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| 0ctavias0fferings |
 Posted: Mon Nov 06, 2006 4:03 pm |
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How to Spot Scam Listings
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Admin
Joined: 29 Oct 2006
Posts: 7597
Location: Highlands of Scotland
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If any of the pictures contained in this thread are difficult to read due to being shrunk to fit the page, you should be able to view a larger - and therefore clearer - copy of the picture by clicking on the image to enlarge it.
So you want to buy something expensive at auction but you don't want to get scammed …
First, a word of caution, scams are not restricted to high priced electronic goods such as laptops and plasma TVs, in recent weeks and months I have seen everything from antiques to designer clothing listed by scammers in a variety of guises, so how do you discern the legal listing from the scam? You can potentially save yourself grief, time, money and effort by looking closely at the listing itself.
Please note examples given are taken from ebay auction pages and many are hijacked accounts. We are aware that genuine account holders are free from all blame and not responsible for the illegal activity in these cases.
Does the item appear in the correct category?
a laptop listed in ‘Everything Else - Educational’ … well, maybe you could accept that.
Apple Macbook in ‘Sports Memorabilia - Wrestling Memorabilia - Clothing’ … pardon?
Apple Macbook in ‘Dolls and Bears’ … well, I’ve heard of educational toys but …
Another Apple Macbook but in ‘Coins - Collections Bulk Lots’ I don’t think so.
Of course, there could be a genuine reason for these ‘errors’ but I rather think that if you were selling an expensive laptop (or plasma TV or any other high priced goods) you would make certain they were in the correct category.
If you see something like this be suspicious.
Does the item location match the seller’s location?
This is a common error appearing in listings on hijacked accounts. Presumably many scammers have a poor grasp of geography. Again, there may be a genuine reason for this, the seller could be using a drop-shipping agent (in which case the seller never handles the goods) BUT if you see something like this be suspicious.
seller in Australia, item in London. Does this seem likely?
seller in Germany, item in Italy … unlikely.
seller in United States, item in Greece.
seller in United States, item in UK
This picture also displays a frequently used set of wording ‘If you look for a fast and 100% safe deal … I will sell only at Buy it Now. Your bid will be cancelled.’
Does the ‘seller’ ask you to contact him through an off-ebay email address?
As in the last example of location mismatches, most scammers will include an email address, frequently stating that for some reason they are not receiving emails through the ‘ask seller a question’ (ASQ) link. These email addresses change from account to account but occasionally the hijackers make errors, eg two email addresses on the same hijacked account.
Typical style of email requests.
This one has the brass neck to give a warning.
And here’s my favourite. This chap uses many different email addresses but has stuck to the same fancy eyes for months (he‘ll change them now I should think).
He/ she also goes by a number of other email addresses, such as electrostock, havelecapitan, electrocapitan.
And another trick is to use the email form, this (as far as I understand) makes emails almost impossible to trace.
After the end of the auction, these email addresses will usually disappear, the programme to remove them being embedded in the html script.
this then leaves the genuine account holder fielding irate questions from ‘buyers’.
So, if you see something like this be suspicious.
Is the ‘seller’ offering a ‘buy now’ price?
You may have noticed already that a lot of the above scammers are stating that the item has a Buy it Now price. What they really want is for you to contact them and ask about the Buy Now offer. If you do contact them through their off-ebay email, you’ll receive a reply which looks something like this …
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hello sir,
The camera is brand new in box.It comes with all accesories.The price is EUR 1200.Pls not bidding is only for buy it now price.
I'm a authorized dealer and i provide original warranty maded directly from the factory
I am from Greece and the unit come from Greece ,please respond ASAP
I value all buyers and i hope that you are pleased about the price , plus i think about your protection so that`s why i will do the deal under ebay , no questions asked , any taxes and fees involved will be paid by me .
For payment we will use Western Union and shipping via UPS , only after we will conclude a safe transaction under ebay .
You only need to reply us with this details:
Product name: ...
Product price: ...
Your ebay user id: ...
First Name: ...
Last name: ...
Address: ...
City: ...
State: ...
Zip: ...
Country: ...
i will contact ebay as soon as i receive the info. In shortly you must receive an invoice from ebay.
You must read carefully the invoice and there you will have all instructions about payment and shipping.
The shipping is free
Please contact me by e-mail (TRIDIMENSIONAL33@AOL.COM)
Thanks---------------------------------------------------------
So, where do we start with what’s wrong with this reply?
