I have recently tried to sell my car through ebay thinking that it was secure. Now not so sure. Would like to know what other users have found.
My bidder bid exactly my reserve price - no other bids near it. How did he know my reserve?
Putative buyer is in singapore. He sent an email offering to get his shipping agent to arrange payment with a cheque well in excess of bid - I was to clear his cheque and send balance. Clear case of money laundering. He also wanted to have my account details.
I reported the matter to the police who were not in the least surprised as they told me that they have a good number of ebay frauds/money laundering matters to deal with. I was astounded to hear this as I had always believed ebay to be safe enviroment.
Has anyone had similar experience?
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>>Clear case of money laundering.
Not as clear as you think. There is no money laundering, the cheque you would receive is stolen or forged. It will take sufficiently long to clear that you will have already sent the balance before you find out.
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It's a common scam, Google will give you plenty of examples.
Buyer wanted you to transfer excess cash to him by Western Union, right?
Don't even trust Cashiers Cheques or Bankers Drafts until everything has cleared.
Kevin...
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There are a lot of these characters about on Ebay - a right nusance.
I had one on Thursday night - hit 'buy it now' - a Nigerian based in Amsterdam - Western Union etc etc. Its a pain because you have to recover Final Value Fee, relist it etc etc.
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My main concern was that he seemed to have got into ebay and taken the reserve price which is meant to be private/secure.
Has this happened to you?
What other info could he have taken from my sellers file? My bank details?
Yours anxiously
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As long as you bid above the reserve price and no one else bids, you will always pay the reserve price.
Ebay works by allowing you enter your Max and then if someone bids £10 below your Max, you still win (but only after your bid has increased to £9, which is still greater than the other bidder).
If you look in community you will see that few pro sellers bother with reserve price as its a pain to use.
Nothing dodgy here apart from the seller. And the trust of ebay sellers is no better than those in loot, all you can do is only allow uk bidders (and express that in the sale) and ask every new user or anyone with feedback to contact you first)
a look at www.theregister.co.uk for a recent post on dodgy ebay listings and how ebay/police ignore the problem.
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"... ask every new user or anyone with feedback to contact you first ..."
Is there a way to delete bids from bidders you distrust? And perhaps ban them from bidding again?
I've sold a small number of non-motoring items on ebay without problems, but I've not worked out how to delete bids if it ever becomes necessary.
Ian
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"Is there a way to delete bids from bidders you distrust? And perhaps ban them from bidding again?"
Yes, and yes.
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I went to collect some money last week but was told it had already been collected by ?????.
Transaction from son to me.
I have no idea what has allowed this.
They are looking into it.
There appears to be a max £250 limit to liability clause on the back of the collection form. This is worth knowing if transferring emergency funds to gap year offspring.
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How?
Ian
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Thats ebay for you. All the really useful stuff is well hidden from the (novice ?) user. If you go into the help search pages you can find a lot of stuff like countering bids and blocking id's etc. The screens are generally poor with you having to enter the item number and your password etc.
You just have to hunt around, which frankly is a pain and should be made easier. Also try the community boards.
ebay should be doing the above, but I get the feeling that they are a tiny operation (in terms of staff) compared to the number of items they sell. You only get direct help from them if you are a gold seller / power seller.
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I understood that your bids only rose from the minimum/last bid and your bids had to be bid up to a figure (hence the number of people who get friendly bidders to bid up to a reserve). This chap just put in one bid £1000 over the next lowest - exactly my reserve. He was not in a competitive bid situation.
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Hi Lucy
I wouldnt trust E bay for anything over £200 max. I have heard too many bad stories along the lines you describe. The net is not policed and neither is e bay(even though e bay says it is)
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Lucy
The others are right. The 'buyer' did not know your reserve. He just bit, or got others to bid up so he could put a bid in.
If your reserve is say £5000, then the highest bid is £4500, then the "Reserve Not Met" sign will come up.
If the only actual bid above your reserve is then £7500 or more, (this is what the buyer is prepared to bid up to, not what his bid is) then all you'll see is a bid for £5000.
Only if another bidder comes up with a higher bid does this make a difference. If another bidder puts in say £5500, then the first bidder's bid will automatically go to £5600.
So the reserve you set is well hidden from any buyers uless they manage to find your password.
On the subject of the payment, I would suggest you report it immediately to E bays security department and refuse to deal with the buyer until he or she can convince you their intentions are genuine. The wors you'll get is bad feedback, but if you are new to e bay then I would suggest you open a new account and try again, this time making absolutely sure you specify cash on collection or paypal etc.
Hugo
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Thank you for that - but still hideously confused - I hope you are right. Can I get the sale premium back from ebay?
I did report to ebay (several times and several problems - other dodgy buyers try to buy "off screen" for buttons). No email has been substantially replied to just standard automated responses that do you no good. - alarming really when you think of the security issues I had.
I can't say I'll try ebay again. Much more success with the local rags.
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Thank you for that - but still hideously confused - I hope you are right. Can I get the sale premium back from ebay?
Yes you can Lucy.
I haven't done this for some time but you have to inform them of an unpaid item. Last time I had to do this the process was different. Suggest you go onto E bay and go to their help menu and type in 'unpaid item' in the search.
Alternitively you can e mail them and ask for the correct procedure, but they'll probably just direct you to their help facility.
Good luck.
Hugo
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Thanks again - my account is now credited with the fee but would rather have known about these scams before I tried ebay. Would not have gone on it. Feel rather exposed now.
Does anyone have any good ideas for ebay to change their system? e.g. make all car sales UK bidders only (ie UK email and address and bank) unless seller specifically asks for international sale.
Thoughts?
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