M9P outfit eBay scam listing

hepcat

hepcat

Former PH, USN
Local time
1:34 PM
Joined
Dec 2, 2012
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I'm not sure which forum to put this in... but the camera IS a rangefinder, so I'll put it here. Mods, if it needs moving, that's fine... but I don't want any of our members to get taken on this one.

So, I'd LOVE to have this one!!! :)

There's an auction running currently on eBay for an M9P with four Leica lenses including a Summilux 50... no reserve and the generous seller is willing to sell the kit for $3,000!!! Wow! of course if it looks too good to be true, it is.

Per the seller's instructions, I emailed him at the address given in the auction, and this was his reply:

"From: Jason Bowers

If you want to buy it now for the price of $3000 with shipping and handling included, i will need your full name, address(shipping address) and username so i can contact the eBay team to let them know about our transaction, and after they will approve it, you will receive an invoice containing all the steps that you need to follow for this to be a safe and fast transaction. Also a phone number is required where you can be found at any hour(cell phone). My auction is 14 days money back guarantee (if it's not like we agreed, or broken you will receive the money back). I can ship in 3 days, and please let me know if we can arrange a deal.

Thank you"

I think I'll go and print up an official-looking counterfeit cashier's check on my HP color printer, and get it off to him in the mail tomorrow!!!

So... new account with no feedback, change in font halfway through the auction... email contact in the body of the auction, and it's done on a .gif so the eBay sniffers can't see it. He's willing to accept half what the body or the 'lux alone is worth for an M9P body and four lenses... and he's gonna "contact the eBay team...." riiiiiiggggghhhhtttt.

I don't get too excited about these scam listings, and I always report them. This one seems to be different tho... as eBay so far has failed to remove the listing even though I've reported it twice. As of last night it had a dozen bids that have all been cancelled this morning.

So, if anyone else is interested... feel free to report it to eBay too... maybe if they get enough fraudulent listing reports they'll take it down... who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of eBay now...
 
Interesting!
Dont know enough about ebay to spot a scam but the seller is lying that the camera was purchased new. Its an M9P upgrade ( silver hot shoe) which can't be purchased new.
 
raid said:
I would not create a counterfeit check. Just forget about it all.
Click to expand...

That was a joke, Raid... I'm not doing anything about it at all other than reporting it to eBay. But it is fun to con folks who run con schemes.

Here's some of the common themes for scams on eBay for those who don't know them... first they have an image file in them that says "don't bid, contact me at my email address: xxxxx@xxxx.com" That's a tip off. the email address isn't searchable by eBay's filters. They have, as in this case, some exorbitant amount of money in goods that they're selling for a fraction of the actual value. In this case, it's a new account; frequently they use hijacked accounts that were otherwise in good standing.

Just remember, if a deal is too good to be true, it probably is.
 
You know, the first part of the description reads like an actual listing, so maybe it's a hijacking job. The GIF section reads like some low intelligence goon who's picked up the scam from someone else.

PF
 
At the moment (13:13 JST, August 25th) it has 5 bids and is at US$462.90. :rolleyes:

I like the included Leitz Wetzlar copying stand outfit, complete with original box and instructions though ... :eek::D
 
I find it interesting (amusing???) that if you inspect the properties of his $3000 offer (it's a .JPG), it is being hosted on http://bradsnd68.com. At that site, you'll find a file named hmm.txt that contains an entry for every IP address (including mine) that has taken a look at the listing. (I can't shed my former occupation as a SW Engineer :D). You can delve much deeper than I've talked about here.
 
