posted on July 17, 2000 09:43:29 AM new
Doesn't yahoo check out the contact info og sellers?
I won an auction yesterday and the seller has his location listed as Montpelier, VT.
The payment terms were • Accepts Cashiers Checks and Money Orders. However after the auction I recieved an e-mail to send the money by Western Union Money Transfer to a location in Kiev,Ukraine Gogola 54/1..
I replied that I bid in a auction from Vt. and the terms said he took money orders. I also stated if he would send me his vermont address I would send the USPO M.O. to that addy.
I also found that he is using 3 ID's all registered at the same time and 3 different USA locations..
This will be the first auction I default on I'm not going to risk $465.00 to find out it's a scam.
posted on July 17, 2000 10:44:39 AM new
I would strongly urge you to report him to Yahoo and warn others before he scams them. You might want to post feedback but of course he could post revenge feedback. Also, join the seller zone (a yahoo club) and post a message there. Yahoo employees hang out there and might actually do something about it.
posted on July 17, 2000 10:58:55 AM new
<b>yisgood,</b>
I reported it as soon as I got the e-mail.
Because of AW policies I didn't post the auction or his ID's here, I posted mine in order for anyone who wanted could look up the auction and find out.
I found out about the other 2 ID's by reading the questions to the seller and I checked the others myself. Same name and same problem with the english language.
Once a Yahoo auction listing has closed, we can't look it up unless we had it on our watchlist before it closed OR we have the auction number to put into search.
This sounds like a scam. With the number of thiefs on internet auctions now, the only way I would EVER pay anyone $465.00 is through an ESCROW service. If you pay the escrow service fee, no LEGITIMATE seller will refuse to use one.
The big online stores don't talk about it, but they've lost a lot of money shipping expensive goods to the foreign country addresses of hackers using STOLEN credit card numbers (one reason PayPal hasn't gone international---other countries don't have CC billing address verification). It's almost impossible to get the goods returned from places like Romania and the Ukraine, even in the rare cases when the police go after the crook. You can BET you'd never see your money again if you wired it to him.
posted on July 19, 2000 07:50:11 AM newgranee
I wasn't aware you couldn't look the auction up.
Anyone that is interested could email me [email protected] I wish yahoo had some better way of exposing these sellers instead of that "neighborhood watch" thing..
He listed about $5000 in digital cameras under 3 IDs (with 3 different US cities) all on the same day and hasn't listed again.
posted on July 20, 2000 09:25:28 AM new
I think if you were to mail him the check or money order, you can declare this as charity or helping the needy people of the world & score points with those liberals trying to make this world a better place etc etc. Because I doubt you can consider this a buy. Buying would mean you would get a product or service in return.
Consider mailing money to this joker, a donation & then you won't get so mad when you don't get anything in the mail from him.
posted on July 20, 2000 04:25:01 PM new
I was reading several days back in the Ebay Outlook about how there are people out there who are now swooping down on high ticket auctions (that they had nothing to do with initiating) right after the auction closes and sending the bidder an EOA email telling the buyer to send payment to them. The buyers in at least one instance that was discussed actually fell for it & sent money to the con artist via PayPal. I never saw any follow- up discussion as to whether the con artist got busted.
Even if that isn't what's happening here, it's something to watch out for. Especially if you sell/ buy high-ticket items. Is it possible that that's what happened?
Well, at any rate, a seller with FIVE ID's is highly questionable. I can understand having 2, especially if you sell 2 distinctly different types of merchandise. Maybe even 3. But 5?????
Now WHY would this person with 5 ID's advertise his auction in VT & then ask to have money sent to UKraine? Doesn't it seem like most crooks would cover their tracks better? Most normal bidders would have alarm bells going off in their heads BEFORE they even discovered the 5 ID's part of the whole scenario.
posted on July 20, 2000 11:07:41 PM new
CAgrrl, George said this auction was on Yahoo, so it CAN'T be another person coming in to grab the payment before the seller sends his EOA email---because on Yahoo, only the SELLER has access to the bidders' email addresses. That's one advantage to selling on Yahoo---email addresses of bidders are kept private from crooks and junk mail address compilers.
The seller listed Vermont as his location to get people to bid with confidence. Would YOU buy a digital camera from someone in Kiev, Ukraine???????????????? Had he rented a mailbox in Vermont and had his mail FORWARDED to his address in Kiev, he might have been able to pull his scam off for awhile---until his first buyers failed to receive their merchandise in a timely manner.
& then you won't get so mad when you don't get anything in the mail from him.
Had he rented a mailbox in Vermont and had his mail FORWARDED to his address in Kiev, he might have been able to pull his scam off for awhile---until his first buyers failed to receive their merchandise in a timely manner.