FRAUD alert: Meissner prewar 2nd chance offers
 

I just got an eMail from a fellow collector who tells me that he received an "eBay second chance offer" on Gary's Meissner 5" TV, which I offered on eBay last week.

WARNING TO ALL: THIS IS A FRAUD, AS I NEVER SENT ANYONE ANY EBAY SECOND CHANCE OFFERS!!!

As eBay is making this worse, I tried to reply to the fellow collector who alerted me, and eBay blocked my message "because I have no open transactions with that eBay member". And I don't have his eMail address or phone handy to get him otherwise.

Charles

The only way to avoid the continous deluge of 2nd chance offers is to list auctions a "Private". It hides the bidders names so no fake 2nd chance offers can be made. It amazing that the scammers are able to send the offers as they somehow get our email addresses but we cannot do it through eBay as they block it! I have also run into this problem numerous times both on my auctions and ones that I have bid on.

The only problem with doing Private auctions (only private due to bidders names being hidden), is this method is ALSO flawed as it is used by these Scam artists also to hide bidders names so we can't warn other. This does not give much confidence many to think theses auctions are also fake.

I wish I could figure out how our emails were distributed when we bid but we can't seem to get others bidders information. Somehow, the scammers know and this is what I see as the biggest downfall of eBay at the moment. Too many rip-offs trolling for those who are not as wise to the various methods being used to steal your information and your money!

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I've received two of these phishing lures in as many days. The first was shown as being sent by "eBay Offers" and the second by "eBay Warehouse" which, I hope everybody knows, can go into the delete file immediately sight unseen because there is no such thing. Both had identical run-on subject lines: "Buy The Item You Recently Bid On: PREWAR TV Meissner 5" W CABINET 1939 BEAUTY pre war (170037947283)" The only major difference between the two was that the first showed the bid I had placed exactly by amount and time placed and the second did not--in fact, showed a bid amount I had supposedly placed which was erroneous. I don't know if this means there's possibly more than one crook trying to pull this scam on the same auction. It's certainly not outside the realm of possibility, so y'all be careful out there.

I also received the eBay Warehouse offer today for the PREWAR Meissner TV.

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Yes, and ESPECIALLY when a real eBay member eMailed me through eBay messaging and I CANT REPLY to tell him he got a fake that only APPEARED to be on my item!!!!! Dumbest policy since the Supreme Court........ Well, I'd probably offend somebody politically.

Charles

Charles, maybe someone else could email him, since it has locked you out? I would be willing to forward it if you wanted.

Thank you for offering... I was able to get a message to him through another eBayer. It is VERY stupid that eBay selectively cuts some members off from communicating! Steve McVoy had the same thing happen to him when trying to contact another TV collector through eBay last week, and I passed the message on for him because I had the actual eMail address on file.

Charles

More Second Chance Fraudulent offers!
 

Boy, I can appreciate the fraudulent Second Chance offers!

I sold the blonde RCA CTC9A a few days ago, to a collector in France, and I just had the underbidder ask if I sent him a Second Chance offer for another TV. Plus, now the under-underbidder asked how much shipping would be...duh!

I guess ebay will need to do something to stop this type scam. It's a shame since it's now so much easier to offer a Second Chance item if the seller actually has a second item, or if the high bidder asks to rescind his bid.

I'll start posting notices in the ebay Auction Descriptions, asking under-bidders to contact me directly if a Second Chance offer is received. If any seller on AudioKarma has a good/better idea, please post it. We can all use a creative way to stick the scammers!

Harry

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I agree. The only way to make the 2nd chance offer work is if all auctions were Private so no one would know who was bidding as I assume hiding the identity of bidders would certainly put a crimp in the scammer/spammers. This opens up the problem of Shill bidding which becomes another issue :dunno:

It was a good idea but the crooks are always looking to screw it up :dammit:

I wish I had an answer but there will have to be further ID requirements for registering in the future as well as 30 day password change requirements that can only be done via a link on the MY PAGE section to ensure members are keeping there accounts in good standing and checking to make sure no one has been tampering with it.

Not any good answers but various points to ponder as this is really getting out of hand!

Second chance offers have to be the dumbest thing for eBay. I did bid on Gary's Meissner but I never received any second chance offers after the auction. I guess my $4,500 bid wasn't good enough for the scammers!!!! ha ha. :D

The greatest pieve I have on eBay is that a buyer often never gets to know the name and address of the seller if using PayPal. I often have to request member info to get some idea from whom I buying. That's a down right stupid system. If I'm going to put my contact info and money on the line I EXPECT the seller to do the same. Maybe the smartest thing to happen to eBay would be if Google bought them up! :scratch2:

Although this thread is a bit drifting, I wrote it so I will be the guilty one to continue to set it astray. I have to agree with the remarks about eBay becoming a less friendly place to do business in the last several months. Biggest gripe being this new policy of blocking messages among eBayers. Heck; I never bothered to write down any info on any of the people with whom I have traded. All I do is download and save the auction page in Acrobat. I figured that any time I wanted to talk to an eBay friend, I'd just pull up the item from Acrobat and send him/her a "Message From Ebay Member". I thought I was being smart, because people change eMail addresses and phones all the time. But eBay usernames are pretty stable, and they keep continuity in case the user changes usernames. Well, that's no longer any use at all. Now all we can do is search to see if that eBay friend is selling anything. If not, no contact allowed :no: ...

And the feedback system is also very flawed. Case in point; My ONLY THREE NEGATIVES are from clowns who joined eBay, committed misconduct, and were promptly expelled. BUT their legacy remains in mine and plenty of others' feedback. eBay should immediately wipe all feedback left by expelled users.

And as Tom Ryan points out, the full name, phone number, and address should be shown on all eBay Winning Bid Notices. I have only been stiffed a couple times on small items, so I guess I'm lucky. At least when I weigh those experiences against the 2000-odd good experiences I have had on eBay.



Charles

The third one just arrived, this time shown as coming from an AOL email account with the sender's (real?) name shown. This one was forwarded to eBay quickest of all!