Re: Ebay Powerbooks
On Tuesday, July 15, 2003, at 08:45 AM, G-Books wrote: I would have to agree with Chris. I reported the 'Buy Information...' items to ebay UK, and they didn't seem to be too bothered. Although I would concede that in those cases, the item description is strictly correct and no ostensible fraud is taking place. Like many others I've bought a number of items from ebay UK, including 3 powerbooks (2 Lombards 1 Pismo) and a PowerMac G4 ( in the last 18 months my family have switched almost completely to macs, though only to s/hand ones) and all my rtransactions have gone well. The only issue I've had with ebay Macs has occurred recently - Derbyshire constabulary took a statement from me about the Powermac which I bought last November, and examined it took serial numbers. So that one may have a murky past. Tom Burke Date: Tue, 15 Jul 2003 08:12:07 +0100 Subject: Ebay powerbooks From: Christopher Hack [EMAIL PROTECTED] Message-ID: [EMAIL PROTECTED] In-Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] I have bought several powerbooks on ebay from here in the UK. There is a big scam (certainly with ebay in the UK ) where people list big ticket items including PowerBooks, and then offer to sell them outside the auction with lines in the advert like contact me to buy this. Many of these seem to have a lot of positive feedback, but I have discovered they have either stolen someone else's ID (and you can identify this because you will find not much recent feedback), or they build up a feedback profile by buying many cheap items. The giveaway sign seem to be no pictures of the actual powerbook - just pictures from the brochure. I would recommend: 1. contacting the seller and asking for a serial number and recent photos of the item 2. asking if they are prepared to use escrow (even if you don't plan to use it), I have found the fraudsters always find some reason why they cannot accept escrow. 3. suggest you will pay in cash and collect the item (again even if you don't intend to, this will flush out the fraudsters who will immediately say it is not possible. You can do this even if the item is overseas by saying something like I will be in your country on a business trip next week could I drop by and collect it...) I contacted ebay fraud office and told them about these scams but they have done nothing. Best of luck. Chris -- G-Books is sponsored by http://lowendmac.com/ and... Small Dog Electronicshttp://www.smalldog.com | Refurbished Drives | -- Check our web site for refurbished PowerBooks | CDRWs on Sale! | Support Low End Mac http://lowendmac.com/lists/support.html G-Books list info: http://lowendmac.com/lists/g-books.html -- AOL users, remove mailto:; Send list messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe, email: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] For digest mode, email: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscription questions: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/g-books%40mail.maclaunch.com/ --- The Think Different Store http://www.ThinkDifferentStore.com ---
Re: Ebay powerbooks
Ya see, Ryan? That's two of us now seeing the same thing. So you've had groovy experiences there. So have I. Doesn't mean crooks aren't all over the thing. Why do you think the DOJ is investigating? on 7/15/03 12:12 AM, Christopher Hack at [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I have bought several powerbooks on ebay from here in the UK. There is a big scam (certainly with ebay in the UK ) where people list big ticket items including PowerBooks, and then offer to sell them outside the auction with lines in the advert like contact me to buy this. Many of these seem to have a lot of positive feedback, but I have discovered they have either stolen someone else's ID (and you can identify this because you will find not much recent feedback), or they build up a feedback profile by buying many cheap items. The giveaway sign seem to be no pictures of the actual powerbook - just pictures from the brochure. I would recommend: 1. contacting the seller and asking for a serial number and recent photos of the item 2. asking if they are prepared to use escrow (even if you don't plan to use it), I have found the fraudsters always find some reason why they cannot accept escrow. 3. suggest you will pay in cash and collect the item (again even if you don't intend to, this will flush out the fraudsters who will immediately say it is not possible. You can do this even if the item is overseas by saying something like I will be in your country on a business trip next week could I drop by and collect it...) I contacted ebay fraud office and told them about these scams but they have done nothing. Best of luck. Chris -- G-Books is sponsored by http://lowendmac.com/ and... Small Dog Electronicshttp://www.smalldog.com | Refurbished Drives | -- Check our web site for refurbished PowerBooks | CDRWs on Sale! | Support Low End Mac http://lowendmac.com/lists/support.html G-Books list info: http://lowendmac.com/lists/g-books.html -- AOL users, remove mailto:; Send list messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe, email: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] For digest mode, email: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscription questions: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/g-books%40mail.maclaunch.com/ --- The Think Different Store http://www.ThinkDifferentStore.com ---
Re: Ebay Powerbooks
