Thursday morning I opened eBay and searched for ‘jointer’ and found a new listing for a Felder AD 751 and phase converter. No bids, and shipped anywhere. Sent a question to the Seller and asked shipping to my zip and he came back with a deal — $2,000 shipped to my zip — too good to be true but sounded knowledgeable and had all of the right answers. All the warning bells went off but I thought I would play along. Sure enough he found a shipper, had crated the Felder and the shipper would contact me.<!—-> <!—-><!—->
Next email came from a shipping co but the website is out of <!—-><!—-> <!—->Romania<!—-> <!—-> (a .ro extension on the domain — .ro domains cannot be traced back to the owner/register of the site). The website is REALLY good. I am in the networking business and had my lead web guy look at it and it was well done. They had a tracking number system that worked but one catch – No phone number for the company and the only method to place your escrowed deposit was by money order — of course.<!—-> <!—->
I responded that I would only use escrow.com with some protection and the whole thing folded at that point and they disappeared. I have seen some scams on the internet but these guys are REALLY good. I am fortunate that I knew what to look for but….<!—-> <!—->
If it is too good to be true, watch out.<!—-><!—->
Never, ever send money order or wire to someone you do not know.<!—-> <!—->
Beware of ‘off eBay deals’!<!—-><!—->
The net is a great place to shop but it pays to be careful.<!—-> <!—->
Now — if anyone has a 16″ Felder that they want to deliver to my door for 2,000……..<!—-><!—->
Scott
Replies
Scott,
Did eBay delist the jointer? I did a search and can't find the listing anywhere.
Mike
Yes -- Ebay did pull the listing. Very fast response as a matter of fact. Ebay has always been very responsive (and has PayPal) with disputes.
Scott
That's a great one! I'm more familiar with the scams that target sellers who are auctioning a high-end item. When I was running the auction for the Tsunami Hope Chest for WWA a couple years ago, the first day the auction was active, I got 2 or 3 scam emails from people obviously overseas and looking to rip us off. Had to reset the parameters to get rid of them.
forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
Thanks for the heads up on that one, usually if it sounds too good to be true it is, but you never know. Fortunately for you there were red flags going up and you had sense enough to see what they would to the right way. That is what I hate about the internet and shopping, you just can't do the face to face trade very well.
Experienced a scam where a Nikon digital SLR was listed by an independent seller on Amazon.com. Contacted them about buying and got an email from *.amazon.security.com verifying how Amazon is holding several thousand dollars from this seller as insurance for transactions and blah blah blah...
After some further digging around, I told them to take a hike and their story to someone else. They had the audacity to say they are going to contact the authority/police because I am contractually obligated to buy. I told them I already notified Amazon, and never heard from them, or their camera, again.
Had I not looked closely at the URL and been more skeptical, I'd been had. I can see how people easily fall prey...everything they need to make an official Amazon page is right there on Amazon. Had to learn about Internet scams the hard way.
yep, i was ebaying some old stuff, and dont you know they screwed with my listing. of course, ebay delisted it, and i had to start again. as luck would have it, another ebayer tipped me off.
gotta really look at the mail. maybe ill go back to snail mail.
joe
Got news for you -- snail mail isn't bulletproof, either. I was present when a rocking chair maker got an "order" in the mail from a "company" on an official-looking letterhead from another state. When a check was sent in advance with less than the full amount, the woodworker held off and asked for the full amount. The "buyer" said he'd send the balance right away, but the woodworker was to send a check to the "shipping company". Guess what ... the bank researched the "buyer's" check and found the whole deal to be a fraud.
Scott:
This "deal" was talked about on the Felder Owners Group as well. The person who answered the phone said he had five more units, which was a dead give away! Fortunately a prospective bidder had asked about it on the forum.
Thanks for alerting everyone.
Hastings
I'm in the computer/networking business as well, and that is a common thread. When the only form of payment is cash or money order sirens go off and hit the delete button!!!!! If you can't pay by pay pal, or cc then forget it! With those you have protection, but still have some risk. Another good option is to use temporary credit card numbers. I have a credit card that I can go and generate a one time unique credit card number for a specific transaction. If it turns out to be a scam, they don't have my real number. And as I always tell folks, speak to your homeowners insurance carrier and get identity theft coverage! It's generally not expensive, and if you ever get hit, you will appreciate it! Thanks for the note it helps remind folks that online commerce is great, but there are some bad folks out there as well.
.
If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it.
And if it stops moving, subsidize it.
My view of Ebay after all the stories I've heard is you'll have to pay me 4 times the amount I want to make or spend to get me to sign up to use it. On top of that I never use my computer to do banking or buy on line.
Even with all the firewalls & safeties I have in place my philosophy is if it not in the computer they can't steal it out of the computer. Even if they break in & take the computer.
I hear ya. But unfortunately, all your information is still digitalized by your bank, credit card company etc., and those institutions aren't as careful with your information as you are. I remember a few years ago some contract employee of Wells Fargo had a laptop stolen with thousands of customers' account info it. Yikes. I say we all go back to bartering!
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