E-bay second chance scammer
 

Watch out for this one if you lose out in an e-bay auction.

I was second highest bidder on a set of Brembo monobloc calipers a few days ago. Last night I got a "second chance" e-mail as the deal had supposedly not worked out with the highest bidder. For a while I was just a bit excited.

After accepting, I was asked by "e-bay" to pay by Western Union. Oh oh, scam alert! :flame: It was someone pretending to be the original seller, with a different name, e-mail address and who lived in a different country. He even told me to tell Western Union I was sending money to a relative. I imagine that would be where Western Union would warn me it is a scam!

I asked him for his phone number so that my "brother" who, strangely enough, lives just up the road from his address could collect the calipers. It turned out "the seller" was deaf and couldn't use the phone. When my "brother" was in the street where he allegedly lives, complete with college course in sign language he stopped replying! :D

He was even using a second account to spoof e-bay telling me that it was all legitimate, at the same time. Seems e-bay uses a Yahoo account too.

I am sure the original sale was legitimate and the highest bidder is happy with a bargain set of monoblocs, and this had nothing to do with the original seller. Just somebody taking advantage, so watch out if you almost win something on e-bay.

Good warning Mike - glad you were sharp at spotting the scam.

How did he contact you? Simply via the 'contact a member' option or something more deliberate.

I'd like to say it was worth dropping Ebay a line but they seem to be getting worse.

Frank

Yes, I forwarded it all to e-bay and got the standard "recorded message" e-mail reply.

He sent a regular e-mail and then "informed" e-bay that I had agreed. I then received a spoofed e-bay e-mail telling me to use Western Union and I realised right away it was a hoax as e-bay keep saying to never use WU to transfer money.

Had me going until then. A used set of 1 piece monoblocs and a radial pump for UKP560 is a real bargain. Unfortunately someone else got them.