Ongoing eBay Eclair ACL Scam

[Craig Knowles]

1-day auction, extensive Super16 ACL package, no reserve, listed under Equestrian products, must contact the seller directly.

 

http://cgi.ebay.com/ECLAIR-ACL-ARRI-SUPER-...VQQcmdZViewItem

 

I've seen this scam -- with the same pictures but different user IDs -- on eBay for at least the last month now. Last time it was listed under "Baking Goods". Why does eBay let garbage like this continue? It's become so risky to buy any big tickets items on there now.

Edited November 29, 2006 by Craig Knowles

[Stephen Williams]

1-day auction, extensive Super16 ACL package, no reserve, listed under Equestrian products, must contact the seller directly.

 

http://cgi.ebay.com/ECLAIR-ACL-ARRI-SUPER-...VQQcmdZViewItem

 

I've seen this scam -- with the same pictures but different user IDs -- on eBay for at least the last month now. Last time it was listed under "Baking Goods". Why does eBay let garbage like this continue? It's become so risky to buy any big tickets items on there now.

 

Hi Craig,

 

Well nobody bid and the starting price was $10.00!

 

Stephen

[James Erd]

1-day auction, extensive Super16 ACL package, no reserve, listed under Equestrian products, must contact the seller directly.

 

http://cgi.ebay.com/ECLAIR-ACL-ARRI-SUPER-...VQQcmdZViewItem

 

I've seen this scam -- with the same pictures but different user IDs -- on eBay for at least the last month now. Last time it was listed under "Baking Goods". Why does eBay let garbage like this continue? It's become so risky to buy any big tickets items on there now.

 

I took a look at the sellers feedback section and it's very fishy. First of all there are several "customers" who have only bought from this individual. Secondly even though the seller has negative feedback [ 33 past month, 160 past six months, 249 past twelve months ] you'd have a hard time finding it.

[Gavin Greenwalt]

I was shopping for a 30" cinema display on Ebay, and found one guy running about 20 odd stolen account auctions.

 

I emailed him on one of them, and finally all but got him to admit it was a sham.

 

It's very simple. Don't trust "Purple" auctions and don't talk to anybody through any unofficial channels. That'll take care of 99% of all problems.

 

Infact. I talked to Ebay's security team, after reporting almost 40 fradulent auctions. I told them if they want to counter fraud all they have to do is automatically delete every single auction that has *@aol.com* in the description. They would reduce fraud overnight with that EXTREMELY simple filter. Apparently they didn't listen... see auction at hand.

 

Last time someone tried this I offered to pay them upon delivery. But I would send them a photo of me holding a contract saying I would pay them when it arrived, standing in front of my address holding a piece of mail with my name on it and some form of official ID. I thought it was a reasonable request... but apparently, he was afraid I would run off with his non-existant product without paying. ;)

 

Hell it was such a good deal I even offered to mail him a polaroid.

Edited November 29, 2006 by Gavin Greenwalt

[Hal Smith]

The reason these scam artists want you to email them directly is simple: If you send a message through eBay, the person they stole the account from gets the message, not the scammer. I send messages through eBay to the real account holders giving them a heads-up that their account has been hijacked.

 

A custom dressmaker in Thailand was so grateful for the warning that they offered to make any dress they manufacture for my wife at 50% off their already reasonable rates. They make a knock-off of a classic Chanel cocktail dress - I may just take them up on their offer!

[James Erd]

It's very simple. Don't trust "Purple" auctions and don't talk to anybody through any unofficial channels. That'll take care of 99% of all problems.

 

 

What is a purple auction?

[Tim Carroll]

I sold the camera pictured below on eBay a few weeks ago. I thought I would beat the scammers by putting a watermark on the pictures in the auction so no one could steal them. Well, they stole them anyway and put them back up with the watermark still on them. Done it a few times in the last week alone.

 

 

So if you see this eBay auction for an Arriflex 16S/B, it is a SCAM. The real auction was over a few weeks ago.

