eBay users BEWARE!

[skijoc]

There appears to be fraudulent activity occurring on eBay relating to auctions for Apple Powerbook computers, other Apple-related products, and other high-priced consumer electronic products. Specifically, these auctions tend to be listed as "private auctions," requiring the potential bidder to e-mail the seller to enable a bid to occur.

The fraudulent auctions all bear similarities:

1) They offer a "Buy It Now" options for prices that are far below market value;

2) They offer "FREE SHIPPING";

3) They appear to come from a seller who has never sold similar items (i.e., they sell totally unrelated items and never involve Apple-related products);

4) When inquiring about the item via e-mail, the response is usually that they are from non-U.S. users who need to sell the item for "family" purposes (i.e., sick grandmother, etc.); and

5) They are private auctions that require that you e-mail the seller prior to bidding.

YOU SHOULD NOT BID ON THESE ITEMS. I have notified eBay and they are taking action SLOWLY. However, these and similar items are being posted on a daily basis.

According to eBay, this appears to be occurring because eBay users are unwittingly giving out their password to fake eBay e-mails requesting same.

Again, DO NOT BID ON ITEMS THAT HAVE THIS PATTERN!

Good luck and safe eBay bidding.

 

[Frisco]

Thanks for the tip. There are always tons of laptop scams on ebay, especially with Apple laptops!

 

[Phil Of Mac]

I guess this means PowerBooks are officially "cool"? Because if they weren't, who'd scam with them? You don't have a scam with stuff that isn't "cool".

 

[rasha]

its bad

I to have come across this. The whole private auction from a foriegn land. What a joke.

I have been searching eBay for about three weeks for a deal on a Dual G4 MDD.

Get this: I've seen several adds under many different sellers for a Dual 1.42 with 4 ATA 180GB drives, 2GB ram, Superdrive, cdrw, ati 9700 pro, AND a 20" cinema and a 23" cinema for a buy it now price of $3000 including Adobe CS.
Yeah right.... and it is a foriegn land that accepts wetern union or cash. So I emailed to check it out and they will not accept escrow and the user feedback is filled with selling of less than $10 items like paperback romance novels.

What shocked me was the number of same listings with bids on them.

 

[caveman_uk]

The stuff on ebay.co.uk that looks suspicious nearly always has a seller in the United States. One that requires pre-registration. The moral is - if something looks too cheap then it's probably suspicious. Especially those guys trying to sell fully loaded G5s when no-one had any...

 

[QCassidy352]

I like when they just go through the apple store "add ons" page and set every option to the highest. Like they say they are adding the exact speakers apple has on that page, a 40 gig ipod, dual cinema displays, etc. The very best is when they have the $500 fibre channel card included!

 

[Archaeopteryx]

This is a bit OT.. so sorry :-D But What exactly is that Fiber Channle card thing?? Whats it do? I saw it as an option but had no idea what it did.. not even after reading the description!

 

[Phil Of Mac]

Originally posted by Archaeopteryx
This is a bit OT.. so sorry :-D But What exactly is that Fiber Channle card thing?? Whats it do? I saw it as an option but had no idea what it did.. not even after reading the description!

It's a high-speed connection for things like RAID arrays.

 

[Foucault]

The general rule of thumb is if it's too good to be true, it's too good to be true.

 

[LimeLite]

Originally posted by Phil Of Mac
I guess this means PowerBooks are officially "cool"? Because if they weren't, who'd scam with them? You don't have a scam with stuff that isn't "cool".

I think it means that PowerBooks are officially "expensive". They can get more money for the Apple's than for PC laptops.

 

[Archaeopteryx]

So, I made the mistake of bidding on a G5 on ebay... BIG MISTAKE... No, I didnt get scammed... But now EVERYDAY I get roughly about 10 emails from people trying to sell me G5's...

And not just a G5 Mind you.. but a G5 with 8gb ram and all the bells and whistles installed.. for.. GET THIS.... $1600

This is worse then the Nigerian bank scam "Its because I need the money for hospital bills" Is what they all say