The lovely world of Ebay scams

[XTR]

I was looking for some yellow caliper brake paint. I decided yellow paint would look better than the red paint that is on at the moment.

I found some... £6 for a kit. It retails around £20.. so i decided to keep my eye on it. I put a bid in... and got outbid by someone called "dodgy454". I thought something was dodgy going on as the seller's username was "Catherine454". I checked out the locations for both users... They were both based in Swadlincote.

I came to the conclusion that they are related somehow.. or maybe the same person with 2 different accounts.

I decided to email the seller

Hi

I refuse to continue bidding on this item as the user "dodgy454" is obviously related to you and is "bumping" the item price up to gain a higher price final price.

Good Luck.. i hope "dodgy454" wins the auction now, so you have to pay ebay fees.

Bye

I've just looked at the auction again and the seller's username has changed to "catherineptb".
http://cgi3.ebay.co.uk/aw-cgi/eBayIS...d=catherineptb

This is obviously to stop people like myself from realising they are bumping the price up using another account.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...tem=2461463160


I've since had a reply from the seller.

> Hi
>JUST TO LET YOU KNOW DODGY454 IS NO CONNECTION TO ME AT ALL HE DOES BUY ALOT OF THINGS OFF ME HAS HE IS A SMALL TRADER THAT LIVES NOT TO FAR AWAY SORRY FOR ANY DISAPPOINTMENT TO YOU BUT IF YOU WANT TO WIN THE AUCTION THEN YOU NEED TO OUTBID THIS EBAYER. I DONT CARE ABOUT CHARGES AS I WONT HAVE TO PAY ANY AS HE IS A GENUINE EBAYER THANKS CATHERINE

Bullsh*t!!! why would she change her username if this was the case.

I hate people like this... so i replied saying...

Why have you just changed your username to avoid this investigation from users happening again then?

I always check out the sellers previoous history to see if its a safe wise move to purchase an item from them.

Just be careful HEXUS guys.... bid at the last moment and prevent the seller getting up to tricks like this.

[Howard]

Tis awful what goes on on eBay. A real shame

I sold something and the winning bidder was a guy who's username was "didntsoundlikeit", his email was "didntsoundlikeit@christian.net". Long story short he didn't pay me, just send a huge long list of confusing and abusive emails, signing off using many different names.

The second highest bidder was called "iknowyouwere" and his email was "iknowyouwere@christian.net" so I reckon they're affiliated/the same person. He hasn't replied to any emails.

Why do people BOTHER? Can't they just leave us honest eBay folk to trade in peace?

[Stringent]

I bet the 'C' in C. CHADWICK stands for Catherine as well ... I hate it when this happens, this is why I don't like doing stuff on eBay, as things like this might happen.

[blue..matt]

the sad thing is

there are private forums where people post a item, then a few of the members bid it up

i know this, as ive just been invited to join 1 of them

[XTR]

Reported them to ebay

[streetster]

lol check out the feedback tbh... all from dodgy454....

pretty damn crap tho what is the point?!


mark

[Angus]

I always leave bidding till the last minute. Some people don't think it's fair, but tbh there's some dirty tricks played and to leave it late is the only way to get around it.

I tried auction sniper for a couple of auctions, but you might as well make sure you're sitting comfortable for the last few minutes

[Jiff Lemon]

simple rules for ebay:

1) Always check what else the seller is selling - Is the same person bidding on all their auctions - if so, WARNING!

2) Always check there feedback - more than 5 sales to the same person? WARNING

3) Always bid at the last minute

[Howard]

I'm going to have to report this all to eBay and get my money back, etc, now as it doesn't look like I'm gonna get money from either of the highest bidders, and some of the bidders lower down aren't replying to my emails

[Russ]

btw XTR, leave it red it looks brilliant as it is.

[kushtibari]

There's a lot of account 'hijacking' at the moment as well - I've finally got up up to about 100 or so feedback all positive - as soon as I got to a high figure kept getting emails from a variety of sources, all allegedly from ebay stating there was a problem with my account stating that I was about to be thrown out, unless I signed on via their convenient link to ebay re-supplying all my personal details again. Can't believe some people fall for it.

Another tip is to look into their feedback - known some people to flog something as 'untested' but when you go through their feedback you can finfd the same item and they bought it the month before as 'faulty'

[Howard]

Yeah, and those fake PayPal emails.
Just go to the site in question... It's ridiculously obvious. It's like http://63.53.15.210:31337... Anyone with a vague knowledge of the stupid computer 1337 talk knows it's a fake

Just look at the details they want for Christ's sake, no one in their right mind would give them.

[5lab]

thing is.. its not *really* a scam.. as you should only bid as high as your willing to pay.. they're not forcing you to pay any more than that, they are just haggling you up to your maximum bid..

[Angus]

thing is.. its not *really* a scam.. as you should only bid as high as your willing to pay.. they're not forcing you to pay any more than that, they are just haggling you up to your maximum bid..

It is a scam really.

Because they can cancel the bids that they've put in.

If they didn't have the ability to cancel bids, then yes you'd be right 5lab.

[Howard]

But it's against eBay's T&Cs AFAIK, 5lab..

[Jiff Lemon]

Problem is, ebay don't give a stuff....

and the end of the day, they still get their fees from someone.