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Date Posted: 00:10:13 03/20/02 Wed
Author: Ralph
Subject: eBay FRAUD ALERT !!!!!!

Here is some information that some of you may want to take under SERIOUS consideration when dealing with eBay.

Back in early March, I noticed a couple of gold bars for sale on eBay by someone with the user name of zurichgold2002.

The following are excerpts from the auction pages of this "gentleman" on the two ONLY auction that have thus far ran under this user name.

>>>>>250 GRAMS FINE GOLD BAR BY DE GUSSA... NO RESERVE SHIPPING AND INSURANCE TO BE PAID BY SELLER.... SALE TERMS ARE NOT NEGOTIABLE...PLEASE READ TERMS BEFORE BIDDING

Payment Instructions: PAYMENT SHALL BE MADE BY WIRE TRANSFER IN ACCOUNT THAT WILL BE PROVIDED AT CONCLUSION OF SALE.... ALL PERTINENT INFORMATION SHALL BE FORWARDED TO WINNING BIDDER...PLEASE BE PREPARED TO FINALIZE TRANSACTION WITHIN 3 BUSINESS DAYS<<<<<<

Now to begin with, this user had absolutely ZERO feedback rating with eBay. Apparently a first time user.

Secondly, I usually do alot of Google searches on things I am interested in on the internet, and gold bars happens to be one of those interests.

Third, I have a fairly good memory for information that I have read or seen on other sites, and where and when I accessed that particular information.

Forth, I noticed right away that the gold bars being "offered" in these auctions were some that I had seen before. One of the bars in particular even had the SAME SERIAL NUMBER as a stock photo from another site in another country other than Switzerland, or London UK to be exact.

Now, this raised a red flag with me, and looking closer at the auction "terms" I noticed the words "not negotiable" and the "wire transfer" requirement to a Swiss bank account, also "to be finalized within 3 days".

Now come on folks, every danger sign in the book has just been leveled right in front of your faces, and there are still 68 combined bids between these two auctions, with the "WINNING BIDDERS" wiring this "gent" a total of $3141.00 plus shipping charges for two gold bars !!!!!

What did these "WINNING BIDDERS" actually "win" ???

NOT A DAMN THING !

The were scammed for every penny, and never received a thing. The few (very few) bidders who actually used an eMail address as their user name were eMailed by me personally and warned very strongly about what I was seeing, with a very clear explaination of what I thought was going on. None of those bidders continued bidding or were "screwed" out of their money.

Here is the feedback page for "zurichgold2002" and the results of those auctions.

http://cgi2.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewFeedback&userid=zurichgold2002

But you know what is a REAL SHAME here, is that under eBay's old system of intercommunications being allowed between users, stuff like this could be stopped or at least slowed considerably from the levels at which it is now occuring. But because of eBay "POLICY", which is nothing more than a COP-OUT by eBay to prevent free trade and freely exchanged information between users, more and more folks are getting taken to the cleaners on scams just like this one. eBay apparently thinks that their retention of market share and "corporate profits" are more important than protecting their users from the scam artists.

Seems to me even just a little common sense isn't too damned common anymore.

Caveat !

Ralph

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