OK, this doesn't sound reasonable to me, but for the life of me I can't figure it out. This person supposedly from Indonesia is auctioning RRS plates for 1 cent to start with. He has 0 feedback and this just smells like something is fishy, but I can't figure it out.
Any price for shipping? Why seller wrote "to active buyer with 100+ positive feedback" and "Please ask before bid"
Afraid to send him message for question.
I would never buy anything from anyone with 0 transactions. I would normally go through the transactions and see what they have purchased and sold previously and would read the feedbacks.
Many times when the seller asks for contact before bidding, it is a scam. One will get a come on to proceed outside eBay. Indonesia is a fraud hotspot. If you've been on eBay long, you will have seen sellers refusing to sell to Indonesia.
I'll give him a ring and we'll see what's up. The real curious thing is why sell such a small thing so far away. Usually a scammer goes for thousands, this doesn't seem worth the effort to scam anyone. Expatriate Yank, perhaps?
Of course he says he'll send it first. Thats a long ways without a guarantee of payment. I would think this is probably legit, it just doesn't make any sense otherwise.
Edited by sitnspin on Aug 16, 2005 at 05:31 PM GMT
molson wrote:
I don't really see anything suspicious here. Maybe people are getting a little paranoid?
I don't think so when it comes to eBay. Its the Wild West and they do less than their best to eliminate fraudulent listings, although they did improve their algorithms to weed it out faster. Remember their mantra when folks have problems, "we are only a venue, we are only a venue".
A healthy dose of skepticism is required to navigate the place for anything high dollar. This thing doesn't really qualify and is starting to look genuine to me. Indonesia's reputation is worth noting, however.
I'm not sure what those things are worth but sellers often start very low to generate some interest and activity. After all it's an auction and the seller is no doubt hoping it will sell for more than one cent.
What puzzles me is the "Will ship the item first (pay after you receive & inspect the item) to active buyer with 100+ positive feedback". That seems a little odd and obviously he/she can't boost your feedback points with a single transaction.
As for trying to gather information, say email addresses, one only has to check 'hide email address' when contacting the seller. If you do thet I'm not sure what other information they could get. Perhaps the seller is hoping no one checks that option. Interesting.
sitnspin wrote:
Many times when the seller asks for contact before bidding, it is a scam. One will get a come on to proceed outside eBay. Indonesia is a fraud hotspot. If you've been on eBay long, you will have seen sellers refusing to sell to Indonesia.
I agree 100% here. I don't like the looks of this one.
I'll give him a ring and we'll see what's up. The real curious thing is why sell such a small thing so far away. Usually a scammer goes for thousands, this doesn't seem worth the effort to scam anyone. Expatriate Yank, perhaps?
Of course he says he'll send it first. Thats a long ways without a guarantee of payment. I would think this is probably legit, it just doesn't make any sense otherwise.
I'm not so sure about being legit. This may be one of those "looking for a credit card number". Even though you might get the item... you may also have your credit card stolen.
Like I said... don't like the looks of it... but it doesn't make sense either.
I'm not so sure about being legit. This may be one of those "looking for a credit card number". Even though you might get the item... you may also have your credit card stolen.
Like I said... don't like the looks of it... but it doesn't make sense either.
I didn't think of the credit card harvesting, he wants to use Ikobo?, I'm sure its a local thing to Asia, but who is it, who regulates it?
A couple of years ago when eBay fraud was really hot, a guy got the come-on from someone in the UK for his iBook PC. I'll send cashiers check drawn on the Bank of Bob in Liberia type thing.
He figures it out and sent bricks to increase the customs duty to the scammer. He was blogging the experience and a few readers in that area in the UK went to check out the place, photos, etc. It was all very intriguing. It was a barbershop.
For fun, check out 419eater.com, the really hardcore scam vigilantes from the UK.
Well, I must be a scammer too, because just like this seller, I always tell people to ask their questions BEFORE bidding. It saves me the trouble of cancelling their bids later.
I also sometimes ship items I've sold before receiving payment, especially if it's a small item and the buyer has a good feedback history (like over 100+).
Maybe the issue here is simply poor understanding of the English language, by both the seller and by many of the people reading his listing?
you could be right. I don't have any problem per say. It just doesn't feel right to me. For me it's the 0 transactions and the Indonesia thing that throws my alarm, I did see someone bid on it though. They could be getting a good deal on an F5 plate.
molson wrote:
Well, I must be a scammer too, because just like this seller, I always tell people to ask their questions BEFORE bidding. It saves me the trouble of cancelling their bids later.
I also sometimes ship items I've sold before receiving payment, especially if it's a small item and the buyer has a good feedback history (like over 100+).
Maybe the issue here is simply poor understanding of the English language, by both the seller and by many of the people reading his listing?
Asking or inviting questions is one thing, but after a lot of experience baiting and reporting scammers, asking potential bidders to email first is common to frauds. It is followed with an offer to sell outside eBay(and lose all protection). Hiding bidders IDs can also be a tip-off, but there are legit reasons to use that as well.
If you're alert, you can spot the fraudster pretty quickly. Any request to go outside eBay along with using Western Union should set off alarms. It doesn't happen as much as it used to, but it still goes on.
In this case, I can see a misundrstanding of language, but using Ikoobi or who ever to transfer $$ would be fraught with danger, at least imho.
These are the kinda things I actually look for. Why? It is risky but worth the risk. Let me explain.
So the guy is a scammer. You may be out a few bucks. No paypal, CC only. Thats the negative.
Here's what works for you. Often sellers will try to generate interest by offering items for next to nothing hoping the bidding frenzy works in their favor. Secondly trying to counter act the fact he has no feedback he offers to ship it out first to qualified buyers, pay later. I have gotten all my really good deals via new sellers trying to establish themselves.
It's a risk yes, if you don't like risky business there is always the reputable retailer (or etailer for that matter) so why bother with Ebay at all is the way I look at it. I sell high often enough to average risk(my 70-300 Nikkor sold for more on Ebay than it was selling at B&H at the time, 2 of my pelican cases sold for almost double what they could be had at any number of etailers etc.). I bought a 80-200 AFS that included a Nikon TC14E AFS teleconverter for $800. I paid cash and he had no feedback. Hot damn that was a buy. At the time the lens itself was averaging $1000.00 + on Ebay, factor in what the TC14E would sell for (prolly around $300.00) to me it was well worth the risk.
You takes your chances but I gotta tell ya, I am watchin this guys auctions.
The one thing specific the the RRS stuff he has, it could be a knock off being sold as the genuine thing but considering that what scares people here, will scare many ebay buyers, it may go for cheap until he gets a few good feedback.
I buy and sell on eBay. No problems so far. The 01¢ is just the starting bid. He does not have a "Buy It Now" for 01¢. Then it would be for sale for a penny. This shouldl get bid up to a respectable price. But I would not trust it. Not worth it.
Interesting.
Yo Bro,