What's with all the eBay scams?

[fiveightandten]

I've been looking around for a used MBP and keeping my eye on eBay. Half the auctions up there at any given moment look like complete scams! What gives? I've never seen anything like this before.

Any other reliable sources for a used MBP? I'm looking for a 15"

-Nick

 

[NanoBite]

Yeah, I was looking on eBay last year and wondered about all those new users with zero feedback, who keep pushing up the bids then don't seem to win the item...my advice is forget eBay if you want to buy a Mac.

Have you considered a refurb?

 

[Dillinger-63]

When the PS3 was hot (as in not available) I saw PS3's being bid up to $4000 and $5000 from people with 0 feedback.

 

[Mathiau]

yes, because these people create fake accounts to boost up the bid to make cash, common scam on ebay, what to look for is when the same person basically outbids their own bid upping the price.

 

[cazabam]

I saw an Auction on eBay UK for an iPhone 'for delivery in June' ...

yeah ... right ...

 

[fiveightandten]

Yeah, I was looking on eBay last year and wondered about all those new users with zero feedback, who keep pushing up the bids then don't seem to win the item...my advice is forget eBay if you want to buy a Mac.

Have you considered a refurb?

Yeah, I talked to the guys at the Apple store about the refubs, and saw what they typically have on the website. I thought i'd watch the eBay prices for a while and see what the deal was.


Some of these auctions look like hijacked accounts. It's a legit account that someone gets the password for somehow, and they list like 20 macbooks at the same time for $100 or something. Always in the item description, it says something like "email me at [email protected] for payment and shipping details" ...as to not alert the real account owner of the auction.

I just can't believe that many of them have been up for auction without eBay looking into it. Yesterday I had to flip through ELEVEN pages of scam auctions to find the first real one.

-Nick

 

[dataguy601]

I saw the same thing and opted to buy a refurb macbook from apple....

I cant say enough about how pleased I am with the purchase. The folks at the Apple call center were WONDERFUL to deal with.

I am completely pleased.