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Ebay Fraudulent seller warning - EBAY SCAM!

adamfilip

adamfilip

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Ebay Fraudulent seller warning - EBAY SCAM!

This seller named q3fusion
q3fusion on ebay profile

is trying to sell 17" powerbooks and 20" cinema displays
the auctions seem real but he is infact only selling artwork/photos of the items but people are bidding huge amounts. thinking these auctions are real.

ITS ALL A COMPLETE SCAM!

I know I won an auction
This auction

I stupidly sent payment but finally after hours of arguing and managing to lock out his paypal account i got my money refunded.

DO not bid on any of his auctions.
RETRACT your bid if you have placed it

if you won an auction. DO NOT PAY
Leave negative feedback

Send a complaint to ebay at this link complaint site on ebay

here is a quote from any email i exchanged with the selOk, it sounds good to me. Do as you need to. I appreciate your
business. Also, I do understand how much of a big deal this is to you.
And as you may or may not know this is a lesson to people who waste
money everyday. I believe you have learned your lesson. People die
everyday. Instead of spending the money on some auction for a computer
that is really useless, why don't you donate it to the cause of dieing
and starving children? I hope that your sense of greed does not bring
you to this extent in further time. I have no need for your money,
however you do need to contact ebay and get my neg feed back off. Know
that paypal will not refund your money. Children every day die, and
what are you doing for the cause. Life is not something to just let
slip by. Only if you knew what they went through. Good luck in what
you do.

Kai."

its all a complete SCAM
 
Yep, there is no mention of it being artwork or photographs.

I am selling packages featuring this...

Photos, poster, pictures, etc. are usually quite a different description.

This package is as complete as we can offer it. You may not complain simply because it is not as complete as you want it to be. Everybody has their own view of complete, this auction complies to our view of complete. Which is the same as it was recieved from the warehouse.
Click to expand...
If they were selling picture they make, it would be nice to know how they receive it from a warehouse.
 
adamfilip said:
I cant believe i was so stupid.. 🙁
Click to expand...
Don't be, it was being sold where you would expect to find hardware -- without any description saying it wasn't.

If they want to sell art, photos, etc. -- there's a place for that.

http://buy.ebay.com/art

What they were doing is running a fraud, con, etc. -- with a description that would mislead everyone reading it.
 
I was fooled too. I said wow that would be a great deal for that computer. Then I started looking closely at the pictures. Those are Ti-Books!!! His new auctions show AlBooks though. The only reason I noticed was because I knew it was a scam already.

Glad to hear you got your money back, there is justice in this world. Well at least sometimes there is.
 
Surely the authorities can help you out in some way.

Misrepresentation is the key here.

Good luck and keep us posted.
 
There was a case in the UK some time ago where some boy was arrested and charged for selling "Playstation 2, Box'. basically fooling people into thinking they were bidding for PS2's but they were only receiving PS2 boxes.

The scammers defence was that people were mis-interpreting his description, although when asked why he was selling under the 'games and consoles' categegory rather then a more appropriate one, he couldnt think of an answer.
 
Notify ebay so they pull the other auctions. Otherwise lots of other people are going to be scammed. I hate people like this.

geese said:
There was a case in the UK some time ago where some boy was arrested and charged for selling "Playstation 2, Box'. basically fooling people into thinking they were bidding for PS2's but they were only receiving PS2 boxes.

The scammers defence was that people were mis-interpreting his description, although when asked why he was selling under the 'games and consoles' categegory rather then a more appropriate one, he couldnt think of an answer.
Click to expand...
 
Post his email address so that SPAM bots can pick it up. If he's harping on about children dying every day (which somehow gives him a reason to steal) you might as well waste as much of his time as you can.

I wonder why the others gave him positive feedbacks.
edit: "I believe you have learned your lesson" 😡 what??? that if someone has positive feedback for selling macs and advertises a mac by misrepresentation you should somehow know? That there's low-lifes in this world, and he's one of them? It's a shame he wasn't in-front of you, you could have smashed him in the face then said something witty...

