EEVblog Electronics Community Forum
Products => Test Equipment => Topic started by: Reprobyte on March 21, 2023, 12:53:18 pm
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I have noticed in the last week that on eBay UK there are lots of extremely high priced items being listed all as 3 or 5 day auctions, all with worldwide shipping and all with the same exact desciption eg: a simple "excellent working condition, calibrated."
The accounts have all either never sold before or not sold these type of items.
Furthermore I started to notice these separate accounts in different parts of the UK had images that were taken in the same room as each other! (see images) So now I knew my hunch was right. I went online chat to warn eBay, but even though I proved the items were in the exact same room as each other, they only removed one of the items and left the others and they are still up for people to get robbed, despite my efforts.
I also messaged each seller, and they have all ignored me.
If you see these items with worldwide shipping on a 3 day auction beware, as I can almost guarantee you wont be getting your item. I wanted to warn people as eBay don't seem to care and this has happened to me in the past, with high end audio rack gear on eBay, and you have to go through a load of hoops to get your money back, so beware on bidding on some of these sellers popping up in the UK.
Listings that are still listed:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/225484894484 (https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/225484894484) - LCR meter that photos are taken in same room as removed 5500A listing
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/144997342801 (https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/144997342801) - Fluke 5720A, seller never sold an item on ebay been offline for over a year, same wording as the others I found
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/144997351890 (https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/144997351890) - Rohde Schwarz FSIQ26 same seller as above
I hope this post can help someone avoid getting robbed.
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https://www.eevblog.com/forum/blog/eevblab-109-ebay-test-equipment-scam/ (https://www.eevblog.com/forum/blog/eevblab-109-ebay-test-equipment-scam/)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GkyZGO4ZV08 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GkyZGO4ZV08)
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Thanks, I have noticed a lot of those types of scams too on similar items. The difference here is the auctions are actually taking the money via eBay from what I can see, not sure how they get the money before they get caught though, but this happened to me in the same manner via eBay on some high end audio rack kit years ago, seems a similar scam, more believable as it's within eBay.
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Thanks, I have noticed a lot of those types of scams too on similar items. The difference here is the auctions are actually taking the money via eBay
You don't know that for sure. If you win the auction they might start emailing you about payment via. bank transfer or something like that, telling you that a bid on ebay is a legal contract, etc., etc..
Or they might take the money via. eBay, close their bank account, and never ship anything.
Or...
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I had 2 items via eBay in the past, 1 for £900 and one for £1800, luckily with both I got my money back, not sure who footed the bill for it!
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The LCR meter listing is still there (with 16 bids!) but the other two are now "page not found".
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use their ebay twitter account for complaints, normally goes pretty fast ???
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The LCR meter listing is still there (with 16 bids!) but the other two are now "page not found".
Nice! I guess enough people here saw it and flagged, I can't believe they've left that LCR when I found them listing another item from the same room, same time listed
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Yep, noticed the Agilent LCR meter which has been bidding up over the last few days to the £1270 mark, and is still live. Since one of these things new is over £20k it's not surprising its attracted attention.
There was also an Agilent N5230A 4 port 20GHz VNA (worth maybe £50k) for a starting bid of £250 over the weekend, it went all the way through and closed at some £5200 last night, I hope the bidder didn't get conned. And a while back a N9322C which went at about £1400. All scams.
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Yep, noticed the Agilent LCR meter which has been bidding up over the last few days to the £1270 mark, and is still live. Since one of these things new is over £20k it's not surprising its attracted attention.
There was also an Agilent N5230A 4 port 20GHz VNA (worth maybe £50k) for a starting bid of £250 over the weekend, it went all the way through and closed at some £5200 last night, I hope the bidder didn't get conned. And a while back a N9322C which went at about £1400. All scams.
Yes it's no wonder they're targeting these items when they're so much new, disappointed in eBay that I took the time to warn them with evidence and they're just going to let it sell anyway.
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No news here, same fraudes plaguing ebay USA, for years.
Despite repeated violation of the Ebay terms, same sellers list 100s of listing using hijacked account and stolen images.
Ebay robots cannot detect this scam, and the listing persist until someone reports it.
As a single seller lists dozens or hundreds of lots, reliance on buyers complaints, the scam proliferates.
After a takedown, the criminals merely re-start a few days later, or with different stolen seller accounts and items.
