[Premium-Rx] email from the netherlands offering ahigh-endrec eiver

[Gary Geissinger]

Guys,
 
Wow, that's a record.  
 
The new listing was cancelled in 6 minutes.
 
Now my paranoia about off-shore deals and Ebay is rising.  This is
unfortunate, since some of my best equipment (Racal, WJ receivers) was
obtained off-shore via Ebay.
 
Gary

-----Original Message-----
From: Jeff Anderson [mailto:jcanderson at ieee.org] 
Sent: Tuesday, February 24, 2004 3:38 PM
To: premium-rx at ml.skirrow.org
Subject: Re: [Premium-Rx] email from the netherlands offering
ahigh-endreceiver


How curious - about an hour after I posted my email to the list, the auction
I mentioned below was cancelled (although you can still view it).  Per ebay:
"The seller ended this listing early because of an error in the listing."
 
Coincidence, or...?
 
- Jeff

----- Original Message ----- 
From: Jeff  <mailto:jcanderson at ieee.org> Anderson 
To: premium-rx at ml.skirrow.org <mailto:premium-rx at ml.skirrow.org>  
Sent: Tuesday, February 24, 2004 9:15 AM
Subject: Re: [Premium-Rx] email from the netherlands offering
ahigh-endreceiver


Nigel, your story is almost identical to a similar experience I had several
months ago with a spectrum analyzer.  It was probably the same seller!
 
I'd bid on an 8568B (a very nice spectrum analyzer, by the way) that was
offered for a very attractive price.  It, too, had some descrepencies in the
description, such as the item was supposed to be in the US, yet the seller
was in Canada (or some such place).
 
I was very surprised when it turned out I'd won the bidding with my very low
bid, and then immediately suspicious because:  1) no one else had bid, 2)
the seller had little or no feedback, 3) the seller had kept the bidding
'private' - in other words, my ID was kept secret (why in the world would a
seller do this unless it was to keep others from letting me know that the
auction was bogus?), and 4) the seller wanted payment only via Western Union
to a London address.
 
Smelling a rat, I told the seller I'd be happy to pay, but only through an
escrow service (simultaneously I also informed ebay of the potential scam
auction).  The seller and I danced around a bit, until ebay notified me that
indeed the auction was a scam and they were cancelling it.  The last email I
had from the seller was one in which he agreed to an escrow service, but by
this time I'd had enough.  And I wonder - what kind of scam would he have
pulled if I had used an escrow service?  Perhaps kept my funds tied up for a
long long time?  Who knows?
 
Interestingly, there's another 8568B up for auction at this moment in which
the bidding is private and the location is again, well, ambiguous.  However,
the seller has an excellent feedback rating with lots of feedback.  Bogus
auction or legit?  I can't tell, but never the less I'm suspicious.  Check
it out at this URL:
 
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem
<http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2597864066&category=2539
7> &item=2597864066&category=25397
 
Best Regards,
 
- Jeff, WA6AHL
 

----- Original Message ----- 
From: GandalfG8 at aol.com <mailto:GandalfG8 at aol.com>  
To: jfor at quik.com <mailto:jfor at quik.com>  ; premium-rx at ml.skirrow.org
<mailto:premium-rx at ml.skirrow.org>  
Sent: Tuesday, February 24, 2004 12:49 AM
Subject: Re: [Premium-Rx] email from the netherlands offering a
high-endreceiver




---(snip)
 
...Another scam a while ago was for a bogus seller to set up a new account
and offer something that was already attracting attention in another auction
but at a much lower price.
I queried one auction for a spectrum analyser where the picture didn't match
the description, eventuallty it turned out both had been lifted from ebay
but separate auctions.
The "seller" then claimed to have both and could do either much cheaper than
listed elsewhere.
Payment, as always, had to be via Western Union.
However, this guy claimed to be in London so I said I'd buy one if I could
collect, just to see his reaction.
All of a sudden he'd had to go to Spain.....so I told him I had friends
there so couold still arrange collection.
Would you believe it?, by now he's moved on to Cyprus.
I don't know how far we could have played worldwide cat and mouse but got
bored and told him to get lost:-)





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