rollmodel

This did not happen to me, but to a member of this site (who doesn't post) here is the story:

My roommate was looking for a turbo on ebay (either a full used kit, pieces of a used kit, or just individual turbo pieces for a custom setup).

He stumbled across this deal http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/GREDD...QQcmdZViewItem

He watched the auction and asked the seller some questions:

'What all does the kit include'
-- Everything
'How many miles on the kit'
-2500

Well, the seller emailed him back and said, 'I am going through a divorce right now and if you would like to pay I will go through ebay and you shall recieve an email about payment options'

Everything sounded ok at the time. He was going to go through ebay (so hopefully he would have been protected).

He recieved an email from 'eBay' about how to complete the payments (via western union) and he did this. Now the seller is gone and he contacted eBay and they never sent him this email.

My roommate is now out $1100

Here is what I am asking

The wire transfer was sent to a
Nia U Weaver
3 Fordham Oval
Bronx, New York (I can't think of the area code) ... 10438... or something. I will need to check

Is there anyone around this area that may be able to see if this is actually a place, or if it is also phony?

The turbo gsr project has just been put on the back burner now.

Even though I didn't lose the money, this was a project that my roommates and I were planning to do during the summer.. It just hits me too how easy it is to be scammed..

Thanks guys
-Wes

I will try and get a pictures of the email too

Paul99EX

well location says kent, but transfer went to the bronx comon, who in the bronx has a turbo kit...well if he is from kent, me and some ohio crew people can go have a talk with him

and he has no feedback and is a new seller within 30days, thats reason enough for not bidding, sorry but yer buddy should ahve been a little smarter

idiot-stick

http://maps.google.com/

rollmodel

understandable. he was skeptical the whole time.

We are in toledo, and when we read kent, we figured we could go get the turbo kit that day and just pay cash. The person said that they are going through a divorce and are not located in kent.

Things appear more fishy now that I look through the stuff more and more, but at the time he was buying it the email sent looked 'legit'.

davcivic

The Bronx has Fordham road, place and street, according to microsoft streets and trips.
This is a new scam I guess, copying the ebay e-mail and sending it out after the auction is done. Trustan online payment service that has some kind of insurance next time.

Unfortunately I don't think you can do much with ebay or western union to them you just sent money to a friend or something they have nothing to do with the scam. The only one that could help is the federal government. Good luck.

rollmodel

Western Union does NOT gaurantee the transfer (for people that may have questions). They have establsihed BidPay (like paypal) using western union though which Does protect someone when they send money.

I just found out about him being scammed this morning, so I told him to call Western Union to see if the person picked up the money, etc... just to see what he can do.

Right now, he looks as it as it is money completely gone, and I don't think he will get it back.

If anything maybe this will help to notify users here to be even more cautious with auctions.

stillnoturbo

There's a member from here from the Bronx I'm pretty sure. His screen name is 1493..somthing.

70Challenger

Anytime a wire transfer like western union is involved that should throw up a red flag, and usually the fake ebay emails will have attachments with them, and the attachments are things like the ebay logo and other things used to make it look legit. A normal ebay email should not have any of the logo stuff as an attachment its just written in as some kind of code, at least this is what I have noticed. I dont think there is a whole lot you can do about it unfortunately. Now-a-days ebay is so full of scammers its hard to buy anything, i remember the good old days when you just sent your money in an envelope and there were no worries...

Donald125

tell him to kiss that 1G good bye if it is paid throught western union.