Scam? Need advice.

[ANova]

Ok so here's the deal. I was browsing ebay a couple of days ago when I happened to come across a listing of an Acer 8204wlmi notebook, one of their top of the line models. It was at something like $1.00 starting bid but the description said "buy it now for $800" even though there was no buy now option. It claimed they were a wholesale warehouse under liquidation. The user had good feedback in the hundreds and nothing unusual aside from the price however he said not to use the ebay email to contact him and listed a gmail account. I emailed him but did not recieve a reply for at least 3 days and the day after I emailed him the listing was removed or canceled so I figured it was either a mistake or ebay shut it down. Well today I got a reply stating that I could have it. I replied back asking why it was removed and he claims he got a buyer but the buyer ended up not having enough money.

Does this sound like a scam to anyone else? I've noticed more and more listings using seperate emails, anyone know why this is? I've also seen listings where the user had very good feedback and seemed legit only to find at the bottom of the description someone added "fake auction. Someone has hacked my account", etc.

Is ebay falling into the depths of hell? What do you think would be the safest transaction in this situation? I was thinking COD but then they could just as well give me a non working product or even fill the box with rocks in which case I wouldn't know until I opened it (I've seen this happen to someone else once).

 

[BRiT]

Safest option is to walk away.

 

[nutball]

I've seen quite a bit of this going on on e-Bay. One sure sign is that a seller has good feedback (maybe in the thousands) but when you check what they've been selling recently it's auction after auction of baseball cards and dolls-houses. Then suddenly they have <insert drool-worthy piece of technology> for an apparently amazingly keen price.

I spotted one of these a year or so ago (the item was a top-end professional Canon digital SLR), so I contacted the seller just to see what would happen (for laughs, no intention to part with cash!). I got a few responses in broken English prodding me to buy even after the item was de-listed by e-Bay. Two weeks later I got a very apologetic e-mail from a lass in NE England whose account had been hacked saying she hoped I'd not lost any money!

Anyway as BRiT said, probably best to walk away. If you must buy, the safest way to pay is probably some sort of escrow service. Most dishonest buyers will run a mile if you ask if they'll accept this!

 

[Bouncing Zabaglione Bros.]

Does this sound like a scam to anyone else? I've noticed more and more listings using seperate emails, anyone know why this is? I've also seen listings where the user had very good feedback and seemed legit only to find at the bottom of the description someone added "fake auction. Someone has hacked my account", etc.

Yeah, it's a scam. Scammers are now using bots to "buy" goods from themselves in order to bump up their feedback scores. The goods are ususally very cheap, the comments in the feedback usually identical. Then they pull this scam, get you to send them the money outside of the Ebay/Paypal/Credit Card system that offers you protection, and runs off with your money.

 

[ANova]

I'm going to ask if he'll do escrow for shits and giggles.