[skagen]

How do you guys assess whether a seller is legit or not? Is it the number of feedback? The percentage of positive feeback? Or is there anything that can be concluded by looking at the profiles of those people who have contributed to the person's feedback?

For instance, what would you say about the legitimacy of this particular person on E-bay, for instance - thumbs up or thumbs down?
http://cgi2.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAP...erid=thismarty

 

[williamgoody]

Well, the first two feedback comments look like they were just put there to boost positive feedback. the last two were by "established" people, so it could be hit or miss.

If the person is selling, I'd email him/her and ask questions, being as particular as possible. Guage how fast you get a response, and of course the quality of the response. You also may want to email people the party has done business with in the past.

I believe there also may be an Ebay forum. Check to see if and what they've posted there, or if they've been posted about.

 

[MusicLover]

I don't know about that person in particular, but I've seen people whose feedback had two different responses from the same exact user in a row, with many different people. Obviously, there is something wrong with that, so I wouldn't buy from those people.

 

[skagen]

Yeah, those couple of possible "filler" feedbacks are bothering me.

Basically, I won an auction from him http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...ory=44908&rd=1) but its been difficult to make contact with him on the phone for like 5 days, which seems a bit strange. Not necessarily suspicious, but unusual at least. Only few feedbacks in the profile , but his user profile is "ID-verified" by e-bay, for whatever that's worth.

But then I noticed that the second highest bidder in my auction ("Exidos" is currently bidding up an item sold by another seller who looks *pretty* fraudulent. This is the item:http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...tem=3428450507 and the seller's feedback:http://cgi2.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAP...userid=mjml320 So then you wonder if "Exidos" is a planted identity, used to bid up illegitimate items.

So I'm tempted to walk away from the whole thing, but I'm not sure if I'm being paranoid on the whole thing, considering that I'm could be drawing conclusions from second-level info.

But from what I hear, the level of sophistication from e-bay fraudsters is getting pretty high - they DO pad their feedback and all. So its hard know how deep to dig - and whether even the references of other buyers can be relied on, even if you e-mail them or whatever...

 

[Audio Redneck]

For what its worth....

This Exidos stikes my as a bargan hunter/dreamer trying to pick up a thin notebook and camera for under $300. Here is what he is currently bidding on: http://cgi3.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAP...pleted=1&all=1
I don't think he is as much a fraud as he is llikely to be a victim, by some of the auctions he's bid on. Some people just bid on auctions "just in case". I've done it a few times, mainly to show friends how ebay works (and yes I would have bought that Rega TT for $75 if I had won

)

Now, as to the auction that you've won: First, it looks like you are dealing with an individual, not a business. People are strange and do strange things. And this is an awefully big-ticket item to buy from a person(non-business) over the internet.

SO, before I sent any kind of payment, I would get a Name, Address (not a PO Box), and Phone Number that match up/check out. If you have a phone number, you can probably find the address that goes with it. Basically, what I'm saying is, make sure you have enough information to hunt this guy down if he is bad. If you can get that information easily, he probably isn't, because the good frauds don't want to be found. Also, only send payment in a traceable method. If you send a check or MO, pay to make the guy sign for it ("I never got it"). If he will take a personal check and you can live with the wait, send him one and you have some way to track the money to a specific account (MO can be cashed almost anywhere, personal checks are easier to back-track.) I wouldn't use paypal unless he is verified.

As to your initial question about assesing feedback, look at the last few feedbacks and then also look at who is giving the feed back. If you have someone with a feedback of less than ten, and all of the people who are giving the feedback rank less then, say 15, be leery. But if the folks leaving feedback have rankings all over the map (17, 251, 105, 67, 3, 48, etc.), then I'd be less concerned. Also, weigh whether the feedback is for items bought or sold. Has the guy been buying $2 junk to build up a feedback so he can sell a $2000 fraud? (I actually would trust you're seller more as it appears he just sells from time to time)

Hope it works out for you.

 

[gpalmer]

When I am feeling a bit nervous I also sometimes take a look at the feedback of the user who is giving feedback to the person selling. You can go a couple of levels deep. This is to see if there are a bunch of accounts that are giving feedback to each other. If I start seeing that thismarty has given feeback to two of the people that have given feedback to the people that have given feedback to his account I run away quick. But I do this before I bid, not after I've won...

 

[Rizumu]

Quote:

Originally posted by MusicLover I don't know about that person in particular, but I've seen people whose feedback had two different responses from the same exact user in a row, with many different people. Obviously, there is something wrong with that, so I wouldn't buy from those people.

That's because the same person bought multiple items from the seller (or vice versa), and hence left multiple feedback.

 

[skagen]

As it turned out, that guy was a flake - was hard to contact etc - and then he e-mails me like 10 days after the auction saying the item was not for sale any more! Good thing I didn't get caught out on that one!

He's another example of a deceptive profile though:
http://cgi2.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAP...serid=harleyds
Looks okay at first glance, right? But then when you click into the actual items that he gots positive feedback for. Now you see that he's basically building a profile by buying penny items - most likely from other scammers.

The other thing that I've noticed is that questionable items often have shillers - if you click into look at the actual bids, they are dominated and driven by people with zero or one feedback. Or guys with newly changed profiles.

E-bay is getting scary man!!

 

[Audio Redneck]

The big giveaway that this is a scammer is that some of the feedback states that the person is selling urls. Thats right up there with selling piramid schemes and such. I wish ebay really would "ban" those "banned from ebay" and "I'm leaving ebay" cd roms.