Ebay will do nothing more until it is sued, class action for 100s of M$
Jon
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FWIW, I've reported more than a hundred of these listings (like the one Dave showed) so far this year and most remained active as if eBay took no action. So, I presume their "apathy central" attitude re the rest of eBay has extended to fraudulent listings as well.
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The LCR sold for £3600 :palm:
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I'd love to know what the buyer gets, if its not just a headache!
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Well you do see some of theses, when you click on them you get the : oops we looked everywhere loll :palm:
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I'd love to know what the buyer gets, if its not just a headache!
Unfortunately I know from experience maybe 10 years ago now, an RME audio interface for £900, you wait around for ages waiting on your case and eventually it gets found in your favour and you get reimbursed, I am not sure how they recover the funds or if they just take the hit. Was hoping my post would have stopped that happening on this one, but I guess not.
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After a takedown, the criminals merely re-start a few days later, or with different stolen seller accounts and items.
Where do they get so many stolen accounts with high seller scores?
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Where do they get so many stolen accounts with high seller scores?
I imagine they're for sale on the black market.
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Stolen accounts via phishing.
They do require some verification before changing bank account details, but support can override that for you. So I don't know if as many scammers recover money using normal payment methods.
The one Dave showed is much simpler, money goes directly to scammers/mules bank.
I'd love to know what the buyer gets, if its not just a headache!
Unfortunately I know from experience maybe 10 years ago now, an RME audio interface for £900, you wait around for ages waiting on your case and eventually it gets found in your favour and you get reimbursed, I am not sure how they recover the funds or if they just take the hit. Was hoping my post would have stopped that happening on this one, but I guess not.
Sometimes they just delete your purchase and then you have to remember to go into paypal, find it there, and dispute it. Otherwise your money is gone.
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Sometimes they just delete your purchase and then you have to remember to go into paypal, find it there, and dispute it. Otherwise your money is gone.
Oh, in fact this is what happened to me, I panicked, and remember I could still see via PayPal, wow, sometimes I pay on my card now on eBay, should always use PayPal!
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It will still be in your purchase history on eBay, so you can still file a claim even if they deleted the listing.
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Here's the latest just listed:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/155467632484 (https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/155467632484)
Keysight MXE N9038A
Worldwide shipping, 3 day listing, 0 feedback, 0 other listings,
and...
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/225492551028 (https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/225492551028)
"Agilent DSO9104A+N2873A4 1GHz 4ch 20Gss Infiniium Shipping worldwide"
it never stops once you start noticing it :-\
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It will still be in your purchase history on eBay, so you can still file a claim even if they deleted the listing.
No it was deleted from my purchase history, presumably after Ebay deleted their account, it clears all history.
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No it was deleted from my purchase history, presumably after Ebay deleted their account, it clears all history.
When did this happen? I recently had an issue where eBay deleted both the listing and the seller's account, and it would still show up in my purchase history and I had no problem filing a did not receive claim and got it granted within a day.
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No it was deleted from my purchase history, presumably after Ebay deleted their account, it clears all history.
When did this happen? I recently had an issue where eBay deleted both the listing and the seller's account, and it would still show up in my purchase history and I had no problem filing a did not receive claim and got it granted within a day.
~1 year ago. Maybe its not always the case that it happens.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Ebay/comments/i33po3/seller_deletes_account_after_i_buy_an_item_ebay/ (https://www.reddit.com/r/Ebay/comments/i33po3/seller_deletes_account_after_i_buy_an_item_ebay/)
https://www.reddit.com/r/Ebay/comments/ifq8ii/purchase_history_removed_item/ (https://www.reddit.com/r/Ebay/comments/ifq8ii/purchase_history_removed_item/)
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~1 year ago. Maybe its not always the case that it happens.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Ebay/comments/i33po3/seller_deletes_account_after_i_buy_an_item_ebay/ (https://www.reddit.com/r/Ebay/comments/i33po3/seller_deletes_account_after_i_buy_an_item_ebay/)
https://www.reddit.com/r/Ebay/comments/ifq8ii/purchase_history_removed_item/ (https://www.reddit.com/r/Ebay/comments/ifq8ii/purchase_history_removed_item/)
The last reaction in both is from 3 years ago. Sounds like they changed this when they introduced their managed payment, since PayPal may no longer be involved then.