Possible New Ebay Scam

[Michael S.]

I thought I would let everyone know of a "possible" new Ebay scam. An ebay auction will run to completion and the item will sell. The none winning bidders will then receive a "second chance offer" to purchase the item. "Second chance offer" IS offered by Ebay to the listing seller. In this case the "second chance offer" looks just like an official Ebay "second chance offer" however the email WAS NOT SENT by the original seller. It has been sent by a scammer.

If you get a "second change offer" on an item you where not successful in purchasing and would like to purchase the item. Check the email address and confirm with the original AUCTION LISTING SELLER than they indeed DID send you a "second chance offer". Many times the "second chance offer" will be far less than the final selling price. If you do not take this EXTRA effort, you may be sending your money to the scammer!!!!

[Michael S.]

Re: Possible New Ebay Scam

I just started thinking. I guess the best way for the seller to guard against this happening is to hold a private auction. That way the only person who knows who is bidding is the seller! Sure would be a shame if all the auctions ended up becoming "private auctions"!

[Larry S.]

Re: Possible New Ebay Scam

I never bid on an item in a private auction NEVER.its hard enough to try and figure out if an auction is being pushed when you can see the identities of the other bidders

What ever I do plan on bidding I check on all of the sellers previous auctions to if there are consistantly the same bidders if there are I assume they are pushers just moving the auction along.Do a little home work and youll see who is having there auctions pushed.Now just to add a little to this thery,I have recently sold some parts from my C1 on ebay and it was always the same guys bidding on the parts.if you check there feed back all of them were consistently purchasing C1 corvette parts. Normally the pusher dont have feed back showing past purchases of the same products. One seller uses a pusher who has never bought one vette part,lots of boat and radio equiptment but he never won a vette action he drops out of the bidding right before the reserve

this new scam actually sounds like a well thought out one and I probably would have fell for it my self.

Any time I get a secound chance offer within an hour of an auction completing its pretty easey to figure out they were using a pusher on the auction(useually it would take a minimum of 3 days to figure out the high bidder did not want the product)and I offer them half of my last bid.

[Tracy C.]

Re: Possible New Ebay Scam

Larry,

While "some" sellers can/will abuse the second chance offer option. It isn't fair to categorize all as crooks. I've used this option a number of times when I have duplicates. There is no need to wait if this is the case and I typically send it ASAP to "strike while the iron is hot" so to speak.

Most people pass because they make the same assumption you have.

I'm not suprized that scammers have tapped into this market. If I were considering a second chance as a buyer, I would contact the seller directly through the eBay "ask the seller a question" link on the original auction just to verify that the offer is from them.

tc

[Larry S.]

Re: Possible New Ebay Scam

Yes Tracy you are correct,I should not assume the all the secound chance offers are scams.I always ask why they are offering me a secound chance offer.Only once was I told it was because they actually had 2 of the same items.