www.alibaba.com "watch out"!

[Brian D. Goff]

While looking for a lens, I stumbled across this guy, who is obviously selling the exact same equipment already on sale from the (most likely) original owner:mad5:

Fraud???

http://www.alibaba.com/product/us109359939-108796392-0/MITCHELL_FRIES_VISTAVISION_W_LYNX_2000_ARRI_RED_35 MM_lens.html

Original owner:

http://cgi.ebay.com/MITCHELL-FRIES-VISTAVISION-W-LYNX-MOTOR-ARRI-RED-35MM_W0QQitemZ200358137550QQcmdZViewItemQQptZFilm_ Cameras#ht_500wt_956

[Sanjin Jukic]

It looks like that Stephen Williams (http://www.stephenw.com/stephen_williams_dop_35mm_film_cameras.htm) is selling his film camera stuff!!!???

[Stephen Williams]

It looks like that Stephen Williams (http://www.stephenw.com/stephen_williams_dop_35mm_film_cameras.htm) is selling his film camera stuff!!!???

Ken Stone is legit, I have bought several Items from him on & off Ebay. I am trading with him as we speak.

[Brian D. Goff]

Ken Stone is legit, I have bought several Items from him on & off Ebay. I am trading with him as we speak.

Sorry, looks like I'm being misunderstood. The guy on Alibaba appears to be using stuff from other peoples ebay store and selling them as his own. I just noticed that the pictures and text are absolutely identical but the price on alibaba is way lower. He's trying to sell several things that way .... smells fishy to me.

[Marc Berger]

Brian, maybe not this special case but in general I would be very careful with alibaba postings. Years ago I wanted to buy from a company over alibaba a camera. It happended that the company was also located in the City I lived. I just drove there and the address was not a real one. After a while I discovered the same item, located in USA, later on Hawaii. After several same experiences with alibaba I stopped visiting alibaba.
There is somewhere in the Internet a database you can check out if its real company and address or not. I just don´t remember the name of it, you have to google it. I´ll post it if I can find the link.
Cheers,
Marc
BTW It wouldn´t be the first one who grabs pictures from the internet to sell somebody elses stuff. I found a lot of similar cases all over (kijiji etc.). They always show pictures which have a private look like the one in your post. They just have a stronger suggestion you get real existing gear.

[MARK SVEN OLSEN]

I've almost got ripped by some JOHN JACOBSON about two years ago, he had a 35mm SS MKII 5 lenses set for sale for $15,500 at MANDY'S, a production equipment classifieds website. It was the deal of my lifetime just couldn't afford to lose that one!

I've spoken to him a few times on both cell and SF "office" numbers; after that his "associates", STEPHANY WARNER and JOHN DEANS, started to reply to my email messages saying that Jacobson had to go to south Wyoming for a shooting and left the lenses in the office, ready to go, labeled with my name and address, just waiting for my payment confirmation and Mrs. Warner would personally handle that to the UPS station.
So I decided to call Jacobson asking about that, he prompt answered the cell phone saying it was true but, also, he wouldn't accept anymore delays because another guy was dying for the lenses and I had 24hs to pay, or lose the deal.
I went to the bank for the wire transfer to Jacobson's Bank of America account in SF when decided to ask my manager to check it before going any further. It was a Savings Account, 5 days old and almost zero balance. Instead sending the money I've asked a good friend who lives in SF to check the address in downtown, he found nothing but a MAILBOX USA store, there was nothing like ONE WORLD PHOTO. I call Jacobson asking for the real address, saying that my friend would pick the lenses paying him cash on the spot immediately. He's got very nervous saying the address given was an office building and I was a liar...
All fake, JACOBSON, WARNER and DEANS were the very same individual, actually Jacobson himself and he's a well known international scammer who lives both in Lake Tahoe and Thailand. Tracking the IP address found that all the messages were sent from the same place, a hot spot in a Starbucks store, Oakland area, and the "office" number was a pre-paid phone.
After that I've learned that he "sold" the same bogus set to 3 other individuals and none have got any lenses that have paid for, a few days later his phones got out of service and the website down...

His scam was very well planned, created a real nice website www.oneworldphoto.org (http://www.oneworldphoto.org/) sending its information to all search engines and Internet databases on the globe "A leading international photojournalism organization capturing their world's defining moments. Photo Press Agency, news pictures, photo news wire, photo stock house, live footage, video and assignment services.".
Also, information on him posing as a "well known, world famous, photographer" in several forums, all very clever. I spent a whole afternoon searching the web for information on him and got convinced, you guys would be too!!!
By the name that ALIBABA guy is using, "Deans", I guess we're looking at the same crap trying again...