I think a friend might be getting ripped off (Ebay)

[theanimala]

I have a friend who has been trying to bid unsuccessfully for a laptop on Ebay for several weeks now with no luck. He just stopped by my house asking if this laptop he is looking at is a good deal.

Without going into specifics, it is one very sweet laptop. Inspirion 2900, 3.2GHZ, 1GB ram, 100Gb HD, DVDRW, 17" WXGA, Radeon 9600XT, etc. The price is only $500. Wow I thought.

This is where it got shady. He said the person emailed him with the deal. He thinks it may have been from one of his bids for an earlier laptop that this person got his email address. The seller is a woman out of the UK, who says that she will ship it via DHL to him. I don't have a copy of the instructions but it had something to do with him going to Western Union with payment to DHL. Only after he get's the laptop and inspects it will Western Union release payment to DHL, who will release payment to the seller.

Perhaps I am just being to cautious, but it sounds like too good of a deal. Not only that, but why would this person email him since he never bid directly from this person? Do any of you more experienced Ebay people have any advice? My friend thinks this is risk free...

 

[rsd]

scam obviously

 

[Tu13erhead]

Scam.

 

[Appledrop]

It is a SCAM, and an old one at that.

 

[stars]

Let your friend live and learn if he won't take your advice.

 

[theanimala]

Originally posted by: stars
Let your friend live and learn if he won't take your advice.

He's not saying he won't take my advice. I said I think it might be and left it at that.

I am sorry for asking again, but how is this an old scam? It does sound risk free due to the money being held, unless Western Union doesn't do this...

 

[GasX]

I will sell the same laptop for $475.

Western Union only as paypal is scam artist central.

 

[DBL]

Originally posted by: theanimala
Only after he get's the laptop and inspects it will Western Union release payment to DHL, who will release payment to the seller.

Ask him how he knows this to be the case. Then have him call Western Union to confirm that what he is being told is correct.

 

[Tu13erhead]

This is as old as scams get. Western Union is about as unsafe as sending money can be. If he doesn't believe you, show him the link to this thread and have him read all the replies.

 

[Kelemvor]

Tell him to tell the woman to setup a private auction through eBay and give him the link and password. She can set ti to Buy it Now for the agreed upon price. She can even add a bit more on if your friends wants to pay extra to cover her fees. That way he gets covered through the standard ebay/paypal system.

If it's legit, she shoudln't have a problem with it. If it's not, she probably won't respond any more...

 

[DBL]

Originally posted by: theanimala

Originally posted by: stars
Let your friend live and learn if he won't take your advice.

He's not saying he won't take my advice. I said I think it might be and left it at that.

I am sorry for asking again, but how is this an old scam? It does sound risk free due to the money being held, unless Western Union doesn't do this...

You're on to something here. Who told him the money would be held? The scammer?

 

[mcvickj]

A very old scam. This happened to be before but it was with FedEx. The person wanted me to use their FedEx shipping account and send the laptop to their daughter in Africa.

 

[Acanthus]

Anyone requesting western union is always a scammer.

 

[stars]

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=western+union+scam

This link will cover the most current possible scam scenarios related to Western Union.

 

[MikeyIs4Dcats]

how can people still be so oblivious?