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how to lose $1,225 in 3 days. a warning to all
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 2005-08-12 8:23 AM |
Member  53  Montreal |  Subject: how to lose $1,225 in 3 days. a warning to allAfter a summer of working and selling off older stuff i finally had enough to grab my first bike off of ebay. I bid on the bike and at the last second i lost the auction. too bad... The next day i received an email from "ebay" telling me they were going to offer me a second chance offer because the winner of the auction backed out. I was really happy and wanted to go for it. Over the next three days Ebay sent me a number of professional looking emails outlining the procedure for second chance offers and the $20,000 consumer protection that came along with it. I was told that i would be able to leave feed back and the auction would be run just as any other. I was also told that the only method of payment accepted by this seller was Western Union money transfer. Ebay told me that although they usually do not endorse the wire service they had a specific policy in place to accommodate him because he was a valued seller. Again, they told me that the seller had deposited $5000 into an ebay controlled account. this account, i was told, would be frozen until out transaction was complete. If at any time there was a problem, i would automatically be refunded from the funds the seller had deposited with ebay. Long story short. It was all a Lie. The con man had modified his emails to make it appear that they were coming from an ebay.com email address. This, i found out, is not hard to do. He had been stringing me along the entire time. He knew that i wouldn't do western union unless i was SURE ebay was going to protect me. The fake emails he sent me were perfect. All aspects of them looked exactly like previous emails that i had received from ebay in the past. I was totally tricked . i'm not a person who just runs into things, in fact, i'd like to consider myself a careful person. The truth is, i got owned by a pro. Someone who does this all day long. i'm going to file a police report this morning. So to wrap up. i'm sad, angry, frustrated, and bike-less. I'm going to have to wait a little longer before i can call myself a triathlete. I'll be working on swimming and running in the mean time though. I just thought i would be a good idea to post this here incase anyone experences the same thing. These kind of scams only work for big ticket items and there are lots of people on this site buying bikes. Good luck, stay safe, train hard Scott |
| 2005-08-12 8:33 AM in reply to: #223592 |
Veteran 118 Brookline, MA | Subject: RE: how to lose $1,225 in 3 days. a warning to all Scott, I am really sorry to hear about this.. The scam artists on eBay are getting worse every year.. It used to just be Rolexes, and now it is even bikes.. Hopefully more public awareness will bring more law enforcement... Sorry, Jeremy |
| 2005-08-12 8:40 AM in reply to: #223592 |
Veteran 219 Centreville, MD | Subject: RE: how to lose $1,225 in 3 days. a warning to all Dude - that sucks. You have my deepest sympathies. It sure seems like there is always someone around the corner trying to figure out new ways to dupe honest people out of their hard earned money. Don't wait on a $1,200 bike to do your first tri - borrow one from someone if you have to. Keep after the training! |
| 2005-08-12 8:43 AM in reply to: #223592 |
Extreme Veteran 724 Delray Beach, FL | Subject: RE: how to lose $1,225 in 3 days. a warning to all Sorry to hear that  Ebay beware.... Never trust people who requires no other payments that money transfer. I use Paypal most of the time. You can still be scammed but to open an account with them you need other information like a bank/credit account, etc. I do not trust overseas sellers. I do not trust deals that are "too good to be truth". Last but not least I do not buy high priced items.... Thanks for sharing your story.... |
| 2005-08-12 8:49 AM in reply to: #223592 |
Master 1462 Michigan | Subject: RE: how to lose $1,225 in 3 days. a warning to all I almost bought my first tri bike on ebay, but I stuck it out got a good bike fit at a LBS and am very happy. Some people have luck and some get screwed. |
| 2005-08-12 8:52 AM in reply to: #223592 |
Pro 3870 Virginia Beach, VA | Subject: RE: how to lose $1,225 in 3 days. a warning to all I would never make an eBay purchase with anything but PayPal or a direct credit card transaction. And when I use PayPal I always draw the funds from my credit card anyway as an added layer of protection. Did the seller have plenty of positive feedback and a long history with eBay? |
| 2005-08-12 8:55 AM in reply to: #223592 |
Champion 8903 | Subject: RE: how to lose $1,225 in 3 days. a warning to all scott_loong - 2005-08-12 9:23 AM I was also told that the only method of payment accepted by this seller was Western Union money transfer. Ebay told me that although they usually do not endorse the wire service they had a specific policy in place to accommodate him because he was a valued seller. Scott Sorry you got ripped off. These scams have been going for a while. The above quote should be a tip off; a multi-billion dollar company like Ebay is not hinging their future on catering to the whims of a "valued seller." From the sale of a 99 cent trinket to an item costing hundreds of thousands...the Ebay rules are the same for everyone. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. |
