IAN MARLOW wrote: > > "I would warn all potential purchasers of the Canon 1D on eBay" > There was a scam going on early this year, where rogue buyers somehow > managed to compromise genuine sellers account details. > The worked by a European (manly from the east) getting into accounts of > US/Canadian seller's accounts and listing items at a very silly price, the > "buy it now" option was used. The unsuspecting buyer did just that and sent > money by western union, only never to see the goods. Nothing added up when > looked at in detail, the country of origin for emails addresses, the > delivery details for the money transfer was in a completely different > country again. Etc etc. > EBay denied that there was a problem with account access by rogues etc, even > though I know of one definite occasion and three other probables. > If you get stung you can expect very little to no assistance from eBay (it > is not in their interest to acknowledge a problem) and getting any result > using the law would prove a total waste of time, these guys pop up and > disappear with lightning speed.
Aloha, I would normally trim Ian's message back to a line or two, but last week MY own eBay account was compromised by someone in Germany. They stole my user name and listed some high-end stereo gear. They also got deep into my account and re-routed my email coming from prospective purchasers, so that instead of questions coming to me at: [EMAIL PROTECTED] they were instead re-routed to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] I have been working 20-hour days getting a book off to press so have not sold on eBay for awhile. eBay's Fraud Unit caught it and immediately emailed me and asked if everything was okay with my account as they suspected that it had been compromised. eBay has been REALLY pro-active in this--not only did they figure it out LONG before I ever would have, but they have helped me restore my account completely and are going after this guy. In the past, I have purchased expensive gear on eBay--most recently a used PowerBook G4 from New York--with no problems. That said, after this experience, I would no longer do so without demanding the seller use eBay's escrow on any expensive purchase. (Do not accept the seller's suggestion of a third-party escrow service as that could be a scam as well.) And if the seller refuses escrow, RUN! To me, eBay is still a great place to buy and sell used stuff, but now that the scam artists are loose, some reasonable care is needed. I completely agree with Ian on buying new items--the local dealer's service is worth purchasing from them. The last two items I got new (including an external FireWire hard drive the night before last) did not work out of the box and were swapped out no questions asked after a ten-minute drive. Those same transactions long distance--whether from eBay or a dealer in another city/country--would have been a huge hassle. eBay DOES have a guaranteed sale insurance policy available at some small percentage of the sales price. I've never tried it, but like the idea of escrow better, as I get to play with the gear before releasing the cash to the seller. Mac Simpson =============================================================== GO TO http://www.prodig.org for ~ GUIDELINES ~ un/SUBSCRIBING ~ ITEMS for SALE