A Hasselblad H5D keeps popping up on UK ebay, the pictures show a USA box but it is listed under UK addresses. Looks very legitimate, no deals outside ebay, paypal only, listed address only etc in listing but multiple listings as they are progressively taken down, except ebay now seems to have lost interest in reports on it. A simple completed transactions search shows the history but it is hard to report now as the auto report does not have a suitable drop down box, I think the crooks have worked that out now.
One went to conclusion and had negative feedback. I think the bidder went to £3,000 for kit worth £15,000 and was gutted it didn't arrive :rolleyes:

I'm fed up policing it for them and gutted so many fall for this kind of thing. Does the e-bay "guarantee" get them the money back when the account was hijacked?
 
plummerl said:
I find it interesting (amusing???) that if you inspect the properties of his $3000 offer (it's a .JPG), it is being hosted on http://bradsnd68.com. At that site, you'll find a file named hmm.txt that contains an entry for every IP address (including mine) that has taken a look at the listing. (I can't shed my former occupation as a SW Engineer :D). You can delve much deeper than I've talked about here.
Click to expand...

Well, I'll never click on another one of these scam report links again. I've already gotten spam supposedly addressed from photography forums.

PF
 
farlymac said:
Well, I'll never click on another one of these scam report links again. I've already gotten spam supposedly addressed from photography forums.

PF
Click to expand...

Logging IPs from images happens all the time. And some people like to use dynamic images that will display your address location just to freak you out e.g., "you live in NYC." But you always have to have a TCP connection between you and any other server which needs to know your IP address in order to connect you and deliver the content. A server obviously has to have your IP address to communicate with you. And when you request an image file from the server it's not just going to assume it's static, there can be a script (e.g., using php: $_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR']) that grabs the address. btw, there's also a simple script that gets the actual client address instead of just a proxy server (which the above script only does...)

There are plenty of tutorials out there (esp on YouTube) for writing script to an image to log IPs.

If you're concerned about transmitting info on the net, then use a VPN tunnel.
 
It's too late to worry about anything like that now. It's just a matter of time until the Internet is completely ruined by all the hackers and scammers.

PF
 
Somebody is going to get burned bigtime... the fraudulent auction is up to $4900.

So, being the good netizen that I try to be, I decided to call eBay this morning before someone loses their shirt on this. In the past there has been a contact phone number where you can actually talk to a live person who has dutifully taken the info down and forwarded it to the right folks for action. That's worked. And now it appears to be gone. If you search on "phone" in Customer Service help, it describes the method for calling eBay... and those options no longer exist on the menus.

I may be closing my eBay account after twenty years. I guess that eBay doesn't want consumers buying any more.
 
hepcat said:
Somebody is going to get burned bigtime... the fraudulent auction is up to $4900.

So, being the good netizen that I try to be, I decided to call eBay this morning before someone loses their shirt on this. In the past there has been a contact phone number where you can actually talk to a live person who has dutifully taken the info down and forwarded it to the right folks for action. That's worked. And now it appears to be gone. If you search on "phone" in Customer Service help, it describes the method for calling eBay... and those options no longer exist on the menus.

I may be closing my eBay account after twenty years. I guess that eBay doesn't want consumers buying any more.
Click to expand...

If this is a scam it is unlikely that the buyer will loose. At that cost paypal will put a hold on the funds for up to 30 days so the seller will not have access to it until the buyer either leaves positive feedback or a 30 wait..

This is SOP for new users on high dollar sales...

If I was spending that much money on any eBay sale no matter how good the sellers feedback I would request the hold...
 
hepcat said:
Somebody is going to get burned bigtime... the fraudulent auction is up to $4900.

So, being the good netizen that I try to be, I decided to call eBay this morning before someone loses their shirt on this. In the past there has been a contact phone number where you can actually talk to a live person who has dutifully taken the info down and forwarded it to the right folks for action. That's worked. And now it appears to be gone. If you search on "phone" in Customer Service help, it describes the method for calling eBay... and those options no longer exist on the menus.

I may be closing my eBay account after twenty years. I guess that eBay doesn't want consumers buying any more.
Click to expand...

It certainly looks like a scam to me, it also looks like people are setting up fake accounts in a bid to thwart the "scammer"
 
Actually, is a buyer paying with Paypal not fully insured ? Never had to action this but this is what would make me spend more than USD 1000 on Ebay
 
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