| 2005-08-12 9:11 AM in reply to: #223592 |
Elite Veteran 831 Northern Va/Metro D.C. | Subject: RE: how to lose $1,225 in 3 days. a warning to all I'm so sorry Scott. |
| 2005-08-12 9:15 AM in reply to: #223592 |
Pro 3870 Virginia Beach, VA | Subject: RE: how to lose $1,225 in 3 days. a warning to all You never told us what kind of bike it was... |
| 2005-08-12 9:16 AM in reply to: #223634 |
Elite 2915 New City, New York | Subject: RE: how to lose $1,225 in 3 days. a warning to all sorry to hear it,really. personally can't get past this stuff... have never bot anything off e-bay and probably never will. Still a brick and mortar guy. Rather pay extra and not deal. Edited by rollinbones 2005-08-12 9:16 AM |
| 2005-08-12 9:20 AM in reply to: #223592 |
| Champion 8903 | Subject: RE: how to lose $1,225 in 3 days. a warning to all BTW...what happened to this bike you were going to buy; http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/discussion/forums/thread-view.asp... http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/discussion/forums/thread-view.asp... and then again a week later; http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/discussion/forums/thread-view.asp... Sorry to hear they all fell through I guess. Funny thing though, about the "going to see them tomorrow" bit. In other words, you passed up on buying bikes in person for an ebay scam? Edited by max 2005-08-12 9:27 AM |
| 2005-08-12 10:29 AM in reply to: #223629 |
| Regular 138 | Subject: RE: how to lose $1,225 in 3 days. a warning to all That really sucks!! I don't know what Western Union Money Transfer. But didn't he have to give you his band account details? Can't he be traced through this? Did the seller have plenty of positive feedback and a long history with eBay? I would guess he was nothing to do with the seller! He probably picked a high priced item and looked at the bid history. |
| 2005-08-12 10:29 AM in reply to: #223629 |
| Regular 138 | Subject: RE: how to lose $1,225 in 3 days. a warning to all |
| 2005-08-12 10:34 AM in reply to: #223592 |
| Subject: RE: how to lose $1,225 in 3 days. a warning to all Totally sucks. I sent your posting to a friend who's really ebay-savvy. Thought his reply might be of interest: Not this specific scam, but there are people running eBay scams all the time. You will never receive an e-mail from eBay or PayPal asking you to reply directly. They will ask you to go to their web site and log in and proceed from there. Beware of links embedded in e-mail: Take a look at where they send you after you click on them. They can send you to a page that looks like eBay or PayPal, but the web address that shows in the browser will be completely different. I once received an e-mail from "eBay" that looked very legitimate. It told me that my account was in danger of expiring and that I should enter all kinds of information on a web page to update my account. I went to the web page (via an embedded link) and entered my user name and password. After that I got suspicious and stopped. I did not enter any personal information, but I had provided the scammer with my eBay user name and password. I immediately changed this on ANY account of any kind that had used this for log in. |
| 2005-08-12 10:48 AM in reply to: #223667 |
Member 53 Montreal | Subject: RE: how to lose $1,225 in 3 days. a warning to all Hey everyone. thanks alot for the support. i feel a bit better about it now. It's just money and it's not like anyone got physically hurt. TH3 FRB: the bike was a specialized S-Works Transition frameset with dura-ace and ultegra components and cane creek rims... sigh..... really nice bike that someone else is currently looking forward to riding. Max: I was going to get that bike, the Cannondale and i decided to go with this one instead. The cannondale ended up being a bit too used and after a conversation with the tech at my LBS i decided it might not be as good a buy as it sounded. thanks again everyone for the support. Scott |
| 2005-08-12 10:56 AM in reply to: #223592 |
Veteran 183 Buffalo Grove, IL | Subject: RE: how to lose $1,225 in 3 days. a warning to all Well in this case it seems hindsight is 20/20. Sorry for your loss. It could have happened to anyone and I sincerely hope these scam artists get what coming to them. |
| 2005-08-12 11:02 AM in reply to: #223592 |
Expert 1205 Herndon VA | Subject: RE: how to lose $1,225 in 3 days. a warning to all Sorry that happened. I had the same scam tried on me when I tried to get a bike on ebay. I was lucky in that the emails were not very professional. The email addresses didn't match up with the original auction and the scam emails were from overseas, while the original auction seller was in Florida. I notified ebay and the original seller but I don't think anything was done. Ebay is definitely a buyer beware situation. Ernie |
| 2005-08-12 11:13 AM in reply to: #223592 |
| Champion 8903 | Subject: RE: how to lose $1,225 in 3 days. a warning to all Darn, sorry that happened Scott. Too bad that you got ripped off, hope you can work a deal with a local bike shop and find something. Don't give up, there are some good deals out there. |