...like "I believe you have learned your lesson".

To be completely honest, and it's probably going to get me flamed, I wouldn't have bought from the auction not only because he only has a few feedbacks but mainly because his english is so poor.

AppleMatt (don't criticise my english in this post 🙂 )
 
AppleMatt said:
To be completely honest, and it's probably going to get me flamed, I wouldn't have bought from the auction not only because he only has a few feedbacks but mainly because his english is so poor.

AppleMatt (don't criticise my english in this post 🙂 )
Click to expand...

I can't speak for adamfilip, but many out there don't really know about the scams out there. Wasn't going to say anything about it, but since you brought it up: this type of posting has cropped up a few times on eBay over the last month or so.

For myself, I usually don't deal with someone unless they have more than 50 to 75 sales of similar items. And if I do, I generally ask if I can pick up the item personally. Scammers will say no. In the end I will only buy something from someone that I am suspect of, if I am willing to lose my money. Sort of a crap shoot if you will.

The real shame of it is that eBay only pays lip service to the security of their transactions. There is so much more that they could do that would not cost them much of any of their profits. And if they tightened their ship a bit, they could have a profit center of insurance that covered the full lost value, other than the 5 to 10% premium.

If you can't tell, I put eBay themselves up to the same level as the scammers themselves. But in the end we all want something for nothing. I just saved over 40% by buying my dog's Greenies on eBay. I would have been just as happy buying from Petco or PetsMart if they were even down the middle of where they are now, compared to eBay sellers.
 
i feel sorry for you - but you should learn to read the descriptions a bit closer...

this line raises the big red flag:
Free shipping is provided to users that provide feedback as soon as the auction is over.

this to me says FRAUD. why would anyone send feedback before they actually had the product in their hands?

edit...

oh - and i love this line, too.
This package is as complete as we can offer it. You may not complain simply because it is not as complete as you want it to be. Everybody has their own view of complete, this auction complies to our view of complete.

huh? so is it complete, or not? 🙂

what a dips**t. it's obvious this guy is a little slow - why would you buy from him? glad you got your money back, though.
 
bitfactory said:
what a dips**t. it's obvious this guy is a little slow - why would you buy from him? glad you got your money back, though.
Click to expand...

I missed that part. Glad to see a good guy winning sometimes.
 
Just sent this link to the top three bidders on each of his powerbook auctions. . . .
 
dvdh said:
Just sent this link to the top three bidders on each of his powerbook auctions. . . .
Click to expand...

Careful on that. There have been reports of eBay users being banned for such activity.

At the same point, the warning should go out to those that are bidding on an item that the seller has hid the bidders list from. There are legit (I guess) reasons for this; but in my book it smells of a scam.
 
Chip NoVaMac said:
Careful on that. There have been reports of eBay users being banned for such activity.
Click to expand...

I was careful to say that it *may* be a scam and they should check the link to decide for themselves. I only got about half way through the second set of powerbooks though and ran out of emails . . . .too bad.

Besides, given that I have only ever bought one thing on ebay, being banned would hardly be a set back if it helps protects someone's hard earned cash.
 
adamfilip i was thinking if you could put the images up on your website so we can have a look at it !! i just looked at the auction and even though it looks iffy it still does say

"This package that you will recieve is featuring the following:

G4 Power Book with:

The featured notebook contains 1GB of ram.
80GB Ultra ATA/100Mac OS X
1.5GHz PowerPC G4
17-inch (diagonal), 1440 x 900 resolution, TFT widescreen
ATI Mobility Radeon 9700 with 128MB of DDR SDRAM
SuperDrive (DVD-R/CD-RW)
Built-in 10/100/1000BASE-T (Gigabit)
Built-in 54-Mbps AirPort Extreme; built-in Bluetooth
Built-in 56K V.92 modem
Full size, illuminated with ambient light sensor
Mac OS X v10.3 Panther
S-video to composite adapter, DVI to VGA adapter
Modem cable, power adapter, AC wall plug, power cord"

hell it even shows a picture of the powerbook
now call me stupid but that does not say ARTWORK or Pictures ???

