Scam auctions on eBay - Hijacked accounts

[Jay_Diddy_B]

Hi,

Nearly everyday you can find bogus listings for certain pieces of test equipment on eBay. They all have the same format:



They tell you not to bid, but contact them directly.

There often inconsistency in the auction, like totally unrealistic shipping fees, and / or shipping location:



In this case the scam artist thinks that the side view of an oscilloscope is the best view.

You also see that the listings are nearly always the same objects, out of character, for the account holder.

Sample:



Here is another one, I would like to know how you can ship this, I see it has wheels  :



These normally get taken down within a few hours.

Why do people fall for these scams? Why do people bid on these items? Why do some idiots think that these scams will work?

Regards,

Jay_Diddy_B

[CatalinaWOW]

Why do people fall for these scams? Why do people bid on these items? Why do some idiots think that these scams will work?

Regards,

Jay_Diddy_B

I have no answer for your first two questions, but the answer to the third is that obviously they think they will work because they occasionally do.  Just as with the SPAM letters asking for help moving money out of some African country they rarely work.  But the cost of production is nearly zero, so even one success in thousands or tens of thousands of tries is worth it.

[Tomorokoshi]

That particular scam has been running for at least a year. If you check the "Other Items", you will typically find items like expensive bicycles and musical instruments. Reporting them seems to hasten the removal of the listings, but there are not as yet any automatic rejection by ebay.

[steve30]

I'd be interested to know how the postage from China works for an item in the US  .

That apostrophe in the first screenshot also looks a bit suspicious  .

[Jwalling]

Just for the fun of it, I clicked on the link and filled out their silly form for a TDS3064B.

Days later I got this in my email. I never got an invoice, as I used a throw-away email account not used for Ebay or Paypal.

Hello,

Should I take lack of no response and  cancel the Invoice that was initiated for your purchase and put the item available for other buyers ? As I have other buyers interested in purchasing this item .

Please let me know,

Thank you !!!

On Wed, Oct 4, 2017 at 9:51 AM, Sales <newdiscount10@gmail.com> wrote:

    Hi there,

    Thank you for purchasing this item, by completing the form with your details you agreed to buy this item for the price of US $ 1,050.00 for that reason I just submitted all the details of our Transaction through eBay and you should have been already contacted by them with the eBay Invoice for your purchase.

    Kindly confirm receipt of the invoice and please let me know if you can complete the payment today.

    Waiting you reply

[Jwalling]

I responded that I did not get an invoice, and got this. Payment by MoneyGram only. This is only a part of it as I don't know how to convert the whole email to a jpeg.

I wonder who or what's at that address?

[Cyberdragon]

I responded that I did not get an invoice, and got this. Payment by MoneyGram only. This is only a part of it as I don't know how to convert the whole email to a jpeg.

I wonder who or what's at that address?

Looks like it's near a bunch of shops near a museum called Handel and Hendrix. There might be apartments there too but IDK, seems odd.

EDIT: Found 21, it's a tiny, unmarked decorative glass entrance between (and attached to) some large shop and next to (or part of) the museum.

[Jwalling]

Avoid any online purchase where the seller asks for payment via Western Union or Moneygram. It is a scam for sure. Unless you know the seller personally and then you should find some other payment method.

Oh, I know. I'm just screwing around with him. 
I asked for pictures of the rear of the scope (which are never in the scam listings for this scope which keep popping up) He responded:

Jay,

Those are all the pictures I got. Are you able to pay today?

Thanks

[imidis]

Ebay does really need to work at stopping these, there are a crazy amount of them.

[Jwalling]

Ebay does really need to work at stopping these, there are a crazy amount of them.

And they're all essentially the same. After all this time that they've been going on, you'd think they'd have figured out a way to keep them from getting posted. Must be like Whack-a-mole for some admin - probably a full-time job!

[Cyberdragon]

For phone scammers, how loud can a telephone/headset go?

I say we resort to physical attacks on their hearing by putting airhorns right up to the mic and holding it there untill they hang up. Hopefully this ruins their day and their ears, thus making one indevidual less effective at scamming.

[Johnny10]

I purposefully bought items twice that I knew couldn't be true. But with eBay and Paypal protections I thought what the hell?

