From: Sarge (micdunn@ev1.net)
Date: Tue Jun 06 2006 - 13:30:05 PDT
Glenn, I am not making this story up.
What I wrote is what has actually happened up to this point in time.
How did he hi-jack an MV'ers password?
That's easy. Have you never received one of those "phishing" e-mails from a
fake (but real-looking) E-Bay sites?
I receive 10 a week. The message tells you that your E-Bay account has had
an unauthorized access attempted (or any other similar bogus story) and that
all you have to do is click on this link and enter your user name and
password to clear up the problem. Of course, the link is bogus, but the site
looks real. Now the scammer has your name and password, he can change the
password to deny you access and he now has total control over your account.
And then the authentic E-Bay seller simply calls E-Bay on the phone? Can you
share this E-Bay phone number with us? The E-Bay customer representative
that I contacted was only accessible by "Live Chat". When I asked him for a
telephone number he told me that E-Bay does not have customer service
through the telephone. Only "Live Chat", e-mail or US mail service. Did he
lie to me?
You got E-Bay to cancel your auction in 10 minutes? Odin's Teeth! I want
that phone number! :)
You say that a lot of this story is very odd. I grant you that, however I
repeat, this is what has happened so far.
I will give updates as they happen.
The scammer has asked me for my name and address in order to complete the
transaction.
I gave him this:
John Fickdich
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20500
Any American will recognize where I live, but probably not a foreign
scammer. we'll just have to see.
Any German speaker will recognize my name, but let's not translate it on
this list.
For the third and final time, I am not making this story up, what would my
possible motive be?
I am trying to warn the MV community of a high dollar theft scam affecting
our hobby.
-Sarge out
----- Original Message -----
From: "Glenn Shaw" <milspectruck@verizon.net>
To: "Sarge" <micdunn@ev1.net>; <mil-veh@mil-veh.org>
Sent: Tuesday, June 06, 2006 2:59 PM
Subject: Re: [MV] MANN Truck on Ebay
> Hi
> Since you have this scam decipher I would like to know how:
>
> He hi-jacked an MV'ers password and took control of an MV auction.
>
> And in which case why would the authentic Ebay seller simply call Ebay on
the phone and cancel the auction/which I have done in the past and it was
gone in ten minutes? A lot of this story is very odd.
>
> Regards
> Glenn
> MTA
> MVPA
>
>
> Sarge wrote:
> > Sarge here,
> > I'm all over this one. The actual seller had his auction hi-jacked last
> > Saturday.
> > I contacted E-Bay who said "We will take appropriate action" , which of
> > course translates into English as "We won't do doodly-squat unless it
takes
> > a penny out of our pocket".
> > I then contacted the FBI Internet Crime division and made a full report.
> > At least they are honest enough to not bother to lie to me. In other
words,
> > they will read my report in 2008 and take action when hell freezes over.
> > I contacted the real seller who seems to be nice enough and quite
honest.
> > I contacted the scammer who I am going to keep on the hook for a while.
> > TJ's tribulations inspired me enough to have a little fun here.
> > The scammer is most definitely not a native English speaker and I will
post
> > our communications on this list if anyone requests it.
> > Mandatory MV content: This scammer is attempting to scam MV'ers to the
tune
> > of $5,000 each.
> > Here is his plan:
> > He hi-jacked an MV'ers password and took control of an MV auction.
> > The MAN truck was previously listed with a starting bid of $17,500 and a
buy
> > it now price of $22,000.
> > When the scammer got the real seller's password, he immediately changed
it
> > so that the real seller could not access his own auction.
> > Then he changed the item description to remove the original sellers name
and
> > telephone number. Then he inserted his own e-mail address.
> > He changed the starting bid price to $1,500 and the buy it now price to
> > $5,000.
> > Here is where he got clever: Only pre-approved bidders were allowed to
bid.
> > Meaning you had to e-mail him for pre-approval.
> > That caused a feeding frenzy amongst the MV community.
> > Here is a 20 ton 8x8 MAN prime mover for $5,000!!!! Who wouldn't jump on
> > that?
> > Well, E-Bay had 10,167 hits on that page. Let's say 10% of lookers
thought
> > it was a good deal.
> > So now 1,000 MV'ers e-mail this dork and ask to be pre-approved for
bidding.
> > But! The scammer does not pre-approve anybody. Why not? Why mess with
the
> > theft of $5,000 when you can make millions?
> > He waits until the sale is over with zero bids. Zero bids because he did
not
> > pre-approve anybody.
> > Now he e-mails those thousand (I'm one of them) and offers the truck for
the
> > buy it now price of $5,000.
> > If he can scam one thousand buyers of $5,000 each, that's a cool $5
million.
> > Or even if he can only scam 10 percent (100 buyers), which is not so
> > far-fetched, that is still $500,000. Pretty soon, we are talking about
some
> > real money.
> > Now you are in e-mail contact with him and he starts offering you the
"E-Bay
> > Purchase Protection Plan"
> > There is such an animal and it usually works pretty well. However, E-Bay
> > only offers the plan if you buy the item by using the Bid feature on the
> > auction. Otherwise, you are on your own.
> > The scammer then sets up a real bank account and has you wire the $5,000
> > into an escrow holding company. This is an impartial third party "money
> > holder". He then says when he has shipped the vehicle to you, and you
are
> > happy with it, you release the escrow funds to him. Of course the escrow
> > company is a fake, the bank account is emptied, he's rich and gone. You
are
> > Screwed!!!
> > Anyway, that's the scam, now you know, happy bidding!
> > -Sarge out
> >
> >
> >
> > ===Mil-Veh is a member-supported mailing list===
> > To unsubscribe, send e-mail to <mil-veh-off@mil-veh.org>
> > To reach a human, contact <ackyle@gmail.com>
> > Visit the searchable archives at http://www.mil-veh.org/archives/
> >
> >
>
>
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