** NOT HOT ** New Ebay Scam phoney feedback

[mikeford]

Scammers are very active on ebay right now, they setup 1 cent auctions with free email shipping for ebooks, wallpaper, howto stuff then buy/sell from each other until $5 gets them 500 positive feedback. Once they have the big feedback, with all sorts of nice random looking comments they put up the scams, phoney real cheap, but no so cheap your sure its fake buy it now auctions for $100 PDAs, cells, etc., Cars too, and this also has a LOT of fringe scammers that bury negative feedback from real auctions with the buy it now for a penny fake feedback.

WATCH OUT

How I found my first scammer was looking for a Palm Tungsten E2, they had it buy it now for $100, but wanted 10 business days to ship. They had 563 99% positive feedback, but when I looked back on old auctions everything more than a day old was for items less than a couple dollars, then it was all penny ebooks. About a dozen people lost money, but scammer has already moved on.

 

[ScottFern]

Ebay needs to look out for this suspicious behavior and investigate it! Gotta protect the legit Ebayers!

 

[araczynski]

hate to break it to you, but this has been going on for years
i make a point to browse through feedbacks and look for these 1c auctions, if i see even one of them i don't waste my time.

 

[cyberkost]

Thanks for pointing this out. I often take the effort (especially with more expensive items) to look into feedback of the seller I consider buying from (what kind of items sold before, who left feedback, did (s)he care to leave feedback to the buyers, etc.) ... at the end there's so much effort going into this check that it would be almost cheaper (well, more cost-effective) to buy certain things from a legitimate online store.

 

[mikeford]

I spend a few hours this weekend in the safe harbour forum area, and it wasn't a pretty sight.

People getting the phishing emails, clicking the links and getting hacked, then 100 scam auctions are in there name the same day.

Fake second chance offers on high ticket items like cars.

Fake, but very well done, auctions for very expensive items at attractive buy it now prices, later you find the payment required is wire transfer to another country.

White van type guys are doing just fine on ebay too, that apparently is within the freaking ebay guidelines. Fancy "looking" no name hifi gear this is cheapest of cheap quality, MSRP $1999 (never sold in any store outside china) today only $299.

Fringe scammers with cheap items and inflated shipping. I bought a data cable for my cell for $3 with $6 shipping, arrived with less than a buck in stamps in a padded envelope and didn't work, but auction terms require buyer paid return shipping with tracking, and refund is item only not the shipping. Whats funny is that I would actually buy from that seller again, because they are so cheap and my cable wasn't defective so much as Nokia are hose heads that don't work well with any third party cables.

 

[Ns1]

Originally posted by: mikeford
I spend a few hours this weekend in the safe harbour forum area, and it wasn't a pretty sight.

People getting the phishing emails, clicking the links and getting hacked, then 100 scam auctions are in there name the same day.

Fake second chance offers on high ticket items like cars.

Fake, but very well done, auctions for very expensive items at attractive buy it now prices, later you find the payment required is wire transfer to another country.

White van type guys are doing just fine on ebay too, that apparently is within the freaking ebay guidelines. Fancy "looking" no name hifi gear this is cheapest of cheap quality, MSRP $1999 (never sold in any store outside china) today only $299.

Fringe scammers with cheap items and inflated shipping. I bought a data cable for my cell for $3 with $6 shipping, arrived with less than a buck in stamps in a padded envelope and didn't work, but auction terms require buyer paid return shipping with tracking, and refund is item only not the shipping. Whats funny is that I would actually buy from that seller again, because they are so cheap and my cable wasn't defective so much as Nokia are hose heads that don't work well with any third party cables.

//White van type guys are doing just fine on ebay too, that apparently is within the freaking ebay guidelines. Fancy "looking" no name hifi gear this is cheapest of cheap quality, MSRP $1999 (never sold in any store outside china) today only $299. //

That is quite legal...the company sets the MSRP at 1999, it's obviously BS, so they sell at 299. Not to say it's not major douche bag material, but it is quite legal

 

[Pabster]

And this is new? :laugh:

 

[tallman45]

Those 1 cent auctions cost 20 cents to initiate the listing, then there is a final value fee of 5.25 % rounded up so it is only 1cent. Each listing they buy costs them 21 cents

They would have to create 500 separate userids, since each userid counts once toward a feedback score. Create passwords, log in bid, win an auction. Even if that takes 2 minutes, that is a lot of time spend

Sounds like an awful lot of work just to get 500 feedbacks.

 

[mikeford]

Do a search on ebook, and look at how it works, it isn't ONE person its hundreds of scammers all doing it together and for each other.

 

[polypterus]

This has been happening since I joined eBay in 1998, and the solution is just as simple now as it was back then: weighted feedback. All eBay needs to do is come up with a weighted feedback system that gives more feedback to higher priced auctions and less for lower ones. Or if nothing else keep track of the median amount of a seller's auctions and report it along with the member's feedback. As it is now the feedback system completely meaningless if you can't tell whether someone has sold 100 one cent ebooks or 100 cars.

 

[Esquire]

u use to be able to buy feed back, "auction for positive feedback"
crazy times

 

[Eos]

eBay is teh suck.

I avoid it all all costs. It used to be wonderful. I joined on September 13, 1998 and eBay was a lot of fun back then. Too bad the word got out.