Scam of the Week: eBay and pie warmers
Bidding up your own eBay sales…
eBay is the ultimate forum for flogging off virtually everything; from a walk-on part in Ally McBeal, to a Kidney (actually, it’s illegal to buy or sell human organs but it has been tried), to one’s virginity – an 18-year-old British girl sold her’s eBay – but it was bought by a businessman who kindly agreed to give her the money without actually taking the ’service’. Makes you proud to be British.
Aside from the access to customers willing to buy all this stuff, it also gives people an element of anonymity which can tempt some into mischief.
Daily Mail: An eBay seller faces a fine of up to £50,000 after bidding on his own goods to raise prices on the auction site.
Paul Barrett, 39, is the first person in the UK to be prosecuted for the offence.
He increased the value of the items he was selling – including a pie and pasty warmer priced at £127 – by bidding on them under a separate user name, in a practice known as ’shill bidding’.
He denies knowing it was wrong and awaits his sentence.
For other unusual e-bay items…
April 20, 2010
Great post.
Perhaps I can just add to this that the best way to guard against being ripped off by online sales or auctions of any kind, Craigslist and eBay included—and whether seller or buyer—is to use a *bona fide* online escrow company. Especially for pricier items like jewelry and autos. Although it does add some cost, it takes the uncertainty out of the transaction, and that’s a small price to pay for peace of mind.
For my money, the best bona fide online escrow (and there seems to be ten fraudulent escrow sites for every bona fide one) is probably Escrow.com (http://escrow.com). In fact, it’s the only one that eBay recommends, and is the only online escrow company that is licensed to provide escrow services all across the United States.
Take care,
Ulf Wolf