I lost my bid for a T04R kit that closed on ebay this morning. Then I received the following email:

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Hello

I have 2units of 93-96 rx-7 rx7 HKS T04R TURBO KIT brand new,
never used at a negociable price
the price is 950$us
if you are interested to buy please email me rXXXXXXXXXXX@yahoo.com i am
a very serios person.
tnx


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What do you think guys? I'd say a scam?

 

Hehe, same here.

Unless he was really desperate for money, and from his grammer I highly doubt it, I wouldn't buy from this guy.

Unless you use something like escrow. =)

 

NWP, why don't you go and buy one and let me know whether I should buy the remaining set .. hehe

 

I am broke as it is paying for my car. =)

 

Judging by the grammer, it could be somebody from Japan trying to sell a used kit. But if it was me, I would not buy it directly from him or anybody that e-mails me out of the blue.. I would use an Escrow service, or go through Jt-imports if I wanted to buy a used turbo kit from Japan.

 

Check his feedback and click on item numbers of his previous transactions. If he hasn't sold anything of high value, I'd say scam. Most of the time I see these people with 8+ feedback only to see they bought/sold pens and mousepads to up their feedback.

 

If you want the item, get a phone number and talk to the guy. Have him ship it COD. Pay by Money order. If the item is defective, or isn't in the package, stop payment on the money order.

If it is a scam, he won't agree to COD. Then you will know.

 

pay thru paypal, use credit card, and also you could now insure thru paypal.. Its usually about 5% of total cost..

 

yeah i would use paypal, i havent had any problems with it so far

 

SCAM!

This is exactly how I got ripped-off on eBay and I believe it is the most common method of fraud on Ebay. It goes like this:

A person joins eBay buys and/or sells a few items to get a positive feedback record. Being an eBay member this person can now send emails directly to other eBay members and try to do direct sales. They send a direct offer like you received. You send the money either by money order or through PayPal and you never get the item you were purchasing. eBay won't help you with a purchase like this since you did it direct without going through them. PayPal can't do anything unless the fraudulent seller has a balance in their PayPal account (not likely)! Finally, you can't post negative feedback on eBay to warn others about the fraudulent seller since the purchase didn't go through eBay!

Don't make the mistake of being tempted by this offer. And in the future be careful about looking for a fantastic deal on anything. It's buyers looking for great deals that the fraudulent sellers are trying to hook.

The fact that you are asking for advice right now tells me that you sense something is wrong with this offer. Your are fortunate that you have these senses to recognize potential problems like this. You just saved yourself a lot of grief.

 

Jonesboro has it right on the head. Not only that but they can also give you a fax of a reciept and all about how it is shipped with a UPS tracking number. The thing is it is a valid tracking number and so it looks legit. However, I've talked to UPS and I've informed them of ways people can fraud the system as I found out the rules on obtaining a tracking number from UPS and they basically can be bough. All this to say don't nego with the guy. Pay either escrow or paypal. I pay via paypal on my credit card and then if it is a fraud I file to the credit card and don't have to pay. I hope I made since.....it sounded good at least...lol

 

Call the FBI, ask for the internet fraud division, and tell them about the offer. See if they want to check it out/take the clown down with your help.

 

I don't think you can assume this is a scam. It may be legitimate. It may be a scam too. Ask about COD, and let us know what the response is.

 

COD it

 

COD doesn't mean anything, I sell a lot and always refuse to do COD as its more effort for me.

 

I don't know much about COD but can you get you money back if you refuse payment on the money order?

Also wouldn't a lot of people not ship COD because they get charged if the person refuses or if the person does get what they want and then cancels the money order? So I wouldn't see how him not doing COD would mean he is a fraud. Usually if they don't speak english well and don't have positive feedback on items of value and the deal is just too good to be true....it usually is...

I feel safe if someone takes a payment via paypal. I use the credit card. That has fraud protection. Just my 2 cents

 

I'm not sure that you are protected by the credit card laws when you use a credit card to transfer money via PayPal and the person receiving the money doesn't ship the goods. Maybe someone who has experienced this can jump in.

It seems to me that the credit card laws help you only if the person/company that accepted your credit card payment is at fault. In the case of credit card payments via PayPal that means you only have recourse against PayPal if PayPal don't transfer the money, but not against the ultimate recepient of your money if they don't ship the goods.

Paypal will help you try to retrieve any funds in the fraudulent seller's account, but a fraudulent seller never leaves funds in their account!

Anybody with first hand experience dealing with this??

 

Have him post it on ebay with a Buy it now price..

 

Talk to the guy. There is such a thing on Ebay called a "second chance" offer that sellers can offer to the non-winning bidders if the seller has more than 1 unit for sale, and you can get it at the same price as your max bid was. Maybe he didn't understand that. Have him send you a "second chance", the do the COD or credit card/paypal deal.

Frank

 

Its clearly a scam. He doesn't have a turbo, so no sense messing with him.
I would forward the email to 'fraud@ebay.com' or whatever the email address is.

http://pages.ebay.com/help/index_pop...tigations.html

 

supracosworth,

Send us the link to the auction, you should still have it. I want to check this out a little more too.

Frank

 

My last bid was US$950 and I let it lapse at that. The winning bid was US$1,850. Obviously the guy knew what I was willing to pay from the bid history and offered these "brand new" T04R kits for exactly US$950. I know its 99% scam but just wanna ask in case a few members pop up with answer like " He's legit, I bought the exact kits from him before.." .... Fat Chance.

Flyrx7, he's not auctioning it, it's a private email. The auction I was referring to closed yesterday.

 

I think the point about COD is that if the seller is willing, you can be pretty sure he is on the level. If he isn't willing, he may or may not be a scammer.

My opinion on this offer is that it is a scam.

-Max

 

I have had to refuse payment on paypal before through my credit card because of someone sending me a 10 dollar crossover instead of a 1000 dollar amp. I had to file a police report in order for it to go through. I've had protection so I guess that is why I feel safe that way.

I feel pretty sure that is a scam and there are a lot of scams on turbo kits right now. I've seen 2 so far and almost got caught up in the first one on ebay. I was buying a T78 kit for my MR2. Luckly someone out bid me at the last minute. The guy emailed me and said he would sell me one for 300 less than I had bid including shipping from overseas!! I saw this same auction and was tempted to get bid on it for my 7 but it just didn't feel right. Sure would be nice if it was though....

 

I realize that. You still have the link in your "Items I didn't win" column in your "My Ebay" location for the original ebay auction that you bid the $950 for. It will be there for 30 days. That is the link I'm referring to. Post that and we can still go to that page and see the bid history, winning bidder, the seller and feedback. Post it, that's what I wanted to see.

Frank