Well, Ryan, that's four accounts to the negative as well as positive. And I can report a 1400 I bought out of CA had a past police are interested in...hard fact. EBAY did nothing. NOTHING. In fact, neither did the police... on 7/15/03 3:00 AM, Tom Burke at [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I would have to agree with Chris. I reported the 'Buy Information...' items to ebay UK, and they didn't seem to be too bothered. Although I would concede that in those cases, the item description is strictly correct and no ostensible fraud is taking place. Like many others I've bought a number of items from ebay UK, including 3 powerbooks (2 Lombards 1 Pismo) and a PowerMac G4 ( in the last 18 months my family have switched almost completely to macs, though only to s/hand ones) and all my rtransactions have gone well. The only issue I've had with ebay Macs has occurred recently - Derbyshire constabulary took a statement from me about the Powermac which I bought last November, and examined it took serial numbers. So that one may have a murky past. Tom Burke -- G-Books is sponsored by http://lowendmac.com/ and... Small Dog Electronicshttp://www.smalldog.com | Refurbished Drives | -- Check our web site for refurbished PowerBooks | CDRWs on Sale! | Support Low End Mac http://lowendmac.com/lists/support.html G-Books list info: http://lowendmac.com/lists/g-books.html -- AOL users, remove mailto:; Send list messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe, email: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] For digest mode, email: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscription questions: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/g-books%40mail.maclaunch.com/ --- The Think Different Store http://www.ThinkDifferentStore.com ---
Re: Ebay Powerbooks
On Tuesday, July 15, 2003, at 03:50 AM, Illovox Media wrote: Well, Ryan, that's four accounts to the negative as well as positive. And I can report a 1400 I bought out of CA had a past police are interested in...hard fact. EBAY did nothing. NOTHING. In fact, neither did the police... If you're keeping count, you can add me to the positive side. I've been buying and selling on Ebay since early on, and I've only had one bad experience, and that was with a buyer. Ebay dealt with him promptly after I complained about him. But with all this chatter about how most of the Powerbooks on Ebay are scams, I decided to take a look for myself. After reviewing more than 100 Powerbook listings, I've found four that were obvious scams. One gentleman even offered to include the latest version of Windows XP - if that's not a clear indicator, I don't know what would be. I did find half a dozen or so that seemed suspicious, but as someone pointed out, requesting escrow is a sure way to weed out someone who doesn't intend to send you the product. I, for one, don't have any problems with paying escrow fees when I'm sending $2,000 to someone I don't know in a foreign country (That would be the US for me). But by and large, the vast majority were people who seemed to be making honest transactions. One guy even suggested that you drop by to pick up the machine, if you felt unsure. The really sad thing that I did notice though, was people bidding up the price on auctions so high that they might as well buy at a retail used/refurbished store. Foolish. Cheers - Steve K. -- G-Books is sponsored by http://lowendmac.com/ and... Small Dog Electronicshttp://www.smalldog.com | Refurbished Drives | -- Check our web site for refurbished PowerBooks | CDRWs on Sale! | Support Low End Mac http://lowendmac.com/lists/support.html G-Books list info: http://lowendmac.com/lists/g-books.html -- AOL users, remove mailto:; Send list messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe, email: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] For digest mode, email: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscription questions: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/g-books%40mail.maclaunch.com/ --- The Think Different Store http://www.ThinkDifferentStore.com ---
Re: Ebay powerbooks
3. suggest you will pay in cash and collect the item (again even if you don't intend to, this will flush out the fraudsters who will immediately say it is not possible. You can do this even if the item is overseas by saying something like I will be in your country on a business trip next week could I drop by and collect it...) I can't believe that anyone in UK WOULDN'T do this for anything of any serious value - there's nowhere much more than a few hours travelling away after all, unless you live in Cornwall and buy from someone in Scotland I suppose ! I see complaints about this all the time and wonder how many people send 1000 GBP plus to someone they've never met via a classified ad in the newspaper ? Not many - so why should EBay be treated any differently ? Btw I wouldn't ever accept escrow as several friend have been ripped off by bad buyers using escrow. One thing that few people have mentioned is contacting the local trading standards - I had a suspect auction on Freeserve and they were very helpful. Best wishes Malcolm Cornelius - The Powerbook Fanatic www.pbfanatic.co.uk MSN Messenger - [EMAIL PROTECTED] ICQ - 47738640 -- G-Books is sponsored by http://lowendmac.com/ and... Small Dog Electronicshttp://www.smalldog.com | Refurbished Drives | -- Check our web site for refurbished PowerBooks | CDRWs on Sale! | Support Low End Mac http://lowendmac.com/lists/support.html G-Books list info: http://lowendmac.com/lists/g-books.html -- AOL users, remove mailto:; Send list messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe, email: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] For digest mode, email: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscription questions: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/g-books%40mail.maclaunch.com/ --- The Think Different Store http://www.ThinkDifferentStore.com ---
