Scammers

ShaneyB

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Hi All,
Reference the thread of e-bay scammers and I hope I'm not opening a can of worms....BUT out of interest, what's to stop two or more people posting loads of fake trades on sites like e-bay etc. to boost their trader rating, leave positive feedback and then go for the kill with a big trade and rip somebody off for shed loads. Is this policed in anyway...? I'm now concerned when it comes to buying anything on these sites in case I'm the victim. I've sold on here 4 times and all trades have been excellent but do you agree it should be harder, particularly as the seller...?

Just a thought and hope I haven't upset anyone.
 
Originally posted by Shagga
what's to stop two or more people posting loads of fake trades on sites like e-bay etc. to boost their trader rating, leave positive feedback and then go for the kill with a big trade

don't forget you can only get +1 feedback per trader. i.e you can only leave postive feedback for the same person once.....

but generally I agree I think registration is far too easy......

would never buy any thing too expensive unless I could collect....
 
Thanks Depsi,
What if you sell to the same person twice and the second time is a nightmare..? Can you not leave negativie feedback then...?
 
The thing which concerns me is it is simple to get a high feedback by spending the smallest amount of money. Some people even sell feedback !!!! you buy the item normally £1 or $1 and they leave you positive feedback. Or you buy ebooks (which is just the same as feedback) a 50c or 50p auction (it almost costs them this to list it) and then they leave positive feedback.

So basically if you had £20 you could buy 30 odd ebooks from the us site and get 30+ positive feedbacks.

Check this out: -

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=4102493149&category=10224

or this

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2390873815&category=20475

not bad for 2 cents

Ebay sucks I would never buy anything over £10
 
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It's not all bad...

When I picked up a SNES for free, I was able to source some great games for a fiver each.

Also recently got a brand new push chair off there.

Would never buy a plasma off there though. Hard enough buying from a shop...
 
isnt there a way to see what the sales have actually been? Ive seen people saying that you can spot a scammer by their trading in £3 items then suddenly selling plasmas by the lorry load..... but cant myself see how you would know this

ad
 
Simply by looking at their feedback if the item is sold within 3 months the feedback has a link to the original item.
 
I ususally contact the seller before bidding. You can tell the honest ones usually from their reply. I've bought and sold loads and only got done once on a broken hard drive for a tenner. The seller was banned.
 
My golden rule is, anything over £100 make sure it's near enough for you to collect with cash, a bit restictive but alot safer - I find it amazing that some people will send a bank xfer for hundreds or thousands to a perfect stanger over the internet before seeing the goods !!
 
Originally posted by Stereo Steve
I ususally contact the seller before bidding. You can tell the honest ones usually from their reply. I've bought and sold loads and only got done once on a broken hard drive for a tenner. The seller was banned.

Good advice.
 
Yep, asking if collectionis available is good, even if you have no intention of doing so. If they have no problem with it then they are confident in what they are selling. If they are at all evasive, look elsewhere. I have sold many things locally on Ebay and most have been collected in person.

At the end of the day, it's not foolproof and there are risks but a bit of common sense can mitigate all but a few. Nothing in life is completely safe.

I bought my Rotel 1066 off a guy on ebay from N.I called Ernie Skillen. Sounds like a practical joke but his postcode came up with Skillens the Jewellers with an address matching the one he gave. Turned out to be a perfectly respectable guy and I got a good deal.

A bit of research is handy too.
 
For UK based addresses, 192.com, bt directory enquiries etc does wonders. I check all names and addresses before charging credit cards for distance sales.
 

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