Guest AuNuma1 Posted July 23, 2004 Share Posted July 23, 2004 Justin Spence's story was posted on Slashdot yesterday. Basically, he tried to a buy an $1100 Apple laptop from a guy that lives in Philadelphia off of ebay. The deal went sour and he later finds that more people are being scammed by this guy. The lies that the scammer tells are truely entertaining. Justin even posted the entire story, complete with emails and pictures, on his site. Moral of the story...don't buy anything expensive off of ebay, especially not with a cashier's check. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
autigger 0 Posted July 23, 2004 Share Posted July 23, 2004 HOly crap... i knew i was skeptical of ebay for a reason....... Ive never bought anything off of there but have wanted several items (one includes a Motorola V600 cell phone, alos looked for a laptop) glad i didnt do it!@ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrueTiger 0 Posted July 23, 2004 Share Posted July 23, 2004 omg.. This scares me.. The most I have ever spend on ebay was for some truck tires that were $500.00 . glad they came in... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrueTiger 0 Posted July 23, 2004 Share Posted July 23, 2004 I have been reading the emails.. This is crazy.. On down it says that this guy is dead or something ha.. Ebay shouldn't ever let someone get an account without giving them a copy of their driver's license, credit card #, birth certificiate .. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TitanTiger 20,499 Posted July 23, 2004 Share Posted July 23, 2004 You just have to do you homework. I got my iMac off of eBay about 18 months ago and paid $1200 for it. But I chose someone with a lot of good feedback for big ticket items and I would only do business with someone who used PayPal and I used my Mastercard to do it. eBay has buyer protections through PayPal, plus I knew I could contest the charge with my card company if the item didn't arrive or was messed up. Didn't have either problem and the computer still works like a champ. I also purchased a $400 digital camcorder on eBay with a similar excellent experience. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest AuNuma1 Posted July 23, 2004 Share Posted July 23, 2004 I have been reading the emails.. This is crazy.. On down it says that this guy is dead or something ha..Ebay shouldn't ever let someone get an account without giving them a copy of their driver's license, credit card #, birth certificiate .. Yeah, the latest is that Justin has to wait until Sal sells his Lexus so he can pay everyone back! Ha! "Only the true Sal sends his emails with italics..." Ha! Hey Titan, I have a Powerbook I could sell you...only $1200. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SouthLink02 8 Posted July 23, 2004 Share Posted July 23, 2004 I got ripped off last month for the first time in 3 years of EBay use and it really does suck. I didn't get a MP3 player that I paid $60 for......wanted to find that little piece of..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TitanTiger 20,499 Posted July 23, 2004 Share Posted July 23, 2004 I absolutely refuse to buy anything off of eBay that costs more than $10 without using my credit card. You send off that money order and you have no recourse if there is a problem. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest AuNuma1 Posted July 23, 2004 Share Posted July 23, 2004 So if you used your credit card via Paypal and there was a problem, what would you do? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bammanmr 0 Posted July 24, 2004 Share Posted July 24, 2004 I have never had a problem with ebay and have used it to buy over 100 products. However, my paypal account was hacked just after I started using it about 3 years ago and somebody wired themselves over 3K from my bank account. Needless to say, I only pay with personal check now. Recently I have purchased several items that were to be paid by paypal only and just flat out told the seller that I would pay and extra couple of dollars if they'd take a PC and they were all fine with that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ranger12 46 Posted July 24, 2004 Share Posted July 24, 2004 My wife and I, combined, have bought and sold over a hundred items on e-bay and never had been scammed. You just have to be careful and look at the feedback. You have to be careful with low user ratings and take a gamble when buying from a new user. The only thing we have ever had a problem with is buying anything from somebody in Canada. It has been over a month and my wife has not received her Merrills. Come to find out from alot of users and some other sources, that Canadian customs sucks and it is taking forever to ship and receive stuff from there. Just a little info for you guys and gals to remember - there was a Paypal scam a few months ago in which members received e-mails that they needed to update their account info. It would take you to a site that looked just like Paypal and you would put in your credit card info to "update" your account. Fortuntately, I had read an e-mail that Paypal sent about that. Paypal will always address you by your name in their e-mails, not as "Dear Paypal member" as the scam was doing. Same goes for e-bay e-mails. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TitanTiger 20,499 Posted July 24, 2004 Share Posted July 24, 2004 If you buy something through PayPal and use your credit card, you at least have the ability to contest the charges with your CC company. I believe eBay has some sort of similar protection. You just call your card company, tell them you never received the merchandise, and they take it off your bill and chargeback the vendor for it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tiger88 934 Posted July 24, 2004 Share Posted July 24, 2004 I got one of those emails around six months ago or so. I forwarded it to ebay. There were misspellings and it wasn't a secure site. There was a couple of other giveaways to but its a little foggy. I think mine was actually a fake email from ebay saying they needed to update my credit card #. I have had 15 transactions on ebay and have only come close to leaving negative feedback once or twice. If someone is slow on delivery I make sure I stay polite and keep following up with them. Don't lose your temper quick because they might think "oh great they are going to leave negative feedback" so they either drag their butts or don't deliver. ALWAYS CHECK FEEDBACK before buying. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaydubb121 22 Posted July 26, 2004 Share Posted July 26, 2004 Thanks for this link Numa. I have been entertained by the Sal saga and enjoy the slashdotting experience as well. ( I had never heard of Slashdot.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest AuNuma1 Posted July 27, 2004 Share Posted July 27, 2004 The story has now made the local news...this is hilarious! http://www.nbc10.com/news/3580062/detail.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bammanmr 0 Posted July 27, 2004 Share Posted July 27, 2004 Oh yeah. I got several of the paypal emails and a bunch from an ebay imposter wanting account info also. Its bad. My fraud experience was a couple of years before any of the e-mail scams. Luckily, my bank credited my account the $$$$ back. Paypal was very concerned about the fraud and said they were going to investigate, but it still happened and I'll never use it again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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