For the past couple of months, a scammer has been listing new high-end
bikes for sale on eBay at steep discounts. Originally this was being
done using hijacked user IDs. At first, the hijacked user ID was
changed to "akron_bike" with a numeric suffix, then "secom_bike", and
for the past few days there have been unchanged hijacked user IDs and
some zero-feedback new IDs. Today, the listings that I strongly
suspect are from the same fraudster are in a new format; the
background has been changed, the text has been changed, the photos now
appear to be taken direct drom the manufacturers' publications, the
listings show 2005 models instead of 2004, and they're not as
prolific. They still bear the telltale signs of fraud, though; the
bidder ID is private, the text instructs the buyer to contact the
seller *before* bidding to obtain the bike at a "buy it now" price
despite the fact that there is no Buy It Now feature in the listing,
the seller has a zero feedback, the listing details do not make any
potentially safe method of payment available, and the price for the
product is well below dealer cost for an item that could not possibly
be obtained for that amount. Here's just one of the listings:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2292907864
I will note also that when I first became aware of these listings, the
claimed location of the supposed seller was in California, but that
has now been shifted to the UK. The listing text now states "Escrow
accepted", but the listing details do not; even that escrow is likely
to be fake.
Buyers beware.
--
Typoes are a feature, not a bug.
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