eBay Fraud Vigilantes

firstadopter.com writes "New York Times (free registration needed) is reporting that users are sick of internet fraud on eBay. With lack of help from the company, they are taking the law into their own hands and closing down auctions they think are obvious scams."

I looked on eBay.

[Anonymous Coward]

...and I couldn't find any "Viglanties".

I did get a super deal on my new compter, though.

Re:I looked on eBay.

[crossconnects]

did you get it from michael's computers?

As long as they don't stop...

[The-Dalai-LLama]

...the clever people who've sold things like "genuine air guitars" and "nothing".

Half the fun of e-bay is the really bizarre stuff. [bidboy.com]

The Dalai Llama
This .sig available for purchase: $100,000 USD -ebay auction #66666. Buyer pays shipping from Andorra.

Once...

[LordK3nn3th]

Once someone was selling a car headlight modification they didn't have. The way they were busted was rather unique-- they posted pictures (hosted off-site, of course) of a car that wasn't theirs.

The person who owned the site saw the traffic coming from the ebay page. He then proceeded to change the images to one insulting the scammer in a very something awful-esque way, and photoshopped eyes over the car headlights. It was hilarious-- anyone have a link to it?

Darn it, I was almost there, too!

[Eberlin]

Here I was auctioning off evidence/information on whereabouts of WMDs in Iraq when people got all huffy and decided to shut it down. I nearly got some dude named Dubya bidding oodles of cash for the info but got shutdown before bidding was over.

Why can't you vigilantes just mind your own biz, damn it!!!

Yo, it's a joke -- no need to start a super-secret file on me.

Re:I looked on eBay.

[macdaddy]

Nope. I read about it in a Phantom Console brochure.

amazing

[segment]

You mean that Paris Hilton action figure [ebay.com] is a fraud!. People auctioning off their life [ebay.com], and those imginary girlfriends [ebay.com] are frauds! I for one am shocked. And awed too

Re:No but he's pre-ordered...

[botzi]

....his Phantom console from them....;oPPP

Re:As long as they don't stop...

[Necrobruiser]

I'll never forget the first time I surfed Ebay. I ended up in the "Adult" section, and found an auction for a "5 Ball Butt Plug". Now, I know what a butt plug is, but I had no idea what a "5 Ball" butt plug is, so I checked out the description. There was a lovely picture, and I now know what a "5 Ball" butt plug looks like. However, the scary part was when I saw the descriptive phrase "Like New" next to the picture.

Needless to say, I'm still emotionally scarred.

Re:What were they expecting?

[kin_korn_karn]

I think it's a forgone conclusion that when you go on eBay you have to leave your bullshit detector on high.

It's not a Wal-Mart and nobody that does a lot of business on there treats it as such.

Re:What were they expecting?

[Monkey]

Your mattress must be getting pretty uncomfortable by now.

Re:Reg Free Link

[oldwarez]

surprizingly, it works on slashdot and yahoo, too. ;-)

Just Your Typical Statist

[Anonymous Coward]

EBay, based in San Jose, Calif., has 800 people deployed around the world to fight fraud, he said, and does not need amateur help. "Just like in the offline world," he said, "you can't have people running around taking the law into their hands."

So...what does he think the government is? Robots?

Nasty Plan

[Mattwolf7]

"Still, it was another eBay user's warning that saved Marianne Houkom. Ms. Houkom, 55, who lives in Newton, Kan., received an e-mail message from Mr. Seiden warning her that the espresso machine she was bidding on did not exist. She said she was horrified, and then relieved when someone outbid her."

1. Email Ms. Houkom about having a fake item
2. Outbid her by $.50
3. Repeat 1-2 until winning bid is yours
4. Have a victory espresso from your brand new espresso machine

Re:Once...

[Selecter]

The best one I ever saw was some guy that linked to a bunch of pix off site, I think it was a 2cpu.com review. Of course the guy sees the bandwidth and goes about replacing the pictures with new ones - one of them was the computer the guy was selling engulfed in flames & smoke, the next was the "crack repair staff" and that was a pic of some Special Olympics contestants, then showing a Mack Truck running over the box, then an open box with the results when as the customer pulls a twisted heap of wires & metal from the box with "ACTUAL CUSTOMER" splashed across it.

It was a hoot - need more like him. I wish I had saved the auction.

Re:Reg Free Link

[NanoGator]

"Reg Free Link [nytimes.com]"

Who gives a flying fuck link." [nytimes.com]

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:Reg Free Link

[oldwarez]

haha not anymore!

Re:Expensive Electronics Cheap Scams, not taken do

[pjt33]

I can't remember when I ate anything that was as good as the ads.

Nothing beats an IBM full-page magazine ad with mustard.

"Nobody can make a fortune scamming people $3..."

[Mudcathi]

"... at a time."

Do lottery tickets count?