Ebay Mac Pro And Macbook Pro Buyers Beware

[Cavepainter]

Mac Pro and Mac Book Pro buyers please beware- probable EBAY SCAM ALERT-

Potential Ebay buyers of Mac Pro computers and Mac Book Pro items should be careful on listings from buyers with very low or zero feedback and recent registrations. (I know, sounds obvious, but some people have been taking the bait.) There is one seller who has been listing very expensive Mac items in new or nearly new condition- often with suspiciously low buy-it-now prices- and free shipping under multiple user names. After receiving funds, this seller sends empty boxes with tracking numbers to wrong addresses, which buys him time to sucker other buyers. This scammer has received negative feedback from multiple buyers on his previous user name, and is now jumping around using other newly registered user names. Check for very recent registrations (at least for now, some are being registered in Pennsylvania) for the seller on the item you may be bidding on, and consider yourself warned.

Ebay is investigating, but until this individual is stopped, this person can reregister under new user names to "clear" his negative feedback from his profile, throw Ebay fraud alert authorities off his trail and steal more money.

PLEASE- Fellow Mac users and buyers beware!

 

[jwire4]

Mac Pro and Mac Book Pro buyers please beware- probable EBAY SCAM ALERT-

Potential Ebay buyers of Mac Pro computers and Mac Book Pro items should be careful on listings from buyers with very low or zero feedback and recent registrations. (I know, sounds obvious, but some people have been taking the bait.) There is one seller who has been listing very expensive Mac items in new or nearly new condition- often with suspiciously low buy-it-now prices- and free shipping under multiple user names. After receiving funds, this seller sends empty boxes with tracking numbers to wrong addresses, which buys him time to sucker other buyers. This scammer has received negative feedback from multiple buyers on his previous user name, and is now jumping around using other newly registered user names. Check for very recent registrations (at least for now, some are being registered in Pennsylvania) for the seller on the item you may be bidding on, and consider yourself warned.

Ebay is investigating, but until this individual is stopped, this person can reregister under new user names to "clear" his negative feedback from his profile, throw Ebay fraud alert authorities off his trail and steal more money.

PLEASE- Fellow Mac users and buyers beware!

Thanks for the message. You think it would be obvious not to buy a Mac on Ebay. Especially when the prices are to good to be true. Craigslist is always a good alternative because you can see the item before you do anything. Or even just buy from the official Apple Refurb store. You know that's legit.

 

[Mickyfin]

I purchased my MBP 17" from eBay last year. You just have to do your homework for a successful transaction, research, research, research is key.

 

[Murray M]

I sell all of my computers on Ebay and they are in great shape. I spend time with the listing and have solid feedback.

Anyone who buys an expensive item from an Ebayer with no feedback is asking to be ripped off.

 

[ZennZero]

I bought a Mac Pro from ebay a little over a year ago - 2008 Mac Pro Quad with 2GB, 8800GT, 1TB storage, dual optical drives and Wifi/BT for about $1500 (Plus I used Bing cash back). Had no problems and I think I got a pretty good deal.

Here are a few (perhaps obvious) tips: Look for posts clearly written by native speakers and shipping within your country. Look for realistic, custom descriptions and pictures (not a copy-n-pasted promo page from Apple). Perhaps most importantly, make sure they have good feedback from a range of buyers on a range of products. You will occasionally see sellers with lots of faked feedback - a few dozen recent purchases for $1 junk items to boost their score. And of course, don't deal with anyone that doesn't take Paypal (they offer buyer protection if you do get screwed).

 

[Gakboi]

Buy a Mac from Ebay if you want. The OPs (good) advice is basic due diligence with buying anything from Ebay

 

[ValSalva]

Buy a Mac from Ebay if you want. The OPs (good) advice is basic due diligence with buying anything from Ebay

Very true. Though Macs see to attract more than their share of scams. Must be the popularity of Apple products and the high resale price they often command.

 

[J&JPolangin]

...people always look for the "cheap" easy way out... if its too good to be true, it usually is...

 

[Spacedust]

I bought half a year 32 GB RAM for my Mac Pro 2008 for 1/5 price and they're working till today ;D

 

[GiantDolphin]

Low feedback is not always going to be the red flag. Prices that are too good to be true and short auction durations (3 days instead of the default 7) are also red flags to be wary of. Also, auction text in the form of an image file where it gives a separate email address to respond to is a HUGE red flag.

I was involved in a case a couple months ago where a seller with outstanding feedback was selling 4 pages worth of brand new macbook pros, mac pros and other computers and electronics for dirt cheap with really short auction times. It all looked too good to be true. But the over 1000 positive feedbacks made it seem like it could be real. But I dug deeper. I found previous auctions by the same seller. Everything in the past had been antiques and with a completely different auction page style (and with much better English). Not one piece of electronics anywhere in the seller history. Plus the seller had previously only sold a few items a month, all with modest shipping charges. Now the seller was selling over 250 computer and electronics items dirt cheap all at the same time and within 3 days with free shipping. I contacted the seller through ebay, as well as the in the email given in the auction text, and uncovered what was by then the obvious. The sellers good account had been hijacked. I also alerted ebay and it was all taken down within hours, so hopefully no one got their money stolen.

So yes. Do your research. Feedback numbers alone are not always enough. Ebay keeps pretty good history records available. Use it.