Are scammers destroying Ebay.

A friend of mine has been trying to sell his nokia 8800 on ebay over the last two weeks, he listed it three times and on each one a no feedback bidder won, one of them didnt respond at all and after the other two won their auctions he recieved an email looking to be from paypal stating that the money has been transferred to his paypal account, even though it hadn't. on closer inspection of the small print at the bottmo it stated that the money will be deposited as soon as i email paypal the postal numberafter it has been posted.

From that i knew it was a scam, which was confirmed when a couple of hours later another email was sent asking to post it to nigeria :rolleyes:
 
Is it individuals in nigeria doing the scamming do you think or an organised crime ring gang?

I picture robed nigerians all kitted out with ipods.
 
Goodie said:
A friend of mine has been trying to sell his nokia 8800 on ebay over the last two weeks, he listed it three times and on each one a no feedback bidder won, one of them didnt respond at all and after the other two won their auctions he recieved an email looking to be from paypal stating that the money has been transferred to his paypal account, even though it hadn't. on closer inspection of the small print at the bottmo it stated that the money will be deposited as soon as i email paypal the postal numberafter it has been posted.

From that i knew it was a scam, which was confirmed when a couple of hours later another email was sent asking to post it to nigeria :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

It is a good idea (IMO) to state no zero feedback bidders in the auction description, especially for things like mobile phones. Then if they bid you can just cancel the bid and block them from bidding again.
 
I gave up on ebay a while ago now. At first I thought, cheap products. Then the shops started to pop up, the delivery charges are mostly a rip off, and I started to get scam emails etc..

I also had folks bidding on their own items to push the price up, and in the end, due to scams, fakes, bad ads and all the other rubbish on ebay + I don't really trust paypal anymore I shutdown my paypal and ebay accounts and now boycott the place. If I can get it from an online shop, or the high street - then I don't want it anymore.

Mostly, online shops offer free postage, or postage is much cheaper.
 
The postage cost is moot - all that matters is the total cost that you pay. Would you rather pay £5 postage on a 99p item, or get free postage on the same item costing £9.99 from a shop? Personally I do charge reasonable amounts for postage though (eg. £1 for a DVD or video game).
 
To be quite honest, you couldn't pay me to use Ebay. Even when users have a 100% feedback record, they can still scam the rear end off you.
 
Look around on online shops, and get the offers.. ;) Three DVD's for the price of two, free postage. Can sometimes work out better value then ebay and I know the item is BRAND new, and not a copy or something..

Also, some of the stuff I collect I can get imported from Japan cheaper. And I've seen postage on some stuff on ebay up into £10 for something that should cost at max - £2 to post. OK, £1 more for packing..

eBay doesn't work for me I'm afraid. I just lost trust with it. Not to say others are happy with it.. I've just decided to stop buying on there. I've tried it, had enough of it, so stopped.

At least I tried it, before I'm knocking it.. Give me a break..!! :p
 
I use ebay quite a lot (I've only bought one new computer game in the last year) and I don't have any trouble with it. You just have to take the time to verify auctions you're bidding on, and tighten things up on items you're selling. It's not hard if you have a bit of time to dedicate to it, and I'm willing to give up the time in order to save the money.

I do agree that it sucks that people run shops on there. Given the choice I will always go for someone with their feedback in the 100s rather than some shop with 20,000 feedback or something stupid.

I also hate the people selling copied games on there. That sucks.

And items shipped from Hong Kong or Thailand. Ugh. Probably a bit dodgy, and you can be playing roulette with the import fees on some items.
 
I had someone try and do this to me a month ago.

what gave it away:

Nigeria
Final bid being higher than my buy it now price
fake paypal email sent to me, that was obviously fake as it contained inconsistent use of grammar.

I sent the buyer a somewhat abusive email, he replied saying he would get the fbi on my case, I replied l m a o saying that the fbi couldn't give two squirts about a transaction concerning the UK and Nigeria.

He replied with a death threat saying Ebay has given him my home address, I replied, laughing again, saying that if is so hellbent on murdering me over a £30 phone, I wont stand in his way.

Handset was sold as second chance offer to second highest bidder and fake account was removed from Ebay :)
 
I have my criteria for bidders, they have to have positive feedback, credit card on file, have an address in the UK (not holland where most Nigerian scammers seem to operate) and not have non-paying warnings..

Seems to work, sold loads of phones on ebay (ok about four) and never had any scammers!
 
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