Three scams from one hacker . . .

[goldfixer21]

Originally Posted by GLADIATOR

Its a pity that eelpie did not post photos of the pieces.
Kind of makes the thread useless

Maybe in future he could post photos, then the thread stays in history educational??

Thanks
adam

All 3 were pics of genuine watches with different backgrounds, what could they possibly have taught anyone?

[77T]

Originally Posted by goldfixer21

All 3 were pics of genuine watches with different backgrounds, what could they possibly have taught anyone?

Yes I agree about the pictures - they might not have been useful but two of the links went to active legit sellers. Not to a dormant sleeper seller who had been hacked.

So if the scammer’s modus operandi is hijacking, it appears that the links are fleeting - they disappear as quickly as they appeared.

I agree with Adam in one respect - that snapping some screenshots of the auction itself would help. That - or post/preserve the names of the dormant eBay sellers. As it stands now, no way to report who or what was going on.


Sent from my iPhoneX using Tapatalk

[JZD]

Originally Posted by 77T

Yes I agree about the pictures - they might not have been useful but two of the links went to active legit sellers. Not to a dormant sleeper seller who had been hacked.

So if the scammer’s modus operandi is hijacking, it appears that the links are fleeting - they disappear as quickly as they appeared.

I agree with Adam in one respect - that snapping some screenshots of the auction itself would help. That - or post/preserve the names of the dormant eBay sellers. As it stands now, no way to report who or what was going on.


Sent from my iPhoneX using Tapatalk

Respectfully...please read the whole string. I think eelpie is trying to show some of the patterns typically followed by scammers on eBay. In this instance he was showing what it looks like when a dormant account gets hacked. I know many TRF users are all about TRF trusted sellers (even though there is no such thing officially) but the fact is a lot of people use eBay to buy a Rolex. I think this is especially true for first time Rolex buyers.

[eelpie]

Originally Posted by 77T

Yes I agree about the pictures - they might not have been useful but two of the links went to active legit sellers. Not to a dormant sleeper seller who had been hacked.

So if the scammer’s modus operandi is hijacking, it appears that the links are fleeting - they disappear as quickly as they appeared.

All three auctions were posted to the account of user ID 335hunter, which is a valid, active account that has zero feed-back as a seller for over a year. The reason the links disappear is because the links are to scams, scams are duly reported, and the scams are removed. That, in a nutshell, is the way scams and auctions for fakes are dealt with. There is no reason to let scam auctions run to their conclusions.

Just to illustrate how persistent the hackers are, he's re-listed the Batman from a couple of days ago:

Rolex GMT-Master ll Batman 116710blnr Men’s Watch

Now here's the deal: the photos are of a genuine watch, the description can be convincing, and the feed-back of 222 is respectable.

The problems are that the person offering the watch is not the actual owner of the account 335hunter, and the person offering the watch (aka: hacker, scammer, thief) doesn't own the watch being offered. The scammer / hacker has some photos of unknown origin, and a bit of semi-convincing patter and nothing more.

The whole point of a scam is to make it look as life-like as possible and as of this writing, the auction has been bid past $7000, from a ludicrously low opening bid of $1000.

The bidders have not noticed the account hasn't sold anything in over a year, or that this account has never dealt in anything even remotely as valuable as a Rolex.

Again, there is no actual watch involved.

By the way, posting and saving the compromised account names is pointless because after they've been caught a few times the thieves shuck the user ID and take up temporary residence under another user ID, sort of like a hermit crab abandoning one refuge for another.

[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.

[eelpie]

Originally Posted by 77T

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

While your Rolex buyer is not typical per se, anyone is liable to fall victim to a scam if they're not aware of scams or looking for scams. It happens here, and it happens on eBay.

At last count there were 27 bids up to $7200 on the bogus Batman auction listed above.

At least some of these people believe they're trying to buy BLNR for less than the market price. They see a real watch, they see decent feed-back (although not recent) and they mistakenly believe they're actually involved in a real auction.

If you are not wary, suspicious, or a devotee of abstract thinking, it may never occur to you to look for the tell-tale signs of fraud . . .



And the Batman is gone for now.