Re.: eBay PowerBooks
==0 I contacted ebay fraud office and told them about these scams but they have done nothing. Best of luck. Chris ==0 Recently I got one of those scam e-mails. Dear sir, i saw that you bidd on Apple iBook 900MHz and i want to offer you the same one for a lower price of 580$.Check my feedback for seriosity (id: ladxxx).If you are interesed mail me on [EMAIL PROTECTED](Names changed to protect the innocent) I reported it to eBay after checking that the seller had a great record of selling dolls and bric-a-brac, low-cost items, and finding the spelling was like a 14 year old using big words, or a foreigner that doesn't write English very well. (This was for an Apple 900MHZ PB). Although eBay clearly states that the investigations are confidential and you may not receive any more e-mails from them, eBay's SafeHarbor Department usually reviews all reports of spam within 24 hours. Please keep in mind that the action taken based on your report is confidential. For privacy reasons, we will not be able to keep you informed of any developments; however, we pledge to quickly examine your report and apply our guidelines fairly. in this particular case I received this e-mail, which I quote: Hello, The recent email sent from this account was the result of an unauthorized account takeover. The password was guessed or discovered and then used to send email like the message you received. Unfortunately, we were not made aware of this activity until after the email had been sent. We are now in the process of getting the account restored to its true owner. Let me suggest a few ways this takeover could have occurred. First, if the user had a relatively simple password or password hint So, yes, they do investigate, although they are so swamped with work that most of the time they are unable to write back. As I said before, being a member since '96, and having successfully completed more than a 900 transactions, I have found that the Mac crowd there is like the Mac crowd here: Honest and helpful. Of course, whenever an item goes above $400, I insist in an escrow service, and I have been following Chris tips for years. Best regards. Hugo Diaz [EMAIL PROTECTED] macnifico at eBay (535 positive feedback) -- The only thing we knew for sure about Henry Porter is that his name wasn't Henry Porter Bob Dylan, Brownsville Girl -- G-Books is sponsored by http://lowendmac.com/ and... Small Dog Electronicshttp://www.smalldog.com | Refurbished Drives | -- Check our web site for refurbished PowerBooks | CDRWs on Sale! | Support Low End Mac http://lowendmac.com/lists/support.html G-Books list info: http://lowendmac.com/lists/g-books.html -- AOL users, remove mailto:; Send list messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe, email: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] For digest mode, email: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscription questions: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/g-books%40mail.maclaunch.com/ --- The Think Different Store http://www.ThinkDifferentStore.com ---
Re. : eBay PowerBooks
==0 The really sad thing that I did notice though, was people bidding up the price on auctions so high that they might as well buy at a retail used/refurbished store. Foolish. Cheers - Steve K ===0 Steve: Some of us live where there are no Apple Stores, no Macs at all, in fact. So retail used/refurbished is a reasonable price to pay when you are in Wintel territory, as I am. But the Mac OS is so easy to use, that I've been able to sell dozens of Mac PB's easily, and made a few MacAddicts along the way. Best regards. Hugo Diaz [EMAIL PROTECTED] Living in Reynosa, Tamaulipas, Mexico. -- The only thing we knew for sure about Henry Porter is that his name wasn't Henry Porter Bob Dylan, Brownsville Girl -- G-Books is sponsored by http://lowendmac.com/ and... Small Dog Electronicshttp://www.smalldog.com | Refurbished Drives | -- Check our web site for refurbished PowerBooks | CDRWs on Sale! | Support Low End Mac http://lowendmac.com/lists/support.html G-Books list info: http://lowendmac.com/lists/g-books.html -- AOL users, remove mailto:; Send list messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe, email: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] For digest mode, email: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscription questions: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/g-books%40mail.maclaunch.com/ --- The Think Different Store http://www.ThinkDifferentStore.com ---
Re: Ebay Powerbooks
