Ebay Jeffries, $2000 Buy It Now, Great Opportuniy For The Unwary.

[Chris Ghent]

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-C-Jeffries-anglo-concertina-/221318017940?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item338794f394

 

Seems like he has hijacked a UK seller somehow..?

 

Edited to add, scroll down to see the $2000 price.

Edited November 16, 2013 by Chris Ghent

[Irene S.]

Page no longer available!

[MatthewVanitas]

And back up again, with the very sketchy advice asking bidders to email the seller at gMail....

 

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-C-Jeffries-anglo-concertina-/181263419949?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2a34244a2d

 

 

 

Not to make folks re-hash explanations, but is there any good previous thread explaining why there are constantly fraudulent concertina listings on eBay? I mean I know there are always frauds scattered around, but this seems an unusually constant proportion for such a niche instrument. Did some scammer write a book recommending this as a great con, or is there just one weird nut out there with IP-hopping gear and a fetish for listing fake concertina auctions?

Edited November 17, 2013 by MatthewVanitas

[malcolmbebb]

Didn't look at this particular one, but I have reported a number where the "seller" demands that you email him directly. These have a consistent style and appear to be one person.

 

There have been a couple of UK TV antiques/auction shows with concertinas going for serious money, so much of the public is aware that they can be pricey.

[Don Taylor]

Not to make folks re-hash explanations, but is there any good previous thread explaining why there are constantly fraudulent concertina listings on eBay?

My guess is that it is a very easy scam to pull off. They just need to hack the password for an established eBay seller with good feedback scores and then they can post/sell in that seller's name.

 

The trick is to put all of the details about how to pay inside a .jpg image that looks (at least a bit) like an eBay description. It is fairly difficult for eBay to catch this on the fly. If you look at the hacked seller's other items then they are often high-end articles in all sorts of categories, not just concertinas. We are not that special.

 

Hacking a password when you already know the user name and something about their interests (they run an eBay store after all) is pretty easy. There are many folks who still use '123456' as their password.

 

What surprises me is that these scams are so obvious. With a little more finesse they could make much more credible ads that would probably net them more money. What if the ad was for a reasonable looking Lachenal for $1,000 rather than a rare Jeffries for $1.02? The .jpg's they use are pretty crude too - they could do a much better job of faking an eBay listing.

 

But they only need one or two gullible folks to send them some money by Western Union for the scam to pay off.

 

Don.

Edited November 17, 2013 by Don Taylor

[Stephen Chambers]

I've reported these scams to eBay many times myself, as the same two Jeffries get listed over, and over again. They're pretty obvious once you're familiar with them, and besides - I know for a fact that the William Jeffries one isn't for sale, because it got bought by a well-known Irish player and it's on my work bench at the moment...

[MatthewVanitas]

What surprises me is that these scams are so obvious. With a little more finesse they could make much more credible ads that would probably net them more money. What if the ad was for a reasonable looking Lachenal for $1,000 rather than a rare Jeffries for $1.02? The .jpg's they use are pretty crude too - they could do a much better job of faking an eBay listing.

 

I'd wondered this too about "409" scammers (the "I'm a Nigerian prince fleeing the country and I need to move my secret funds to your bank account and will let you keep half"). You'd think it'd be easy to get someone to do a little proofreading, hash out a credible backstory, etc. Heck, I'm sure you could just hire someone online to write you a turnkey scam campaign.

 

But then I read a pretty intriguing explanation as to why these look so clumsy: the scammers don't want perceptive and critical people, they want to snare the most gullible people humanly possible because that's the pool their eventual victims will come from. Milking money out of the softest suckers requires a lot of hands-on time chatting them up, so the last thing you want is to waste time with hundred of prospective marks who might be gullible enough to get through "phase 1 and 2" but will wise up before getting to the point of actually sending money. If you sent out something that actually looked like a reasonable business venture to 10,000 people, your inbox would be tied up by a couple hundred folks asking for a copy of your business plan and prospectus, what your business registration# is, etc. But if it's blatantly a scam, you only have to deal with a small handful of genuine suckers who didn't catch on from the start.

 

There are different kinds of scams that are more subtle, or require very careful imitation, like "phishing" banking accounts and passwords with the most official looking email you can saying "Problem with your Bank of America account, please click here to log in" and directing them to a scammer-controlled mockup of the BoA site.

 

Some scams require subtlety, but many are deliberately coarse nets to catch only the absolutely fattest of fishes.

Edited November 21, 2013 by MatthewVanitas