Nailed an identity theft guy twice this week
 

Two separate times this week on e-bay I caught a guy trying to sell a 2002 V-rod for $5000, with low miles, from overseas. A couple of unique things that immediately gave him away:

1. The price was absurdly low. No one sells a V-rod with 2000 miles on it for $5000. It just doesn't happen, especially on e-bay.

2. No location or VIN number given in the auction details. He also stated he would pay all shipping charges and the bike would be at your residence in four days. Shipping a bike from overseas would probably cost what he was trying to sell it for! Also, as far as I can remember, any vehicle sold on E-bay needs to have its VIN included in the for sale page. And the four days claim is totally B.S! It take s longer than that to clear customs! :mad:

3. He actually had a restricted bidding agreement on his auction. By making you have to contact him before you can bid on the item, he appears more legitamate. His line is that he's had some problems with dead beat bidders and this ensures that you are "qulaified" and "serious" about bidding on the bike. Of course, as soon as you contact him, he offers to sell the bike to you without having to wait till the end of the auction, so he can help his "starving" family..... :rolleyes:

4. The auction, both times I've caught him, only appears with less than 24 hours before it is supposed to end. Again, the point here is to make you feel rushed. Most people probably don't look at all 7 pages of stuff, just so they don't get into a bidding war. Plus, the longer he hangs around, the more chances he has of being caught. ;)

5. When you ask the guy where he is located, he gives you a complete run down of the bike (actually, its just the description he already typed, just rehashed) instead of the information you asked for. Some of his words are in another language, and some are very badly mis-spelled.

6. Shortly after simply enquiring about where this guy lived (got two different answers, one for each stolen account) I recieved an e-mail, supposedly from E-bay telling me that the seller was indeed legitamate and he had over $20,000 in escrow with E-bay to ensure a good deal. Once I hit the properties tab on the e-mail, I quickly saw the e-mail did not originate with e-bay, alerting me once and for all that this guy was a fairly good con artist. I sent both to E-bay for their computer geeks to analyze.

I played around with him some more, asking him for the VIN, which he supplied, and yes, it was for a V-rod. I asked him for some more pics of the bike, which he could not provide. I presume that the guy is stealing pics from other auctions, as well as descriptions, as he seems to be fairly illiterate in his responses.

Anyway, E-bay has shut down both of his auctions (both stolen identity accounts that were in good standing) and I sent him a little nasty gram e-mail telling him what I thought of him. The sad part is that I know he'll be back again.......... And I'll be right there waiting for him. :D

Be carefull out there!

Yeah, I gotta laugh at them too. When I spot them, I toy with them for a while, just for fun. Happens a lot on eBay with vehicles and also with computers. Also to note, if the person wants to use an escrow service...make sure it's a reputable escrow site or that the emails/URLS are real. I caught a guy a few months ago that was taking motorcycle pictures from a dude's website I know of - let him onto it....now he watermarks all of his pics.

Sounds like you had fun beelo - another internet dirtbag shutdown.

Nice work man. Perhaps Ebay has an opening for an Ebay cop. Check it out.

i've seen similar listings on Ebay. there's billet barge choppers on there with Buy It Now prices around $5500 sometimes when they'd be worth like $40k or more and supposedly have been purchased in New Zealand, or the Neatherlands and brought here for sale or some bullshit story like that.