Test instruments scam on Ebay - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / testgear

author: pico61
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: March 30, 2022, 02:01:25 pm
content: For a few days on Ebay Italy there are several auctions of the same seller (us2014_gesu) which are definitely scams!There are, among others, an HP3458A, an Agilent N9010A, an Anritsu Wiltron 37369A, as well as Jacuzzis and dozens of other expensive items for a total of nearly 700 auctions.Two days ago I reported this to Ebay but so far to no avail. What are they waiting for? That people are being robbed?

author: _Wim_
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 30, 2022, 07:10:06 pm
content: Had this also many times before. Ebay seems not fast, and typical scam auctions have a short duration. Maybe Ebay blocks the paypal payments going to the seller until they have verified it is not a scam?

author: salvagedcircuitry
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: March 30, 2022, 09:06:14 pm
content: The scam procedure I see on ebay US is as follows:Someone either hijacks or buys an ebay account with a lot of feedback (a power seller or so)They sign up for ebay's seller apiThey use a scraping bot or scraping software that imports the images, details and listing info of thousands of already existing posts, either new or oldThey upload thousands of posts with incredibly low auction pricesEvery listing is an auction to show up as the cheapest price on ebaylisting details says "this item is available for purchase for $5000, all bids will be removed (impossible without fee) buy at scam shorturl addressscam shorturl address listed in photosThey upload hundreds of listings a secondebay takes about 2 days to start auto removing posts, likely from monitoring a large anomaly of buyer complaintsseller account still exists after caught and listings removed, likely just gets ebay seller api access revokedThis cycle happens over and over, rinse and repeat. It is honestly an excellent way of getting free advertising. You get all the views because all your listings are the lowest price & newest listed. You put in 0 effort in taking photos and adding detailed descriptions. You have 0 liabilities as a seller because auctions never end, all get cancelled. There are no fees because eventually your listings get pulled for violating some ebay policy.I do not condone this kind of activity, but I am surprised it is not happening more often.Ebay simply does not care. The executives get paid so much for just keeping the ship afloat that it doesn't matter.Ebay executives have made out promoting scalping throughout a pandemic.Ebay executives have knowingly tormented a random couple in Massachusetts for criticizing ebay seller changes.They have no boundaries anymore.

author: picburner
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 31, 2022, 06:25:22 am
content: History already seen as inthis topic.This user has existed since 2014, he probably had a weak password, was hacked and inundated with scam ads.I noticed that if you report this as a generic scam the eBay response is not very fast.If, on the other hand,you report this as an attempted purchase outside of eBay, they are much quicker to crack down on the scam attempt.