- Jan 22, 2007
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WARNING: in recent years eBay has been targeted by fraudsters who list insanely cheap, popular items that of course don't exist. One such example was the following, for a Samsung SSD (this link is now defunct, but I'll leave it here because eBay can check their archive):
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=282014623558
Title: "AAA Samsung 512GB 850 PRO SSD Internal SATA III Solid State Drive 2.5" Black"
I have seen this type of scam before; they are called Long Scams, ie. where someone builds up a positive-sounding reputation over time that can then be used to commit fraud. I talked to eBay about these scams extensively in 2014/5 (there were hundreds on the site at one point), but alas they have not yet implemented my suggestions for preventing such scams. I contacted ebay again on 07/Jul/2016 and received a more positive response, so I hope something can be done. Please, more people need to complain, make a noise! Contact ebay and demand they take action. eBay needs to feel the pressure to prevent this kind of blatant fraud, and it is very easy for them to fix as I told them before (simple parameter matching of their own trending data and seller feedback profile).
As ever with any sale, if it sounds too good to be true, it usually is! The above example was for a Samsung 850 Pro 512GB for only 20.50 UKP with free shipping, with dozens available. Who would think this was genuine?? But almost sixty people bought them in just a single day (6 more in the time it took me to write my initial post here). The scammers are clever, they begin the listing when eBay's live customer help contacts go offline (out of business hours, usually at the start of the weekend), so it can be days before anyone even notices what's going on. And this is just one example I've found, there are likely other fake items on eBay, probably things like Z170/X99 boards, GTX 900 series GPUs, Skylake CPUs, top-end SSDs, etc. Anything really popular at any moment in time. It's probably happening for all sorts of other items aswell (not just computer parts), eg. popular jewelry, hifi, watches, car parts, etc., but I only come across the listings mentioned here because tech is what I look for. I should imagine non-UK eBay sites are also affected.
Don't fall for these scams!! Spread the word!
Though the scam listings always adopt the same approach (overly cheap, new items in high-demand), they differ in the tell-tale signs relating to the seller's account feedback profile.
These are the signs common to all such listings:
1. The listed item cost is incredibly cheap, far too good to be true (typically between 10% and 20% of what the normal price for the item would be). The item is always someting that is currently very popular and in high-demand, the latest in whatever technology sector, usually PC components. One example was an i7 4790K listing, though in recent months the most common items have been Samsung Pro-series consumer SSDs.
2. The item will always be new.
3. The seller will often have multiple listings for the same item, each described as having many available; in this case, the other item numbers are 282014628312, 282014628792, 282014623125, 282014628568 and 282014627386. All of these are scams. These types of listings appeal to buyers who don't or won't think too much about what it is they're buying. Other listings, perhaps those with the Type 2 feedback profile described below, target those who might be more suspicious but are persuaded to buy on the spot because the quantity available is instead rather low, perhaps less than ten (and there may be just one listing from a particular seller); this appeals to the sense people can have of not wanting to lose out on a bargain (what happens is the listing is simply repeated immediately once the low quantity is sold out). I'm not sure yet if there's a correlation between listing quantity and feedback profile type.
4. If the multiple listings include what appear to be real pictures of the item, every listing will actually use the same pictures. Other listings use stock images.
5. The seller has a 'reasonable' sounding 100% feedback rating, usually in the low to mid tens, but never more than a hundred, ie. what might one regard as a believable novice level user.
The above are features all such listings have in common. Where they differ is in the nature of ther feedback profile. The first type will be as follows:
Type 1
1. Their feedback page as a seller is empty.
2. Their feedback page as a buyer shows dozens of purchases for items which are either not accessible, have no description or occured many months or more than a year earlier.
3. The sellers from whom they have supposedly bought items in #2 above all have very high feedback ratings, typically in the tens or hundreds of thousands. The feedback list will never show any sellers with normal-sounding feedback ratings, with values one might typically expect to see of real sellers, ie. a spread of numbers including tens, hundreds, or low thousands. Instead, the sellers in question only appear to sell very low value items with peculiar descriptions. Scammers use these seller accounts (real or otherwise) to build up moderate 100% feedback ratings by buying a few dozen items that cost virtually nothing (or the seller accounts in question are also fake, I'm not sure; I suspect they may be able to create fake accounts directly).
4. The sellers often have obscure location descriptions, such as, "UK, United Kingdom", ie. no mention of town or county.
The other kind of feedback profile is as follows (currently, item 201616650064 for an 840 Pro 512GB is a typical example, though at some point this listing will vanish since I've reported it to eBay, so I'll add pics later):
Type 2
1. Their feedback page as a buyer is empty.
2. Their feedback page as a seller shows dozens of sales for completely unrelated items, occuring months or more than a year earlier, and are often the same repeat item listing. Checking an individual listing (if possible) will often show a feedback comment from a buyer that doesn't match the listing. These are likely fake transactions which are used merely to build up a moderate 100% feedback rating, ie. no actual goods or money changed hands.
3. The buyers to whom they have supposedly sold items in #2 above all have very low feedback ratings, typically zero. As with Type 1 feedback profiles, the feedback list will never show any buyers with normal-sounding feedback ratings, with values one might typically expect to see of real sellers, ie. a spread of numbers including tens, hundreds, or low thousands.
4. I don't know yet if this is another correlation, but the listing is often outside the UK (in the example above, China).
These indicators could easily be the basis of listings analysis code used by eBay to automatically detect and either suspend or immediately take down such items (and suspend suspect accounts pending enquiry), but they've not done this yet. Hence, until they do, be on your guard!
