I was scammed/defrauded on 9/13/06 - here is the MO
Son asked to get on Pre-Approved list contacting seller thru eBay system
Response came back a few days later that they were out of town and the listing ended without a winner and are we still interested - still ebay system-
Son replied - yes still interested - real system
Response - here is more information on the car and link to more pictures (on imagestation) - if still interested we will have eBay re-post listing – email now
Son - yes, still interested.
Response - eBay has re-posted here is the link - http://cgi.ebay.com.ebaymotors.itemz684 ... 4632436392 (I shut the site down by writting a program that visited the site a million times in just a few hours - However, I know of other sites still up at the time of this posting)
Son asked us if we can get the car - it is worth more than what they are asking... We said ok as they might not have known what they were selling ... We talked to the seller on the Phone even and had many emails with them.
We went to the site and did the Buy-It-Now option. It asked for user name and password and we entered it. Within milliseconds the FAKE site displayed personal information that was only in eBay system with instructions on how to proceed and pay seller. We also received email of same data shown on screen.
The procedure was to use a holding agent at western union (now I know this was bad
) so we sent the money using western union to western union holding agent. Using the email that was sent, we clicked the link so that we could confirm the payment was sent by inputing the routing number (or what ever number it was).
We contacted seller by phone and email letting him/her know we made the payment and to set up a time to pick up the car.
After a few days of them giving us the run-around I knew something was not right.
That is pretty much the story, but it gets better.
When I thought it was not right I contacted ebay thru chat session. While waiting I searched the internet and found a review on eBays web site that describe the same MO scam all the way down to the FAKE website address. The review had been posted for two weeks already.
So I told this rep what had happened and they gave me about 15 links to file a report with as this was outside the eBay system. They also told me to contact the local authorities. Well no authority would take the report.
Within next few days I started more chat sessions with eBay representatives. 2 sessions I gave them the fake site link and asked if I could do business with it. One said feel safe at using the site and the other one told me that he did not visit a fake site when I told him he did.
I know they actually visited the FAKE site by them telling me what they saw on the FAKE site.
Anyway - with 2 reps telling me the FAKE site was more or less real, I have a solid case to go to court with.
If you we scammed using this same MO please let me know.
Thanks and sorry for everyone who gets scammed. The scammers and eBay really suck. I wish I would have known how bad eBays system security and actions to prevent scams really are before we lost money. But after seeing this site and watching the scammers continue their scams and eBay not blocking the FAKE site from interacting with their site, this is going to be one heck of a case.
Joe
