URGENT Scammer alert - help requested from fellow members

[nemesis101]

This idiot is selling a 'Rare' gold Contax RTSlll which is not even an RTSlll - I told eBay who have done.. nothing.

There's so much of this going on they take no notice.. I'd beg EVERY eBay that lives on MFL to join in reporting him. He has actually threatened me when I sought to ask him how this could be an RTSlll and also challenged his claim it was a limited edition gold model.. they have no Yashica markings at all, gold battery covers etc. etc. the item is below and the scamming bully has 6 hours left on his con..

Doug

Click here to see on Ebay

A GENUINE example for comparison

Click here to see on Ebay

[GrahamNR17]

Sent

[nemesis101]

Thanks for the moral support.. 400 members to go! lol

Doug.

I think we should establish the K Rock memorial award for eBay falsehoods?

[Attila]

http://cgi1.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ReportThisItemRedirect&itemid=200350514865&seller=ruthndul&active=1

Report link!

[alex]

[Farside]

LOL!
The fake is gold-painted! What a loser!
I see one of his negs is for fake goods, too.
Used to be you could contact other bidders and warn them off spending money on fakes, but wonderful ebay has screwed us.

[nemesis101]

Thanks guys..

Of course it sold for hundreds... lying bastard.

eBay recently cancelled an auction of mine, because I used the word 'like' in a description - saying comparisons confused buyers - I actually said something to the effect that 'you will like this'!!

One rule for scamming power sellers, another for us?

I'm off to ebid from now on - screw eBay. I'l be using the same (linuxbrit) ID there if anyone comes to visit.

Doug

[spiralcity]

I dropped the seller a little note :

You just sold a FAKE Contax gold camera to some poor fool who believed you.
We have a neighborhood watch at manualfocuslenses.com.
you've been reported over a dozen times for this FAKE camera.
Come visit the site, your seller ID is being posted in the BAD EBAY sellers forum for all to see. We have over 10,000 visits per day.
GOOD LUCK WITH YOUR FUTURE SALES ON EBAY!!!

So, I stretched the truth a bit...

[rawhead]

In retrospect, what someone should've done (haha) is create a bogus Ebay account, bid $10,000 on the item, then upon winning the bid, promptly provided a negative feedback detailing how fake the camera is

[naplam]

Someone who buys something obviously not made of gold (what kind of crappy color is that? gold is much more yellowish and shiny), obviously not a RTSIII (even with a yashica baseplate wtf), from a seller with negatives for fake goods, in some way "deserves" it...
Well, even anybody buying a golden camera, they're ugly as hell

[Attila]

If buyers this blind they can't read yashica on bottom we can't help much...

[pirius]

The good way of dealing with such scams, as I see sometimes with too-good-to-be-true listings on eBay is to open a brand new eBay account, put a bid high enough to become highest bidder and then don't pay and instead leave a nasty feedback for the bastard.

From my own experience I dealt with people who hijacked somebody else's account and tried to buy things from me and ship to unknown location. Their scam was quite obvious so instead of sending stuff I tried to contact eBay but the customer service lady politely told me to f...off and not bother them with such reports. Apparently they are too busy for that. She told that they will look into it when/if the hijacked account owner complains - what a nice way to combat fraud!

[spiralcity]

[nemesis101]

Thanks for the support all of you!

I finally got put through to the so called 'Security and Trust Issue Team' who were more concerned about my reporting an item I did not want to buy, than doing anything about it! When I said that legally their site is 'an auction catalog' and under US law an auction must take 'reasonable steps' to ensure the legality of any sale and the provenance of any item, they hung up!

A further call elicited the information that they are instructed to hang up whenever the law is mentioned in ANY context. How quaint - a security and safety line which is allergic to the word LAW - but not of course to profit?

I'd love have eBay sue me as perhaps that way their whole mucky ways could be brought out into the open?

I took legal advice as I was going to bid 99,000 dollars for the item then refuse to pay - a lawyer friend suggested that given the way eBay operates I would probably have to pay, then get PayPal to refund me! Some hopes.. I've had an unpaid item strike after obtaining a PayPal refund for goods not sent which arrived many many weeks later, after the refund, with a posted date after said refund and not as described - I refused to pay the return postage, some 36 dollars and got a strike! That's Ebay/ PayPal.. Hmmm

[nemesis101]

Hi there Attila..

I wrote the seller questioning the Yashica stamping (as a newbie might) and got his assurance that 'Yashica made the Contax cameras - true enough - and that might convince a newbie as to why... I then pointed him to a real example (on the wonderful MIR site) and showed how the lugs and battery covers were silver on his etc.. that's when he threatened to report ME to eBay for.. harassment!

What a nasty nasty piece of work. Many a newbie could be taken in by him.. and now there are two genuine gold ones for sale and another phoney one... at least the second seller of the fake does not mistake it for the RTSlll....

I fear it's easy for us 'old hands' to adopt the attitude that buyers should be more careful - but sites that can show you the real item are not always easy to find, and the onus, in my mind, is on the seller to be honest, not the buyer to be cunning?

Doug.

quote="Attila"]If buyers this blind they can't read yashica on bottom we can't help much...[/quote]

[GrahamNR17]

What we need is for someone really big - Google? - to start an auction site. That would have Ebay clambering for our patronage.

Alas, it will unlikely ever happen. Ebay are good at PR and would just send a suit to do an interview, carefully paying lip service to any concerns.

They are crook, encourage crime, and don't care. If I did it, I'd be in cuffs long ago.

Tossers

[nemesis101]

Yay!!!

Go Norfolk!

Yay!

How I miss the robust language of my adopted home... lol

wankers, bollocks and bugger him (the scammer not you Graham) I say!

yay!!



PS I have complained to rip-off reports, www.consumerreports.com and the BBB So if nothing else, someone at eBay is going to have to deal with three queries and a possible negative on BBB. I've also contacted the appropriate Attorney Generals' Offices as well as the FBI Internet Fraud Team.. In for a penny, in for a pound, as they say across the pond! lol

Doug.

Doug.quote="GrahamNR17"]What we need is for someone really big - Google? - to start an auction site. That would have Ebay clambering for our patronage.

Alas, it will unlikely ever happen. Ebay are good at PR and would just send a suit to do an interview, carefully paying lip service to any concerns.

They are crook, encourage crime, and don't care. If I did it, I'd be in cuffs long ago.

Tossers [/quote]