posted on January 20, 2001 10:59:28 AM
Let me tell you how far ebay is going...
ENTRAPMENT!!!
About a week and a half ago, my wife had a dutch auction end for x items.
She was contacted after the auction ended, by several buyers that "missed the auction".
Now I should tell you first, that a competitor had complained to ebay about her listing being in the "wrong catagory" and she got a warning.
Now, back to the "can I buys"...
The first thing Monique learned from me about ebay, is that you DO NOT trust ANYTHING or ANYONE through email.
So she tells me that she got these emails, and what should she do? should she sell to them?
I take a look, and loe and behold, the third request was from an AOL account, BUT...
THE EMAIL CAME FROM EBAY!
The headers were riddled with all of ebays different routers.
look - identifying info replaced with "x":
********************************************
Subj: Question about item -- Item #xxxxxxxxxx
Date: 1/10/2001 2:43:07 PM Eastern Standard Time
From: [email protected]
I missed your auction. I am interested in your xxxxxxxxx. You did not sell them all, and I would like to buy one. Will you sell me one without bidding? Send me your address and I will send you a check. Thank You.
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Subject: Question about item -- Item #xxxxxxxxxx
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posted on January 20, 2001 11:15:00 AM
Hello Pocono,
I don't know what to make of that. eBay has never gone after anyone before like that to my knowledge.
Is it possible that someone clicked on the send this auction to a friend and specified your wife's email addy? That is the only way I can imagine the ebay addys showing up in the headers outside of the "entrapment" theory.
posted on January 20, 2001 11:17:26 AM
I've been told (but have never confirmed) that, when someone sends you an e-mail using the "Send a message to seller" function on an auction page, the e-mail is sent from eBay's server. Why don't you try sending yourself a message in this way and see if the headers match the ones you posted?
posted on January 20, 2001 11:21:31 AM
I would email them back and tell them they are in violation of ebay's tos and you will report them to safe harbor, or if they would like they can bid on the item that you are going to list singly that has a bin of the dutch opening bid amount! Tell them this way they will get the protection of the ebay umbrella and all would be right and there would be no need for you to report them to safe harbor.
When they buy from you I would then turn them in for violating the ebay's user tos.
That's what I would do.!!
[ edited by chizlemon on Jan 20, 2001 11:40 AM ]
posted on January 20, 2001 11:22:28 AM
Pocono ....... As much as I know for a fact that there are AOL users that work for eBay, my guess is that the "send this seller" an email link was used.
posted on January 20, 2001 11:30:12 AM
Pocono, This maybe an employee with Ebay that wanted your item for them selves, and maybe did not know Ebays rules. Which ever I would agree with emailing them back that this is against Ebays rules and if they continue you will report them
posted on January 20, 2001 11:30:32 AM
Pocono: If the person is using any of the eBay sites other than the US site, the query goes through an eBay form.
posted on January 20, 2001 11:33:37 AM
I hear eBay used to try to pose as private buyers, but it's been quite a while since I heard of this. I wasn't sure if they were still doing this. I thought they had too many things to do, and not enough staff.
Maybe they still do random checks, or, the other seller may have said you were selling outside of eBay so they decided to do a check-up. To me, the way the letter is worded sounds like a set up, perfect evidence, if you responded to it. If this letter was in fact, sent from eBay, they certianly were careless in trying to disguise themselves.
This is what I was worried about. About one or two weeks ago I started a thread asking others what they felt. At the time, it sounded like it was a moot point.
I think a good compromise, if in doubt, would be to tell the seller that you can't sell directly to them, but you could list the item for a 3 day auction, or with BIN.
I've still got mixed feelings if a previous buyer emails me. I could probably authenticate their identity, unless eBay has a way of using a pseudo email to trick me. I wouldn't feel so bad if someone asked me for an item I did not have on eBay (maybe similar, related items they would assume I sell but didn't see).
I thought I was paranoid until I read this post, it has renewed my sense of paranoia.
posted on January 20, 2001 11:49:19 AM
What made this even more strange, was that there are dozens of other of the same item, for a lower price readily available on ebay.
Also, when I wrote back to them stating that is was against ebay rules, yada yada yada, they wrote back to please reconsider, and let them know.
The 2nd email also had these same type headers.
NOW, if they used the "send message" for the original message, ok.
But HOW would the headers ALSO be on a reply from them, unless it was in fact sent from an ebay server?
They would have had to go back to the auction page, and use "send message to seller" again.
Doesn't seem like something anyone would do instead of hitting reply on their AOL mailbox.
posted on January 20, 2001 11:53:52 AM
I'm confused. If I've listed an item on eBay and it doesn't sell, am I not allowed to sell it to anyone (with whom I have never communicated while the auction was active) after the auction closes with no bids?
Another example: I sometimes list items that didn't sell on eBay on Yahoo where they have sold. If the person on Yahoo who buys them is also a registered eBay user and the eBay auction is still showing up on eBay database as a close auction, would I be considered to be breaking eBay rules by selling to the Yahoo buyer????
posted on January 20, 2001 12:35:24 PM
Pocono: Reddeer and I had a discussion about the email form a few weeks ago, here on AW.
As to the ebay info being in their reply, some headers show all the routing, or else it was "stamped" with the original routing information, and sticks no matter how many times they reply to the same message.
posted on January 20, 2001 01:00:25 PM
I'm pretty sure that it didn't come from the "send this to a friend" because if it did, the subject line is always (at least as far as I've seen)
Subject: Interesting item on eBay web site item#------: title here
No clue as to anything else though. Personally, if I thought someone was playing games, I'd turn the whole kit and kaboodle over as SPAM and just get it out of my hair and let someone else worry about it.
posted on January 20, 2001 01:13:40 PM
Pocono,
Right after the Ebay crackdown on off site sales, I had a bidder contact me about an hour after the auction closed on an unsold item. Feeling a bit paranoid, I replied back that it was against Ebay rules, but I would relist it on an evening convenient with her with a BIN price of $1.00 more than the opening bid. I would immediately e-mail her the auction number so she could find it and bid before it showed up in the category. She agreed and it worked like a charm. Ebay got their fees, she got her item and I got my money and no ebay rules were broken. Total length of auction from beginning to end- 12 minutes.
The light at the end of the tunnel will turn out to be an oncoming train.
posted on January 20, 2001 01:30:01 PMpocono,
I checked an email I received from the "ask seller a question" link. it does have the ebay addresses in the headers, but it is also very clear that it came from ask seller as it starts out "please enter your question here". Once the auction has ended the only ones who can use "send this auction to a friend" are the seller and high bidder.
cariad
posted on January 20, 2001 01:51:54 PM
How about offering BIN? You are taking a chance that they won't bid -theory that they purposely waited until the auction ended- but at least peeps will know you aren't an easy target.
I would consider emailing them something to the effect:
Thank you for your inquiry in purchasing my items. Please email me if you are interested in buying if I re-submit the auction and apply the Buy It Now feature. If I don't receive an email I won't re-list.
OR:
I will be re-listing in a few weeks. Are you interested in receiving an announcement?
With the policy on selling off-eBay and the new feature BIN I would consider going that route.
my 2¢ cents that's all nothing more, nothing less.
