Auction
scammers use various ploys to part you from your cash and/or goods. Victims are
harvested from auction sites (mainly eBay, but also other category-specific auction
sites; cars, horses etc.). Victims are contacted by email and urged to send money/goods
either within an auction or outside the system. Auction
fraud rampant on eBay and Yahoo Auctions, just ask Darren. He paid for a laptop
on eBay, but received a Montreal phone book in his FedEx package instead. That
made him upset and curious. So he decided to look through other auctions to see
if he could pick out the fraudulent ones. Here's what he found as possible signs
of a fraudulent listing:
- Low priced high-ticket items, like high-definition
TVs, laptops, or jewelry — especially if there are multiple
items for sale, especially if the price is way below similar
items.
- Brand-new sellers with no sales history.
- Sellers requesting payment by Western Union or
using an unfamiliar Escrow service or payment in foreign currencies,
or sellers wanting to pay more than the auction price, with
instructions to send the remainder to a third party (esp. in
Africa).
- Auctions that begin and end over a weekend, since
eBay customer support is light during those days.
- Seller telephone numbers or addresses that can't
be verified..
- Sellers with good feedback ratings that have not
bought or sold anything for a long time (hijacked accounts).
Fraud conducted outside the eBay framwork is almost certainly higher, because
many scammers work outside the eBay system, contacting auction bidders and offering
exclusive deals direct from the seller, or even offering 'second chance' deals
to underbidders on other, genuine auctions. If in doubt, check it out! Examples
of auction fraud Oct 17 2005
- eBay Survey Auction Scam: REWARD-SURVEY.COM A
recently and very professional phishing scam has been sent to us. It pretends
to be an official eBay survey with a bonus of $20 for completion. It asks for
a credit card number (and even the PIN number) to credit the money to. THIS IS
A SCAM. Do not enter any details into a website such as this Click
. The domain name is REWARD-SURVEY.COM We
have informed Verio and eBay...... This is what the email looks like: Dear
Valued Member, You have been chosen by the eBay
online department to take part in our quick and easy 6 question survey. In return
we will credit $20 to your account - Just for your time! Helping
us better understand how our customers feel benefits everyone. With the information
collected we can decide to direct a number of changes to improve an expand our
online service. The information you provide us is all non-sensitive and anonymous
- No part of it is handed down to any third party groups. it
will be stored in our secure database for maximum of 7 days while we process the
results of this nationwide survey. We kindly ask you to please spare two minutes
of your time in taking part with this unique offer! To
Continue click on the link below: Click
Many Thanks and Kind Regards - eBay Customer
Department Sept 2005 - "Second
Chance Offer" Auction Scam It's not
only plasma TVs and Notebook computers though! My
wife was the losing bidder on eBay for an antique quilt. Two days later she got
an official-looking 'Second Chance Offer' bid email. The idea is that if
the original auction winner drops out for some reason, the seller can contact
the underbidder and sell it to them instead. My
wife was overjoyed, but after accepting the terms, the email reply (purporting
to be from eBay) was so strange that we were immediately suspicious, not least
because they wanted payment by (you guessed it!) Western Union!
This is the follow-up email. The phrase 'over-egging the pudding' comes to mind...
Dear
xxxxxx ,
My name is Fred Brewer from the eBay Safety
Center. We
know that you have been contacted by Darren Corfu for the second chance offer
in his auction #7345877992 and we also know that the item is located in United
States and the seller is in France . The shipping will be made from United States
by his wife and the payment will be made in France to Mr. Darren Corfu who is
a verified seller and you will be protected by us. As will be stated in the invoice,
the seller has $6,048.50 in our account and if something will happen ( you will
not be satisfied with the item ) in max 5 days you will receive your money back.
So you can see the item before you give your money for good.
So it is not
a problem if you send the payment through Western Union Money Transfer. We secure
this transfer!
To complete the transaction, you will need to follow the steps
from the invoice and make the payment. In any other case you will not be protected.
Payment
instructions:
To submit the payment with WesternUnion
Money Transfer, you have to: Click here to locate the agents in your
area http://www.westernunion.com/info/agentInquiryIntl.asp.
Go to one of them and send the payment to the verified name of the seller..
Once the payment was sent, email the seller the following information: 1.
Exact 10 Digit Money Transfer Control Number;
2. Exact senders name on file
with WesternUnion:
3. Your street address on file with WesternUnion:
4.
City and country where you sent the money from:
5. Amount sent:
Copyright ©
1995-2005 eBay Inc. All Rights Reserved. This
is the original Contact email
Second
Chance Offer -- Buy The Item You Recently Bid On
Good
news! The following eBay item on which you placed a bid is again available
for purchase:
c.1880
MINT/COLOR Wreaths/Hearts applique quilt/Indiana Item number: 7345877992 Second
Chance Offer
The seller, is making this Second Chance Offer because the high bidder
was either unable to complete the transaction or the seller has a duplicate item
for sale.
The selling of this item through Second Chance Offer is in
compliance with eBay policy and you will be able to exchange Feedback with the
seller and will be eligible for all eBay services associated with a transaction,
such as fraud protection. eBay
does not charge an Insertion Fee to send a Second Chance Offer. Sellers pay only
the Final Value Fee when the offer is accepted. Act
Now - This Offer Expires Soon
To take advantage of this opportunity,
please act quickly. To
see this item, click on the following page:
To
purchase this item please contact the seller by replying to this email message. To
learn more about Second Chance Offer, please visit:
http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/second_chance_offer.html Thank you for using
eBay!
http://www.ebay.com/
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Auction
Scams - A Guide for Sellers and Buyers
The
number one online scam involves auction scams. This is not surprising given that
the buyer doesn't inspect the merchandise before he or she purchases it and pays
for the merchandise before he or she receives it. Throw in the fact that the buyer
doesn't ever see the seller and that the seller could be on a different continent,
and you have the makings of the right conditions for a scam. To protect yourself
against an auction scam, you need to know the different ways that you can get
scammed. Below we survey the different types of online auction scams and how to
protect yourself so that you won't become a statistic. Shilling
This is a frequent scam that will sure raise your
blood temperature as well as the final bid price. Shilling is the practice of
the sellers and their partners bidding the price of an item higher so that the
ultimate buyer ends up paying for the item at a higher price than he or she would
otherwise have but for the actions of the partners. The scenario occurs as follows.
The time to bid is drawing to an end and you have the highest bid. Suddenly, you
notice that a large number of bids come in pushing up the price. You continue
to bid on the item and in the end win. But where did all these bids come in when
there was so little activity during the bidding process until the final moments.
Answer: Shills The seller either through the use
of multiple user IDs or through his or her partners has driven the ultimate price
higher so that you end up paying more than you otherwise would have. In some cases,
the shills drive the price higher only to retract their bids at the last moment.
Shilling is extremely frowned upon. If the seller is caught, then the seller will
be automatically suspended indefinitely. To detect
a shill, check the bid history of the auction to ascertain who did the last minute
bidding. Was it one person with several bids or a number of people? Check out
the bid histories of the other auctions of the same seller. Was there a similar
pattern? Determining whether you are a victim of a shill is difficult because
many bidders like to come in at the end as a matter of strategy. If you feel that
you were the victim of a shill, then report the seller immediately to the auction.
Since it is difficult to prove, the seller might not be punished. However, you
can complete a seller's auction rating appropriately to warn others and you can
stay away from auctions of the particular seller and anyone who you feel conspired
with the seller. | | 