i know the rest of the wording that follows is questionable about the feedback but hell if you feel he is a rip off

but hey if you wanna ask the man a question e-mail him fragfusi@fragfusion.net
 
dvdh said:
I was careful to say that it *may* be a scam and they should check the link to decide for themselves. I only got about half way through the second set of powerbooks though and ran out of emails . . . .too bad.

Besides, given that I have only ever bought one thing on ebay, being banned would hardly be a set back if it helps protects someone's hard earned cash.
Click to expand...

Still even with the word "may" others have run afoul of mother eBay. It just shows who is of interest to eBay. Thanks for trying to help others.
 
I never ended up getting one of these prints.

I must have been too excited about getting a 17" powerbook at a great price
that I didnt see the obvious signs.

after I won the auction I sent payment via paypal
the next day i got an email telling me its a scam with prints.

I then started bombarding the seller with ebay, paypal and square trade inquires and investigations.. talked to him over the phone argued till i was about to blow.

then once he realized that he could do any more transaction while the paypal investigation was going on.. he refunded my money.
luckily he didnt withdrawl the funds or I would be screwed.

I called the RCMp and regional police. unfortunately the cant do anything until I get the "print" and see that its obviously not the real thing.

Ive been contacting other bidders. warning them of this scam and getting them to retract their bids.

I believe the seller is getting friends to buy stuff and post positive feedback aswell..and asking people to post a complaint to ebay. they will do something if they get enough complaints.



liketom said:
adamfilip i was thinking if you could put the images up on your website so we can have a look at it !! i just looked at the auction and even though it looks iffy it still does say

"This package that you will recieve is featuring the following:

G4 Power Book with:

The featured notebook contains 1GB of ram.
80GB Ultra ATA/100Mac OS X
1.5GHz PowerPC G4
17-inch (diagonal), 1440 x 900 resolution, TFT widescreen
ATI Mobility Radeon 9700 with 128MB of DDR SDRAM
SuperDrive (DVD-R/CD-RW)
Built-in 10/100/1000BASE-T (Gigabit)
Built-in 54-Mbps AirPort Extreme; built-in Bluetooth
Built-in 56K V.92 modem
Full size, illuminated with ambient light sensor
Mac OS X v10.3 Panther
S-video to composite adapter, DVI to VGA adapter
Modem cable, power adapter, AC wall plug, power cord"

hell it even shows a picture of the powerbook
now call me stupid but that does not say ARTWORK or Pictures ???

i know the rest of the wording that follows is questionable about the feedback but hell if you feel he is a rip off

but hey if you wanna ask the man a question e-mail him fragfusi@fragfusion.net
Click to expand...
 
I did a quick check on the registration for fragfusion.net and .com. Not surprisingly they have no owner/contact/admin information. Looks like someone is going the distance to keep their identity covered.
 
Reminds me of a scam that was once going on in the Netherlands, when pagers/beepers were the big thing. We call them "piepers", which literally translates into beepers, but the thing is, pieper is also a synonym for potato here. So people were reacting to ads for them in the newspaper and they got a box of potatoes.
 
adamfilip said:
I believe the seller is getting friends to buy stuff and post positive feedback aswell..and asking people to post a complaint to ebay. they will do something if they get enough complaints.
Click to expand...

This a popular eBay scam. It is not even "friends"; but multiple accounts to "partners" in crime. Though in this case, if memory serves me well, you were only the second "buyer". The other activity was him buying from "sellers". That is a red flag for some of us.
 
Surprise, Surprise

Now where will he pop up next . . . ?
 

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