Yours,
Ian Mapleson BSc.
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=282014623558
Title: "AAA Samsung 512GB 850 PRO SSD Internal SATA III Solid State Drive 2.5" Black"
I have seen this type of scam before; they are called Long Scams, ie. where someone builds up a positive-sounding reputation over time that can then be used to commit fraud. I talked to eBay about these scams extensively in 2014/5 (there were hundreds on the site at one point), but alas they have not yet implemented my suggestions for preventing such scams. I contacted ebay again on 07/Jul/2016 and received a more positive response, so I hope something can be done. Please, more people need to complain, make a noise! Contact ebay and demand they take action. eBay needs to feel the pressure to prevent this kind of blatant fraud, and it is very easy for them to fix as I told them before (simple parameter matching of their own trending data and seller feedback profile).
As ever with any sale, if it sounds too good to be true, it usually is! The above example was for a Samsung 850 Pro 512GB for only 20.50 UKP with free shipping, with dozens available. Who would think this was genuine?? But almost sixty people bought them in just a single day (6 more in the time it took me to write my initial post here). The scammers are clever, they begin the listing when eBay's live customer help contacts go offline (out of business hours, usually at the start of the weekend), so it can be days before anyone even notices what's going on. And this is just one example I've found, there are likely other fake items on eBay, probably things like Z170/X99 boards, GTX 900 series GPUs, Skylake CPUs, top-end SSDs, etc. Anything really popular at any moment in time. It's probably happening for all sorts of other items aswell (not just computer parts), eg. popular jewelry, hifi, watches, car parts, etc., but I only come across the listings mentioned here because tech is what I look for. I should imagine non-UK eBay sites are also affected.
Don't fall for these scams!! Spread the word!
Though the scam listings always adopt the same approach (overly cheap, new items in high-demand), they differ in the tell-tale signs relating to the seller's account feedback profile.
These are the signs common to all such listings:
1. The listed item cost is incredibly cheap, far too good to be true (typically between 10% and 20% of what the normal price for the item would be). The item is always someting that is currently very popular and in high-demand, the latest in whatever technology sector, usually PC components. One example was an i7 4790K listing, though in recent months the most common items have been Samsung Pro-series consumer SSDs.
2. The item will always be new.
3. The seller will often have multiple listings for the same item, each described as having many available; in this case, the other item numbers are 282014628312, 282014628792, 282014623125, 282014628568 and 282014627386. All of these are scams. These types of listings appeal to buyers who don't or won't think too much about what it is they're buying. Other listings, perhaps those with the Type 2 feedback profile described below, target those who might be more suspicious but are persuaded to buy on the spot because the quantity available is instead rather low, perhaps less than ten (and there may be just one listing from a particular seller); this appeals to the sense people can have of not wanting to lose out on a bargain (what happens is the listing is simply repeated immediately once the low quantity is sold out). I'm not sure yet if there's a correlation between listing quantity and feedback profile type.
4. If the multiple listings include what appear to be real pictures of the item, every listing will actually use the same pictures. Other listings use stock images.
5. The seller has a 'reasonable' sounding 100% feedback rating, usually in the low to mid tens, but never more than a hundred, ie. what might one regard as a believable novice level user.
The above are features all such listings have in common. Where they differ is in the nature of ther feedback profile. The first type will be as follows:
Type 1
1. Their feedback page as a seller is empty.
2. Their feedback page as a buyer shows dozens of purchases for items which are either not accessible, have no description or occured many months or more than a year earlier.
3. The sellers from whom they have supposedly bought items in #2 above all have very high feedback ratings, typically in the tens or hundreds of thousands. The feedback list will never show any sellers with normal-sounding feedback ratings, with values one might typically expect to see of real sellers, ie. a spread of numbers including tens, hundreds, or low thousands. Instead, the sellers in question only appear to sell very low value items with peculiar descriptions. Scammers use these seller accounts (real or otherwise) to build up moderate 100% feedback ratings by buying a few dozen items that cost virtually nothing (or the seller accounts in question are also fake, I'm not sure; I suspect they may be able to create fake accounts directly).
4. The sellers often have obscure location descriptions, such as, "UK, United Kingdom", ie. no mention of town or county.
The other kind of feedback profile is as follows (currently, item 201616650064 for an 840 Pro 512GB is a typical example, though at some point this listing will vanish since I've reported it to eBay, so I'll add pics later):
Type 2
1. Their feedback page as a buyer is empty.
2. Their feedback page as a seller shows dozens of sales for completely unrelated items, occuring months or more than a year earlier, and are often the same repeat item listing. Checking an individual listing (if possible) will often show a feedback comment from a buyer that doesn't match the listing. These are likely fake transactions which are used merely to build up a moderate 100% feedback rating, ie. no actual goods or money changed hands.
3. The buyers to whom they have supposedly sold items in #2 above all have very low feedback ratings, typically zero. As with Type 1 feedback profiles, the feedback list will never show any buyers with normal-sounding feedback ratings, with values one might typically expect to see of real sellers, ie. a spread of numbers including tens, hundreds, or low thousands.
4. I don't know yet if this is another correlation, but the listing is often outside the UK (in the example above, China).
These indicators could easily be the basis of listings analysis code used by eBay to automatically detect and either suspend or immediately take down such items (and suspend suspect accounts pending enquiry), but they've not done this yet. Hence, until they do, be on your guard!
Yours,
Ian Mapleson BSc.
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