Thorn Cycles Forum

Private Classified => Bikes For Sale => Topic started by: in4 on January 20, 2018, 04:41:53 pm

Title: eBay Nomad scam
Post by: in4 on January 20, 2018, 04:41:53 pm
https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.co.uk%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F352260183441

It's back!
Title: Re: eBay Nomad scam
Post by: humedavid on January 20, 2018, 06:43:11 pm
reported, as always
Title: Re: eBay Nomad scam
Post by: Matt2matt2002 on January 20, 2018, 07:57:13 pm
Yes. But no. But yes......
It's got a double fork, though.
Title: Re: eBay Nomad scam
Post by: sd on January 24, 2018, 12:00:34 pm
Maybe next time we should bid for it? Get the price up really high. Get the bugger all excited then report it! They send a fake PayPal link last time I kept them going with "it don't work, what am I doing wrong".
Title: Re: eBay Nomad scam
Post by: Ubert767 on January 24, 2018, 01:40:16 pm
Sorry but I'm late to this thread.
Please can someone enlighten me regarding this scam and others like it , how does it work?

Yours naively,
Rob
Title: Re: eBay Nomad scam
Post by: jags on January 24, 2018, 03:49:21 pm
it's been removed  ;)
Title: Re: eBay Nomad scam
Post by: humedavid on January 24, 2018, 05:51:49 pm
Sorry but I'm late to this thread.
Please can someone enlighten me regarding this scam and others like it , how does it work?

Yours naively,
Rob
There's this dodgy person who hacks into other people's or businesses ebay account, who usually have good feedback.
Then this person lists multiple items as Buy It Now, usually around £1000-£2000 mark. These items are always worth at least double the price this dodgy seller is asking for. The email address is always in the description of the item. You get in touch, the seller will say that if you're really interested, they will set up a private auction where you can just click Buy It Now. Then the seller asks for your email and eBay username. After this the seller sends you a fake email saying "Congratulations, you have bought this item. All you have to do it pay" This email is made to look like it came from EBay, but it isn't. The bottom of the email has the payment instructions, which is an international bank transfer. If anyone falls for it, the money is gone. Whooosssh....
What we can do is report the listing for having the email address in it, which is forbidden by Ebay.
Title: Re: eBay Nomad scam
Post by: Ubert767 on January 24, 2018, 06:35:00 pm
    Many thanks Humedavid, I'm very grateful for the explaination.

    Yours enlightened,
     Rob
Title: Re: eBay Nomad scam
Post by: Pavel on January 24, 2018, 11:42:38 pm
I too was puzzled by how it was considered a scam.  Thanks as well for that explanation. 
Title: Re: eBay Nomad scam
Post by: jags on January 25, 2018, 12:43:46 am
there out there lads be careful  :'( :'(
Title: Re: eBay Nomad scam
Post by: mickeg on January 27, 2018, 06:49:17 am
Is this one listed on USA ebay site the same thing?
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Thorn-Nomad-MK2-S-S-Rohloff-Touring-Expedition-Bike-Cycle-Matt-Black-565M/152882615744?hash=item23988395c0:g:-CUAAOSwptJaa~t2
Title: Re: eBay Nomad scam
Post by: DAntrim on January 27, 2018, 02:04:19 pm
Looks to be, yes
Title: Re: eBay Nomad scam
Post by: mickeg on January 27, 2018, 04:13:33 pm
I do not know enough about it to tell Ebay anything.  Bid up to $202 right now.  Just under 12 hours to go.
https://www.ebay.com/bfl/viewbids/152882615744
Title: Re: eBay Nomad scam
Post by: humedavid on January 27, 2018, 04:25:55 pm
I do not know enough about it to tell Ebay anything.  Bid up to $202 right now.  Just under 12 hours to go.
https://www.ebay.com/bfl/viewbids/152882615744

Yes you do. Seller putting their contact in the description is against EBay's rules. The trick is simple, the seller uses an image to display their email, which cannot be easily detected by Ebay.
I mean this isn't the worse things about the ad, but at least ebay is going to look at it / remove it if it gets reported.
Title: Re: eBay Nomad scam
Post by: Danneaux on January 27, 2018, 04:44:09 pm
Earlier in this saga, I traced the email and IP used to a number of locations and related scams. Some were for vacation rentals and even cruises; they keep getting pulled also. The same email used in the US eBay listing was also used in another, similar eBay listing scam described here:
http://www.retrobike.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=366096&sid=e912642adf2603f2a7de05c7bf12d6b8

eBay is fertile ground for scammers. I took down a number that were offering Ortlieb panniers for USD$15 this last summer. Here's what others are doing:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/consumer-affairs/i-scam-the-scammers-confessions-of-an-ebay-vigilante/

All the best,

Dan.

Title: Re: eBay Nomad scam
Post by: Danneaux on January 27, 2018, 05:18:25 pm
Oh, it just gets worse and worse, as before but now larger.

