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Swarovski Binoculars on Ebay (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter JCJ
- Start date
The guy is from Romania and says there all nib with a international warrenty, in other words gray. This sounds even cheap for grey doesn't it.He wants me to send payment western union.How can you find info on someone like this and know weather to buy or not, because if I knew he was legit I would buy several pair, grey or not.
simon
Well-known member
Personnally i would be very very suspicious about this especially if he is insisting on Western union transfer. Below is an extract from ebays payment types page on the pitfalls of using this type of payment system
eBay does not recommend the use of instant cash wire transfer services. While sellers may offer this option, they cannot require you to pay this way. If you suspect a seller is trying to commit fraud by insisting on payment through an instant cash wire transfer, please decline to use it and report the seller to eBay.
Risks:
* Difficult to identify and designate recipient.
* Not traceable.
* Generally, no recourse is available if the item is not delivered as promised, even if you used your credit card to send the payment.
* Not covered by the eBay’s Standard Purchase Protection Programme.
If this trader is insisting on Western transfer i would contact ebay and ask them to clarify the authenticity of the member/ articles for sale, what sort of feedback score does the trader have? I have watched these "too good to be true " offers before and many have been pulled by ebay before the end of the auction
eBay does not recommend the use of instant cash wire transfer services. While sellers may offer this option, they cannot require you to pay this way. If you suspect a seller is trying to commit fraud by insisting on payment through an instant cash wire transfer, please decline to use it and report the seller to eBay.
Risks:
* Difficult to identify and designate recipient.
* Not traceable.
* Generally, no recourse is available if the item is not delivered as promised, even if you used your credit card to send the payment.
* Not covered by the eBay’s Standard Purchase Protection Programme.
If this trader is insisting on Western transfer i would contact ebay and ask them to clarify the authenticity of the member/ articles for sale, what sort of feedback score does the trader have? I have watched these "too good to be true " offers before and many have been pulled by ebay before the end of the auction
solentbirder
Well-known member
Don't buy from anyone who asks for Western Union wire transfer - period. This is the favourite transaction medium of the internet scammer.
xenophobe
Well-known member
THEIF!
He is hi-jacking people's accounts. This same seller has used at least 4 different Ebay IDs, the first whom I contacted said his account is hi-jacked, and has had auctions cancelled by ebay on more than a few occassions.
DO NOT SEND THIS GUY MONEY!
There is a reason he has an email listed in the auction, it is because he wants you to email him there, instead of using the "send a message to seller" button, which he will not receive.
$700 for grey market? Riiiight. You're not going to save $1000 from going to non-authorized imports. It's a SCAM. Plain and simple.
He is hi-jacking people's accounts. This same seller has used at least 4 different Ebay IDs, the first whom I contacted said his account is hi-jacked, and has had auctions cancelled by ebay on more than a few occassions.
DO NOT SEND THIS GUY MONEY!
There is a reason he has an email listed in the auction, it is because he wants you to email him there, instead of using the "send a message to seller" button, which he will not receive.
$700 for grey market? Riiiight. You're not going to save $1000 from going to non-authorized imports. It's a SCAM. Plain and simple.
Definite Scam!
I almost bought a pair of Swarovski EL 8x32's from a guy that I had bid on his auction and lost. He offered me a second chance offer and sent me this e-mail that looked like it came from E-bay but actually it was a scam. It said that the purchase was guaranteed by E-bay. The tip off is they always want you to pay Western Union. NEVER BUY ANYTHING ON E-BAY WITH WESTERN UNION. Once you send the money they take your money and run! I guarantee it. Your safest paying with Paypal I believe because they have to be a member to receive your money and there is an electronic paper trail. This guy selling Swarovski's is a scammer! I think his auction is already shut down.
Dennis
xenophobe said:
I almost bought a pair of Swarovski EL 8x32's from a guy that I had bid on his auction and lost. He offered me a second chance offer and sent me this e-mail that looked like it came from E-bay but actually it was a scam. It said that the purchase was guaranteed by E-bay. The tip off is they always want you to pay Western Union. NEVER BUY ANYTHING ON E-BAY WITH WESTERN UNION. Once you send the money they take your money and run! I guarantee it. Your safest paying with Paypal I believe because they have to be a member to receive your money and there is an electronic paper trail. This guy selling Swarovski's is a scammer! I think his auction is already shut down.
Dennis
Curtis Croulet
Well-known member
JCJ: You know the old American expression, "If it sounds too good to be true, it is." That applies in this case. Grey market can knock a couple of hundred dollars off the regular US price, but it can't take a $1700 EL down to $700.
xenophobe
Well-known member
[email protected] said:
I scan ebay several times a day for various items. He has had auctions from at least 4 different screen names cancelled. I've had the "Second Chance Offer" scam, where the email is just a regular "message from a member" stating to accept his offer. It's pretty easy to spot that one.
