Tuesday, May 16, 2006

greed begets cons ~ too good to be true

i was mucking around ebay again recently. and this time around i looked at the camera listings. i came across a brand new canon 20D with all the extras going for US$350 inclusive of shipping. this is too good to be true.

this person is a newly registered ebay member and had 2 listings for dirt cheap brand new cameras and no feedback or reviews at all.

the dude listed an email address for queries and stuff. so i emailed him some questions. why so cheap? how much for shipment? payment method?

dude replied that it'll be shipped via his UPS account and the whole deal should be done through ebay and therefore, is safe. oh yeah, i should also furbish him with my mailing details so that he can go ahead with it.

i messaged him again via email AND ebay messaging system about the payment method. he replied through email that he's new to ebay and he'll let ebay advice us on the payment method.

i sent him another email saying that i'll only use paypal for dealings above US$20. guess what? no reply til now. his previous replies were always within 30 minutes.

i then did a google search on the name stated in his email and i found that a person with the name MIHAI ALIN has conned people before! was i surprised? nah, not really.

deal was just too damn good to be true.

2 comments:

LLopez said...

Yes, I've gotten myself in this situation before. I had made few bids myself and I have received not just one but a ton of emails asking if I was interested in purchasing similar stuff I placed my bids for; of course for a lot cheaper price. And take note that they always refuse to use paypal for method of payment. It's either Western Union or something else which both are not recognized by ebay. I've reported this to ebay before and true enough, their email addresses are not registered users. Be careful in sending your contact information. There are tons of scams around ebay. Good luck

Anonymous said...

hey there kentucky wildcats' fan,

thanks for the heads up. i didn't go along with deal. didn't even put in a bid in the end. guess what? the person's no longer a registered member of ebay!

well, a lil bit of experience in ebay helps. sometimes the auction deals stinks to high heavens. i normally stay away from those "too good to be true" ones. it's the greedy ones and the newbies who gets conned at the end.