Fraud on Ebay...

[skybolt_1]

I was perusing cnn.com while at work when I ran across a link to this article: eBay Fraud

If you go to the article, I'd like to point out some choice examples of "buyer stupidity."

"Gary Weintraub, who lost $10,000 trying to purchase a 1981 DeLorean (he got most of it back), certainly won't use eBay to buy a car again. "I'd only buy something small, like under $50," he says."

"John Allred, a San Francisco resident who lost $3,000 <bought a Mac> to Smith, wishes, for instance, that he could have seen the different price categories Smith's sales fell into."

My question which I pose to you Techimo'ers is, what the hell are these people smoking? Would you even for a moment consider buying a computer or a car on eBay without an escrow service to protect yourself? I don't consider myself particularly paranoid, but when I just purchased a laptop on eBay which was only $750, I used an escrow even though it added $40 bucks to the total!!!!

I guess I just don't have much sympathy for people too dumb to protect their assets and who don't realize that not everybody is perfectly honest - especially in the wilderness of eBay and the Internet.

skybolt_1

[skybolt_1]

Yet for all my buying sense, apparently I'm too dumb to keep from double posting.... heheheheheh ok I'm gonna go sit alone now

skybolt_1

[Blazer06]

yep, unfortunate people.

btw, i will never shop on ebay


Blaze

[Tomteriffic]

Some friends of mine buy and sell guitar and guitar-related stuff all the time on eBay. I'd never do it, though. Too many creeps.

[shotokan]

my friends and I purchase and sell car parts on ebay all the time. Its no diffrent from the FS/FT here.

The problem is not ebay, nor the monetary amounts, nor the items being bought and sold. The problem is uninformed, lazy consumers.

If your going to spend that much cash research first the person you are looking to do business with. ebay has evals just like anyone else, read them and not just the first page with all positives. Read every single page. If there is a negative follow up on it.

Email the seller and ask questions and lots of them. Find out about what your purchasing. Getting a car? Get the VIN. Wont give the VIN? Go elsewhere.

Ive never once gotten screwed on ebay nor have my friends, all because we arent lazy and we look into the purchase before making it.


A good example of lazy was my brother. He bought a Bomex kit for his car and did no research on the seller. 3 months later after the NYPD became involved he got his money back.

Research.
Ask Questions.
Be Informed.
Don't get lazy.

[Terminal23]

There is no way in Hell I would ever,ever,ever buy from ebay. I trust no-one.Way to easy to get ripped off.

[Mike]

Even smart people that protect themselves get screwed over eventually.

[DVNT1]

yea, but also keep in mind the ongoing escrow fraud cases too. An example was posted... http://www.techimo.com/forum/showthr...threadid=39188

[RedFury]

I've bought on ebay a few times. The biggest problem I ran across was not getting EXACTLY what was advertised. My mobo works just fine, but it isn't a RAID board like advertised. I contacted the seller, who compensated me with a decent heatsink ( which I needed, and I didn't NEED RAID anyway, just a bell and whistle option I'd probably never use ).

[omalleytrading]

My beef with eBay is the content, not the system. It's buyer beware. You have to know you're taking a risk with every purchase. If you're not willing to take the risk, pay retail.

What I don't like is that 1/2 the damed items listed these days are scams -- pyramid schemes (now called "matrix"). 1 point print at the end of the auction that says "You're bidding on information, not the actual <insert item name here>".

I recently looked for a PS2. Of the 10 pages of listings, there were probably 20 real PS2's for sale -- the rest were all scams.