On Tue, 2003-07-15 at 13:59, Steve Kidd wrote: But with all this chatter about how most of the Powerbooks on Ebay are scams, I decided to take a look for myself. After reviewing more than 100 Powerbook listings, I've found four that were obvious scams. The real problem are the non obvious ones... I did find half a dozen or so that seemed suspicious, but as someone pointed out, requesting escrow is a sure way to weed out someone who doesn't intend to send you the product. Many honest sellers do not accept Escrow. I, for one, don't have any problems with paying escrow fees when I'm sending $2,000 to someone I don't know in a foreign country (That would be the US for me). Same for me. But by and large, the vast majority were people who seemed to be making honest transactions. One guy even suggested that you drop by to pick up the machine, if you felt unsure. The really sad thing that I did notice though, was people bidding up the price on auctions so high that they might as well buy at a retail used/refurbished store. Foolish. I'll be more precise then: ALMOST ALL GOOD DEALS for NEWER Powerbooks are scams. The ones that are not have prices close to the ones you find in a retail shop. Joaquim -- G-Books is sponsored by http://lowendmac.com/ and... Small Dog Electronicshttp://www.smalldog.com | Refurbished Drives | -- Check our web site for refurbished PowerBooks | CDRWs on Sale! | Support Low End Mac http://lowendmac.com/lists/support.html G-Books list info: http://lowendmac.com/lists/g-books.html -- AOL users, remove mailto:; Send list messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe, email: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] For digest mode, email: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscription questions: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/g-books%40mail.maclaunch.com/ --- The Think Different Store http://www.ThinkDifferentStore.com ---
Re: Ebay Powerbooks
Joaquim Carvalho wrote: I did find half a dozen or so that seemed suspicious, but as someone pointed out, requesting escrow is a sure way to weed out someone who doesn't intend to send you the product. Many honest sellers do not accept Escrow. Too bad, those are honest sellers I won't deal with. I'd rather it be their loss than mine. Caveat Emptor. ALMOST ALL GOOD DEALS for NEWER Powerbooks are scams. The ones that are not have prices close to the ones you find in a retail shop. These are not 'good' deals...they're 'unbelievable' deals. 'Too good to be true' deals. 'Good deals' are a refurbished iBook at Smalldog for $200 less than retail, or a 1-year old powerbook sold for $350 less by a now-starving recent graduate. Good deals are not a 17 powerbook for $2000... Like any con since the time Ogg was conned out of extra rocks by Igg the con-caveman, the inherent greed of the mark is their downfall and the con-man's profit. Just think. People are successfully selling powerbooks at or near retail prices...why would this person wish to sell to you at such an enormous discount? If these were legitimate sales, this person could ask, for example, $2800 or $3000 for a new 17 Powerbook instead of $2000 and make nearly $1000 more! No, the point of these people asking such a low price is to engage your greed to the detriment of your brain, to satisfy that ages-old human impulse to get something for nothing, to get 'lucky' for once. To produce that flood of adrenaline we get when we think we're going to get such a good deal that we're blinded and don't look at it rationally. Like, you know, maybe *this time* that gentleman in Nigeria really does have $48 million in his bank he wishes to move discreetly out of the country. (I have read accounts of people who got swindled in these Nigerian scams where they actually say I knew these were a scam, but it was such a lot of money, I was willing to take a chance on it being real this time. 'Take a chance'...think about it, as if it were a gamble they could win.) It's the same ingrained instinct that produces gambling as a universal feature in human cultures...we all do it, and until it's not ingrained anymore, con artists will flourish. -- Bruce Johnson University of Arizona College of Pharmacy Information Technology Group Institutions do not have opinions, merely customs -- G-Books is sponsored by http://lowendmac.com/ and... Small Dog Electronicshttp://www.smalldog.com | Refurbished Drives | -- Check our web site for refurbished PowerBooks | CDRWs on Sale! | Support Low End Mac http://lowendmac.com/lists/support.html G-Books list info: http://lowendmac.com/lists/g-books.html -- AOL users, remove mailto:; Send list messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe, email: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] For digest mode, email: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscription questions: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/g-books%40mail.maclaunch.com/ --- The Think Different Store http://www.ThinkDifferentStore.com ---
Re: Re.: eBay PowerBooks
on 7/15/03 8:51 AM, macnifico at [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: So, yes, they do investigate, although they are so swamped with work that most of the time they are unable to write back. Investigations swamped with work... That says it all. R -- G-Books is sponsored by http://lowendmac.com/ and... Small Dog Electronicshttp://www.smalldog.com | Refurbished Drives | -- Check our web site for refurbished PowerBooks | CDRWs on Sale! | Support Low End Mac http://lowendmac.com/lists/support.html G-Books list info: http://lowendmac.com/lists/g-books.html -- AOL users, remove mailto:; Send list messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe, email: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] For digest mode, email: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscription questions: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/g-books%40mail.maclaunch.com/ --- The Think Different Store http://www.ThinkDifferentStore.com ---