I think it was 9.99 for a Xeon x5675 CPU and 18.99 for a Cuisinart both items described as refurbish and had over 100 available.

Both times I received money back and also a hack to my Paypal account which necessitated new card.
As you said these scams are rampant on eBay.

[CatalinaWOW]

For phone scammers, how loud can a telephone/headset go?

I say we resort to physical attacks on their hearing by putting airhorns right up to the mic and holding it there untill they hang up. Hopefully this ruins their day and their ears, thus making one indevidual less effective at scamming.

The problem with this approach is that the poor schmucks on the phones aren't the real criminals, just accessories to the crime.  They are often just folks with no skills who need a job - any job.  Now if you could get the air horn to the bosses ears I am all in.

[MosherIV]

Hi

Looks like this scam is back, the original one at the top. Look for unusually cheap Tektronics/Lecroy scopes, now they have added Fluke network scanners and HP3458 and Keithley dmms

They went through at least 2 traders accounts that I found in 24hours.

Thankfully, the scam items seem to be taken down within hours.

Lets be careful out there 

[Red Squirrel]

I admit I fell for one once and immediately realized after it was probably a scam, the price was just too low.  It was for a GTX 1070 TI going for $200.    Other than an absurdly low price for what it is, it's hard to really tell if it's a scam or just someone clueless about the value of the item.   I was able to pull out before the payment went through, thankfully.

[chickenHeadKnob]

Both times I received money back and also a hack to my Paypal account which necessitated new card.
As you said these scams are rampant on eBay.

Can you elaborate on the paypal account hack? Did they phish your password/login credentials? or something else?. Thank-you in advance

[BillB]

Here's another one.  Scammer hacks account, puts up a bunch of listings, ebay notified, account closed.  Scammer hacks another account, puts up more listing using the same info, wash, rinse, repeat.

[Cyberdragon]

That one doesn't seem too obvious though. Mediocre scope for a mediocre price, what's the problem?

[BillB]

That one doesn't seem too obvious though. Mediocre scope for a mediocre price, what's the problem?

It's certainly not obvious, unless you "bought" that very scope for $75 a few days prior.    Seller sold a dozen items at too good to be true prices.  eBay swooped in and closed the seller account, cancelled all the auctions, and refunded my money.  Auctions show up again (using same pictures and text) under another hacked seller account...

This one is getting smarter, though.  Before he had 3 available at a steal of a price.  Now, he only sells one at a more realistic price.  The same with all the other eclectic items he's got listed now.

   

[rrinker]

For phone scammers, how loud can a telephone/headset go?

I say we resort to physical attacks on their hearing by putting airhorns right up to the mic and holding it there untill they hang up. Hopefully this ruins their day and their ears, thus making one indevidual less effective at scamming.

 Like the old suggestion to blow a whistle loudly into the phone, it won't do much. The frequency response of the phone and the dynamic range just won;t make it all that loud on the other end. Now, if you speak VERY softly all the time, you might get them to crank up their headset pretty far at which point a louder than normal voice/sound WILL be pretty loud in their ears.

 Sadly, enough people fall for these things to make it worthwhile for the scammers to continue. I guess some people really do believe something as big and heavy as that generator will ship from China for a mere $15. If it sounds too good to be true - it probably is.

[Jwalling]

Hi

Looks like this scam is back, the original one at the top.

Back? They haven't stopped for months/years now! I see the same equipment every day, sometimes multiple times.

[ez24]

Here's another one.

My vote is this is not a scam because of the high shipping and sellers other items

https://www.ebay.com/itm/SIGLENT-SDS1102X-Super-Phosphor-Oscilloscope-2-channel-100MHz/132612957636?epid=598146835&hash=item1ee05925c4:g:GE8AAOSwR9pa7zrA

[BillB]

Here's another one.

My vote is this is not a scam because of the high shipping and sellers other items

https://www.ebay.com/itm/SIGLENT-SDS1102X-Super-Phosphor-Oscilloscope-2-channel-100MHz/132612957636?epid=598146835&hash=item1ee05925c4:g:GE8AAOSwR9pa7zrA

Like I said, this hacker got a little smarter.  They had very similar items with random/high shipping amounts.  They are using some of the same exact pictures from the previous scam auctions under a different hacked seller account that eBay has already cancelled.