 

They are usually showing up as 24 hour auctions. I think the scammers are hoping to get someone's money before eBay takes the auctions down.

 

-Tim

[Craig Knowles]

They are usually showing up as 24 hour auctions. I think the scammers are hoping to get someone's money before eBay takes the auctions down.

 

That's totally it -- send me $700 before eBay finds the scam auction -- but eBay could catch these people through IP logging and in conjunction with the e-mail providers listed in the scam item description. Prosecutions could take place if eBay was even the slightest bit interested in protecting its users. Hell, they could even prevent account hijacking via IP logging.

Edited November 29, 2006 by Craig Knowles

[Guest Film Runner]

That's totally it -- send me $700 before eBay finds the scam auction -- but eBay could catch these people through IP logging and in conjunction with the e-mail providers listed in the scam item description. Prosecutions could take place if eBay was even the slightest bit interested in protecting its users. Hell, they could even prevent account hijacking via IP logging.

 

Hey Guys!

 

Remember the scene in FIGHT CLUB when Tyler Turden (Edward Norton) is at his crappy day job doing statistic work for product safety recalls and other insurance work?

 

And when he knows of companies that find product flaws that actually kill people. Kill not scam.

 

And the result?

 

If the risk analysis shows a company would lose less money in settling civil suits for product failures causing fatalities versus making a full blown recall, what will they do? Nothing!

 

Why would ebay be any different? Heck, at least they are letting known scammers rob people.

 

It's not like they're letting people die because they don't want to lose money on a huge product recall.

 

But if ebay was a tire, automobile, airplane, or boat manafacturer it might be slightly different.

 

But not by much.

 

"It's about the money, honey!"

 

F.R.

[Patrick Cooper]

Ebay used to indicate if an auction was a three day, 5 day or 7 day auction etc. Not any more. Now, at least to my eyes, there's no way of knowing how long a particular auction has been going on for. As discussed earlier, scammers usually use short duration auctions to run their scams for expensive items. Now their work is made a little easier because of ebay hiding the relevant information.

Edited November 30, 2006 by Patrick Cooper

[Hal Smith]

Ebay used to indicate if an auction was a three day, 5 day or 7 day auction etc. Not any more.

If you do keyword searches for "Ending Soonest", the time until the end of the auction is displayed. When you display a listing there's a line that has the time to go followed by the ending date and time in parenthesis.

[Craig Knowles]

If the risk analysis shows a company would lose less money in settling civil suits for product failures causing fatalities versus making a full blown recall, what will they do? Nothing!

 

You're telling me the following lines of code would bring eBay to it's knees?

 

IF CustomerIPAddress <> Request.ServerVariables("remote_addr") THEN
CanISell = FALSE
Response.write("You can only post items for sale using your primary account computer.")
ELSE
CanISell = TRUE
Response.write("Welcome back, reputable seller!")
END IF

 

I won't even charge them for it.

Edited December 1, 2006 by Craig Knowles

[Gavin Greenwalt]

A purple auction is a bold super duper special edition featured auction. Aka... someone who doesn't care about their profit margins and is willing to spend $50 on their product listing.

[Guest Ian Marks]

I'm with you, Craig, but I wonder if Ebay's failure to police its own site doesn't come down to a liability issue. If they took *some* steps to curb this kind of abuse, it would demonstrate that they understood and had constructive notice of the problem, and might be liable for the scams their measures didn't prevent. In other words, there might be a lawyer somewhere advising them to stick to their hands-off "we just bring buyers and sellers together, so buyer beware" approach because making *some* effort exposes them to more liability than doing nothing.

[Gavin Greenwalt]

1 line of code run every hour would also solve a lot of Ebay's problems

 

DELETE * FROM Auctions WHERE description LIKE '%@aol.com%';

 

The problem with your IP system would be people who are on a dynamic IP. It could be a little bit smarter by looking up their IP's GeoData and then comparing that to the account registration. If you're in another state... it'll block you. If you're in another country. It'll block you and send a report to the account holder.

