Author Topic: Unbelievably cheap Fluke 17Bs on eBay?  (Read 25699 times)

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Offline Simon

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Re: Unbelievably cheap Fluke 17Bs on eBay?
« Reply #50 on: May 21, 2011, 10:00:37 pm »
just click on cancel
 

Offline baljemmett

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Re: Unbelievably cheap Fluke 17Bs on eBay?
« Reply #51 on: May 21, 2011, 10:22:58 pm »
Unfortunately, I already paid via paypal, although it's listed as "unclaimed" and the seller isn't registered with paypal.

It seems unclaimed transactions can be recalled trivially, but now I'm wondering about other non-monetary details.  Presumably eBay will have sent purchase notifications to the user under whose account the auction was listed; I seem to recall the shipping address is provided to PayPal rather than eBay (not entirely certain, though), but don't know if that's passed back to eBay or just included in the PayPal payment notification.  Wonder if PayPal send such notices to unregistered e-mail addresses, come to think of it...

Sounds like nobody should have lost money, but it might be a nice way for someone to obtain a few known-good names and addresses for whatever reason!  (More domain registrations perhaps, per BoredAtWork's observation?)
 

Offline torch

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Re: Unbelievably cheap Fluke 17Bs on eBay?
« Reply #52 on: May 21, 2011, 10:44:21 pm »
(More domain registrations perhaps, per BoredAtWork's observation?)

Interesting question about the physical addresses. Not sure if anything would have been passed to an unregistered paypal user or not. Something to think about in this age of rampant identity theft. As for the domain registration issue, I have my own and use disposable e-mail addresses based on that domain. As everything related to my e-mail server is under my exclusive control, I don't think it can be easily hijacked.
 

Offline Bored@Work

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Re: Unbelievably cheap Fluke 17Bs on eBay?
« Reply #53 on: May 22, 2011, 06:17:05 am »
(More domain registrations perhaps, per BoredAtWork's observation?)

The domains have been previously registered, some of them years ago. Some run dubious offerings, like cheap Cartier jewelery, or mobile phones ... What I wanted to point out was that you have apparently found some Chinese organized crime who are in the business of ripping of westerners for some time now. The gang was a little bit lazy, using similar or the same addresses:

For example:

Quote
Registrant Name ................. Myra Kern
Registrant Organization ......... liuyunfei
Registrant Address .............. 9276 Balsam Cres
Registrant City ................. Barrow-in-Furness
Registrant Province/State ....... Cumbria
Registrant Postal Code .......... 40356
Registrant Country Code ......... CN
Registrant Phone Number ......... +86.8594850164 -
Registrant Fax .................. +44.8594850164 -

vs.

Quote
Registrant:
   Myra Kern
   9276 Balsam Cres
   Mount Sterling, Kentucky 40356
   United States

Did you get the joke with "Mount Sterling"? They want to make a mount of money, preferable in Pound Sterling ... Of course there is neither a 9276 Balsam Cres in Barrow-in-Furness or in Mount Sterling. There isn't even a Mount Sterling in the US. Correction, there is, but the postal code is 40353. The postal code 40356 is Nicholasville in Kentucky, but not valid in the UK. The previously posted postcode for the UK didn't match Barrow-in-Furness.

If you want to find more ripoff websites, google "9276 Balsam Cres", and combinations like "Myra Kern Barrow-in-Furness",  "Myra Kern Kentucky" or try googling the Chinese phone number. You will find at least two dubious software companies, too. But let me suggest you don't try to dig to deep or take action. You are dealing with professional, organized crime, and they can get very ugly.

I can only guess what went wrong with their eBay ripoff. Typically such criminals use hacked ebay accounts and hacked paypal accounts. They buy the information on black market websites. Again, we are talking about organized crime. Sometimes the information they buy is not good. Here it looks their paypal account information wasn't good, or they mixed something up.

Let me end with a general suggestions. The idea that you can just try to buy from such a source without risk, and paypal will protect you is stupid and unethical. If the criminals are successful, in the end someone will have to pay the money.

It might be paypal as part of their refund policy. But that money ultimately comes from the paypal users, too. It comes from the fees you pay paypal. The money is certainly not coming out of the pockets of the paypal owners. If paypal is capable of one thing, then doing the math. They will simply raise fees if they figure they had to pay more on average because of fraud then they considered in past calculations.

Or the poor soul who's paypal account was hacked is left with the bill. If it would be your account you wouldn't find it funny. You wouldn't want to have the endless hassle following.

Or it might be even you who is left with the bill. Paypal is famous for looking away if it helps paypal to avoid paying some.

The only ones who don't care where the money comes from are the criminals.

The best way is to stay away from these criminals as fare as possible, instead of testing the waters and trying to get as close as possible to them without getting burned.
« Last Edit: May 22, 2011, 06:37:47 am by BoredAtWork »
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Online Fraser

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Re: Unbelievably cheap Fluke 17Bs on eBay?
« Reply #54 on: May 22, 2011, 07:53:25 am »
Boredatwork,

Some very wise words indeed. I consider myself to have been a tad stupid yesterday.... engaging in an auction that was very obviously not quite right. I should have known better, but the potential Chinese OC connection was something I totally missed.

Thanks again for raising our awareness of  the potential presence organised crime on ebay.

« Last Edit: May 22, 2011, 08:08:20 am by Aurora »
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Offline Zero999

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Re: Unbelievably cheap Fluke 17Bs on eBay?
« Reply #55 on: May 22, 2011, 09:45:37 am »
I have attached the manual for the Fluke 15B and 17B. You can find the real specs in there. There is no mention of 20mF range.
Thanks, I didn't see the manual in my Google search.

I'm now glad I didn't put in a bid, let alone pay for it but had I done so, I would've accepted there would've been a risk it would be rubbish or I'd never had received it.
 

