'I just scammed you...and it pays well'

Here is a article on a woman who got scammed on eBay and is out $2,400 to an eBay scammer. She dreamed of getting married in a Monique Lhuillier wedding gown-the kind she loved when she saw them on celebrities like pink in people magazine but she got scammed for $2,400 dollars and is now thinking maybe she should get married in a courthouse. According to ebay she made atleast two textbook mistakes en route to being scammed. What may make her case most remarkable, though, is how it ended-in a bizarre e-mail exchange with her anonymous scammer. It came after she had paid her money and received nothing back. She e-mailed "kate," the supposed seller, told of a coworker's eBay horror story, and outlined why she was growing suspicious. " I am sorry to be this way, but in today's world, it is not totally off base to be wary," she said. To which "Kate" (The scammer) replied: " That's true indeed. I just scammed you, sorry for that, it's nothing personal...It's what i do, and it pays well." She was the top bidder for the gown, which sold new for $5,500. But she fell short of the reserve, the seller's hidden minimum price. She couldn't tell how short. Neither, presumably, could the scammer. But the fake "Kate" knew when to pounce. Soon after the auction closed, the buyer got a message via her ebay account. The seller had deciced to accept her final bid, it said, and directed her to reply to an outside e-mail address. Looking back the buyer realizes that was a red flag-one that was even warned against in a " Marketplace safety tip"on the same screen: " If you receive a responce inviting you to transact outside of eBay, you should decline-such transactions may be unsafe and are against ebay policy." Another red flag was the wire transfer "Kate" requested, saying her account on Paypal, ebay's own payment system, had been frozen because of -What else?-a scammer's intrusion. But the buyer, new to eBay didn't notice either warning until the deed was done. After a brief e-mail exchange with "Kate," she sent her money more than $2,400, including fees to a western union office in Mt. Clemens, Mich. There are broader lessons in this buyers story for anyone new to eBay. One is that eBay says it can only warn against scams, not prevent them. " Ultimately this is between the buyer and seller. This is just a venue," spokesman for eBay said. The truth is, eBay can be a risky place. Consider how "Kate" put it when The philadelphia Inquirer e-mailed her at the address the scammer gave the buyer" " It's like the food chain, you know-I was the predator, she was the prey."

This article was taken from Red Eye an edition of the chicago tribune.