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Is This Too Good To Be True?

wsteineker

wsteineker

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jul 17, 2001
727
0
Montgomery, AL
I was bidding on a G4 tower in an eBay auction recently, and I lost the auction at the last minute. Damn snipers. Anyhoo, I got an e-mail this afternoon from another eBay member claiming to have a similar machine in unopened condition that he'd sell me for a reduced price. I'll post the e-mail below:

Dear Ebay Member,

I'm writing this e-mail because I have a Apple Power Mac Dual 1Gh G4 Computer for sale. It is just like the one you are bidding on (# 3413155998). I need to sell it as soon as possible and I can't submit an auction because my Credit Card is Maxed-Out. I am willing to sell you the computer at the price of $1000 all shipping and insurance charges included . The G4 computer are brand new in unopened box. If you need to verify my credibility, take a look at my Ebay rating . I guess my loss is your gain and you should take advantage of that. My offer is very serious so e-mail me if you are interested.
My Best Regards, Cornel.

Now am I the only one who thinks this sounds a little shady? I want to believe it, as if it's true I can afford a 23" Cinema HD display. What do you guys think?
 
ok there are many question you must ask when making a big purchase liek this ;
check his feedback and make sure it is his (send a quick email thru the ebay system ). Then ask him if you can call him and then make the call. Check how he wants his payment. Like viniow said if he wants western union run...


if you think about a logicallay if he really needs money then he would sell this for as much as he could. I woudl definatley invest alot of time before you send any payment. and if you do send payment e sure its fraud protected in someway. Also if ebay knows u can't pay your bils they suspend u pretty fast so how can he not be able to list but still maintain an account. Until he verfies all these things don't let him get away
 
i think he probably took out one of the key components and resealed it.
seriously, maybe he dropped the box a few times. did you ask why he needs to get rid of it?
bottom line, it does sound shdy to me. it's just one of those damed things you want to believe, but you just can't.
 
Re: Scam

Originally posted by frescies
I do so much business on ebay and I can tell straight out this is a scam or a stolen machine.
Click to expand...

Well that must be very nice for you. Unfortunately the rest of us don't have your psychic powers, so we have to rely on facts-- and the fact that he wants to circumvent eBay suggests that he won't want them breathing down his neck for scamming you. you might ask if he'll take escrow just to see what he says, but really don't get your hopes up.

pnw
 
Everyone here is gunna say it's a scam and then message him... ;)

jk.

I can't decide whether it is a scam or not. :(
 
I can't decide either, scem0. His feedback looks good, but it could be stolen. Then again, the feedback could always be stolen so that's not the best measuring stick. I've emailed him askinf about escrow and for personal (phone) contact. I'll let you know what happens. I really hope it's true, as I'd save a good amount of money. I'm trying not to let that blind me, though. We'll see... :(
 
I'd say that this is a scam. I had an offer like this and fell for it. I lost so much money that I could have bought a new PowerMac instead.

"It is just like the one you are bidding on (# 3413155998)."

Just like it, eh? How much alike would that be? In my fraud case, it meant that the computer was several years older than what was advertised on eBay and it had a damaged power supply.

"I need to sell it as soon as possible and I can't submit an auction because my Credit Card is Maxed-Out. "

He has overloaded his credit card so much that he can't afford the small auction fee? Why doesn't he come to a place like MacRumors and sell for a higher price? I also noticed that he's a Microsoft :eek: user. Unless you can use a secured form of payment like a credit card, you might be paying for nothing, and there's little that can be done once your money has been taken if this turns out to be a fraudulent offer.
 
go for it, but make sure you pay with credit card. If you dont get anything, he gets no money and you dont lose any money. other than that stay away from ebay.

iJon
 
I just don't feel comfortable with this. I've decided to wait it out on another auction that I'm currently winning. Yeah, it's going to cost a couple hundred bucks more, but I think the security of the deal is a lot better. Thanks for the input guys. I appreciate it.
 
Re: Re: Scam

Originally posted by paulwhannel
Well that must be very nice for you. Unfortunately the rest of us don't have your psychic powers, so we have to rely on facts-- and the fact that he wants to circumvent eBay suggests that he won't want them breathing down his neck for scamming you. you might ask if he'll take escrow just to see what he says, but really don't get your hopes up.

pnw
Click to expand...



I understand your optimism. In many cases I would like to be optimistic like this. But statistically I see this as a wasted effort and I wouldn't want to deal with the likely aftermath. Perhaps its worth the possible opportunity. Just being over protective.

