Ebay’s main problem-Fake goods
A friend of mine bought an iPhone 3GS a few weeks ago on Ebay, this guy would have saved long and hard for this.
Phone duly arrived and its a fake- €800 down the drain.
This is a huge problem for Ebay at the moment, the fakers will always have good reviews as they have numerous accounts where they sell very cheap items $4-6 and act like the perfect seller.
They then push out 20 fake phones and clear $15,000.
The Irish Examiner has a story on this with golfers being duped out of millions on a fake club scam.
“Fake golf clubs and other goods worth millions of euro were sold to eBay customers around the world in the largest fraud of its kind, a court has heard.One account One received £73,000 (about €80,000) in just a month”
This is Ebay’s largest challenges, I don’t want to buy a bockberry nor a ziphone and neither do any of Ebay’s potential purchasers.
Fake Risk Zero = (Feedback+PayPal)
Doug, did you not read the post or the link
fake good are there in huge numbers already
Only buy where you have Paypal fraud protection offered. Feedback can be bogus. My tips to buy safely on Ebay:
- Look for seller mistakes, When looking for a new phone I read specs, description. If I see something like “iphone unlocked to work on Tmobile, ATT and Verizon” I know its a fake. iPhone won’t work on CDMA.
- Look at pics. If they don’t look original, drop it.
- Email seller. Always always email seller mostly when not dealing in the US. Use the “ask a question to seller button”. No answer: stay away.
- Back track reviews: reviews are not anonymous. Choose a reviewer in your neighborhood, go to his ebay page and ask him a question about the transaction. No reply: he is a fake or he will say he never posted the said review. Buyer beware.
If you follow those basic rules you minimize chances of being scr*w*d.
One last thing. It is very important to report bad sellers if you have been fooled. Not reporting is a form of complicity.
Pat, if any more of your friends want a neverlocked iPhone, feel free to refer them to me and they’ll have no fear of getting a fake.
There are two misconceptions about Ebay. FIrst that One that Paypal has your back and that two tha Ebay does the minimal amount of fraud policing .
I just gander at Ebay. There are numerous Motorola headphones where are clearly fake being sold on Ebay. Ebay is doing ZERO policing. They are basically stealing from Hundreds of Millions from American consumer hand over fist. Before I knew about this vast trade in fake merchanise, I bought a Motorola headset for a friend. She used it and just thought it was bad quality. Not until I learned recently that these fakes were such good copies and what to watch for.
Second, I recently had a paypal dispute concerning a lost package. Let me tell you, I was very **Shocked** that PayPal immediately closed out the dispute in favor of the shipper when he showed them he had a USPS deliverly number. This was totally bogus as USPS does not guarantee delivery unless you pay extra for signauture delivery or pay for insurance.
The point being that a very educated persistent conumer will get his money back (maybe), 95% of the consumers will just eat it on Ebay and move on either in ignorance or though frustration.
Its really a disgrace to think that this still is capable of going on. And yet it is so hard to tell the difference thanks to posts like this at least we can say we all have been warned..! Thanks Pat
I agree Ebay should be sued for billions! They do NOTHING!
I no longer buy any goods form ebay because there is so much made in china crap on there!
well i don’t see why you are all crying out loud. It’s fake? Who cares return it. You might have paid the cheap price well cheap price goes with the quality. Why are you buying on ebay for something you want new just to save a few $ ? Anyway Ebay right now with their new policies which i doubt any of you ever read.
They are always in the favor of the buyer. I sold an item and 43 days later the buyer didn’t want it anymore so he asked a refund… Soo frustrating Ebay didn’t care of my policies of 7 days return policies and refunds him right away. Worst i got back the item broken by poor package from the buyer What does ebay says to that? Not their damn problem contact the post office. So **** you all of you buyers who are complaining You just don’t know how to get your money back that’s all bunch of lazy american! You can’t get scammed anymore it’s impossible unless you are too stupid to make a complain or move
i sold a fake phone .. made 240 quid after registered shipping . I sent it from thailand . what the hell can they do about it . there is no international law . ok i have broken the law in thailand but uk .. no sale made outside country .. hard lines …. going to sell another 1 now