Have you seen all the complete bike eBay scam auctions?

[Frank]

There are literally hundreds of them a day listed on eBay under the complete bike auctions. It is so bad I don't even bother looking through the complete bike auctions because there are pages and pages of them. They usually end up getting pulled by eBay after a few hours but sure messes up that section...

[BumbleBeeDave]

. . . if other sections of eBay have the same problem.

Perhaps it's worth reposting tips on how to spot a scammer. I know there was a thread on it sometime in the past year . . . :confused:

BBDave

[Keith A]

BBDave,

You have a good memory and I remember that thread as well. I couldn't find it on this forum, but did on the previous one. You can check out the complete discussion at More eBay possible fraud (http://www.hydromedia.com/serotta/read.php?f=1&i=29813&t=29457)

Here is one of the posts from that thread that I made on 03-13-03 10:33...


BBDave,

There isn't any good way to search all these guys out, but in general this is that you will find on the recent episod of hijacked auctions:

● Recent registration with eBay with no feedback
● Often the names have no intelligible words in them
● Registration and seller's stated location are outside the USA and many times their stated location will be a different country then where they registered.
● No reserve
● Often the funds in be something other than US dollars
● They usually have a message/request to contact them about the item
● Typically, they only have one active auction

I've only been scammed on time on eBay and it was my very first purchase. The seller had good feedback, but she decided to leave her husband and posted a bunch of auctions at one time and then took the money and ran. Her husband tried to clean up the mess she made and I did get some compensation.

[torquer]

I've bid on a few high-end bikes and frames lately. Although the bidding always went over my self-imposed limit, I would invariably receive a scam e-bay e-mail offering to sell me the bike/frame at my highest bid price, even when I was 4th- or 5th-highest bidder.

The first time this happened I was only tipped off when I received an identical offer from another scammer. The offer's requirements, by the way, called for payment via certified check, rather than Paypal as in the original auction.

What is disconcerting is that e-bay's security is so lax that these guys can find a bidder's e-mail address so easily in order to run their scams.

Now I am so paranoid that I don't respond to any company's e-mail messages requiring input of passwords or financial data, even my ISP.