Warning possible ebay scam...(on LX90)

I've noticed several sellers lately from Spain and UK selling LX90
telescopes on ebay. Most are priced incedibly low and are exact cut and
pastes of other Meade LX90 auctions. The sellers have excellent
feedback, HOWEVER... the feedback is almost entirely from sellers for
inexpensive items... usually something cheap like baseball cards.

So I suspect they spend $50-$100 buying baseball cards in an effort to
increase their rating, and then hope to sell an LX90 or other high
dollar item after which of course they vanish with a 10x profit.

I've seen several different users from different locations with
*identical* auctions all with *identical* high feeback ratings due to
buying dozens of inexpensive items (baseball cards) over the course of a
few months (over the same time frame even). Not sure if these are
stolen ebay+paypal accounts or what, but it's suspicious.

I'm sure you already knew but just in case .... don't buy from anyone
who doesnt have positive feedback from BUYERS for items of similar value.

We all know that reporting the problem to ebay will get nowhere. Been
there done that.

clear skies,
-tom

On Tue, 14 Sep 2004 02:24:22 GMT, vic20owner
wrote:

'm sure you already knew but just in case .... don't buy from anyone
who doesnt have positive feedback from BUYERS for items of similar value.

Correct. When buying on ebay, you want to look for someone with a very
good selling rating. When selling, you generally hope to get good
buyer ratings, but as long as you get paid, things usually go ok.

Caveat Emptor.


---Atreju---

It's one thing to buy a used OTA for a couple of hundred bucks off
Astromart, and quite another to spend a thousand or several times that
for something used. With that much money involved I'll buy new from a
reputable company and get a guarantee. I have never trusted Ebay or
any other online auction. The whole system is custom made for
fraudsters advantage. Also, the old adage "if it sounds too good to be
true..." if still quite valid today as it was fifty years ago.

Caesar Garcia

vic20owner wrote in message m...
I've noticed several sellers lately from Spain and UK selling LX90
telescopes on ebay. Most are priced incedibly low and are exact cut and
pastes of other Meade LX90 auctions. The sellers have excellent
feedback, HOWEVER... the feedback is almost entirely from sellers for
inexpensive items... usually something cheap like baseball cards.

So I suspect they spend $50-$100 buying baseball cards in an effort to
increase their rating, and then hope to sell an LX90 or other high
dollar item after which of course they vanish with a 10x profit.

I've seen several different users from different locations with
*identical* auctions all with *identical* high feeback ratings due to
buying dozens of inexpensive items (baseball cards) over the course of a
few months (over the same time frame even). Not sure if these are
stolen ebay+paypal accounts or what, but it's suspicious.

I'm sure you already knew but just in case .... don't buy from anyone
who doesnt have positive feedback from BUYERS for items of similar value.

We all know that reporting the problem to ebay will get nowhere. Been
there done that.

clear skies,
-tom

On 14 Sep 2004 03:41:29 -0700, (Caesar
Garcia) wrote:

The whole system is custom made for
fraudsters advantage. Also, the old adage "if it sounds too good to be
true..." if still quite valid today as it was fifty years ago.

I think you've been stung! I have had nothing but good experiences
over ebay. I bought a brand new flute on ebay, a few books, I have
bough miscellaneous other stuff too. In addition, I have sold numerous
merchandise over ebay and always have been satisfied with the
transaction. Many of the people are very nice, and I even nowadays do
semi-regular business with one of the buyers I sold something to. We
meet up and conduct transactions ourselves.

However, there ARE in fact plenty of scammers, but you just have to be
very cautious. You are right, that "if it sounds too good to be
true..." I completely agree. This is what I advise people who ask me
if they should "go for this deal, it looks like a steal"

Also, I agree I would usually not spend thousands of dollars on ebay.
That's just a personal choice. I do know someone who bought a car over
ebay and he is still very happy with it years later.

One thing I disagree with that you said is that the system is made for
fraudsters advantage. Nothing could be further from the truth. There
are many precautions in place to prevent people from being able to run
a scam operation over ebay. Yes, someone could cheat once or twice,
but without very good ratings, not many people are going to buy
expensive merchandise from someone. Often, it is the people who
respond to those "we have lost your password" emails. Those are what
get people, and once the scammers have the password, they usually go
on a shopping spree with the person's paypal account. People have to
just be smart consumers.

Just my $0.09


---Atreju---

Caesar Garcia wrote:
It's one thing to buy a used OTA for a couple of hundred bucks off
Astromart, and quite another to spend a thousand or several times that
for something used. With that much money involved I'll buy new from a
reputable company and get a guarantee. I have never trusted Ebay or
any other online auction. The whole system is custom made for
fraudsters advantage. Also, the old adage "if it sounds too good to be
true..." if still quite valid today as it was fifty years ago.


Perhaps, but I sold my LXD55 SN8 on ebay. I described it well, included
a ton of pictures and allowed phone calls for additional questions
before payment. I believe the buyer got a good deal, and I got what I
wanted for it. I actually broke even because the price of the LXD55 had
climbed since the initial offer. I have never been ripped off, or
ripped anyone off for that matter on ebay. I think you're more likely to
get taken advantage of on places like astromart where there is no way to
verify the identity of a person (bank account, credit card, etc) or view
their previous deals.

Regardless, it's always a gamble to buy anything over the phone or
internet. If you get a bad feeling, then by all means bail from the
deal no matter how good it seems. You're better off with a neg feedback
for bailing than a $1500 loss.

-tom

I have little confidence in ebay's supposed fraud controls.

Last year, I posted an ad on Astromart for an LX-90, with pictures of
the scope in our family room, along with a tale about its origins (an
Astronomy mag contest award!). Some time after, I was alerted by
several Astromarters that they had seen my ad on ebay, being run by
someone else. The ad was a verbatim rip-off and even included my
pictures and the Astronomy mag info!

It took several of us much time, several e-mails, etc. before ebay even
acknowledged we had concerns or that there was a problem. We met with
delay and then resistance even though there was clear evidence this was
an outright fraud.

They failed to follow their own policy of responding to "complainants"
within 12-36 hours. When they finally responded, all they sent were
canned, boiler plate, one size fits all, vague happy talk messages.

I kept pressing them and they eventually claimed to have taken some
action, but they refused to say what it was in order to --- now get this
--- protect the *seller's* privacy and rights! (I never asked for the
person to be ID'd, but to simply be informed what steps ebay actually
took!) It was insulting that a criminal was being given more
consideration than legitimate buyers and sellers---- and a wronged third
party.

Finally, after contacting different parts of ebay, and sending several
blunt (yet still polite) e-mails (it took them over 2 weeks to
respond!), they told me what they did: they *temporarily* suspended the
person! WOW! What incredible fraud protection that is. (Yes, I'm
being sarcastic!) They didn't let bidders know what was going on, and
all they posted was "not a registered user" rather than alerting people
that a defrauder was on the loose. They even admitted that the person
could readily re-register and that they couldn't or wouldn't do anything
about it.

I just can't see supporting a service that cares so little about the
welfare of its users.

Larry Stedman
Vestal