They never give up....

Saw this auction on eBay: http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-NEC-MobilePro-900-With-Extras-HPC-LAPTOP-PDA_W0QQitemZ5876153084QQcategoryZ38331QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Besides the fact it is from China, and the seller has 0 sales...take a look at the pictures and what jumps out at you right away...especially between the top and bottom pictures...

Rich

I give up - what am i seeing? The desktops are different if thats it?

The top picture shows the desktop of CE.NET 4.2...the bottom clearly show HPC 2000

Rich

ROFL, lets all point it out to the seller

Well, I pointed out to the guy who put the photos up that someone is using his images. Result? They're going to get onto ebay and get the auction pulled for copyright infringement.

If the source of the original photos is obvious like it is in this case where they've watermarked 'em with their user name, I suggest contacting them as copyright infringement is one of the things that ebay does act on.

Oh okay - i did see it but it didnt register.

Yea the fraud going on with the mobilepro 900's is really bad right now, between this guy and Mr. Italy (contact me by email for 300 Euros). Ebay needs to start really clamping down on these idiots.

Funny thing is I remember seeing the top picture somewhere before...maybe an old eBay auction or some site...just can't remember where....

Presumably it was this one:
http://cgi.ebay.com/LIKE-NEW-NEC-MobilePro-900-With-Extras-HPC-LAPTOP-PDA_W0QQitemZ5873703599QQcategoryZ38331QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

i reported six of these yesterday to ebay after noticing "teymori" on the images. theyve been taken down but oh i see scammer is back




btw, teymori does this too, just check it out but that one is definitely legit.. hrm


ok, eventually... why i reported this to ebay is that this scam is a little more refined.. and that tendency is worrying.. or at least i thought so.. but now i see that they just copied another (real) listing... thats not sophisticated scamming or anything

Edited by cmonex 2006-03-06 2:14 PM

The sad news is that it would be so easy to scam poor unsuspecting people. I mean here is how I would do it:

1. Log on from some public hotspot or university to perform any internet actions from this point on.
2. Open a bank account using anyone's lost or stolen id. Wear hat/glasses/dye hair in opening account. Have the ATM card that comes with the account sent to your rented mailbox, such as MailboxesUSA. Again opened under an alias, paid with by cash.
3. Create a bunch of email addresses using fake names from some free email service like hotmail.com.
4. Open a PayPal account using one of the email addresses and your new ATM bank card for verification.
5. Open up eBay accounts using each of the email addresses.
6. Using each eBay account, create a separate buy-it-now auction.
7. Have one of the eBay accounts buy all of the buy-it-now auctions from your other sellers for the feedback.
8. Leave yourself great feedback from your phoney auctions.
9. Now create a really professional looking auction with multiple units of something...but don't give them away, make the price somewhere believeable....such as Complete Jornada 720 with extras for $150. Have real photos, not stock footage, include wifi cards and CF memory cards or whatever. Give some story about how you are an insurance company who has moved from HPCs to subnotebooks and have no more need of the items.
10. Sell as many as you can within 7 days...as the funds transfer to your PayPal account, do a cash transfer to your bank. This takes about 3 days.
11. Use your ATM card (wear disguise again) and draw out the money at the 14 day mark and burn and destroy everything at that point. Walk away with your illgotten $1000.

Now you guys can shoot this idea full of holes or add to the effectiveness of it...and I'm not trying to teach someone how to steal...just point out that you have to be soooooooo careful in this electronic auction world. I personally, at the end of every auction, use the eBay member identification system to get their phone number and address if I have any questions. Especially the phone number as that is something a normal person cannot fake, that you can use to verify identity. I've been scammed several times...but in nearly 400 eBay auctions now, I've learned quite a bit on how to protect myself.

Rich

best solution is maybe buying only from sellers who can have the free paypal buyer protection in the listing.. ok i know thats a too strict requirement