David
 
This is sort of like an e-mail I got the other day. Some guy wanted to sell me a 17" PowerBook for $1750. Of course, I didn't buy it. The guy was from Madrid, Spain, and from my German teacher's stories, a lot of thieves steal from tourists in Spain.
 
from what i've read, most of the big scms are oversees ppl because they are out of the US jurisdcition and they require Western Union. I doubt they even took the trouble to steal a laptop to sell you.
 
Ok, now this is getting silly. Two more people e-mailed me today to try and run the exact same scam as mentioned above. While the new ones were spelled a lot better than the original, they were even more succinct (read: shady). None of them will provide pictures of the item, accept escrow or cod, and none of them live in the US. Hell, they won't even go into much detail about the machine itself. I asked one guy if the machine in question was a Quicksilver or a Mirrored Drive Door model and his reply was "it's the one you want." What kind of moron I must look like I'll never know. Anyway, just thought you guys might like to know. :rolleyes:
 
Originally posted by vniow
Ask if he'll take escrow.

If he says Western Union or something, its most definately a scam.
Click to expand...

Same thing happened to me, except with a ps2. He asked to be paid western union...

I lost 300 bucks.

Luckily the card I used to get the money order with had fraud protection, so I got it all back.
 
He's the same guy who tried scamming me for a powerbook.

I recieved about 250+ of these kinds of e-mails in my month or so of bidding on eBay. There are two scammers on eBay, one from Italy one from Spain who sit at home all day scamming. Their scams have several constants:

1. There is always a story why they don't want it. ie. "My uncle gave it to me but I don't need it", "I need a pc machine", "It's my daughter's and she's been on the computer too long and her grades are dropping", etc.
2. There is always a reason why they need the money now and are willing to sell cheap. ie. "I need to pay back loans", "I want to buy something but the offer ends in two days", "My credit card is maxed", etc.
3. They'll use one of two ways to trick you. By saying they'll send COD but you send shipping first (ALWAYS because they supposidly had some bad experiancesending to America and the guy ddin't want it so he was stuck with a large shipping bill), and just take the money. Or he'll say he will send first but he wants to see if you have the money and ask you to send the money to a Western Union account under a fake name, and once you recieve it change the account holder name to his. DO NOT EVER DO THIS EVEN IF THE SELLER HAS GOOD FEEDBACK, Western Union DOES NOT allow changing account holder names, once the money is sent, it's sent.
4. If you ask to use escrow or say that you have relatives in Italy or Spain that can pick it up they'll immediatly stop responding.

If the person you are dealing with sounds anythign like this don't bid. It's a scam. There are also other scammers who sends letters "I noticed you want to buy a etc." e-mails. Some of them use auto-mail software sent to all the bidders in the auction of such an item, you can tell because it happens to be the EXACT same product you were bidding on (because it jsut copies the name auto.
 
Originally posted by bennetsaysargh
thanks for those tips. they may come in handy one day.
Click to expand...

Glad to help.

Also beware, never do bussiness with Altex Sales. They have a ncie website, and looking at it you would think that this is indeed a franchise rseller of Altex Electronics. It is not. Altex knows nothign about Altex sales, and the address they give does not exist. They are just scammers, as mentioned before happen to have the exact same item you want.

ie.
You bid in an auction called "Powerbook 667 MHZ/386 RAM/60 GB HD/Combo-Drive+Applecare+Lowepro Case LIKE NEW".
The next day you recieve a message from Altex Sales "Hello, we have seen that you are interested in buying a powerbook. We can sell you a 667 MHZ Powerbook with a 60 GB HD and 386 RAM for only $500. It has a combo drive and has been signed up for Applecare warranty and it like new. It also comes with a Lowepro case."
 
Originally posted by phrancpharmD
Wow, imagine, using ebay as a scamming front; wonder if these machines "fell off a truck" somewhere and were happened upon :) Anyways, thanks for the safe ebaying tips!
Click to expand...

yeah...what happened to all the machines from the SoHo store?? i was hoping to get a cheap piece ;)
 
Always insist on speaking with the "seller" via telephone. Offer your number. If it is a legit transaction, there is NO reason to mind talking on the phone.

I almost bought a powerbook from some guy who contacted me outside of eBay. He asked me to wire $2000 to his sick father in Spain. Yeeahh, right. I think the contact info was:

Pohrib Danut
Valencia, Spain

As soon as I firmly insisted on his telephone # so we could talk about the transaction, he freaked out and got on the defensive really quick and started askind me why I thought he was trying to take the $ and run....I never said anything about taking the $$. Hmmmm.

I called him a fraud and reported him. I've never heard from him again.

By the way, his eBay feedback was perfect, having sold thousands of....are you ready...tennis shoes.

Now he expects me to send $2K to Europe based on several emails? Not this cowboy.
 
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