Alex Reid

I only used eBay once, so I’m not too familiar with the inner workings and scams out there in eBay-land. But if you use eBay, you should be aware of this scam..

 ..and funny counter-scam done by MyNameIsJeff 

The scam starts with a buyer interested in buying an item via eBay, but suggests using an escrow service. The escrow service is fake and part of the scam. The victim will send the product to the escrow service, never to hear from the scammer or escrow service again. The website of the escrow service will typically go offline after the victim has sent their goods.

Now, this happened to MyNameIsJeff and instead of ignoring the offer, he decided to post it on an online discussion board. After some encouragement from others on the board, he decides to see how far he can take the scammer. During the dialogue, “Jeff” complains to eBay, but isn’t pleased with the response.

When the scammer tells “Jeff” :

Here the duty taxes are 27,5% from the total amount wrote on the package so please do your best and send it as a family gift and with a low value.

Again others on the discussion board suggest:

Put like $8000 on the package and make the f*cker pay $2200 for it. But “Jeff” does it smootly and posts the price a reasonably priced $2100 – which means the scammer (who believes the victim to be innocent) will have to put down a couple hundred in duty taxes to have the item released – and sends him this:   

 

A three-ring binder with glued-on keys from a PC keyboard !! (see this PDF, page 10 for complete pictures)

“Jeff” got nearly the $100 from other faithful on the discussion board needed to FedEx the “laptop” to the scammer in London.

Remember, in the end, the scammer will have to pay three times that to get a product that weighs the same as the Powerbook laptop, rightfully priced at around $2000. With some initial hesitation on the scammer’s side, he/she eventually paid the duty taxes for the “laptop” and was never heard from again.