eBay Fraudsters

New 'Report this Item' feature

2006-04-05T08:46:00.000-07:00

On a positive step, eBay has implemented a feature that should have been there long time ago.
At the very bottom of every listing there's now a "Report this Item" link. If you see a fradulent listing or any other potential policy violation you can click on it, and choose the appropiate reason for reporting the item. You no longer need to copy the item number and navigate through the Help or Contact sections of the site to report under the appropiate category.
If you see a listing that looks fraudulent, click on the link and choose Step 1: Fradulent Listings --> Step 2: You suspect that a listing is fraudulent...
Of course if the same seller has a lost of fraudulent listings, it probably is a stolen account.
Report Someone's else account as Stolen by following this link:

http://pages.ebay.com/help/contact_us/_base/result_5_2_6.html

Less Than a 100th of 1 Percent!

2006-03-08T10:36:00.000-08:00

That's how many of eBays transactions end in a confirmed case of fraud. eBay reported 1.9 billion listings in 2005, that translates into 190,000 confirmed frauds in one year. When it does happen, there's little eBay can do, eBay's Catherine England said. " The amount of categories and areas of our site can be quite overwhelming," "We have 78 million items listed on our site at any given time. we can't be experts on all things, so we rely heavily on our community. " That community can include sellers with counterfeit goods, so the company works with law enforcement officials to target the sources and sellers of illegal merchandise, England said. Buyers on eBay can protect themselves by following a few steps, before bidding analyze the sellers feedback and ask a lot of questions. "Any legitimate seller should be able, and happy to, answer any questions you might have. Most importantly don't rely on photos. "some sellers post photos of the real item and then ship off fake merchandise," England said, adding that eBay and paypal work with buyers to get refunds wherever possible.

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

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

2006-03-08T10:34:00.000-08:00

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.

They want your email!!

2006-02-15T08:20:00.000-08:00

As you may know, on most bogus listings the "seller" want you to email him directly to the address listed. The scammer acomplish this by saying:
-You got to email him before you bid.
-He has a Buy It Now price.
-He would answer any question within minutes!
-Asking you not to use eBay messaging system.
For the last one they will have an excuse. For example: "if you have any questions. I don't often check the e-mail provided for eBay registration, so do not use the "ask seller a question" option because probably I will not answer you. I now use mobile internet and I can easily answer, in a couple of minutes only if you contact me at..."
However, today I noticed another scammer doing something else. Inserting an email-form directly on the auction. Like this:

Scam Finders Team

2006-02-15T07:44:00.000-08:00

Pay a visit to the eBay Scams & Scammers website
http://www.freespaces.com/scamfinders/ebayscammers.htm

Apart from a huge email list to cross-search, you will find some names and addresses that the scammers have sent to "buyers".

Updates

2006-02-03T18:35:00.000-08:00

There has not been any new post in a while. But the email addresses list its being kept up to date. Thanks too all those who have submitted their comments by email, or have reported some scammers.
If you got anything to say, send it to: ebayfraudsters@gmail.com

Actual email from an eBay scammer

2005-12-21T12:33:00.000-08:00

Some of you might of received emails similar to this one and if you haven't, here you have an actual email written from a scammer to an eBay user who was interested in his fraudulent listing.

Conecyt wrote:
I want a quick deal and i guess you want that too because this is the only way you will have it home before christmas. Anyway, payment will be made through wire transfer. After i receive the payment proof i will ship it. My paypal account is now blocked because another buyer paid with a stolen paypal account. The BIN price is $1000 shipping and insurance included. The computer is new and it has the manufacturers warranty. If you agree please reply with full name and address and i will send you payment info (bank account, etc.) I'm looking forward to your reply.
Thanks.

Our thanks to eBay user Lucassacul for sharing this email with us so it can be posted to help others understand and get an idea of what a scammer will say and request.

BBC News: EBay blames users for fraud

2005-12-18T09:30:00.000-08:00

"The online auctioneer eBay has admitted that personal accounts are being hijacked by fraudsters, but claim it is the responsibility of eBay users themselves to prevent this."
Read more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4533154.stm

Thanks to Aviv for sending me this one.

Back again! Fraudsters Favorite Items

2005-12-15T14:03:00.000-08:00

Our many thanks to Bigglezworth for emailing us the long list of these fraudsters favorite items.
We recommend you use your browser built-in search or the "Search this Blog" features to find a particular item or email address.
Update: The list of items was removed from the main blog page for a better loading. You still can access it under the comments of this post.

Thanks for the comments!

2005-12-12T15:22:00.000-08:00

You may have come across the bidder: scamcop_do_not_email_or_bid_hijacked
I want to thank all of you who yesterday sent your comments and support. Some of you had questions. I couldn't get back to you without knowing your email addresses (new accounts must wait 3 days before contacting another member through eBay message system). For those let me make a short explanation.