Edited December 1, 2006 by Gavin Greenwalt

[Igor Trajkovski]

Hey Guys!

 

Remember the scene in FIGHT CLUB when Tyler Turden (Edward Norton) is at his crappy day job doing statistic work for product safety recalls and other insurance work?

 

It's The Narrator, played by Edward Norton.

Brad Pitt is Tyler Durden.

 

:)

 

Cheers

 

Igor Trajkovski

[Patrick Cooper]

"If you do keyword searches for "Ending Soonest", the time until the end of the auction is displayed. When you display a listing there's a line that has the time to go followed by the ending date and time in parenthesis."

 

Ah yes but this only indicates the time remaining from the current time in which you first caught sight of the auction. However, this particular auction may have already been running for several days or perhaps several hours prior to your discovery of it. In other words, we need to know whenabouts the auction started, in addition to when it will end. This will tell us the whole duration of the auction.

[James Erd]

Curiosity got the better of me and I went back to look at the add and it has been removed.

 

http://cgi.ebay.com/ECLAIR-ACL-ARRI-SUPER-...VQQcmdZViewItem

 

Perhaps ebay is doing a better job policing their website than we are giving them credit for. I would like to see if the user's account is still active but I didn't think to make a note of it.

[Craig Knowles]

1 line of code run every hour would also solve a lot of Ebay's problems

 

DELETE * FROM Auctions WHERE description LIKE '%@aol.com%';

 

Ahhh, so...there are other computer geeks on here.

 

What's the situation with the AOL email addresses? I dislike AOL, but only scammers use AOL accounts?

Edited December 1, 2006 by Craig Knowles

[Guest Ian Marks]

"Perhaps ebay is doing a better job policing their website than we are giving them credit for."

 

Not really - they crop up constantly. As soon as one batch is shut down another batch appears, usually on a highjacked account. Really, would a seller called "twosoccermoms" that has never sold a camera before suddenly have a huge stock of PL-mounted Zeiss lenses, and Aaton kits, and Leicas and Hasselblads, all with the same $10 opening bid, and request payment in British Pounds?

 

Last week, on a lark, I contacted one of these scammers, innocently asking if I could do a "Buy It Now" deal on the Aaton he had advertised. I got this response:

 

----- Original Message -----

From: "phones phones"

To:

Sent: Thursday, November 30, 2006 5:26 PM

Subject: Re: Aaton camera

 

 

>I am ready to ship the camera.

> These are my payment details:

> Martin Corner

> 168 Highgate Road

> NW5 1QS

> London

> UK

>

> Mail me the payment details from Western Union:

> -sender's name and address:

> -MTCN(money transfer control no.)

> I will ship the phones immediately after that

> Thanks

>

>

>>From: "IDX C1 Sherman Oaks"

>>To:

>>Subject: Re: Aaton camera

>>Date: Thu, 30 Nov 2006 16:52:18 -0800

>>

>>Okay how do I pay?

>>

>>

>>----- Original Message ----- From: "phones phones"

 

>>To:

>>Sent: Wednesday, November 29, 2006 3:57 PM

>>Subject: RE: Aaton camera

>>

>>

>>>The buy it now price is 800 euro .Look the camera is in mint

condition

>>>and come in original box with all accesories.

>>>

>>>

>>>

>>>>From: "IDX C1 Sherman Oaks"

>>>>To:

>>>>Subject: Aaton camera

>>>>Date: Wed, 29 Nov 2006 15:55:58 -0800

>>>>

>>>>Would you do a buy it now?

>>>

>>>_________________________________________________________________

>>>Windows LiveT Messenger has arrived. Click here to download it for

free!

>>>http://imagine-msn.com/messenger/launch80/?locale=en-gb

>>>

>>>

>>>

>>

>>

>

>_________________________________________________________________

>Windows LiveT Messenger has arrived. Click here to download it for

free!

