OT new ebay scam

[Doc Nickel]

Speaking of eBay scams: One I've been running into a LOT are hacked accounts, that list literally thousands of items, ranging from machine tools, to servers, to collectible cards. All with absurdly low starting bids- like an HLV-H for $10.80. (It's always a non-round number, like $14.76 or $3.87, not, as you'd expect, like $5 or $10 or $20.)

The first version would have a "buy it now" link in the description- you were supposed to cut-and-paste the link, and then presumably follow whatever payment instructions were there.

The current ones use the normal bid routine, and I suspect they hope some of the postings won't get caught 'til the bid is paid. Though I'd suspect there's probably a bunch (the one cracked account listed right now has over 19,000 items posted) that have BIN prices.

A ton of these already have multiple bids- however they're doing it, they're suckering in people by the wagonload. Be careful! I've seen this cycle through at least six times in the last two months! Whatever they're doing, it must be lucrative, as they keep doing it- and that means it's suckering thousands FOR tens of thousands.

(A tip-off: They're offering free shipping on things that are by no means going to ship free. One of the first fraudulent listings I saw was a twenty four inch rotary table.... with free shipping. Right now there's a 2004 Haas SL-20 turning center. That weighs around five tons- and it's listed with a starting bid of $37.66 and free shipping.)

Don't be one of the suckers!

Doc.

[A.K. Boomer]

Your browser is 'autofilling' the entry, just like it does with addresses and such.

Doc.

What Doc says above, if it's the exact same "praise" you gave someone else before then it's autofilling, our world has become so senselessly busy we have "convenient" shortcuts everywhere designed to keep us charging ahead into more senselessness....

I just took a chance on an e-bay purchase of a pretty rare compound bow I needed to cannibalize to complete my "frankenbow",,,

the seller had a rating of 0,,, the starting price was low enough, and the shipping was set way too low at 20 bucks, it really kinda had all the earmarks of "stay away" but I needed this bow!

so as the action end date was approaching someone tossed in a bid the day before, I woke up the next morning and the action was about to end so I toughed it out and tossed in a snipe bid 30 seconds before the time ran out --- then it was that feeling of "oh no I won" lol

Then I see that the bow is freaking re-listed! I contact the seller and told him "you cannot sell the same bow twice! you will not get paid until you take that add down!

No reply for awhile then later that way he says "that was e-bays fault - the bow has been removed"

This had all the marking of trouble --- but pay-pal has protection and e-bay has the messages and I NEEDED THIS BOW!

so i paid and just added "please protect the cams with added packing material" in which he replied he would and the bow would be send the next day --- after two days I replied back that he should get a tracking number with the shipping and to please add that to I can track it,

he replied back that he just did indeed ship it - gave a tracking number but could not believe the shipping as it was like 63 bucks,,, turns out this guy was legit and it was his first ever e-bay sale and he just went off of what e-bay said the shipping was going to be - the bow only weighs 4 lbs but the package size is the killer plus I think UPS is a hose,,,

He added " I know this is not your problem but if you can find it in you to compensate a little id sure appreciate it " I just told him "i'll see what the condition of the bow is when it gets here and might kick you a little back for shipping"

so bow came --- the strings are shot and it's been beat around a little but nice surprise was it had some pretty nice upgraded components - so sent him 15 x-tra bucks in the mail to cover a little over half of the shipping and he is happy and im happy and a few times he told me thanks for being so understanding and i just told him everyone has to start somewhere and now he has one positive rating and to keep it up....

I been shooting the crap out of my bow the past week checking out how it performs and am getting very happy with my mods,,, it is another creation of mine and im pretty proud of it will post what iv done when I get things totally dialed in...

[polaraligned]

I always give feedback on ebay, it helps other buyers decide who to buy from. The last 2 times I started to give feedback, filling in the stars, then "positive" and the written comment last, the written feedback had already been filled in with glowing tributes. Both pre written tributes were identical, although the products bought were very different.The only way to get round this was to write the feedback first.

I have had the same thing happen. It seems that it is only with certain sellers. Maybe the big shot sellers are allowed to auto-fill "suggested" feedback. Easy enough but annoying to go to the beginning of the text and their suggestion disappears once you start typing. Not a scam at all, but just annoying when you want to leave a simple "thank you".