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E-bay MacBook Pro Scam? Too good to be true...

design-is

design-is

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Oct 17, 2007
1,219
1
London / U.K.
I was looking on e-bay whilst bored at work, waiting for the new MBP to be released, and found the following auctions:

Auction 1

Auction 2

I thought great, lets mail them and see if its real...:

Hi there,

I saw the auction you have on e-bay (item as in subject of e-mail). I also saw that you have an offer... (image attached).

Auction(link)

Do you still have any in stock? Do you ship to the UK? If so, do you know if I will be charged VAT when it arrives or would the $1000 (plus shipping) to you be all that I have to pay?

Thanks for your time,
Click to expand...

They replied:

Greetings

Thank you for your interest in purchasing my items .
In this moment you can buy it only for $1000 . price is included the shipping . 14 days return policy
My item is brand new sealed in original box and will come with all accessories and 1 year warranty .
You can have this at your door in 48 hours after you confirm the payment because the shipment will be made via Ups 1Day Air or Fedex overnighted from europe.
So that's why we use as a payment method Western Union money transfer, the fastest and
also very secure way of sending money because we will close this deal ONLY under eBay,with their protection. The transaction will go strictly according to eBay's RULES and POLICY and will be supervised by eBay Trust & Safety Department..
If you have any question don't hesitate to contact me .bidding is restricted because I want to carefully chose my buyers. is not necessary to bid .for me is not important who bid or what amount bid,if i receive a good offer i will sell my items. it is a private listing and i can negociate with buyers.the price is not fix.
If you agree with my terms, Let me know asap because the items is ready to be shipped
Kind Regards
Click to expand...

They have a high amount of good feedback, but all on cheap small items.
Also, all bidders are 1***r, b***l, r***e, etc...

I'm thinking this is a scam... anyone else?

CT
 
Of course it's a scam - NEVER use Western Union to pay for ebay stuff. And they don't want you to use the ebay questions form either! (which is detailed in a picture and not text so ebay can't read it).

Stay clear.

ps I've reported them as suspicious to ebay
 
eyup said:
Of course it's a scam - NEVER use Western Union to pay for ebay stuff.

Stay clear.
Click to expand...

I once had someone trying to e-mail me from the states about a MBP,i went
along with it received a mail saying i had to pay his mate who happened to
live in spain via Western Union.I reported the seller to ebay and got him banned
after ebay done some looking into it.

SCAM SCAM SCAM SCAM SCAM stay WELL clear

Oh and before our US buddies pipe in i realise that your not all out to scam us Brits
 
Certainly a scam. That email response you got is almost word for word what I received when I asked about a fishy G5 Power Mac auction several years ago.

As stated before, NEVER send money via Western Union.
 
Be honest with yourself - why would they sell for $1000 when they could EASILY get $1750 - it makes no sense. Besides, the awful English is a serious give away.
Sodding Apple store is down again - here's to another night biting the fingers....
 
CrimsonTide said:
They have a high amount of good feedback, but all on cheap small items.
Also, all bidders are 1***r, b***l, r***e, etc...

I'm thinking this is a scam... anyone else?

CT
Click to expand...

Even though I agree that this feels like a scam the bidders like 1***r are not indicating the real bidders. eBay recently added this feature of hiding the bidders usernames.

Its described here:
http://pages.ebay.com/help/buy/bidding-ov.html#about
Bid safely: eBay limits how your bid history information is displayed by using anonymous names. When the highest bid, reserve or Buy It Now price on an item reaches or exceeds a certain level, other members cannot view your member-specific information—such as your User ID—on the Bid History page. Your complete User ID is shown to the seller of this item only. Bidders are assigned anonymous names, such as a***b. These anonymous names are used consistently across all auctions that exceed a certain level.
Click to expand...
 
Even more....

Check these out:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Apple-Mac-Mini-...203456640QQcmdZViewItem?hash=item220203456640

http://cgi.ebay.com/Apple-Mac-Mini-...203486015QQcmdZViewItem?hash=item220203486015

There are frequently a few of these up at the same time. Spidey Sense goes off because:

Look at the software - "Dual" license on FCP and Adobe CS3? Run on a Mac Mini? (although this particular one seems to have only 1 copy of CS3)

I have seen more than 20 of these listings, almost same exact listing - Sometimes with a Macbook, rarely with a MBP.

Acutions are usually only for 24 hours.

Different sellers come up with the same listing - Frequently with a brand new seller name, often that incude "IPhonexxx" or "Bidderxxx" - This is one of the only times that the seller has real feedback.

Each time, the different sellers originate from around Macon, Georgia.

And each time they use the weird "Escrow" account.

Plus, I have never seen Feedback ever produced for any of these listings - At least the ones that haven't been pulled by Ebay.
 
RE: Scammers with positive feedback

I have been scammed by buyers before, and have seen questionable auctions such as these on eBay. The part that perplexed me was that the offender often had a good amount of positive feedback. As I found out, the scammers phish for people's eBay accounts and passwords, then take them over to run their scams. So don't use the positive feedback as a barometer for whether or not the seller is legit. They could have easily overtaken the account.
 
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