Offline vis1-0n

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Re: Unbelievably cheap Fluke 17Bs on eBay?
« Reply #56 on: May 22, 2011, 10:18:57 am »
About 10-15 days ago I saw a similar listing for a 7" tft LCD screen for $12.99 with free shipping. I got very excited at the price, then I saw that there was no feedback score for the seller. And the this UK seller was offering free courier shipping to South Africa...

Like others above I considered taking my chances with getting my money back from paypal. Wisdom and common sense prevailed, and I dare say it was the moral aspect that stopped me taking the chance. Do not abuse the system.
 

Offline Mechatrommer

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Re: Unbelievably cheap Fluke 17Bs on eBay?
« Reply #57 on: May 22, 2011, 10:28:08 am »
lesson, next time, be very careful with less than 10 feedback seller, esp too good to be true, esp 0 feedback, esp oversea where your government has 0 control over it. consider it as a rule of thumb while ebaying.
i did msg the seller, i dont know how far he can hack me from there.
« Last Edit: May 22, 2011, 10:30:59 am by Mechatrommer »
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Offline saturation

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Re: Unbelievably cheap Fluke 17Bs on eBay?
« Reply #58 on: May 22, 2011, 11:04:37 am »
B@W, most excellent detective work!
Best Wishes,

 Saturation
 

Offline Kiriakos-GR

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Re: Unbelievably cheap Fluke 17Bs on eBay?
« Reply #59 on: May 22, 2011, 11:06:56 am »
i did msg the seller, i dont know how far he can hack me from there.

I believe that he must be in fear after reading your msg,
due the fact that an Malaysian James bond , are trying to hack him too..  LOL  
 

Offline Kiriakos-GR

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Re: Unbelievably cheap Fluke 17Bs on eBay?
« Reply #60 on: May 22, 2011, 11:10:26 am »
Wisdom and common sense prevailed, and I dare say it was the moral aspect that stopped me taking the chance.
Do not abuse the system.

You have my vote on that ...  :)
 

Offline torch

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Re: Unbelievably cheap Fluke 17Bs on eBay?
« Reply #61 on: May 22, 2011, 02:51:44 pm »
Back around post number 4, I raised the issue this might be too good to be true, but I decided to to take a chance anyway. Why? Because (at the time) it appeared it was equally possible that this was legitimate. One common way for new sellers to build a good feedback rating on eBay is to offer some loss leaders for a while.

$17 for a $100 meter? Just possible -- some quick research before I bid revealed that Fluke makes the same meter under a Craftsman label (the 81437) that Sears sells for $29, so Fluke obviously has some ability to move on the price. And the model has been around a while, some places no longer carry it, so they might be clearing out some overstock that an entrepreneur was able to snag before a surplus chain got them. It was just reasonable enough to make this appear legitimate. If this was a new, current, popular model then things would have been different.

I do appreciate the lesson about digging into the domain name of the seller though, I'll remember this in the future.

 

Offline baljemmett

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Re: Unbelievably cheap Fluke 17Bs on eBay?
« Reply #62 on: May 22, 2011, 05:33:34 pm »
(More domain registrations perhaps, per BoredAtWork's observation?)

The domains have been previously registered, some of them years ago. Some run dubious offerings, like cheap Cartier jewelery, or mobile phones ... What I wanted to point out was that you have apparently found some Chinese organized crime who are in the business of ripping of westerners for some time now. The gang was a little bit lazy, using similar or the same addresses:

Ah -- I missed the registration dates, but glanced at the (extremely suspicious) addresses and figured they were in the business of ripping people off, as you say.  Hence wondering if they might make use of names, partial addresses, eBay/PayPal usernames etc. of recent 'suckers' in future dealings.

You're quite right, of course, to point out the risks of dealing with this sort of scam operation.  In this case perhaps it's sheer dumb luck that nobody looks to have ended up out of pocket -- had peoples' PayPal transactions actually gone through, things may well have been rather different.
 

Offline metalphreak

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Re: Unbelievably cheap Fluke 17Bs on eBay?
« Reply #63 on: May 23, 2011, 04:43:33 pm »
There are good deals to be had on ebay sometimes, but in cases like this its usually something amiss ;)

Offline ziq8tsi

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Re: Unbelievably cheap Fluke 17Bs on eBay?
« Reply #64 on: May 24, 2011, 06:10:41 pm »
The gang was a little bit lazy

You are dealing with professional, organized crime

This seems rather unlikely to me.  Registering an eBay account, or domain name, with a provably fake address is not so much lazy as stupid.  Unprofessional and disorganized.  It only takes one person to query the address and the account will be suspended.  Most likely well before PayPal actually release any funds.

As you seem to be aware, a more professional method of eBay fraud is to take control of an existing but dormant account, with good feedback.  Or to register your own account, have an expendable accomplice in the relevant country, and then sell lots of low value items successfully before you move on to the high value scam.

Offering goods in quantity, well below market value, from an account with zero feedback, that can not receive funds, looks at least as likely to be idiocy, mistake, or hoax, as "ripoff".
 

Offline torch

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Re: Unbelievably cheap Fluke 17Bs on eBay?
« Reply #65 on: May 24, 2011, 07:21:16 pm »
and then sell lots of low value items successfully before you move on to the high value scam.

I've seen that before. A variation is a number of more expensive items. The tip-off there is to look closely at the dates and times: item listed at, say, noon. Sold by 12:05 (often to another new user who "coincidentally" also sells a number of items to the first identity, but it's harder to spot that now since eBay is hiding user IDs.) Positive feedback by 12:10. A crook can build a nice looking feedback number for several identities within a few days for nothing more than the cost of a few eBay transaction fees.
 


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