Ducati Sporting Club UK > General > Idle Chat > Scam busting idea ???

[Jools]

I'm getting a bit fed up scanning down the Dukes that I can't afford on eBay and seeing the number of scammers at work.

At the moment there are two dodgy looking bikes on eBay. The 2004 999 and the 1000SS (although I haven't checked today so that might have changed - there could be more).

I'm fed up with trying to be public spirited and trying to report them to eBay, cos their feedback email to report these things never seems to work, so I have an idea, but I need the help of someone more eBay savvy than I am.

So the idea...

Since we, as a group, are much more knowledgable than Joe Public in being able to spot bikes that don't look right, instead of putting in bids of £1,000,000 to deter scammers what is to stop one or several of us putting a £0.01 item up for sale with a title that says something like...

"Today's scams on the Ducati auction page(s) are..."

Then go on to put the titles of the scam items and their ID number

It might trap a few genuine sellers along with scammers, but then they should've been a bit more careful wording their ad shouldn't they? Might make people a bit more circumspect if they're trying to shift anything with dodgy credentials.

Drawbacks are that I've never sold anything on eBay, so I don't know the score.

I wouldn't want to pay anything
I wouldn't want to get hate mail from scammers

So what's to stop anyone doing this? Exorbitant listing fees or what?

Maybe if there's the odd listing fee to pay, could a daily scam busting filter be a service offered (and paid for) by the DSC to stop potential future members being royally shafted? We could even set up a scambuster@ducatisportingclub.com email node to act as a hate mail dustbin?

And of course we could put in something like..."This is a public service bought to you by the DSC"

What do you think?

[uncle porry]

bloody good idea in theory, am sure theres some knowlegable peeps on here who could sort it....

[Ray]

This problem isn't just limited to Ducati, a dodgy looking Honda currently has a bid of £100k on it, probably for the same reason.

Can you imagine how hacked someone is gonna be if you get it wrong.

Far better to make the bullets for someone else to fire.

Ebay should sort this out or pressure should be brought to bare so that they do. Time to call watchdog?? MCN picked up on it in this or last weeks rag.
Might even produce a biking story where bikers are seen as the victims rather than the perpetrators of mayhem, death and destruction!!

Ray

Ray

[uncle porry]

bikers, victims ? never.......

[MarkyMark76]

Yesterday someone had done as suggested on a BMW bike that was posted. Format was very much the same as you see for the dukes. Location in London being sold by someone with 0 feedback. Daft prices and lots of people bidding.

The dude in question changed his username to 'thisisascam' and then bid 100,000GBP. A day later he retracts the bid with the comment "THIS IS A SCAM". Seemed to do the trick as the posting is not listed any more and it had three days left to run!!

[MarkyMark76]

Heres another one. There are actually 7 bikes (honda only) with bids of over 100,000GBP ! ! !

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...95239 95&rd=1

Seems the same person has made all the bids over 100,000GBP! ! ! ! Good man.

In summary, bikes with over 100,000 bid -

7 x Honda
2 x hyabusa
1 x GSXR (1000)
1 x ZX 12 R

I got bored after that but you get the idea....

[Edited on 21-5-2004 by MarkyMark76]

[Edited on 21-5-2004 by MarkyMark76]

[Felix]

Jools, do a search for Ducati, 0.01 pounds or less and you find this:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...95077 09&rd=1

Other people are sick of this crap as well, it seems.

[antonye]

Quick tip - DON'T bid overly stupid amounts on the bikes, as this is a dead giveaway that it's a fake bid.

Put your bid in at slightly over the retail price, eg £20,000

That way people will keep bidding on it but never win it, and the conman won't get too suspicious that your bid is obviously fake!

[crm250]

Or play the scammers at thier own game !! these guys got it just right.
http://www.mannequin3d.com/powerbook/

Takes a bit of reading into but well worth it