The EBAY "BARGAIN"

An interesting story, I got hit by a very real looking spam email only 2 days ago proporting to be paypal, it went along the lines that they detected suspicious activity and they wanted me to log in and check some transaction.
I nearly fell for it, what gave it away was the login address, it was

www.paypal.com.cgi19-bin-login.com
instead of
www.paypal.com
also, you get direct emails from paypal for all transactions that occur.
the address in outlook was service@paypal.com which looks very legit, but I presume isnt.

If you tried to log in, it would come up unable to log you in, but at that stage, they'd have your paypal details, this I found out buy doing abit of searching on the web.
So be carefull out there, there is a sucker born every minuite.

A simple rule to stay safe is NEVER use Western Union money transfer(unless you know the guy personally).
That was funny, but ultimately it's a real pain that they probably won't find the guy.
Caveat emptor!!!

i never pay anything before the packagede is in my hands in the postaloffice, or if the seller godt 99% good customars earlier i can pay in advanced but still prefer to pay after.

A simple rule to stay safe is NEVER use Western Union money transfer(unless you know the guy personally).
That was funny, but ultimately it's a real pain that they probably won't find the guy.
Caveat emptor!!!

I've had a couple of cases on ebay where the seller seems ok at first, and uses paypal. Then their paypal account mysteriously stops working and they ask for WU transfer instead. Then you report them to ebay and forget about them...

Caveat Emptor indeed. I only use Ebay occasionally but when I do it usually for something pricey (Fender Stratocaster, Collectors books, laptop). My rule is quite simple - look at they're rating. If they're a power seller that usually means that they're a trading company. Rating is a good way of judging how they operate. This guy had a rating of 12 - if you look closely at the comments Id imagine that they're from people with similar ratings and probably have all the same spelling mistakes.

feedback ratings mean nothing if, as was the case in my experience, the scammer can use the ebay I.D of another user. They get passwords by sending a fake ebay or paypal email asking an unsuspectingto confirm personal details.

Our hobby can be expensive as we all know.

However buying from a reputable (approved and confirmed) source is better than being scammed while appearing to get the ultimate bargain.

Hopefully this has been a timely reminder for those planning to spend some of their SSIA savings on equipment.

clear skies

Johnno

Johnno