>http://imagine-msn.com/messenger/launch80/?locale=en-gb

>

>

 

_________________________________________________________________

Get free, personalized commercial-free online radio with MSN Radio

powered

by Pandora http://radio.msn.com/?icid=T002MSN03A07001

 

 

Now here's a question: Is anyone out there in London? Any chance of checking out this address on Highgate Road? I'm curious if it's a residence, a cybercafe, or what.

[James Erd]

Not really - they crop up constantly. As soon as one batch is shut down another batch appears, usually on a highjacked account.

 

I don't know how eBay can prevent crooks from hijacking legittement accounts. Basically it's a form of identity theft and unfortunately there's no code to make folks practice good OPSEC. The point is the the add was removed. Of course there will be more fraudulent postings just as there will be email scams and mail fraud. I don't know how long that post was up, but it was taken down before the auction ended. When you consider how many posting eBay has to keep track of [ any one of which could be bogus ] I think they are doing a pretty good job. Never the less it's caveat emptor.

[Craig Knowles]

I don't know how eBay can prevent crooks from hijacking legittement accounts.

 

The same way I can't call up your bank tonight and withdraw all your funds -- user verification.

 

You want to post something for sale? Alright, answer the user verification questions:

1) mother's maiden name

2) last 5 digits of your SSN

3) phone number associated with the account

4) answer to the 'secret' question you made up for yourself when you joined (to prevent someone unauthorized from making a sale even if they hijack your account)

5) automatic verification that your account isn't being accessed from Istanbul when it was actually opened from Boise, Idaho.

Edited December 2, 2006 by Craig Knowles

[James Erd]

The same way I can't call up your bank tonight and withdraw all your funds -- user verification.

 

You want to post something for sale? Alright, answer the verification questions -- 1) mother's maiden name, 2) last 5 digits of your SSN, 3) phone number associated with the account, 4) answer to the 'secret' question, 5) automatic verification that your account wasn't opened in the USA but being accessed from Istanbul.

 

Sorry to hear about your getting burned for the money on the computer. Thats a tough one. I've been very cautious about buying off of ebay, even so, there's no real guarantee the same thing won't happen to me or one of my family members. There are other forms of fraud on ebay as well. My nephew bought a 65 Mustang in near mint condition on ebay, and he's only had to have the engine and transmission rebuilt. After he gets done paying for all that he may have enough money left to overhaul the brakes.

 

Could ebay do more t protect it's costumers? Well the answer is yes. There is no such thing as perfect security, so there's always room for improvement. The problem is there costs involved. Making things more difficult for the crooks may also make things more difficult for the costumers.

 

1) mother's maiden name. [ most thieves could manage to get it ] 2) last 5 digits of your SSN. [ ditto ] 3) phone number associated with the account [ If they can get 1 or 2 they can get this too ] 4) answer to the 'secret' question. [ this is tougher, but some people pick stupid questions like "city where you were born" and the thieves already know Mom's maiden name... ]

 

5) automatic verification that your account wasn't opened in the USA but being accessed from Istanbul. [ OK that works if you want to stop crooks in other countries but it won't stop any one in Topeka KA scamming some one in San Jose CA. ]

[Tim Carroll]

I sold the camera pictured below on eBay a few weeks ago. I thought I would beat the scammers by putting a watermark on the pictures in the auction so no one could steal them. Well, they stole them anyway and put them back up with the watermark still on them. Done it a few times in the last week alone.

 

 

So if you see this eBay auction for an Arriflex 16S/B, it is a SCAM. The real auction was over a few weeks ago.

 

They are usually showing up as 24 hour auctions. I think the scammers are hoping to get someone's money before eBay takes the auctions down.

 

-Tim

 

This keeps showing up on eBay, and this morning someone bid on it before I could catch it and notify eBay to take it down. Again, if you see this camera on eBay, it was mine and sold a few weeks ago, do not bid on it, it is a SCAM.

 

 

 

-Tim

[Isaac Chung]

I believe I'm the true owner of that ACL camera. I bought it last year, and through the year, it continues to show up on Ebay and other site's classified sections. I'm thinking of selling it, but now I'm worried no one will take it seriously!