Canon fakes on Gumtree?

[peskywinnets]

I've given up on securing a 5D on Ebay - in a moment of madness thought I'd peruse Gumtree to see what 5Ds were listed on there. I should have learnt from past experience as the only other time I tried to buy something from Gumtree I ended dealing with a scammer! (though on that occasion, I saw him a mile off & wasn't scammed)

Anyway, I was looking for a 5D & saw this post....

CANON EOS 5D in Excelent Condiction with original acessories. All function. Im selling this camera because Ive bought a new MKIII . Please email me if you want pictures. £1000

Nothing too alarming there. No obvious cheap price (to pull the punters in), in fact in the light of Kerso's prices coupled with the Canon cashback...it's overpriced. So I email the seller to start phase 1 of negotiation!

I receive a reply from someone with a foreign sounding name (never a good thing!) saying the camera is a couple of years old & has no warranty.

I never followed it up.

He emailed me this morning asking if I have an offer for him - I don't! (it may well be legitimate - I have no idea.....but his price is too high for what it is anyway!)

To the point of this post, while looking through the Gumtree adverts, some one had posted (can't find the post now) something along thew lines of "Canon buyers beware there are a lot of fakes about, the scammers import them from China at £200-£300 a piece & flog them on here for approx £1000"

Has anyone come across canon fakes in their travels?

[Astaroth]

I think there are fakes of any high value items. Certainly have seen fake Hoya filters, a friend bought a couple and glass even had bubbles in it.

Not sure what a [deleted] sounding name is? For buying secondhand outside of a reputable dealer I would almost certainly want to see it first hand myself before considering spending anywhere near £1000 on it.

[peskywinnets]

Originally Posted by Astaroth

Not sure what a [ removed ] sounding name is?

His surname is Norbrega which doesn't sound that Anglo Saxon!

Incidentally, I would never dream of parting with the best part of a grand without seeing it in the flesh first, but the Gumtree scam alert did say it was very difficult to tell the difference.

[Astaroth]

Was just saying I dont actually know what a [ removed ] name sounds like rather than challenging you on it.

Given it is out of warranty I am not possitive I would be that massively concerned over something being fake or real if the output from it is so good that you cannot tell the difference and it has the build quality etc of the original so that you again cannot tell the difference?

[Ian J]

I have edited all of the posts to remove the alleged nationality as many people might find the comment offensive. For what it's worth Google likes AV Forums so much that any post is indexed within a matter of hours and already a Google search for Norbrega will bring up this thread in 6th place after a matter of just a couple of hours

[peskywinnets]

The point of the post being (PC aside) is that there are obviously fakes out & about so buyer beware (I like to think that I'm pretty savvy, but had no idea that the cloners had turned their attention to Digital SLRs)

For example, some of the Ipod fakes I've seen are astonishingly good - until you turn them on, then it's all too apparent....awful screen, terrible menu, transport control isn't tactile (just switches)

My mate bought one & its user interface looks like Dos! (we call it the 'DosPod')

[senu]

Gum tree is a hotbed of "Buyer Beware".
And ... If you trust a dodgy advert because the name sounds Anglo-Saxon or distrust a Genuine sounding one because it doesnt...