WARNING: ebay scam

[Alex Boothby]

I know that many of us are on the hunt for great deals on lenses and accessories but I just wanted to warn everyone about an ebay scam that has moved into the camera, film and video listings and is catching innocent fawns like myself off guard.

Yesterday I spotted a set of 8 Cooke Speed Panchro Primes (Series II & III) on sale for a buy it now price of 700 GBP. The item disappeared and I assumed it had instantly sold. Today an equally unlikely set of refurbished Canon super speed primes also was offered - for a buy it now price of 700 GBP. Odd that the seller was based in USA.

And later tonight I discovered a wonderful new 'Sachtler Video 18-Plus' listing - again for a buy now of 700 GBP. Making matter worse - I recognized photos of the Sachtler from an auction that closed last week.

After a bit off research I discovered this warning from zeisscamera.com:

http://www.zeisscamera.com/First.html

"It has just been brought to my attention that a large scale scam is being perpetrated on Ebay by what appears to me to be a criminal organization.* Ebay seller accounts that have been "stolen" through spyware or phishing are being used to run auctions for very desirable high priced camera, and other equipment and goods that appear to be designed to perpetrate theft through fraud.* Your help is needed to wipe these out before anyone can be damaged this Christmas season...."
________

Here is another blurb about the scam:

"Seller Accounts Hijacked on eBay - Don't Put Yourself at Risk Bidding On Items from Hijacked Accounts"

http://nekkidtruth.blogspot.com/2006/11/seller-accounts-hijacked-on-ebay-dont.html
_______

Please be on the look out for these characteristics:

- item listed by a very reputable seller (their identity has been compromised)
- item appears and is gone within a few hours. Link shows "invalid listing"
- high end film or video item is listed for $1.00 - $10.00
- Buy now price is too good to be true
- Watch for this blurb: "PLEASE CONTACT ME DIRECTLY AT ebay2007seller@yahoo.com INSTEAD OF USING "ASK THE SELLER A QUESTION" AS YOU WILL NOT RECEIVE A RESPONSE!! The buy now price is 700 GBP"
- other email addresses are also used - a comprehensive list is provided on the "nekkidtruth" blog above.

I corresponded with this crook and almost got caught (maybe I will email him back for a bit of fun!) Please exercise caution.

[Jeff Kilgroe]

If you want to see an insane number of hijacked accounts, look at auctions for popular items like Apple Macbook Pro systems, PS3, etc.. Usually they're easy to spot and have listings that instruct you to send email to some strange email address before bidding. Not a good idea - always contact the seller through ebay's message service. Also it's usually a dead give-away when the seller has a great rating and has spent the last 5 years selling beanie babies, gardening tools or recipes and now suddenly they're selling a $3K computer.

Do your research and be careful. If a deal seems to good to be true, it probably is. I buy/sell a lot on ebay and have only been burned once (guy actually forged a very convincing cashier's check - fooled my bank too). If you're goint to buy on ebay, start watching for items and comparing and researching. Don't just bid on the first one you see. If it's something like lenses or other camera gear, be sure the seller has a history of selling such things in addition to a good rating. Contact them and make sure everything seems legit. If something isn't right, don't bid and report to ebay.

Happy ebay hunting.

[Emanuel A.]

Thanks for reporting Boothba. Useful enough.

[Shawn Nelson]

oh sh1t, so my set of Zeiss primes for 10,000 Zimbabwe Uilleans ($79.86 USD) isn't any good???







:-)

[Alex Boothby]

Ha! :) I was born in Zimbabwe - true story. I'm a god-forsaken white African - scum of the earth. Today is my families 30th aniversary of our move to Canada. Ah... the memories....

[Shawn Nelson]

Boothba, if you were here in the states you could mark yourself as "African-American" and get sent to college for free, unlike me, the so-called "priviledge" white male, they charge me extra :-)

[Alex Boothby]

My Brother lives in San Fran and married a lovely Vietnamese American girl, one nice thing to come out of an ugly war. They are about to have their first kid - I'm not sure what that will make him (or her) but I'm pretty sure that Physer doesn't make a drug to treat it.

[Roberto B]

lovely vietnamese american girl, hmmmmm.. i can't imagine how she is.. she can be..

[Michael Schrengohst]

Why do all the scumbags screw up everything??
ebay use to be great but I hardly visit anymore.....
Craigslist use to be a good resource but I have stopped
visiting there as well.....
It seems like I wade through tons of crap email....
At least the tele-marketers have dropped off....

[Jochen Schmidt-Hambrock]

4 weeks ago the police was at my house. A guy used my actual name and address - NOT my account - to sell miniature trains on Ebay. Of course he never delivered. Money should be sent to some place in north germany.
In 2 sets of auctions he made about 1000 Eur. Somebody called the police and they questioned me.
I sent an alarm to Ebay but they never did anything, so this guy was able to do more fake auctions untill his ratings nosedived.
I sent him an Ebay message and got back some ultra-stupid insults.

I was wondering about Ebay´s passivity.
Jochen

[IAN SUN]

Boothba, if you were here in the states you could mark yourself as "African-American" and get sent to college for free, unlike me, the so-called "priviledge" white male, they charge me extra :-)

Sorry to hear that Shawn.

I'm crying you a river right now.

[Greg Greene]

im with you on that one Bro, so sad.

www.onetrackmind.ca

[Zakaree Sandberg]

the other one is guys who list arri cams or like you set zeiss or cooke lenses for super cheap and they live in russia! in the purchass agreement they say they will not do paypal or any escrow type company.. only wire transfers through western union.. who in their right mind would fall for that! for fun i screw with these scammers and offer to fly out there and pick it up by hand and deliver the cash on spot. but they always return saying no