Jerry et al,
Most of these hijacks we have outed have been fairly obvious. All have a couple of things in common:
* low- or no-feedback seller * one-day auctions * payment by direct wire transfer.
In addition, discrepancies about the location of the seller and location of the item have been noted. Yesterday Peter's rip-off was in China. Today's seller has a UK e-mail addy while selling a bike in Oklahoma.
One more thing they have in common is their general incompetence as con artists. Who gets taken in by these, anyway? I doubt it would pass the smell test for even a moderately web-savvy teenager. It's not like the costume jewelry con profiled in the NY times a couple of weeks back.
Most legitimate new sellers in our area of interest that I've noted lately tend to run their auctions for the usual 5 to 7 days. Most have gotten hip to Paypal, although a few Luddites remain. And most start out small, for the very reason you point out - they need to build up feedback. People will take a chance more readily on a $25 item - or even a $100 one - than they will when things move into four figures.
FWIW, I think extensive positive feedback as a buyer would provide reassurance to most people.
Jerome & Elizabeth Moos wrote:
>More likely someone hijacked John's auction. This kind of thing is getting out of hand on eBay. The sad thing is, what is a legitimate new seller to do? If you have not yet established feedback, lots of buyers will avoid you, suspecting you are one of these crooks. Since I never sell on eBay, I suppose if I did, no one would bid except maybe list members, unless my extensive feedback as a buyer were enough to reassure bidders. And those entirely new to eBay don't even have that. Too bad a few crooks have to screw things up for so many others, but I guess that story is as old as the human race.
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> Regards,
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> Jerry Moos
> Big Spring, TX
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Phil Sieg
Knoxville, Tennessee