This one was not a scam, but I posted a comment on the page for their
instrument asking why they were using the maker's photo and saying
I'd be careful of buying an instrument sight unseen. They quickly
revised the page to say that the photo on Mike's site is of their
instrument and then sent me a message saying I was "cruel" and that
they were "personally offended" by my comment. Now the entire page is
gone.
-Arle
On Jun 14, 2007, at 11:59 AM, Tracie Brown wrote:
I had
no idea about this type of scam and you say it is
fairly common..
About every two or three months someone will alert the harp
mailing list to another fraudulent eBay listing. Sometimes the
listing will use the same picture as an earlier fraudulent listing,
either because it's the same person behind the listing, or the new
crook is lazy and has stolen the same photo. Sometimes the photo is
originally from a legitimate listing, sometimes from someone's
website. The other harp-related scams (though not limited to harps)
are "I want you to teach my children harp and I'll send you a bogus
check for more than your fee, just send me the excess in real money
please, quickly before my check bounces" and "please I am wanting
to order 30 of your harps, please send them to Nigeria thank you."
The gurdy sale, while not via the usual channels, looks on the
level. At least there are photos of the seller playing the gurdy on
his web site, and he's a known musician and presenter of
traditional music. And contactable.
-- Tracie