The person listing these fraudulent items is NOT the owner of the account. The real member is not the scammer. Somehow his/her account has been compromised and his good name and reputation is being used. The member may or may not be aware of the situation. If they know, they might be waiting for eBay to take action so they can recover control of their accounts. You may encounter that the accounts of sellers with high feedback ratings or powersellers had been stolen. If the member was an active seller you may find his/her legit listings in the middle of all the other bogus items. A good advice is to always look at their other items, you may easily spot the difference between the member's listings and the scams. In the case that the member is not selling anything or is mainly a buyer, you will only find bogus items. But you can look at his/her previous items for sale or transactions. (Why would someone who always sell figurines be selling a lot of Plasma TV's, Laptops, High-end Cameras?, or how a casual buyer now has possesion of all this merchandise?).

The scammer wants the buyer to email him at the address specified. Which is not the one associated to the eBay account. If you sent an email through eBay the real owner of the account might receive it.
The list of email addresses at the right, was compiled during a period of less than 24-hours from all the fraudulent listings I came accross. They are used over and over again, so it's even possible to do a "title and description" search for some of this emails and find more and more scams.

If you come across a listing that seems fraudulent report it here: http://pages.ebay.com/help/contact_us/_base/result_6_4_7.html
If you believe someone's account has been stolen report it here: http://pages.ebay.com/help/contact_us/_base/result_5_2_6.html
eBay's Info: http://pages.ebay.com/help/account/ma-account-theft.html

Last but not least, you may direct any comments, suggestions or questions to this email address: ebayfraudsters@gmail.com

What does a fraudulent listing look like?

2005-12-12T15:19:00.000-08:00

Scammers Revealed

2005-12-12T15:15:00.000-08:00

If you recognise any fraudulent listings don't hesitate to take action by reporting them to eBay and getting them removed. Being an eBay member myself I felt the need to find and report as many of these scammers as I could in order to prevent innocent buyers from being misled. I took an interesting approach myself and went under the user id "scamcop_do_not_email_or_bid_hijacked" and took action by bidding on hundreds of fraudulent listings to warn eBay members that might be interested in purchasing or bidding on these bogus listings. But as expected the account was suspended by eBay for "site interference", Shortly after I received thank you messages from them for all the reports and hundreds of listings removed from the site. However, I'm not the only one trying to put a stop to these scammers using this method. This is a problem eBay should take very seriously and really look into at a much deeper level. If it's going to be site interference to prevent others from bidding on fraudulent auctions they should hire employees to hunt down these scammers.

Revised by JEzGr

SPOT THE FRAUD!!

2005-12-10T22:18:00.000-08:00

The purpose of this blog is to help you spot fraudulent listings on eBay's site so you don't fall victim to these scams . Every few minutes tons of fraudulent items are listed through hijacked accounts. Once you learn how to identify them, you may be able to spot the fraudulent listings just from the search results. When you look at these listings you will notice some or all of the following:

-1-day listings starting at very low prices without a reserve for expensive items. (Laptops, Professional Cameras, Plasma TV's, High-end Computers, Expensive Speakers, Car Audio receivers, professional audio equipment & more).

-They tell you to send an email to a specific address before bidding on the auction. It will say something like this "before bidding email me so i can approve your bid and give you details". Some may also advise against using the eBay emailing system for whatever reason (The real reason might be that the real owner of the account might also receive the message and he or she might not be aware their account is being used for fraud purposes).This is probably the first thing they will say on the listing, they want you to email them and they will clearly let it show.

-Although the listings are in auction format they will say something like "you can have one for ###USD". Stating to email them for a bigger discount and offering free shipping with it. Usually the price is a lot less of what you might expect, and they want you to email for this buy it now price.

-Most of the listings have the featured, bold, subtitle options. They usually appear featured at the top of the search results, with subtitles saying things like "special offer", "x-mas offer", "lowest price ###usd" and more.

-They usually say they have more available. "5 units available", etc.

-Bidders ID's kept private. (Not always, but these might be to prevent bids being displayed from eBay members like this one: account_hijacked_do_not_email_or_bid)

-If you look at their other items, they will be selling more of these expensive items, with the same "email me" story.

-Shipping prices are not stated, never mentioned, or they are free or just $1.00 ( Just another reason to get you to email).

-Payment options also not mentioned or might be bank wire, western union transfers and Paypal sometimes. But beware you may find all the Paypal logos depending on the hijacked account.

-The listings layouts are usually the same or very similar. You will find the same pictures across different fraudulent listings from different hijacked accounts. And also note that most of the time the pictures are very detailed and show the real item, real box, etc.

-The scammer may have more than one hijacked account. You may find the same layout and email me to address on diffrent user accounts. They may have more than a few hijacked accounts but you can easily tell they all come from the same scammer by this one email address that is listed on each and every one of these auctions.

-Category where the item is listed is not always the correct one. You might see plasma tvs, laptops and others under the "dolls" category or any other category that has nothing to do with what the person is auctioning off.

I may add more information as it comes to mind, If you have something to add post a comment and I will post it here as well.