| 2005-08-12 11:14 AM in reply to: #223848 |
Expert 941 WA | Subject: RE: how to lose $1,225 in 3 days. a warning to all hey - so sorry to hear about that. that really sucks....i had this tried on me too, but being 1) the computer nerd i am i'm on top of all sorts of scams and 2) being naturally suspicious, i checked out the ebay policy on second chance bids by going directly to the eby website. as a note to all of you, 2nd chance bidding IS something that ebay does. HOWEVER, if you have a legitimate 2nd chance bid coming at you, you should be able to log in to your account (NOT by going through a link, type in the www.ebay.com yourself), and in all your account details you should see it listed automatically by ebay within proper ebay channels. these scam artists are really ridiculous. so, if you get an email like that, check your account. if it's a no go, then ignore it. anyway, after that i wrote back to the guy and said, you'r enot listed in my account, and he was like, "if you don't believe me you can ask ebay." i just ignored him after that. ALSO - you shoudl NEVER EVER EVER give out personal information on a website link in an email from ANY company. this is a scam called phishing that is rising in popularity, because as someone mentioned, it is very easy to make an email look like it came from someone else and have a legitimate looking link. any legitimate company (your bank, ebay, yahoo) will never ever ask you for your password, banking information, SS number or anything via email. in fact they would appreciate you telling htem if you receive a spoof email purporting to be from them. hope this saves you all some trouble. |
| 2005-08-12 11:20 AM in reply to: #223592 |
Master 1927 Chicago | Subject: RE: how to lose $1,225 in 3 days. a warning to all Scott, Sorry to hear that. All you online buyers out there I agree with the previous post. Whenever it comes to money Paypal, which I have an account with, will never ask you to reply directly. You have to go to their website and log in so they can prove it's you. You should never trust an e-mail that asks you to do such a thing. But lesson well learned. And I agree don't let that stop you from your first tri. I did my whole first tri season on a $200 mountain bike I bought at a pawn shop. No clips, no computer, no nothing just a whole lotta fun! |
| 2005-08-12 11:31 AM in reply to: #223592 |
Veteran 302 Virginia | Subject: RE: how to lose $1,225 in 3 days. a warning to all Wow, that really sux. The con artists are getting better and better. Your experience will help others know the scam. I've received second offers, very similar to yours but by the time I received them had changed my mind about the purchase. Thanks for posting. Sorry about your money and bike. |
| 2005-08-12 11:32 AM in reply to: #223592 |
| 42 | Subject: RE: how to lose $1,225 in 3 days. a warning to all Two other quick things to be aware of: I had a family friend that sold a car over ebay and when he got the payment it was for about $1000 more than it was supposed to be. Being honest, he contacted the buyer and explained that he had paid too much. He agreed to send back the difference, but you guessed it, the original check never cleared. He really screwed up by not making sure of that in the first place, but he didnt want to overdraw the guy and have it bounce. He still has the car to sell and was now out a grand. The second is that some sellers hack into ebay accounts and then offer amazing deals on new, high end products (I saw this with a USPS edition road bike) and then re-route the money. They can use someones account with a lot of feedback and make it look safe. On the bike ad that I saw a bunch of people were asking questions, since it was such a deal, and they were still routed to the real person. He replied by not knowing what they were talking about and then figured out the scam. The ad looked really fishy and had some gramatical errors, but still scary. Be well and sorry about the loss, Bill |
| 2005-08-12 12:20 PM in reply to: #223592 |
Veteran 275 San Diego, CA | Subject: RE: how to lose $1,225 in 3 days. a warning to all That sucks. I got one similar to yours, but I hadn't bid on anything. Isent all of the info to E-bay fraud, and they actually responded that they had looked into it (not a canned e-mail). They have a list of things to look for in thier e-mails that can tip you off to the authenticity. If you have the info still, send it to them, I realize it is too late for you, but it may help someone avoid a scam or shut this jack-ass down John |
| 2005-08-12 12:48 PM in reply to: #223976 |
Master 2447 Marietta, Ga | Subject: RE: how to lose $1,225 in 3 days. a warning to all Credit card or paypal only on Ebay. Wire transfers are 100% irreversable. |
| 2005-08-12 9:26 PM in reply to: #223592 |
Master 1670 Harvard, Illinois | Subject: RE: how to lose $1,225 in 3 days. a warning to all I hope your planning on contacting your local Attorney General's office. You should notify some consumer fraud division because as the thieves get sophisticated so to do the people that work in these offices. |
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