Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Dan Robinson, who writes:
This is an example of a classic scam — and these are usually seen involving
Watkins-Johnson 8711/A receivers.
The seller puts a photo of what appears to be a good condition WJ up,
with additional photos. But often these photos are faked or taken from
other ended Ebay auctions.The description is usually, as with this item, in blue letters noting
the item is available only for immediate sale, and not for auction,
despite the fact that the auction is — an AUCTION and has a
starting price.
I make it my business to reports items like this to eBay and eBay has
a pretty good record of recognizing scams and removes them.I think it’s important to point out these items to SWLing readers to
help avoid people being ripped off.
No doubt! Thank you so much for sharing this, Dan. I didn’t realize scams like this were prevalent on eBay.
I’m willing to bet this scammer’s plan is to get you to outside the boundaries of eBay’s protection as soon as possible, luring you with a believable bargain price. This is why they ask for you to message them instead of bidding.
In my opinion, eBay is one of the safest sites for online purchases, but it is certainly not void of scammers. Remember the proverb, “If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is!”
Thanks again, Dan!
Here’s a technique I use to determine if a seller actually has an item he/she claims to have. In essence, I get them to take a photo with something of my choosing. For more details, and examples, see
https://www.kirkbymicrowave.co.uk/help-reduce-scams/
Has anyone actually clicked on the link? Does the guy then try to get bank account details or what?
Cheers,
Also very obvious is the horrendous grammar of the scammer. Beware of sellers who cannot construct a proper sentence, hi hi.
Amazon has similar scammers. They will offer a Marketplace price 30-40% lower than retail. In the “Condition Description” of the item, the seller will ask you to send them a message – to an email address, not thru Amazon messaging – and they will “send your name an information to Amazon” to process the order. This seems to be common among particular items that I’ve shopped for, not widespread, but it’s out there. I have reported these listing to Amazon.
To be specific, I’ve noticed the following: the dead giveaway is looking at the”Price History” of an item. For example, a telescope & binocular tripod with a normal retail price of $479.99 will have a Marketplace “Price History” w/ a graphed price showing deep price cuts (e.g., $310, $299, etc.), that last for less than a day. A scammer or scammers tend to hit particular items and the Marketplace seller name changes, but the same “Condition Description” text will read “contact me first … “.
In summary, beware on Amazon too!
One noticed one of the ads just a few days ago. What tipped me off is that it had the option to bid but the ad stated No Bidding. So I figure something was wrong and decided to skip it.
Another Thomas
Correction. I noticed not One noticed.
Another Thomas