Running the email used in the US eBay listing through the ICANN WHOIS registry, it comes back to "Enom Whois Privacy Protection Service", a firm dedicated to "scrubbing" or otherwise obscuring the real identities of domain name registrants. See: https://support.dnsimple.com/articles/what-is-whois-privacy/ This of course subverts the whole intent and purpose of domain name registration and allows scammers to flourish. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domain_privacy#Implications

For more on this dating back 6 years, see: https://www.thedomains.com/2012/08/30/if-your-using-enoms-whois-privacy-protection-service-inc-whois-agent-udrp-panels-says-your-a-serial-cyber-squatter/

Best,

Dan.

Title: Re: eBay Nomad scam
Post by: mickeg on January 27, 2018, 07:50:15 pm
Bidding is up to $610 USD with over 8 hours to go.  The current high bidder has a zero feedback score, so likely this is his or her first Ebay experience.

I called Ebay and told them it might be a scam and that they should check it out.  That it has previously been listed in the UK.
Title: Re: eBay Nomad scam
Post by: mickeg on January 27, 2018, 07:54:36 pm
Wow, bidding now is up to $20,000 USD.

I should post my Nomad out there if the demand is that high.

Title: Re: eBay Nomad scam
Post by: Danneaux on January 27, 2018, 10:05:58 pm
Now pulled down.

And so it goes.

Best,

Dan.
Title: Re: eBay Nomad scam
Post by: macspud on January 28, 2018, 10:37:04 am
Listed again but differently:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Thorn-Nomad-MK2-S-S-Rohloff-Touring-Expedition-Bike-Cycle-Matt-Black-565M-/302619410227?hash=item467585bf33
Title: Re: eBay Nomad scam
Post by: mickeg on January 28, 2018, 03:37:39 pm
I just called Ebay.  I wish they had an easy way to report these scams, but it is very time consuming to get someone on the phone that can understand the problem.
Title: Re: eBay Nomad scam
Post by: Pavel on January 28, 2018, 04:12:32 pm
there is a "report item" button on each ebay listing, just above the description field to the right. 
Title: Re: eBay Nomad scam
Post by: mickeg on January 28, 2018, 04:56:28 pm
there is a "report item" button on each ebay listing, just above the description field to the right.

Thanks.  I wish I saw that earlier.
Title: Re: eBay Nomad scam
Post by: mickeg on January 28, 2018, 11:01:06 pm
Persistant.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Thorn-Nomad-MK2-S-S-Rohloff-Touring-Expedition-Bike-Cycle-Matt-Black-565M/232646672157

The Ebay report system is a drop down menu system.  There are no really applicable reporting options, I tried:
- Prohibited and restricted items
- Illegal items and items encouraging illegal activity
- Other illegal activity concerns
They do not have a box where you can add text, so this is all I could give them.

I clicked on other items by seller and found they have 970 items, about 300 of them are probably part of the same batch.  So, if you were ordering the Leica binoculars or Hasselblad cameras or anything else like that, you probably will not get them.  While I was checking other items, suddenly all photos disappeared from that sellers listings.

UPDATE:

That seller still has a lot of stuff on Ebay that is part of the scam and now the photos are back.  But the Nomad now is listed as - listing was ended by seller because the item is no longer available.

So, I suspect someone just lost a lot of money.

For reference, this was the photo in teh listing.
Title: Re: eBay Nomad scam
Post by: humedavid on January 29, 2018, 02:25:18 pm
As soon as someone shows interest in buying the bike, the seller removes it. I know this from experience.
I guess if all listings get pulled down at once, it could mean that the rightful owner has managed to recover their ebay account.
Title: Re: eBay Nomad scam
Post by: mickeg on January 29, 2018, 04:08:30 pm
It appeared again this morning, disappeared soon thereafter.  It disappeared before I could report to Ebay.

If the seller told them to send their money outside of the Ebay system, and if they were naive enough to do that, the money would be gone forever I suspect.  If the seller posted 300 items all at once, if people expressed interest in 10 percent of them (30) and only one in ten of those (3) sent him or her the money outside of the Ebay process, that would still be over $3,000 USD or whatever currency the seller was specifying.  The items the seller posted yesterday all asked for $1100 USD per item.


Title: Re: eBay Nomad scam
Post by: mickeg on January 31, 2018, 11:37:06 am
And like clockwork it is back.  I will report it in a couple minutes.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Thorn-Nomad-MK2-S-S-Rohloff-Touring-Expedition-Bike-Cycle-Matt-Black-565M/152888124095

The bogus terms of sale are not on the ebay site, you click on a box for full description and then you get those are at this link in graphic format:
https://s9.postimg.org/xgt16u5kf/image.jpg

For documentation, I included those bogus terms of sale here in graphic format.

This time the seller put an openning bid of $11.55 on all items.

UPDATE:

It and several other items from that seller are now off of Ebay system.
Title: Re: eBay Nomad scam
Post by: Andre Jute on January 31, 2018, 03:33:29 pm
You would think Ebay would have their jpegs scanned by character recognition software to avoid this sort of scam. Seems pretty obvious to me.
Title: Re: eBay Nomad scam
Post by: mickeg on February 03, 2018, 10:41:38 am
And, again.  Already reported to Ebay.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/332542192624
Title: Re: eBay Nomad scam
Post by: mickeg on February 06, 2018, 01:00:40 pm
And again, will be reporting in a few minutes.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/292438117069