Scamming The Scammer With A P-P-P-Powerbook

[Ed Hansberry]

<a href="http://www.engadget.com/entry/3598374404084695/">http://www.engadget.com/entry/3598374404084695/</a><br /><br />"A guy selling his Powerbook on eBay realized he was being scammed by a buyer in Europe with a stolen account — the scam being that you send the Powerbook to what you think is a legit escrow service, but is actually in cahoots with the scammer (one of our good friends actually fell for this once!). You send them whatever you’re selling, and they just keep it. So he decided to scam the scammer, sending him the P-P-P-Powerbook, in the form of a tricked out plastic three-ring binder, instead."<br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/hansberry/2004/20040515-powerbook.jpg" /><br /><br />Ahh... the sweet taste of revenge. :devilboy:

[Wiggster]

Ah, the wonders that come out of the goons at SA.

I would pay $10 for a copy of that binder.

[Ekkie Tepsupornchai]

I know I'm going to sound incredibly dense, but I guess I don't follow what the actual scam attempt is.

EDIT: OK. I think I get it. The "escrow service" is expected to collect the money for the buyer, but is actually a front to take the item and keep it?

[dean_shan]

This reminds me of the guy that scammed an email scammer (http://www.419eater.com/html/stev_ebe.htm) out of $50.

[yawanag]

I'd give anything to have seen the look on his face. :devilboy:

[24va]

Ok, I read 'most' of the 3 pages, that was a crack up

[Wiggster]

Wow, you have to read the thread, it's worth the SA membership.

This scam is the most http://www.wiggster.com/images/smiles/kickinrad.gif thing on the internet all year.

[ignar]

Just finished reading the 82 pages thread. 8O What a wonderful story!

[pdagal]

Excellent! I had the same thing happen to me this week. A buyer using a stolen ebay account tried to get me to use http://www.safe-payment.net in order to accept escrow payment for my notebook. The site looked fishy after closer inspection and sure enough the whole thing was a scam. Was tempted to send the so-called buyer in the midwest a box of rocks, but instead I settled on reporting it to the authorities.

[sgyee]

A PDF version has been created of the entire discussion and it's associated EMails and pictures.

I've mirrored it here:
http://www.azhog.org/thepowerbook.pdf

[Aerestis]

That's what a powerbook looks like? I was told that Apple had nice hardware.

[bjornkeizers]

what a oincidence! Iread bout this yesterday. Fantastic. .:-)

[Pony99CA]

Excellent! I had the same thing happen to me this week. A buyer using a stolen ebay account tried to get me to use http://www.safe-payment.net in order to accept escrow payment for my notebook. The site looked fishy after closer inspection and sure enough the whole thing was a scam. Was tempted to send the so-called buyer in the midwest a box of rocks, but instead I settled on reporting it to the authorities.
There are legitimate auction escrow services, so why did you think the site looked fishy? The site looks pretty good to me (professional design, reasonable sounding, WHOIS information in the U.S. -- not a foreign country, etc.).

Searching Google yielded no hits on "safe-payment.net", though. Also, the address given on their Web site didn't match the WHOIS information -- they weren't even in the same state. Both of those are a bit fishy, but I'm curious what else may have tipped you off.

As for the initial story, I think the guy still got scammed. He wasted time and money (at least postage) producing and shipping the notebook.

I have never used eBay to buy or sell anything, and stories like this just give me one more reason not to. I know these scams probably represent a vast minority of buyers and sellers, but it's a shame that losers have to ruin a great concept.

Steve

[foldedspace]

Actually, no. Dealing with an escrow service that's headquartered in the US doesn't guarantee legitimacy. It does however mean that the proprieters are subject to US law. Having to go through legal channels to recover money from someone in the Cayman Islands, for instance, whould be a lot more difficult.

I've gotten these kind of emails before. Since they ask you to transact outside of Ebay, I just ignore them. And I never use escrow anyway...give the money first, or don't bid.

[ignar]

As for the initial story, I think the guy still got scammed. He wasted time and money (at least postage) producing and shipping the notebook.


His time is not wasted. He and the followers had so much fun, and his P-P-Powerbook and Jeff become an instant internet celebrity. Also he received donation from the viewers, so his postage and other costs were covered. Above all, his story will save many potential scam victims from trouble.

[remyc88]

There are legitimate auction escrow services, so why did you think the site looked fishy?

I think the most fishy thing is if you click their VeriSign info you will see it's hosted on their own server (http://www.safe-payment.net/verisign.php)

[bjornkeizers]

I would never use an escrow service; I've hear too many horror storys for me to trust them. Whenever I sell something, they can either trust me and transfer the funds to my account, or come and pick up the goods in person. I don't even do COD.

[Pony99CA]

Actually, no. Dealing with an escrow service that's headquartered in the US doesn't guarantee legitimacy.
No, what? I didn't say that being headquartered in the U.S. "guaranteed" that it was legitimate; I just said that would help reinforce my belief that it was. I definitely wouldn't trust an escrow service headquartered outside of the U.S. for the reasons you cited.

I'm not saying that those headquartered outside the U.S. are bad, of course. As a U.S. resident, I just wouldn't want the hassle of dealing with a non-U.S. company.

Steve

[Pony99CA]

There are legitimate auction escrow services, so why did you think the site looked fishy?
I think the most fishy thing is if you click their VeriSign info you will see it's hosted on their own server (http://www.safe-payment.net/verisign.php)
Good catch. I hadn't checked the Verisign page, but you're right. Their text even says to ensure that "The URL of this page is https://digitalid.verisign.com." Displaying the page information certainly didn't show that.

I hope pdagal reported this company to the FTC.

Steve