Large eBay scam this night

[eplpwr]

Some 18 hrs ago, right after midnight UTC-time, there was a lot of "very good" listings on eBay.

Having something of a TEA addiction, I browsed eBay with searches for "Keithley" - Newly listed. Also the same for Keysight and Agilent. To my surprise there were a lot of interesting test equpment with near-zero auction starting prices (to get people interested). Example of items:
- Fluke 5700A+5725A
- KS MSOX4154A
- Keithley 2002
- KS E4980A
- Agilent E4440A
- LeCroy 760Zi

All the listings were made by a large eBay seller with 50000+ transactions and a 99.5% rating (probably a major seller getting their account hijacked over the weekend).

In every listing there was an "explanation" in the description that said that it was not an auction per se, but a buy-it-now item with a fixed price of US$ 2600 / EUR 2350; the price was the same for all items. To "activate" the buy-it-now, there was a link to an eBay quiz of sorts (non-eBay links would have been wiped out). When using the link to buy-it-now, there was a quiz asking for full name, email and delivery address. Well, I answered one such form, "buying" - I thought - an E4440A with 11 super-duper options.

This morning, I had two mails in my private mailbox. One with a well-crafted "Invoice" with payment instructions for wire transfer to an account in Italy. For those in doubt there was also a link to eBay buyer protection chat (but the link points to some really obscure URL that is anything but eBay), probably manned by some fraudsters pretending to be eBay personell and cooing the suspicious buyer.

I don't know if these frauds are frequent, but in case someone else is trying to "buy" serious gear for next to nothing - it's a major setup. What was impressive was the number of attractive items offered, and the large number of listings. All of the listings are gone by now, BTW. I forgot to take note of the seller account that was used, unfortunately. It listed a german VAT number, but that may be just as fake as the rest of the listings.

I communicated with the "seller", which was very eager that I initiate a bank transfer ASAP, and asked if it's allowed to finalize a transaction outside of eBay. I also asked for the sellers identity and anything that could verify that. The reply: please hurry, I am closing down my pawnshop and moving to Italy. Who takes a full-blown spectrum analyzer to a pawn shop? Heh.

Hopefully, the bad guys won't succeed in scamming anyone, this is just to warn someone who is about to make a "historic deal" buying attractive test gear discounted 80-99% off normal prices - don't.

Regards,

eplpwr

PS. The incident has been reported to eBay, which hasn't responded so far.

[Mechatrommer]

I don't know if these frauds are frequent...

its been there for years i usually saw when searching high end cameras. hijacking K+ rating sellers and same tactic, same tactic pay outside... experienced users will not take the bait, nor want to waste time for questionaires... people who got feed up like me wont even bother to report, let it die by itself. i guess the best lesson is (1) you got frauded once... (2) read in forum like this... always the rule is, pay with paypal and use tracked shipping method. more than a month no shipping progress, claim in paypal, thats it.

[bd139]

This is a regular scammer. Us regulars on the TEA thread are aware of them. If you report a few items they get taken down pretty fast.

[Starkfactory]

Thank you for information.

I dont know if you guys saw it, but there was also an Amscope SM-4TZ-144A  scam. Its a relative good soldering microscope, for 600+ euro.
At first the scam started around 210 euro+ free shipping (from china). I contacted ebay and told them its a scam because at least the shipping should be 200 euro. They basicly did nothing about it.
After a few days and lots of sold microscope, negative feedback started to appear in the seller history.
Second time "someone else" tired to sell for 90 euro+ free shipping. Again contacted Ebay, but nothing.
Third time for 15 euro.... + free shipping...  And even then peoples bought from him.

It was someone form china, with 100% feedback rating  and 1000+  sold items, and also with lot of selling staff. I noticed that they are all sell for the same price.
Third time his location was in europe, but the name was chinese.

[testpoint1]

Thank you for information.

I dont know if you guys saw it, but there was also an Amscope SM-4TZ-144A  scam. Its a relative good soldering microscope, for 600+ euro.
At first the scam started around 210 euro+ free shipping (from china). I contacted ebay and told them its a scam because at least the shipping should be 200 euro. They basicly did nothing about it.
After a few days and lots of sold microscope, negative feedback started to appear in the seller history.
Second time "someone else" tired to sell for 90 euro+ free shipping. Again contacted Ebay, but nothing.
Third time for 15 euro.... + free shipping...  And even then peoples bought from him.

It was someone form china, with 100% feedback rating  and 1000+  sold items, and also with lot of selling staff. I noticed that they are all sell for the same price.
Third time his location was in europe, but the name was chinese.

in Europe, Italy, almost all Chinse from a county of Wenzhou Zhejiang province; in Spain,  almost all Chinse from another county of Wenzhou Zhejiang province.

[DaJMasta]

If it's too good to be true, it probably is.


Feedback alone isn't enough, you should check the seller's listing history to see if they deal with test equipment at all (most hijacked accounts don't) and see their other listings to see if there are lots of the same format ones around the same time (telltale scam postings before the account can be locked).

This "buy the chance to buy" an item is also against ebay terms of service, and it is quite common to see them show up, especially as auction style listings for absurdly low prices.  You can report such listings, you can also add them to your watch list and they usually disappear within the day.  Even with the off-chance some legitimate seller tried to sell like this - they'd still be breaking ebay terms of service by dodging ebay fees (if you pay $10 to buy a $3000 piece of gear in private, ebay doesn't get its cut of the $3000), so the seller would likely be charged extra fees based off the stated price even without the transaction going through ebay, would have their account penalized, or both.

[Zucca]

IF

If it's too good to be true

AND

bank transfer ASAP

THEN

Run Forrest, run.