eBay Scam, need some help

The ISP for that web site has shut it down. We'll see how long it takes them to come back on line. It took less than 24 hours the last time.

They've run this scam under at least three different names in the last few weeks. This web site has surfaced using the names:
www.fermen-cycle.com
www.adelcycles.com
www.terincycles.com

These are the guys who have been opening 433 auctions on eBay every couple of hours. The auctions stay on line for a few hours, then they disappear, then then they reappear a few minutes later under a different UserID.

The auctions are for high end bikes. They say (in part)

Quoted post said:

IF YOU HAVE QUESTIONS OR IF YOU WANT TO PLACE AN ORDER
PLEASE EMAIL ONLY TO OUR SALES DEPARTMENT DIRECTLY AT:
[email hidden]

PLEASE INCLUDE IN THE SUBJECT OF THE MAIL THE COMPLETE
MODEL OF THE BIKE AND YOU WILL GET A FAST RESPONSE.

DO NOT BID UNTIL RECEIVING A RESPONSE FROM OUR SALES
DEPARTMENT

PLEASE DO NOT USE Ask Seller A Question OPTION BECAUSE
OUR eBay EMAIL ADDRESS IS OVER QUOTA AND WE DON'T RECEIVE
YOUR QUESTION

EMAIL DIRECTLY AT: [email hidden]

And of course they offer free shipping to anywhere in the world.

When you send email to that address you get a response back that asks you to wire them your payment

Quoted post said:

We had many problems in past with customers who used
stolen credit card over internet and we took the
decision to accept credit card as payment only if we
can verify your identity.

We have 2 ways for payment: one via bank wire and is
available for UK and international customers and the
other one is via cash wire. Bank wire can take few
days the money to be confirmed in our bank account and
that's why he have the seccond payment option which is
easy and fast. It will take only few minutes the
payment to be confirmed to us after you will send.

If you know anyone that has been effected by this scam, please ask them to post in this thread.

www.scam.com may have more info

There are lots of scams on eBay like the one you describe. I assume that the reason the ads "disappear" after a few hours is because eBay deletes them as soon as they're idientified as being fraudulant. I don't know how it can possibly be worth their time to attempt these scams. You'd have to be a complete idiot to wire any kind of payment to them. I suppose if one or two morons bite then it's worth their effort. Why waste your time trying to track them down? If anything just send them an e-mail telling them to f@&% off and then move on.

Quoted post said:

There are lots of scams on eBay like the one you describe.

Yup. but that doesn't mean that have to tolerate it.

Quoted post said:

I assume that the reason the ads "disappear" after a few hours is because eBay deletes them as soon as they're idientified as being fraudulant.

Sometimes they get pulled by eBay and sometimes the scammer(s) remove them.

Quoted post said:

I don't know how it can possibly be worth their time to attempt these scams. You'd have to be a complete idiot to wire any kind of payment to them. I suppose if one or two morons bite then it's worth their effort. Why waste your time trying to track them down? If anything just send them an e-mail telling them to f@&% off and then move on.

[font=Arial]I've been working on this problem too, so I have some insight into what's been going on.[/font]

[font=Arial]Speaking only for myself, it's not my goal to 'fix' this. Buy I did get interested in the problem and I did some digging. Without a whole lot of effort I found someone who's identity had been stolen by the scammers and used for part of their scam. I contacted that person. They told me that they had just received a fraudulent claim against one of their financial assets. I was able to give them a fair amount of information about the scammers that would be helpful to them in clearing up the mess.[/font]

[font=Arial]Plus, as it turns out, this person is in the middle of the process of applying for a financial certification from the government (for something related to their profession). They were very happy to have access to the info that I had put together. It will help them clear their name.[/font]

[font=Arial]I'd like to stress that this person was a victim of these scammers but not because they had any participation in the fraudulent eBay auctions. Their identity had been compromised by other means.[/font][font=Arial]

Sorry if this sounds vague but I'm trying to respect this person's confidentiality.
[/font]

Any guesses about what is written in white letters on the the side of the red cooler (?) in the first picture?

I'll try to attach a copy of the pictures to this posting...[/QUOTE]
It says Enervit. It is a recovery drink

gpriatko said:

Yup. but that doesn't mean that have to tolerate it.

