| Author | Message | ||
| pinchdawg
Junior Username: pinchdawg Post Number: 17 Registered: 12-2005 |
Hi all, why do the same basses and preamps keep showing up on ebay. they dont even change the pictures, is this a scam or what. | ||
| davehouck
Moderator Username: davehouck Post Number: 3057 Registered: 5-2002 |
As a generalization, if the same pictures of a bass are used for two different listings by different sellers, then the later listing is probably fraudulent. Some sellers of preamps however have been known to just use pictures from the Alembic site, perhaps figuring that all preamps look alike. So in that case, it would be harder to say, based on just the pictures, whether a listing is fraudulent. There are however a number of things to look for when trying to determine the authenticity of a listing, a few of which are: - A seller with zero or very little feedback and a new account. There are of course legitimate sellers with new accounts, so it's not a hard and fast rule. And occassionally a fraudulent listing may show a seller with lots of good feedback. In those cases, the seller is using a hijacked account. - A listing of only one or two days. - A listing where the email addresses of the bidders are hidden. The ulterior motive here is so that the bidder can't be warned by others. - A listing where the text says to email the seller at a specific email address. This is useful to the seller when the listing account is hijacked. These requests sometimes stipulate that the bidders must email the seller at a specific address to be pre-approved. - A listing for what obviously is a very expensive instrument with a very low opening bid amount and no reserve. There are others that I can't remember at the moment. There are of course exceptions. For instance there may be a one day listing where the instrument was just previouly listed but the reserve was not met. In this case the seller may have emailed the high bidders and told them the instrument was being relisted with a lower reserve for one day only. But the more of these signs you see in the same listing, the more likely it is that the listing should be avoided. | ||
| davehouck
Moderator Username: davehouck Post Number: 3058 Registered: 5-2002 |
And if you have questions about a specific listing, post it to the "Seen On Ebay" section. There are a number of us in the club that peruse the Alembic listings regularly. And while I can't remember much that occured before today, several of the members here have good memories for pictures of instruments they've seen before. | ||
| lbpesq
Senior Member Username: lbpesq Post Number: 903 Registered: 7-2004 |
Another eBay scam to watch out for: Yesterday I got an email that looked exactly like the "ask seller a question" eBay emails. The sender asked me where was the laptop computer they had won and paid for two months ago. The buyer was upset and threatening to go to eBay and the police. My first inclination was to email back that the buyer had the wrong person - I have never sold anything on eBay. I hit the link for the auction to check it out and see if someone else had used my ID for the auction, and got the familiar looking screen where eBay asks me to log in with my user name and password. It was then that I got suspicious. Looking closer at the original email I noticed that the auction the sender claimed to have "won" two months ago was listed as closing January 10, 2006. I then went to eBay through my own browser and searched for the sender's user name and this auction - they didn't exist. You've got to be careful out there. This one was very clever and I nearly filled in my password! Bill, tgo | ||
| davehouck
Moderator Username: davehouck Post Number: 3060 Registered: 5-2002 |
Bill; thanks for that report!!! If you haven't already you may want to send the email to Ebay security. | ||
| xlrogue6
Intermediate Member Username: xlrogue6 Post Number: 108 Registered: 8-2002 |
Forward any messages of this type you receive to spoof@ebay.com Similarly, any suspicious messages you get from Paypal (I've had a plague of those lately) should go to spoof@paypal.com It's always safest to respond to any message from these or similar sites by going to the site's login page manually, rather than by clicking email links. |
