eBay scams
While doing my usual search for 'contrabass' items, I always see a few contrabass clarinets that start at $.99 or something. However, they are never on eBay for the full 3 days of the auction. Curious, I looked in my internet history, and went back to the auction. It said it invalid item number, or the auction has expired. This has happened 3 or 4 times in the past few months. Each item had the EXACT same picture and descritpion. Some things to watch out for are:
1) Private auctions. Scammers will do this because it makes it impossible to contact bidders to tell them that it is a fake auction.
2) Question forms in the item description. After looking through the source code for the description, I noticed that the "submit question" button doesn't actually go to an eBay page, instead (in this case) it went to laptopsonline.org. (Why would such a company be selling instruments?)
3) Improper category. This particular item was listed under "electric toothbrushes."
4) Zero feedback and the 'new user' icon. I have seen the exact same auction, each time with a different username, and zero feedback.
Here is a sample of the scam auction:
cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=31770&item=4376403355&rd=1&ssPageName=WDVW
If that link doesn't work, or it says 'Invalid item,' I have set up a mirror of the auction on my website. You can see it here:
myshizit.z280.com/applejack/html/eBay%20Scam.html
I hope this information will help stop these scams, and simply let people know what to be aware of.
Reply To Post [Report Abuse]