Well, firstly, you should be aware that Western Union is a banned method of payment in the ebay system. This immediately should tell you that the invoice you would receive if you went ahead with the ‘transaction’ would not be through ebay or Paypal but a complete fake.
It would arrive in your inbox complete with links to a realistic sign-in page and if you were to complete the sign-in and pay for your ‘item’ with your credit card, the scammer would then have all your details, name, address, ebay and Paypal id, passwords, credit card details and access to your accounts for future hijacking purposes.
The scammer may also try to clear out your funds from your credit card and, potentially, your bank account, he can possibly even take out loans in your name. Identity fraud is a serious and growing problem.
So, if you see something like this be more than just a bit suspicious.
What does the seller’s feedback look like? What does the seller normally trade in?
You should always check a seller’s feedback before considering a purchase from them. It won’t always help you on its own but it can be an indicator.
Things to look out for include:
has there been a break in the account activity?
this account had been dormant for over a year and was then used by a scammer to list high priced goods.
this one had been unused for 2 years then resurrected and here are the items ‘selling’ on the account
… you might notice this particular item is about to end and not at a very high price, methinks the scammer was rumbled.
Occasionally I have seen even a Powerseller’s account being hijacked, sometimes with hundreds of scam listings dumped in there. Usually, the Powerseller notices what’s happened pretty quickly and, as they have better access to ebay help, the listings don’t last too long.
However, here are some examples of what you might see if you check out ‘seller’s other items‘.
This particular id was registered in United States April 03 but has only 37 transactions and now apparently selling 30 high value items.
the genuine account holder in this case sells only gents suits and had a large number of suits listed, yet the scammer dumped more than a dozen assorted laptops etc on his account.
this seller usually trades in lower value items, those at the bottom of the page.
So, if you see something like this be more than just a bit suspicious.
Is it a hijacked account or one set up specifically to scam people? How to tell.
I wish it was as simple as it sounds to tell the difference, sadly, it isn’t always easy. I have drawn on a few examples of scam accounts which are quite straightforward to identify but normally you will only spot this by checking out the seller’s feedback.
The hijacked accounts mainly appear as the previous examples shown here, item location/seller location mismatches, category/item mismatches, the off-ebay email messages, breaks in feedback, sudden addition of high value items where the seller has never dealt in these before, these are all indicators pointing to a hijacked account and sometimes the genuine account holder makes it easy for you ...
Or tries hard to get the message across …
I have seen hijacked accounts where the scammer has used a long-dormant account to purchase either cheap items (ebooks etc) or items set up for sale on scam accounts, in order to ‘legitimise’ both accounts, more usually the scammer will set up a string of ids for this purpose and ‘sell’ items between them in order to build up an apparently legitimate set of feedback.
Here is an example
check the time of the feedback
now check the time of the sale.
There are many examples of this kind of ‘bidding and buying’ to be found.
If you see something like this be extremely suspicious.
Most scam listings are cloned from other people’s auctions. They are normally straight copies of a genuine listing, I even found a laptop which had a reference to another auction the original seller had listed. The two items were complimentary and the auction number for the other item was still included in the script, on checking that number I found the original auctions had ended approximately 6 weeks earlier and, of course, the original seller’s id was entirely different from that now ‘selling’ the laptop.
This sort of mistake is evidence that many scammers have a poor grasp of the English language and they probably don’t understand much about the product either and it also makes it very easy to check whether the listing is genuine. Sadly it isn’t always that simple.
It’s becoming harder, in many respects, to tell the scams from the genuine listings, the scammers are learning as they go along and the formats they use are becoming increasingly sophisticated.
There are things to look out for though and the best advice anyone can give is that you should always contact the seller to ask questions about the item. You can then use your own judgement as to whether the seller is genuine or not. With luck, if it is a scam and you send your question through the ASQ facility, the genuine account holder will get the email and act against the scammer.
If you find any scam listings in your searches you should report the item numbers to ebay Trust and Safety
There are two places where you can check on someone's details
http://www.192.com/search/
http://www.b4usearch.com/
Of course if the scammer is using a hijacked account it will show the details of the account holder (assuming you have their genuine details on the after auction congratulatory email you get from ebay) but at the very least you should be able to verify the name and address and can possibly get a telephone number before you pay for your item.
Good luck and safe buying. |
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