What's up with the "cheap" PowerBooks on ebay?

[Jeffrey S. Long]

I've noticed several 15" and 17" PowerBooks on eBay with Buy It Now
prices of around $1000. The auctions are closed to private bidders.
One 17" PowerBook even came with a 23" cinema display, Buy It Now for
$1000. Out of curiosity, I emailed one of the sellers and asked to be
added to the list of authorized bidders. I received an email back in
broken English from someone who claimed to be from Spain who had
gotten the computer from customs, but couldn't sell it due to tax
regulations. Another weird thing was that he wanted a Western Union
transfer to a third party, not directly to him.

Anyone else investigated these auctions or have any thoughts? I'm
definitely steering clear, but I'm just wondering what's going on.

Jeff

[Pat Janes]

In article <69cd9a1c.0308262106.729279b6@posting.google.com>,
gottmusik@hotmail.com (Jeffrey S. Long) wrote:

> I received an email back in
> broken English from someone who claimed to be from Spain who had
> gotten the computer from customs, but couldn't sell it due to tax
> regulations. Another weird thing was that he wanted a Western Union
> transfer to a third party, not directly to him.
>
> Anyone else investigated these auctions or have any thoughts? I'm
> definitely steering clear, but I'm just wondering what's going on.

Scam. Ask him if he'll do 3rd-party escrow.

[mbenson]

Like ZZTop sang,
"I wouldn't touch it with a ten foot pole"
--
Mitchell Benson
OKC Backup
405.728.7005
"Jeffrey S. Long" <gottmusik@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:69cd9a1c.0308262106.729279b6@posting.google.c om...
> I've noticed several 15" and 17" PowerBooks on eBay with Buy It Now
> prices of around $1000. The auctions are closed to private bidders.
> One 17" PowerBook even came with a 23" cinema display, Buy It Now for
> $1000. Out of curiosity, I emailed one of the sellers and asked to be
> added to the list of authorized bidders. I received an email back in
> broken English from someone who claimed to be from Spain who had
> gotten the computer from customs, but couldn't sell it due to tax
> regulations. Another weird thing was that he wanted a Western Union
> transfer to a third party, not directly to him.
>
> Anyone else investigated these auctions or have any thoughts? I'm
> definitely steering clear, but I'm just wondering what's going on.
>
> Jeff

[Don Cooper]

mbenson wrote:

> Like ZZTop sang,
> "I wouldn't touch it with a ten foot pole"


As Peter Jennings once said, "I'll get out my eleven foot pole for that one".


Don

[ScotFraser]

<< I received an email back in
broken English from someone who claimed to be from Spain who had
gotten the computer from customs, but couldn't sell it due to tax
regulations. Another weird thing was that he wanted a Western Union
transfer to a third party, not directly to him. >>

Sounds like the Nigerian member of royalty millions in escrow scam all over
again.


Scott Fraser

[WarrGo]

Maybe someone should report this to Ebay.

Warren

[Ben Bradley]

In rec.audio.pro, gottmusik@hotmail.com (Jeffrey S. Long) wrote:

>I've noticed several 15" and 17" PowerBooks on eBay with Buy It Now
>prices of around $1000. The auctions are closed to private bidders.
>One 17" PowerBook even came with a 23" cinema display, Buy It Now for
>$1000. Out of curiosity, I emailed one of the sellers and asked to be
>added to the list of authorized bidders. I received an email back in
>broken English from someone who claimed to be from Spain who had
>gotten the computer from customs, but couldn't sell it due to tax
>regulations. Another weird thing was that he wanted a Western Union
>transfer to a third party, not directly to him.

This is surely a hijacked ebay account. Look at feedback, then look
at the auctions that the feedback refers to (presuming the most recent
feedback is about closed actions whose info is still available on ebay
- the auction number will be a link to the auction page). Recent
(shill?) feedback might be on powerbooks auctions, but further back is
the real owner of the ebay ID selling something like beanie babies.
The Beanie seller (along with thousands of other random email
addresses) got an email "from ebay" saying he needed to re-log-in, so
he did and the scammer got his ebay ID, and is now selling powerbooks
with that ID.

>Anyone else investigated these auctions or have any thoughts? I'm
>definitely steering clear, but I'm just wondering what's going on.

Which ones are they? I see this one (there may be others, but I
think I found out enough about this one, and I'm up too late anyway):

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2748953324&category=14909
"BRAND NEW!! 17" PowerBook G4 with SuperDrive!" started at $1000, has
10 bids and is at $2,425.
for sale by techies13. This seller only registered July 26, one month
ago, and has a rating of only 2, but 100 percent positive feedback.

Here is the feedback:
http://cgi2.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewFeedback&userid=techies13
He was actually a BUYER for those two transactions! This is is first
ebay auction as a seller, and he's auctioning a laptop that's going
for over two grand!

So what did techies13 buy in his first two auctions?
http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItemWithCategory&item=3041420631
"PLAYSTATION 2 DUAL SHOCK 2 CONTROLLER NEW" 1 bid, $1 + $8 shipping.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=37629&item=2336868863
"Similac Advance Power and Ready to Feed" infant formula, 1 bid,
$12.99 + (unknown) shipping.

So either this techies13 person has spent about $25 on ebay and got
a two point rating and is now selling his powerbook for $2425...
.... or ...
his ebay ID was phished in recent weeks (he got an email "from ebay"
directing him to an ebay-look-alike website where he "logged in",
giving the scammer his ID and password) and a scammer is selling a
non-existent powerbook for $2425.

By far the most amazing and unbelievable part is the powerbook got
10 bids, from $1000 to $2425, for a seller who has spent a total of
about $25 on ebay. Who are these bidders willing to give a grand to
someone whose total ebay investment has been $25? They haven't done
jack for research on the seller, and there's every reason to stay away
from this auction, even if this is NOT a phished ebay ID.

I woldn't touch this seller with a four-meter pole...

>Jeff

[Ben Bradley]

In rec.audio.pro, gottmusik@hotmail.com (Jeffrey S. Long) wrote:

>I've noticed several 15" and 17" PowerBooks on eBay with Buy It Now
>prices of around $1000. The auctions are closed to private bidders.
>One 17" PowerBook even came with a 23" cinema display,

I wanted to find the exact auction you were writing about so I did
a search on cinema display powerbook, got a hit, clicked on it and
got:

Invalid Item

The item you requested ( 2749858264 ) is invalid, still pending, or no
longer in our database. Please check the number and try again. If this
message persists, the item has either not started and is not yet
available for viewing, or has expired and is no longer available.

Doing the search again got nothing. There WAS such an auction ( I
saw where bidding started at $1,500), but it got deleted just after my
search...

>Anyone else investigated these auctions or have any thoughts? I'm
>definitely steering clear, but I'm just wondering what's going on.



>Jeff

[Jeffrey S. Long]

I've noticed that, as you said, the auction has been yanked off ebay.
A couple others have too. My most recent encounter was a guy who had
37 PowerBooks in Rochester, NY. Looked more legit than the others; he
didn't require an authorization to be able to bid. So I emailed the
guy and asked him, and I got the same type of email...send a WU
transfer to my wife, etc. Shady, shady, shady.

J