[77T]

eelpie -

Thanks for expanding upon your points.

Shifting gears, how would a typical buyer know which auction was bogus?

You and I have worked this space for years - we would automatically suspect a seller who never sold an expensive Swiss watch - nor anything else of value in the past year.

I think the average eBay'er might not notice...

That leads me to the "how" one might help unsuspecting bidders. Long ago, I wrote an eBay guide on spotting fake Rolexes. I think authoring an eBay guide on spotting these scammers might help - but unlikely unsuspecting bidders would look beyond their mobile device. Just an idea.

How would a scammer profit from such an auction? They would have to change the hijacked user's PayPal account, then the banking information, then pass through the bank validation process (remember how PP gets the money to you).

Not sure how successful that would be - but I guess it could be accomplished.

For now, and for TRF users, the best way I know would be to research the seller ID and call/email the seller directly about the auction. I'm sure the legit seller would disavow a bogus auction. If you pay via PP, you'll get your money back since the scammer's funds will be placed on hold (due to a large sale from a previously dormant eBay/PP account)

The eBay Community webpage allows such a lookup - I did that on my ID and annotated it below. I redacted my actual ID but left my IP addy there.

Chasing the scammer's IP address might help nail down the Country it is assigned to - but you'll also see below that the dynamic IP addy issued by my cable company is woefully inadequate in nailing down a city. I live in the ATL area and Charter uses data centers nationwide...


Just an idea to help unsuspecting TRF members.