Is this a scam?
Nov 30, 2002 at 5:17 AM Post #2 of 14
Weird, was looking for used Ipod on Ebay and saw many of those ads. Then stop by here and I see the same ads again!

Anyway, the seller is probably selling some useless knowledge.

The seller is probably giving the buyer a slip that says:

Method for getting an Ipod for free is going in a store, grab an Ipod, and run out as fast as you can.
 
Nov 30, 2002 at 5:19 AM Post #4 of 14
Think about it. If this was such a lucrative deal, the guy would be able to resell all the electronics he got for free, instead of selling the plans on *how* to do it for 7 bucks a pop.

It's like the people who charge for get-rich-quick schemes. If there was so much money to be made, they wouldn't have to sell the information to you.
 
Nov 30, 2002 at 7:40 AM Post #6 of 14
it's the easiest way to make money. copy somebody else's book or manual and then make a million copies and sell them on ebay.

have you noticed how many manuals are out there for any piece of equipment?

then there's the certification questions - questions which you can make up yourself and sell on ebay for a $10 .pdf download fee.

it's a scam!

run away from it.
 
Nov 30, 2002 at 9:42 AM Post #7 of 14
I don't know anything about this particular eBay seller and mean him no discredit.

It is common for people to post information for sale. Often the information for sale contains how to sign up to become a seller of some sort of product to earn points to apply toward products in a gift store.

Note that I didn't use the word "pyramid scheme" or "scam" to describe this.
 
Nov 30, 2002 at 12:09 PM Post #8 of 14
I was curious enough once to pay $0.99 for a thing like that. What you get in return is a bunch of urls that link to actual `stores` that indeed sell stuff only for the price of shipping. Probably because it would cost them much more in bribes to get that crap accepted at the junkyard.

Just so you know, there aren't any free ipods or xboxes there. More like watches dedicated to some hotel, goggles shaped as a number 2000, etc.

Oh yes, and you also get the right to use the full text of the ad and the right to sell that info (and these rights) to others. Only condition being is that none of that can be given away, it has to be sold.
 
Nov 30, 2002 at 2:50 PM Post #9 of 14
Yes it is a scam. You can not get an iPod for free, you can't get a Powerbook or a big screen TV or anything else for free either.
What he's selling is information on how to defraud people - basically you have to say that you are a retailer and you want an "evaluation" unit or similar. Or it is links to stuff that nobody wants anyway but you can get if you give away your own details, possibly for identity theft or endless junk mail or some other dodgy scheme - there was some discussion of this kind of thing on arstechnica recently. Exploiting curiosity is how they survive - having people igure that $0.99 is a small loss if it doesn't work. Gather enough $0.99s and you can retire happily.

I wish eBay would do something about keeping people like this from spamming my searches...

(In contrast to the surprisingly diplomatic Kelly, I wish this particular eBay seller plenty of disrespect. He can kiss my ass along with all the rest of the almost-but-not-quite-lying scumbags playing his little game. Especially the guy selling the "banned" CD.)
 
Nov 30, 2002 at 4:13 PM Post #10 of 14
Quote:

Originally posted by aeberbach
Yes it is a scam. You can not get an iPod for free, you can't get a Powerbook or a big screen TV or anything else for free either.
What he's selling is information on how to defraud people - basically you have to say that you are a retailer and you want an "evaluation" unit or similar. Or it is links to stuff that nobody wants anyway but you can get if you give away your own details, possibly for identity theft or endless junk mail or some other dodgy scheme - there was some discussion of this kind of thing on arstechnica recently. Exploiting curiosity is how they survive - having people igure that $0.99 is a small loss if it doesn't work. Gather enough $0.99s and you can retire happily.

I wish eBay would do something about keeping people like this from spamming my searches...

(In contrast to the surprisingly diplomatic Kelly, I wish this particular eBay seller plenty of disrespect. He can kiss my ass along with all the rest of the almost-but-not-quite-lying scumbags playing his little game. Especially the guy selling the "banned" CD.)


Hehe, then there are the ones who provide poorly organized and out of date "wholesale lists" (culled from who knows when) full of dead businesses with disconnected phone numbers. It's just as well anyway, as you require a business license to purchase from them, and the orders must be in quantity.
 
Nov 30, 2002 at 5:51 PM Post #11 of 14
I was curious enough to pay a few dollars for this kind of auction once. I was sent information that told me to go to globalsources.com, search for merchandise, and send companies requests for samples. It's pretty dishonest, because you have to let on that you are interested in buying x thousand units, would like information, pricing, and a sample shipped to x address. I deleted the info; if it's too good to be true...
 
Nov 30, 2002 at 6:54 PM Post #13 of 14
LOL, I saw this ad about 2 weeks ago, and I immediately passed it as a fraud. NEVER trust those ads claiming to go you free stuff, because their full of ****. End of story.
 
Dec 1, 2002 at 2:18 AM Post #14 of 14
"Q: Will the item(s) I want ever become unavailable?
A: Yes, there is a possibility that it may become out of stock, or have stopped production. There are alternative brands that you can choose if your first choice brand/model is unavailable at the moment."


Duh ....once you paid for the auction, they gonna say ..

"sorry sir , they don't make that anymore, but thanks for the $4"
 
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