Sometimes they get pulled by eBay and sometimes the scammer(s) remove them.

[font=Arial]I've been working on this problem too, so I have some insight into what's been going on.[/font]

[font=Arial]Speaking only for myself, it's not my goal to 'fix' this. Buy I did get interested in the problem and I did some digging. Without a whole lot of effort I found someone who's identity had been stolen by the scammers and used for part of their scam. I contacted that person. They told me that they had just received a fraudulent claim against one of their financial assets. I was able to give them a fair amount of information about the scammers that would be helpful to them in clearing up the mess.[/font]

[font=Arial]Plus, as it turns out, this person is in the middle of the process of applying for a financial certification from the government (for something related to their profession). They were very happy to have access to the info that I had put together. It will help them clear their name.[/font]

[font=Arial]I'd like to stress that this person was a victim of these scammers but not because they had any participation in the fraudulent eBay auctions. Their identity had been compromised by other means.[/font][font=Arial]

Sorry if this sounds vague but I'm trying to respect this person's confidentiality.
[/font]

I didn't mean to imply that these losers should simply be tolerated. Only that in my opinion it's not worth wasting my time to make it a personal crusade to stop them. If someone else wants to do it then more power to them I suppose.

It's an interesting point you make about your aquaintance being roped into one of these scams even though he didn't participate in any way. If that happened to me, you better beleive I'd make every effort to nail the S.O.B.!

[font=Arial]birdman23, thanks for the info.[/font]

[font=Arial]meehs, I don't want to be rude but I want to be clear that I had no connection to the person that I described in my previous post before I started looking into this. What happened is that this person's ID popped up in a way that very clearly marked them as a victim of identity fraud.[/font]

[font=Arial]FWIW, I've discovered two more of these scam sites: www.scorpionbike.com and www.coardeles.com

Those sites are being hosted by the same UK ISP that has hosted the other scams sites. [/font][font=Arial]The sites have been up for weeks, but I expect that the ISP will take them within the next 24 hours.[/font]

[font=Arial]Like it says on their About Us web page: www.coardeles.com/about_us.html[/font]

[font=Arial]

Quoted post said:

Time is our enemy! We need to sell very fast!

Bunch of red flags here that anyone spending more than $50 on ebay should be aware of:

Any reference to contacting the seller outside of the ebay "send seller a message" is a 10 by 20 foot red flag. It's a hijacked account, where a crook has obtained a seller with good feedback's password. Password most likely stolen by one of those phising emails we all get bombarded with.

International sale of a bicycle. Shipping cost will be in the hundreds. If they say they will pay the shipping costs, it's because there won't be any shipping costs - nothing will get sent to you.

Wire transfer - can't be recalled. Western Union transfer - can be picked up anywhere. Anyone preferring wire or western union transfer over all other forms of payment is probably going to rip you off.

Despite the professional appearance, ebay is still a collection of amateurs. Remember what you are doing with ebay - sending a lot of money to a total stranger and hoping they will do the right thing. Even under the best of circumstances, that calls for great caution.

I've tracked down other instances of this scam. So far, the list includes:
[indent]akron-bike.com
fermen-cycle.com
hermes-bikeshop.com
adelcycles.com
scorpionbike.com
secom-cycle.com
terincycles.com
[/indent]The first three sites had been taken care of before I found them; the other four were still active.

There was a scam site using the same HTML code that was selling (errr, make that not selling) electronics. They were using two domain names:
[indent]coardes.com
coardeles.com
[/indent]An email address at one of those domains was being used for contact email at one of the bike scam web sites.

There's a discussion of Akron-bikes.com on bicycle-forum.netDo you recognize this bike shop 487911.htmlOpen ↗

They found the source of the pictures:

Quoted post said:

...
One of the interior shots was pulled from this site:
bikestorefribourg.chShop.htmOpen ↗
The other from this site:
triathletesworld.com.au2f11.jpgOpen ↗

The scammers gave it a break over the week end but they were back yesterday and today with their 433 bogus auctions.

I've seen them under the UserIDs: kyfly727 and xxzxx

I contacted eBay and had those auctions suspended.

