forced to do it.
 
Epay really couldn't care less......nobody knows how many poor newbies get ripped off daily. NEVER bid on an auction that keeps a bidder's identity private....they can't be warned by more savvy members it's a scam. The numbers of hijacked accounts is staggering....surely there must be a way Epay can ensure the item is being auctioned by the account owner and not some dirtbag.
 
I've just posted on Epay's community forum that 3 of 8 auctions (37.5%!!) for M7's are scams, and what are they gonna do about it. In the past, my comments have been quickly deleted by the mods.....
Don't buy on Ebay.
 
I've never been scammed... is that just good luck?

Maybe I only bid on sellers who have plenty of good feedback, have acceptable methods of paying (no western union/bank transfer only), no secrecy (private/hidden feedback etc), no one day listings and sensible prices.

It's easy enough to spot the scams. Just engage the brain... if it stinks, walk away. The safeguards are there, if you use them...


And remember kids, if it sounds way too good to be true, it is.
 
I have had excellent results buying and selling on eBay. Caveat emptor.

Of course there are scams. There are scams in the real world too, you know. It's your job to be a savvy buyer. Just yesterday I ran into one of these listings: a new in box M6 with hotmail address and private auction. I called the account owner (phone # listed in profile) and alerted him his account had been hijacked. He had no idea.
 
I'm thinking that with it's global reach and it's astounding profits, ebay should police it's business better. The buyers and sellers that have made them such a success deserve that much service.
 
dadsm3 said:
NEVER bid on an auction that keeps a bidder's identity private...
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I'll respectfully disagree a little here :angel: There are legitimate reasons to keep a bidder's identity private. I once had an auction where someone else selling the same lens contacted bidders on MY auction to offer off-Ebay buy it now opportunities for HIS lens. I didn't know about it until one of my bidders was gracious enough to tell me about it. I had to report it to Ebay. It also keeps other fraudsters from contacting your bidders to either undercut you, or cheat your bidders.

So there are legitimate uses for the private bidder option. And I've seen some totally reputable sellers use it for precisely this reason.

I would suggest that there are better signs for spotting fraud ... be careful of:

1) auctions that only offer payment by Western Union or bank transfer;

2) auctions that ask for you to 'contact' them directly via email for an unofficial Buy-It-Now price

3) check feedback to see if there is a history of photographic equipment ... if they usually sell baby clothes, and suddenly sell a Leica MP Hammertone ... well, you know

4) check his/her other items for sale to see if there is suddenly a large number of high ticket items for sale at the same time

5) unusually short term auctions ... be careful of 1 or 3 day auctions that are designed to scam and run

6) finally, know know know your item of interest, know its characteristics, know its value ... if the price is too good to be true, it is

7) always email the Seller to ask a question about the item. Gauge his/her response to see if they actually know anything about the item. Judge the response for authenticity.

Follow all these rules, you will save yourself some trouble, I hope 🙂


The numbers of hijacked accounts is staggering....surely there must be a way Epay can ensure the item is being auctioned by the account owner and not some dirtbag.
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I agree with you there, and, yes, there is. For instance, Ebay can easily install 'site key' technology, where your usual IP address (for instance, from Nebraska) is logged so that a hijacked account from a totally different IP address (say, from Russia or Malaysia) automatically flags the account.

Some banks now do that. Ebay can do it. It just doesn't want to spend the money to do so. Why? Curretnly, its customers bear the cost for fraud, Ebay doesn't. So it has no financial incentive to correct security 🙁 Only when there is a material flood of people away from Ebay will it correct itself.
 
When you look at the ad a the wording is always similar to "don't bid-contact us directly at various emails" and then in every ad "the price is now 700 GBP"-always the same price
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Yeah, I saw a number of identical listings for an M6 yesterday evening, with the same photos and text but from different sellers. But I think eBay deserve some credit - I tried to report the auctions I saw, but they removed them all as I was in the process of doing so.
 
Flyfisher Tom said:
For instance, Ebay can easily install 'site key' technology, where your usual IP address (for instance, from Nebraska) is logged so that a hijacked account from a totally different IP address (say, from Russia or Malaysia) automatically flags the account.
Click to expand...
It can't be done on the basis of IP address, as there is no 1:1 relationship to personal identity. You can have one assigned by your provider dynamically, on per-session basis. You might need to check your account from work, your cousin's place, or just have changed ISPs.
 
varjag said:
It can't be done on the basis of IP address, as there is no 1:1 relationship to personal identity. You can have one assigned by your provider dynamically, on per-session basis. You might need to check your account from work, your cousin's place, or just have changed ISPs.
Click to expand...

Actually many banks already use this system.

The system verifies whether it is your usual ISP, if it isn't, it requires you to answer questions only you would know the answer to and have pre-selected (eg where did you go to high school, what is your first dog's name etc) before proceeding. The bank's system provides a photo and phrase you have selected (verifying to you that YOU are on the right site). Thus the site key system. It is a multi-layered security system that permits you to check from a different IP if need to (for instance, while on vacation from a different IP address).

The system and technology already exists 🙂 Ebay just hasn't adopted it yet.
 
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eBay can't implement anything new, simply because they can barely keep working with the huge amount of transactions being done. There are too many things on eay at any time, and adding an IP check for every sessions would probably make the thing colapse.
 
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