E-Bay spoof Be careful.

[Richie Hodge]

It looks like we still need to be careful when buying on the Bay. I entered a bid on a 1940 Dodge yesterday and didn't win the auction as the reserve was not met. I had e-mailed the owner back and forth and had his phone number.This morning I got two second chance offers from two different e-mails. They were for me to buy the car for the amount I had bid. I called the owner and asked him if he knew someone was trying to sell his car for him. He was unaware of the second chance offers and said someone tried to sell a Honda under his name a few weeks ago, and he had to change his password and account. Must be a market for these jerks or they would stop doing it. I forwarded the e-mails to E-Bay spoof. I don't guess they ever track these people down. Sad situation!! Richie.

[Chester Brzostowski]

Had the same thing happen to me awhile back. I bid on a car and the reserve was not met. I even told my wife “Wait & see we will get a second chance offer” A week later I received a second chance offer and was immediately suspicious when the supposed owner was willing to ship the car to me at no charge.

Things that make you go humm…

Why would you accept an offer below your reserve and then also pick up the delivery cost when the ad clearly stated that pickup was the responsibility of the buyer.

I have a friend looking on eBay for a vintage GTO and ran across completely bogus ads for cars which were not posted by the screen names associated with the eBay posts.

Lots of weird stuff happening on eBay recently. Buyers beware.

Chet…

[Don Coatney]

I won an auction a couple weeks back for a pair of telephones. I immediately sent payment via USPS money order. The following day I received the following E-mail from eBay. I have looked for the money order receipt once arriving home and have not found it yet. Not sure what my recourse is except to eat it. It was around sixteen bucks.

The following is a notice from eBay Trust & Safety regarding:

Item Number - 180038173644

Item Title - AT&T 2230 Twin Cordless Phone 2.4 ghz 2 handest call id

Our records show that you were a bidder or buyer of one or more of this seller's items. We recently removed this seller's active listings and suspended the seller's trading privileges. Due to privacy concerns we cannot share further details about this seller.

If the seller asks you to complete this transaction outside of eBay, we strongly recommend that you do not proceed with the transaction. Transactions for items listed on eBay but then completed off of the eBay platform are not covered by buyer protection programs offered by eBay and can be highly indicative of fraud. For more information on Offers to Buy or Sell Outside of eBay, copy and past the following Help Page link into your browser: http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/rfe-spam-non-ebay-sale.html.

If you have already paid for this item but have not received it, you should take all possible steps to receive reimbursement.

1. Stop payment with your bank if you paid by check.

2. Contact the Security Department of your credit card company to file a chargeback if you paid via credit card.

3. If you paid via Western Union or MoneyGram, contact the company directly (Western Union 800-325-6000 or MoneyGram 800-926-9400).

4. If you paid with PayPal, you may be eligible for up to $1,000 USD coverage at no cost. To file a claim with PayPal, login to your PayPal account and copy and paste the following link into your web browser:

https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_protections-buyer-outside Scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on the File a Claim link. PayPal claims must be filed within 45 days of the close of the listing. It may take at least 30 days to complete the investigation and resolve the dispute.

5. If you did not pay with PayPal and would like to file a claim with eBay, please initiate the Item Not Received Process online directly from the Security and Resolution Center at the bottom of the eBay.com page.

6. eBay claims must be filed within 60 days of the end of the listing.

Our goal is to ensure that your eBay experience is safe so that you can buy confidently. It is rare that something goes wrong with a transaction on eBay. However, in the event it does, we would like to provide as much assistance as possible to help resolve the issue.

Please do not respond to this email, as your reply will not be received.

Regards,

Customer Support (Trust and Safety Department)

[Young Ed]

We had an issue with one for $275. They didn't care much about that one either.

[Ed Griffin]

Pay Pal will work to get your money back, even if it's not a ebay transaction. The only problem with them is if it wasnt a ebay transaction then your not covered for it. they can only stop any other transactions to that persons account and then if decided in your favor remove the funds from their account that is owed to you. Doesnt help when that person has removed all his funds before they make a decision. I got something like $2.50 out of $115.00.

What I learned from this is get the persons full name, email, address, phone number and CONFIRM that they live there yourself. PayPal will say they are working on it even after this but I take that with a barrel full of salt.

What I cannot understand is if this persn has commited a crime then who does have the right to their address or what it would take to make them give up this information, a court order? They are making a killing on these type transactions because they still get that insertion fee & sales percentage. How many people do you know are suing Ebay/PayPal regardless of how small or large the moneys involved were? I like ebay but as with anything else you have to use your own judgement and cant take ebay or PayPal for granted that they will handle it. If these people knew that they could be found by the persons they were stealing from itwould slow down a great deal. When you sign up for Ebay there should be a clause that states Ebay is not responsible for those persons who abuse their website and they lose the right to privacy once they have been confirmed to have commited a crime. ebay's part should be that they know for sure that these people or business actually do reside at the given address provided. If they can get the banking information from you to join ebay then they can do the same to assure these accounts are for real.

I never recovered my money from paypal but after some time talking to a previous buyer I was able to get enough information to know the area this person lived. If it were not for them being in PA and not local, a visit would be due. There's more than one way to skin a cat.

[Young Ed]

There is so much stupid crap going around. The 275 was for an OD transmission from N MN. The guy said oh I come down to the cities every couple weeks and I'll just drop it off. Well he never showed. So Dad took time off work and sued him in small claims court. The other guy didn't show. He filled for a judgement against him and the clerk says "oh him again". Apparently he does a bunch of these scams and when he gets a bunch of judgements against him he defaults on the loan to his property. Doesn't sound like he'll ever get the 250 back.

[Don Coatney]

Yesterday I went to the post office to see if I had any recourse with the postal money order I sent to the eBay seller who was removed. I was told that I must wait 60 days before I can do anything. Then for a fee of around 4 bucks I can buy a picture of both sides of the money order and do what I must with no assistance from the post office. If after 60 days the money order has not been cashed I can fill out the book of forms to start the process of a refund. The lady at the post office did call somewhere and reported to me that the money order had not been cashed as of yesterday.

When I arrived home I checked my front porch. Much to my surprise I found a box with two phones. First thought was the seller did deliver as promised. So I opened the box and the seller did deliver but hardly as promised. The two phones I hot are high mileage as the finish is worn off the ear pieces. Not hardly the new in box as originally promised. I currently have them charging and I will test them later today. Guess the worst case is I could re-sell them on the bay but I will correctly describe them if I do so.