There is a new scam... one that involves a US citizen working for an overseas internet company... A foriegn auctioneer runs a US auction, gets payment sent to the US citizen (who has absolutely no ties or knowledge of the auction), who deposits/cashes the payment into their US account, then keep 10% of the check and sends the remaining funds off to wherever. This is the company: http://www.neolic.com/ The people this company hires right off their web site do not initally know they are part of a fraud scheme.
Someone on a guitar forum I frequent was ripped off for $1235 in this manner, and it appears as no government agency, either local, state or federal, including the FBI and Internet Fraud Complaint Center are interested in doing anything about it. They don't even know what to do at this point.
Be careful, and remember Credit Card through PayPal is the safest way to pay for an auction item.
Yep, remeber that lots of good feedback isn't a guarantee these days. Account hijacking has become more common... look to see when the good feedback was, if there's a big time gap between the good feedback and the 'suspect' item listed, then alarm bells should be sounding.
cheers,
Andy
cheers,
Andy
Robert L Jarvis
Robert L Jarvis
Apart from the fraud angle, I would not buy any sort of optic on ebay without being able to see it and who I was dealing with.
Rob Smallwood
Well-known member
Just to add some balance - I have both bought and sold a few optics via ebay and have never had a bad experience and (hopefully) neither have my "customers".
Having said that - I agree most of the the warnings above -especially regarding payment methods.
Whilst there are some "bad apples" around, it is unfair to tar everyone with the same brush.
Having said that - I agree most of the the warnings above -especially regarding payment methods.
Whilst there are some "bad apples" around, it is unfair to tar everyone with the same brush.
Last edited:
Robert L Jarvis said:
There are a few dealers on the UK FleaBay site who specialise in optics, and seem trustworthy. But the prices are as high as a 'bricks and mortar' dealer. I would prefer to use a dealer, and get a 6 month or 1 year warranty, and the assurance that I can check the collimation and condition before laying down some readies. Even better, buy via BF from someone with a history of birding related posts.
Leif
Pinewood
New York correspondent
ebay is so prone to problems that I have not bought anything in more than a year. I sold two items, six months, ago, and I have had no more dealings with it.
One of the great difficulties I have with ebay is that there is nobody there. I recenty forwarded to them an email, apparently from ebay, asking me to verify my account information. There were two immediate problems with the email: it was dated a year, ago, and it was not sent to my email address of record with ebay. After going through their site for fifteen minutes, I found an address to send such solicitations. It has been a month and I have not received even an acknowledgement.
Happy bird watching,
Arthur Pinewood
One of the great difficulties I have with ebay is that there is nobody there. I recenty forwarded to them an email, apparently from ebay, asking me to verify my account information. There were two immediate problems with the email: it was dated a year, ago, and it was not sent to my email address of record with ebay. After going through their site for fifteen minutes, I found an address to send such solicitations. It has been a month and I have not received even an acknowledgement.
Happy bird watching,
Arthur Pinewood
Pinewood said:
It is hardly surprising that EBay is making a fortune. They charge quite a bit to list an item, and then many people won't take a cheque (too long to clear) so you have to use PayPal (an Ebay company), and they take a rather large percentage of the sale price as a fee (more than most if not all credit cards).
It seems to me that they do not take fraud and security seriously especially given the huge profits they are making.
Having said that, it's still a useful site, and it's possible to get some items at bargain prices.
Leif
xenophobe
Well-known member
There are plenty of people there, they even have a Customer Service number. They don't publish it for obvious reasons.
As for this original post, the same theif has gone through a number, probably 2 dozen different accounts trying to scam people. It's absolutely horrible. eBay can't do anything, because when they shut this guy down, he just uses another account.
At least his tactics have remained unchanged, and you can almost always spot his auctions.
Any auction with an email posted in the auction saying to contact them there is probably BS. Only use the "contact seller" feature on the site to make sure that any particular auction is legitimate.
As for this original post, the same theif has gone through a number, probably 2 dozen different accounts trying to scam people. It's absolutely horrible. eBay can't do anything, because when they shut this guy down, he just uses another account.
At least his tactics have remained unchanged, and you can almost always spot his auctions.
Any auction with an email posted in the auction saying to contact them there is probably BS. Only use the "contact seller" feature on the site to make sure that any particular auction is legitimate.
Just have to be careful!
You just have to be careful on E-bay. Use common sense and pay with Paypal. Where could you pick up a brand new pair of Zeiss 10x42FL's with warranty and all the accessories for $900.00. They are perfect and absolutely mint. Retail is $1550.00. E-bay is great IF you are careful!
Dennis
You just have to be careful on E-bay. Use common sense and pay with Paypal. Where could you pick up a brand new pair of Zeiss 10x42FL's with warranty and all the accessories for $900.00. They are perfect and absolutely mint. Retail is $1550.00. E-bay is great IF you are careful!
Dennis
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