When you see scams like this it's a good idea to contact eBay. It's easy to do and it's your tool for letting eBay know how you feel.

You can click on the LiveChat button and talk to a support person, or you can use their web page for reporting frauds:

1. Click the "Security Center" link at the bottom of the page.

2. Select "Report problems with other eBay members" , Click on "Report Problem".

3. Select the topic "Fraud concerns for buyers".

4. Select the sub-topic "The problem you're having with fraud isn't listed" and click the "Continue" button.

5. Follow the instructions provided to make your report.

At step-4, you could choose "Report a listing you think is fruadulent (you didn't bid)" but if you, you will not have a way to tell eBay what you think is wrong. All that you'll be able to do is to list the Item Number of the bogus auction.

When you choose "The problem you're having with fraud isn't listed", you can post a free form message that describes the problem.

Be vigilant on Ebay. We do a fair bit of trade through ebay and it is fair to say that there a few rogue buyers out there as well as rogue sellers like this one.

Here are my tips for safe ebaying...

Check the feedback of the other party. If you are planning on spending a lot, contact some of the other buyers or sellers that have dealt with your prospective partner recently and ask them about their experience.

Contact the other party directly. A decent trading partner will respond quickly and go out of their way to be helpful, especially if you are going to be a customer. The answers to your questions should be direct and not in any way evasive.

Use official channels unless you have a good reason not to. This means asking questions through the ebay ask a question service and paying through bank transfer, paypal, cheques, nochex or something similar. Any request to deviate from the standard ebay practice should be something of a warning if you haven't traded with that party before.

Go with your gut feel. If something feels wrong, it may very well turn out to be wrong. There are plenty of other Ebayers that you could deal with and, especially if you a relative novice, it can pay to tread cautiously.

You can get some great bargains on Ebay but don't rush into something that you are not sure of.

Cheers,

bicyclerubber (Ebay shop) and bicyclerubber.com (on the web)

All the rubber your bikes need !

I purchased a bike on ebay last year with success. I spoke to the owner on the telephone 3 times before getting confident enough to bid. Nothing replaces voice to voice affirmation. I wouldn't bid without speaking to the seller.

gpriatko said:

The scammers gave it a break over the week end but they were back yesterday and today with their 433 bogus auctions.

I've seen them under the UserIDs: kyfly727 and xxzxx

I contacted eBay and had those auctions suspended.

Yeah, I've noticed this same scammer quite bit over the last 2 months or so. They happen to keep posting (among all their others) a bike identical to one that I just bought from a legit ebayer a couple months back. Everything about their ad is a complete giveaway that it's a scam. They only last about 12 hours or so each time before getting yanked, but they always come back under a different name. I just keep sending them hate mail every time. I know it accomplishes nothing really, but makes me feel good. They suck.

I was caught by this scam. Money deposited to an account held by a certain "A loren" holding an account at Natwest bank, Edgeware, Middlesex, United Kingdom. Bikes never sent. According to sources investigating in the UK, she is the daugther of the MD of UK Sports and Leisure, and he is a member of the E-bay management and goes by the name of "Douglas". A Loren is working from 4 warehouses in LONDON. My case number with the Edgeware Police station is CAD 3837 if anyone wants to add to it, and the officer responsible is DC Childs. If anyone wants to contact me: [email hidden]

philnike said:

I was caught by this scam. Money deposited to an account held by a certain "A loren" holding an account at Natwest bank, Edgeware, Middlesex, United Kingdom. Bikes never sent. According to sources investigating in the UK, she is the daugther of the MD of UK Sports and Leisure, and he is a member of the E-bay management and goes by the name of "Douglas". A Loren is working from 4 warehouses in LONDON. My case number with the Edgeware Police station is CAD 3837 if anyone wants to add to it, and the officer responsible is DC Childs. If anyone wants to contact me: [email hidden]

Ouch, sorry to hear that Phil. I came close to becoming a victim too. I had literally just paid for my bike to another ebayer ONE day before I saw the ad from the scammers appear, which of course had a price much better than what I paid to the legit guy. I was brand new to ebay at the time so didn't pick up on all the suspicious things in the ads from them so I was pretty frustrated that I had missed what I thought was a "good deal." I now know much more about how ebay works etc. Obviously, I'm glad I missed out on it. Incidentally, they still keep posting too. Just yesterday I saw them again and I reported to ebay and it was removed. I've done so twice in the last week alone. They just keep coming back.

