Are these scams on ebay. There are probably 50 new or almost new atv for cheap. They are all near the buy it now price of 3300. I seen a brand new 2004 rhino still in the show room for buy it now of 3000 something that is crazy. If it seems to good to be true it probably is.

 

If you have to ask if its a scam than it probably is.

 

Well, I knew it would come to this. After seeing countless threads about people being ripped off, I've decided to write this topic, possibly in hopes of informing unsuspecting eBayers of the dangers of this rampant scam.

These are the WARNINGS signs:

Items are usually very high priced items, like laptops, plasma TV's, bicycles, etc. The price for the auction, too, is usually fairly well below retail, and often times, ridiculously so. At face value, the auction page may look legit. The buyer usually has very good feedback, and lists the item in the US or UK. Payment methods are usually listed as money order or cashier's checks.

Under the surface, though, if you dig deep enough, you can sniff out the fraudulent auctions. First of all, almost all of these scam auctions are being run by hijacked accounts, meaning that some poor person had their eBay ID comandeered by some scammer, who then listen these fake auctions. The user ID will usually be a "buyer only" type account, meaning that in the past they've only bought item, usually or never sold. The item will usually be listed as being the US or the UK, but if you contact the seller, they will claim to be in another country. This part varies wildly, but as of late, a lot of scams have been coming out of Eastern Europe as well as Spain.

The scammer will insist on payment through Western Union, regardless of what they indicated in the TOS. They will also try to claim that by paying through Western Union, the transaction will be safe and secure. Often times, they will also say that by choosing a secret password or by using a fake name that you can later change once you receive the goods, the transaction is secure. This is where they get you. Once money is sent via Western Union, especially to Europe, no password or anything else is needed to claim the funds. Some outlets require an ID, which is easily bypassed by using a fake one, and in some countries, no ID is necessary at all, as long as the scammer has the transaction number of the funds. Keep in mind, they will try to sweet talk to you, and reassure you that the transaction will be secure and in your best interest. NO MATTER WHAT SECURITIES THEY OFFER YOU, do not carry through with the transaction.

Also, keep in mind that the address and contact info. they will provide you will almost always be false. When it is actually correct, it will most likely be that of the poor person who had their account hijacked. One recent person gave me an address in Italy, which I tracked down to a local church in Rome.

I'll be adding additional information on this thread as I get tiime, and would appreciate it if anyone else with information would also do the same.

Please keep in mind, though, I'm not intending this thread to be a forum to post info. on how you were scammed, but want it to be an informational area where fellow eBayers can read up on this scam and how it is perpetrated.

 

You were right on the money with that post TexasPsycho. I posted this in its own topic a while back. Read this for more"info"
Ebay scammer talks

 

I e-mailed a seller that was supposedly selling a '04 Grizzly for 3500. She said the bike was in Germany and would be shipped to after I #1 set up a payment VIA Western Union Money transfer. #2 Sent her the confirmation # of the payment supposedly there is a # that says you have made the payment and then another that releases the funds. After getting the "confirmation #' she would ship the bike (shipping included in the $3500) If the bike was as she said you then werre to send her the "payment #" It all sounded way too complex and to many chances for me to lose my A##. Dealer cost I think is in the High $5000 range. Like Daddy always used to say "if it looks like a skunk, and smells like a skunk then stay the F##K away!

 

i've got one of the scammer emailing me back and forth right now just to see how much #hit he will talk. i wish i knew for sure where he lives so i could give him a scam up side his head!

 

keep him going, its always good for alittle entertainment knowing your not gonna fall for his crap.

 

Thank God I found this site!! As of 2 hours ago, I was about to wire $2500 to some guy in Denmark. Things sounded too good so I started doing some checking. Seller was advertising a Polaris 700 Sportsmen w/ winch w/ 4 extra tires/wheels w/ shipping included w/ only 90 miles on the machine....all for the amazing price for $2550. Same story as above...wire transfers only...use different name for "security"....great reviews on ebay.

I'll mark this on the calendar as: "The day I was nearly a dumbass"

Thanks for the information.

Soon-to-be Polaris owner...as soon as I find a legit deal.

 

usually if you look at the listings and see a 04 quad going for a buy it now from 2800-3500 is a scam. if you click on the auction it says pre approved bidders only. they do this so you can buy this outside of ebay and get scammed. when i was first looking for a quad i seen a few of these ads so i emailed the people to see how i can get pre approved. usually i didnt get a response but this one time i did. at first i thought it was legit because the person was talking all this crap about checking my feedback, asking me if i purchased any high dollar items on ebay, and even forwarding my information to the sales department for verification. then a week later i get another email form them saying ive been preapproved for the quad. they told me not to bid on the auction (which was removed by ebay) and send them a money order for 2900 to a pobox in las vegas and the quad would be shipped to me. i told them that i wanted to see the quad in person before i bought it and that i would even fly to vegas to see it for that price. i already knew this was a scam by now but i wanted to see how far i could take it. they replied that they dont have a storeroom and they are still in the crate ready for shipment stacked in a warehouse. this time i just went off on them telling them im not falling for their scam yada yada. i forwarded all the information i had to ebay so maybe they can catch these guys.

so watch out for these things:
1. pre approved bidder auctions.
2. a $6000 quad going for $3000 shipped.
3. the sellers feedback having nothing to do with the quad scene.

hope it helps

Dave

 

the bad thing about how these scams are run is they don't use their ebay id. they hack someones account and use their id and feedbacks. a lot of times you can view their feedbacks and see where there were no transactions for a long period of time then all of a sudden they get all these feedbacks for little piddly crap that they bought for a few dollars. sometimes they will have an item they sold and have a positive feedback but the buyer is actually in on the scams too and never really bought the item but only posted a positive feedback to make the seller look good. some of the auctions will say the atv is in spain or germany and will even have the buyer send the money western union to that country but then it is routed right back to the states. if you have an ebay account it is a good idea to change your password once a month and keep a close eye on your feedbacks and if any transactions have been made without you knowing, also do the same with any related accounts like paypal.