So I set out to get some equipment for the shop, head over to eBay to see I can find real items or just fraud and scam... when it comes to high ticket items, you will find more fake auctions than real ones.
OK, let's take a look and search eBay for brother pr-600 one of the machines I am researching, and the results are as expected ( cached eBay results snapshot here ) wow! the results are pretty scary considering eBay claims that only 100th of 1 percent of their auctions are fraudulent ... I wander what the ratio is on hi ticket items...
- 9 fraudulent auctions - see cached version links : first , second , third , fourth <--- do not click on anything in this fourth cached auction as it has phishing attempt right on that cached page !!! , etc... you get the message : same common stuff : bidders identity kept private so those eBayers aware of this scam cannot contact the poor newbies who fell for this scam, good feedback accounts are the sellers, those poor account owners fell prey to phishing scams and they eBay logins and passwords were hijacked, in the auction body the seller promisses great deal, free shipping, buy it now at too good to be true price, many more available and you must absolutely positively email them before bidding so they can tell you how the only payment method they accept is western union or fake escrow service... ( SADLY ) all these are pretty obvious to a seasoned eBayer but as you see there is an ample supply of newbies who willingly bid and hand over their cash to these scammers.
- 2 maybe real auctions in the 7K price range....
- If the seller is in Michigan, why are the bids in EURO and not in Dollars? What about that comment in red letters right in the auction
- (.... ok maybe they HAD buy now button.)
- Geez ...but ... but .... I've seen those pictures before, can I find the same pics in recently sold items on eBay? Let's try that.
- completed auction cached here : and it is NOT a pretty sight, same pictures, same exact description, same red text statement as the current auction that looks like such a good deal.
eBay has been facing the scammers for SEVERAL YEARS now and it appears that very little is accomplished in combatting this type of fraud by eBay. Just Google for ebay fraud and you will find articles dating back 3 - 4 years citing same scams, the only difference is that those same scammers who are at it years later got better at it, more sophisticated, experienced, bolder... So until eBay decides to scrap the ostridge approach to this issue, I will be avoiding purchasing of higher priced items from eBay and continue to do business the traditional way - brick and mortar or legit online merchants.