Good luck to you in your legal action. Hope they get slammed.

philnike, sorry to hear about your problem.

I wonder about how many people have been involved in this scam. I've seen it return to eBay over 20 times in the last three weeks.

The web sites that were being used a few months ago, and the email that was being sent seemed to have been put together by non-native English speakers. I wonder if this was a red herring. vbmenu_register("postmenu_1763242", true);

i did some whois lookup of the domains you posted and here are the results, note if the results arn't actual information you can contact the registrar's and tell them. They will usually revoke the domain from the persons.

FERMEN-CYCLE.COM
Registrant:
Fermen
130 Renda Lane #3
Dongola, Il 62926
US

Domain name: FERMEN-CYCLE.COM

Administrative Contact:
Samples, Greg [img]img.nameintel.comemail.pgifOpen ↗[/img]
130 Renda Lane #3
Dongola, Il 62926
US
+44.8700500303 Fax: +44.1419317001

Technical Contact:
Master, Host [img]img.nameintel.comemail.pgifOpen ↗[/img]
Fleming Pavilion, Todd Campus
West of Scotland Science Park
Glasgow, Scotland G20 0XA
UK
+44.8700500303 Fax: +44.1419317001

Registrar of Record: Internetters, http://www.internetters.co.uk
Record last updated on 17-Jan-2005.
Record expires on 17-Jan-2006.
Record created on 17-Jan-2005.

Domain servers in listed order:
NS4.EASYSPACE.COM 84.22.161.11
NS5.EASYSPACE.COM 62.128.193.201

Domain status: REGISTRAR-LOCK

ADELCYCLES.COM

Registrant:
Tom kloster
116 East Capitol Ave
Bismarck, Nd 5850 1
US

Domain name: ADELCYCLES.COM

Administrative Contact:
kloster, Tom [img]img.nameintel.comemail.pgifOpen ↗[/img]
116 East Capitol Ave
Bismarck, Nd 5850 1
US
+44.8700500303 Fax: +44.1419317001

Technical Contact:
Master, Host [img]img.nameintel.comemail.pgifOpen ↗[/img]
Fleming Pavilion, Todd Campus
West of Scotland Science Park
Glasgow, Scotland G20 0XA
UK
+44.8700500303 Fax: +44.1419317001

Registrar of Record: Internetters, http://www.internetters.co.uk
Record last updated on 16-Feb-2005.
Record expires on 16-Feb-2006.
Record created on 16-Feb-2005.

Domain servers in listed order:
NS4.EASYSPACE.COM 84.22.161.11
NS5.EASYSPACE.COM 62.128.193.201

Domain status: REGISTRAR-LOCK

TERINCYCLES.COM
Registrant:
Mark Budzinski
2055 D. Carlton Arms Circle
Bradenton, Fl 3420 8
US

Domain name: TERINCYCLES.COM

Administrative Contact:
Budzinski, Mark [img]img.nameintel.comemail.pgifOpen ↗[/img]
2055 D. Carlton Arms Circle
Bradenton, Fl 3420 8
US
+44.8700500303 Fax: +44.1419317001

Technical Contact:
Master, Host [img]img.nameintel.comemail.pgifOpen ↗[/img]
Fleming Pavilion, Todd Campus
West of Scotland Science Park
Glasgow, Scotland G20 0XA
UK
+44.8700500303 Fax: +44.1419317001

Registrar of Record: Internetters, http://www.internetters.co.uk
Record last updated on 23-Feb-2005.
Record expires on 23-Feb-2006.
Record created on 23-Feb-2005.

Domain servers in listed order:
NS4.EASYSPACE.COM 84.22.161.11
NS5.EASYSPACE.COM 62.128.193.201

Domain status: REGISTRAR-LOCK

TrevorN, thanks for looking those up. We got those sites shut down a few weeks ago. The ISP that was hosting the sites was also the company that had registered the domains.

A new copy of this scam web site has surfaced. It's called: www.berkincycles.com

We're in the process of getting it taken off line.

no problem, just let me know if you need anything else.