Do these Ebay auctions look fishy to you?

[Rob Babcock]

Check out these two Ebay auctions: Auction #1 and Auction #2. Notice anything funny about them? Like it's two powersellers, each with perfect feedback with a combined total of around 10,000 transactions- and if you read the feedback, it's for sweaters & jackets, while the auction is for $4,000 speakers? And isn't it odd than both of these American power sellers have the same email addy where you can pay a "BUY NOW" price in British Pounds?

And they have the same text/wording and use the same photo. Quite a coincidence, huh?

 

[emorphien]

That is some impressive feedback.

 

[Audioholics]

Obviously they or the account hijackers got 'caught' as the listing was removed... Nice.

 

[highfihoney]

Conmen like the one in the auctions you pointed out are the reason i gave up selling gear on ebay even though it was very profitable,everybody buying high end gear on ebay is leary as he!! anymore due to these euro conmen who constantly bombard the listings with the scams.

The next time you see one of those auctions take the email address that the conman gives in the listing & enter it in the search bar then search in the "titles & descrptions" area & you'll see that they have literaly hundreds of auctions going at once under as many as 30 different hijacked usernames,mostly for high end hifi & camera's.

The worst thing about these scams are that the system that ebay has in place is what makes it possible for them to hijack the accounts in the first place,the ask seller a question feature is the main component that allows them to hijack these accounts,my account was compromised several times by these yahoo's before i closed it out permanantly.

 

[Rob Babcock]

How does the hijacking work? I'm really puzzled by that. If you don't want it publicly posted, PM me. I've not had any problem with mine getting jacked, not that mine would be a tempting target- my feedback is perfect but I've only had 50-60 transactions.

I have bought & sold a lot on Ebay and have had good luck. One fortunate thing is that (most) scammers seem to be stupid. The one I posted was so patently obvious that I'm surprised that one auction actually had a bid! I guess some are very niave or so eager to get a bargain that they forget the cardinal rule: if it looks too good to be true it probably is.

If the two ads didn't use the same photo and all the same text it might have been believable. Likewise, starting the auction at $500 or making it a 5 day may have made it look legit.

 

[emorphien]

I've wondered about the hijacking too. My account isn't impressive enough to hijack I suppose

A few camera goodies here, a few bits of audio stuff there. Not many things sold so far.

 

[highfihoney]

How does the hijacking work? I'm really puzzled by that.

Hi rob,from what i gather its the ask seller a question feature where it all starts,as soon as people ask the question the scammers have their email address then the fishing emails start comming,they send bogus official looking emails from ebay saying you have a dispute from a seller or a buyer & when you respond to the dispute your screwed,they also use bogus paypal emails saying your account is on hold.

In my case the first time i was hijacked it was after i responded to a(fake) dispute resolution saying a buyer never recieved his goods,the 2nd time i answered an email from an ebayer asking me(in severly broken english)if i accepted paypal,after i responded to him the very same night i went on ebay to list a few amps & i saw that i had over 100 auctions going,not cheap auctions either,all the auctions were featured items on the home page at $50 a pop,i sent several emails to ebay before they did anything about it,my password was changed & i couldnt stop any of the auctions or list anything .

Most of my listings on ebay were in home audio under Mcintosh & Krell where the scam are the worst.

 

[highfihoney]

Anybody who wants to see just how good these conmen really are better be quick & check the link in this post,the auctions usually dissapear within about 12 to 18 hours after sellers start noticing thier accounts have been hijacked,look at the number of screen names they have stolen all using the same email address.

These guys are highly organized,as soon as ebay removes these auctions they will have another 400 to 500 scam auctions up & running within a day,anybody who wants to see this ongoing scam needs only to follow the listings under Mcintosh in home audio on ebay.

LINK TO ABOUT 400 SCAMS ALL FROM THE SAME CONMAN.

http://search-desc.ebay.com/search/search.dll?sofocus=bs&sbrftog=1&from=R10&satitle=promoterm0@gmail.com&sacat=-1&catref=C6&fts=2&sargn=-1&saslc=2&sadis=200&fpos=48503&ftrt=1&ftrv=1&saprclo=&saprchi=&fsop=1&fsoo=1