New M7 for $800 or living dangerously

[akptc]

Out of curiousity about how a likley scam develops, I made contact with an ebay seller who is listing the same M7 several times for under $1000. Of course, I used a safe email adress etc. Here is how our corresp. developed:

My first email to seller:

> On 5/29/06, (akptc) wrote:
> >
> > I am interested in buying (BIN) your M7 for sale.
> >
> > Thanks

Seller's reply:

> On Mon, 29 May 2006 11:41:02 +0300, r c wrote:
> Hi there,
> The final price fro this M7 is 750USD and free delivery to you.
> The deal will go strictly according to eBay's rules and policy
> regarding to this auction - to start the official transaction, I need
> to know your details:
> First Name:
> Last Name:
> Street Address:
> City: State/Province: Zip Code:
> Country:
> eBay username:
> Product Name :
> Product Price :
> As soon as I have them I'll start the official procedure, and eBay
> will notify you about this. You'll also receive important guidelines +
> instructions from them (please go through them exactly).
> I'll handle the shipping, so this will be free of charge for you + I
> am willing to deduct you with the fee for handling the payment
> procedure.
> Also, a refund policy will be included.
> Looking forward to hearing from you.

My follow-up:

n 5/29/06, (akptc) wrote:
>
> This sounds awfully complicated - why can't I just use paypal to pay you,
> you would get my address with the pmt?
>
> Thanks

Seller's reply:

From: r c <onlineplazza@googlemail.com>

I`ll prefer to close the deal thru ebay like i said in my previous
email....let me know if you are interested!


What do you think?

The pic below shows his listings.

 

[Silva Lining]

In general, if it sounds to-good-to-be-true, it usually is.

 

[jpbob100]

Item location says Broadway, U. K. Actual location of "utepimp" according to eBay is Utah, USA. Sounds like another hi-jacked account. 😡

 

[iñaki]

IMO they are hijacked accounts (3 or more), look at the feedback of motix1000 (all as a buyer, not a seller of expensive brand new cameras).
Other hijacked account by the same person and selling the same leica: utepimp

 

[Kim Coxon]

The guy is looking for identity theft having hi jacked an account. Run away.

Kim

 

[ywenz]

why are you even trying? this is obviously a scam.

 

[jlw]

I'm pretty sure the key to the whole scam is this part:

> As soon as I have them I'll start the official procedure, and eBay
> will notify you about this. You'll also receive important guidelines +
> instructions from them (please go through them exactly).

When you receive these "important guidelines and instructions," I'm sure they'll take you to a phoney eBay page where your eBay user ID, password, and PayPal information will be "phished." Next thing you know your PayPal account password will have been switched, so you can no longer get into it, and likewise your eBay account name and password. Shortly after that you'll probably discover it's YOU who's now "selling" $700 Leicas on eBay, no doubt taking advantage of your excellent feedback record.

 

[akptc]

If you get this I have a 35mm Summicron ASPH I could sell you. Special price for you, my friend: $250. Payment in a brown envelope.

I will take it! Do you take 1897 russian rubbles 😉

Btw, I am not trying to pay this guy any money, just curious how a scam progresses. Kind of a learning experience, I guess (it's either that or listening to my father's-in-law war stories... 🙂)

 

[jpbob100]

I just checked and "utepimp" and "motix1000" no longer have anything for sale. I wonder how many got scammed before they closed them down.

 

[boarini2003]

Send him the cash. In Monopoly money, that is.

 

[sf]

This is fake - very fake. I've received a number of 100% similar sales pitches from "Ebay" sellers.

 

[jpbob100]

Oh crap, he's back up and doing business again as "85_behzad" and "bigmac_hk".
Time for another email to eBay. 😡

 

[RObert Budding]

I'm glad that you are notifying eBay.

 

[fgianni]

No, sorry ... 😉

For hours of fun, check this page: http://www.419eater.com/

To be fair I must confess I don't have much sympathy for the victms of the 419 type scams, they almost invariably are told that the deal is somehow illegal, and they don't show any problem in breaking the law to satisfy their greed.

In most cases the victims are not any better than the scammers.