Author Topic: Ebay Series II $2000.00 (Read 273 times)

alemboid · « **on:** December 12, 2010, 10:56:48 PM »

Something smells funny....
Check this out- http://cgi.ebay.com/Alembic-Series-II-bass-guitar-PRISTINE-AND-STUNNING-/370466066825?pt=Guitar_Accessories&hash=item56417f9189

There is a Series II on ebay with a Buy It Now price of $2,000.00

It's a 14 hour auction that was listed 57 times!

Not so bad- I needed a chuckle!

slarty · « **Reply #1 on:** December 12, 2010, 11:21:50 PM »

So, that's a hijacked account, right? I mean, the seller's account has a longstanding good reputation. So how does this work? You contact the seller, the hijacker intercepts the communication, then you receive payment information directing it to the hijacker? But what's the strategy in listing it 57 times over, thus making it obvious it's a fraud? It seems to me if you listed just one, you could easily hook a fish.

bsee · « **Reply #2 on:** December 13, 2010, 12:14:32 AM »

Looks very hijacked. The special rules and off-the-books low buy now make it easy for someone to bite on it quickly before the account owner or eBay catches on. I suspect the rules will include a requirement of payment immediately to secure the instrument so that the scam can be completed before the authorities can react to it. There are other desirable instruments listed on that account as well and they seem to share the same email address and rules gibberish. They are very different from the other listings for the real account owner.

musashi · « **Reply #3 on:** December 13, 2010, 12:15:10 AM »

It's been some time since I've dealt with ebay. Where is the location info for the seller? And where do you see information that the item has been listed 57 times?

Thanks.

alemboid · « **Reply #4 on:** December 13, 2010, 12:24:09 AM »

When it was posted, the ad was repeated for 2 pages! So I counted 57 duplicated ads. What better way to show its a bogus ad?

slarty · « **Reply #5 on:** December 13, 2010, 01:11:20 AM »

Just do an eBay search on alembic you'll see this same ad repeated. Clicking on the seller's ME link, they're located in Shanghai. Apparently they sell quite a bit of legitimate Tibet stuff.

Presumably, the payment terms are something like using Western Union to wire the funds to China, so you have no way to recover the funds or begin tracing the culprit. Maybe some other location, but the errors in the instructions' English are consistent with the kinds of mistakes Chinese speakers make with English (like not using the).

But wouldn't anyone who might fall for this scam also see the 56 other ads and immediately know it's a scam?

samophlange · « **Reply #6 on:** December 13, 2010, 05:47:09 AM »

There's the same thing going on with a Ritter Jupiter as well. Nothing like that split second joy seeing a low buy price only to have it smashed to bits by seeing the bazillion duplicate listings...

artswork99 · « **Reply #7 on:** December 13, 2010, 07:08:33 AM »

Same thing a couple of weeks ago here...