Hello All,

Be very careful when bidding on a new blackberry on ebay. I just reported a scam with only 5 hours left, and it was shut down. Somebody could have lost a lot of money.

Things to watch out for...

-No need to bid just email me at

-All of the sellers feedbacks are for petty items

-Even if the seller has perfect feedback, only use the contact seller button, no matter what they say is wrong with that. many sellers steal accounts and do not want you contacting the real owner of the account, so they want you to email them through ebay but via an email account that they have listed on the aution. DO NOT TRUST THIS.

Another thing is, most people already know not to trust ebay security center emails, they are usually fakes, however... there is a new scam, they send a question about an item, and that leads you to a spyware site. Be very careful that all ebay sites you visit begin with www.signin.ebay.com......

BE CAREFUL!

As a seller/buyer on ebay... I have my emails/messages forwarded to my blackberry account. But my way of verifying emails that they are authentic, is to check it first that they exist in my Messages INBOX in [My Ebay].. if they don't, then it is fake. As simple as that.

In regards to Blackberry sold on eBAY, yes be very careful since alot of stolen BBs are sold through there. The past 2-3 weeks, there were more than $60,000 worth of Nextel phones stolen from dealers and are being sold at ebay. So be careful. I would suggest that since these BBs have IMEI numbers, ask the seller to provide any identification(s) before bidding and have Nextel confirm that these numbers belong to phones that can be legally sold and not stolen.

thanks for the heads up. i wouldnt buy from ebay ever anyway. i just dont trust it.

Here's a scammer that was shutdown on one ebay account and has now relisted his scams under another seller's account. All of the trademarks of a scam.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Cingular-BlackBe...QQcmdZViewItem

Man...this is tough. I can't tell one way or other if it is a scam.

Thanks for the info i was just about to bid on a 7100I, i will do that before i do

How can you not tell it's fake? The "seller" has only been a buyer of stuff in the past, the "seller" says email him/her at an address not attached to Ask Seller a Question - it's classic ID hijacking.

Always email a seller through the Message center through ebay and never use your email address straight in contacting an ebay user. The reason for that, your email are monitored (though not 100%), but in cases where you need assistance from ebay support, they have a basis on what and how to handle your issues.

Here is an example of one of the notices I got from ebay when I was selling an Unlocked GMS phone worth $379.00 and got a message from an eBay Buyer offering to buy it for $600.00 CASH. Since this ebay Buyer didn't have my email address, has to go through the system to contact me. And the next thing I know, ebay support emailed me the msg below.

****
Subject: SP NOTICE: eBay Ask Seller a Question or Contact eBay Member Alert Received: Sep-25-05
From: eBay Expires: Nov-24-05
Dear chinesecatt (carolinep@letsshipitforyou.com):

Our records indicate that you recently sent an email to or received an email from je_barr13 through the eBay email system (for example, you may have sent an email to this member through Ask Seller a Question or received an email from this member through Contact eBay Member).

Sometimes eBay accounts are used to send email solicitations for transactions outside of eBay, or to send unrelated questions in hopes that you will respond so that the other party can obtain your email address. We wanted you to be aware of the potential fraud risk these solicitations pose and encourage you to be cautious about the email you received from this member.

Please keep in mind, sales that take place outside of eBay are not eligible for any eBay or PayPal protective services and you run the risk of losing your money or your item if you complete these transactions. We would encourage you to review the eBay pages related to Fraud Protection at the address provided below for information on steps you can take to ensure that your transactions are successful:

http://pages.ebay.com/help/tp/isgw-b...ion-steps.html

If you have already sent the item or sent payment for the item, please reply to this email and we will send you additional information about how to protect yourself.

Regards,

Trust & Safety Department

******

I trust eBay, been selling and buying stuffs from there. But just be cautious in regards to their way of listing and posting. Just follow rules and you will be covered.

Oh yeah... one more thing, I hate to be one of those that are too careful but this is hard earned money we're talking about so... through experience, I have learned never to buy from anywhere outside the USA or Canada with regard to phones. And while selling a phone, never send it to somebody who claims they live in the Netherlands but their daughter goes to school in Saudi Arabia and they want to buy the phone as a birthday present.

Last four things I have bought on ebay were bad I will never buy any electronics from them again. I am tired of the scams and general BS of ebay

Yep, I got one like that too. Only with mine, she was working in some
American Embassy in Africa who needed the phone for her son's birthday and would be sending money through BidPay. Asked for my email and my address to send money to. Offered twice as much as my BUY NOW price. But hey, how tempting the money offer.. transactions done outside eBay, just doesn't work for me. I got scammed just this year in the amount of $3,849.00. It was bad!!! (plus a few days after that incident, bumped my car and cost me $1,500 to fix it.) But you know, peace of mind is much better than any better deal you could find. It didn't stop me from selling and buying at ebay though. Life is a risk, just needed to keep a watch and learn from past experience.

You gots to do your research Dawg, See who the guy bought from and sold to and check what he sold. Its easy and cheaper than a store!

One of the 957's I bought through eBay was stolen. Thankfully the person had it locked and had her contact info in the Owner info. I sent it back to her and was out $75cdn but she had her BlackBerry back.

But maybe I'm just one of those nice guys you hear about occationally

Zro

yah and you report your item to ebay and you get your money back.

Hmmm.. you get money back if you return the merchandise to the seller. So if he didn't....?

It is his words again the seller.... it wouldn't hold for complaints

I know this is an old thread but this tale must be told.

So, as some of you know, I've been trying to sell my 7280 for awhile. <shamelesspromotion>
It's in near perfect condition btw, in the original box with a speck case.
</shamelesspromotion>

Anyway, it was up on eBay for 7 days with only one bid. That guy retracted his bid for some reason or another. At the last second, someone bids on it for 18.99 over the price. No reserve.

About a minute after that I get this email from the buyer:

"Dear seller,
Am happy to win your auction and i will like to inform you that the item
won is needed in the western part of africa nigeria, as a gift for my
bussiness partner who went to nigeria for a festival, *osun festival*
for discovery of how things work in nigeria and their culture, the
address is stated below, please remember to include HAPPY OSUN
FESTIVAL > on the package, and 120 USD will be added for
postage to nigeria thru usps express mail for fast delivery,
the address is as follows:
Beko Lukman Adewoye
po box 258,
Ikirun,
Osun state,
Nigeria
235001
Get back asap! so that i can make payment via paypal"

The guy who sent the email's name is "frank mark" (yeah right). his addresss is a mail boxes etc in FL.

Then, this morning, I get two bogus paypal emails saying he has paid me $198.99. Of course, I login to my paypal account and, surprise, not there.

Because of the nature of my work, I could never ship anything to Nigeria anyway. Would raise way, way to many flags.

Bastards. Now, I'm stuck with the selling costs from eBay!!! What a joke!

Nigeria, as of last week, just got blackberry service so I'm sure these types of 'sales' are on the rise. Watch out!!

Anyway, just a heads up for anyone selling bb's on ebay.

Why would you be stuck with the selling costs? Forward the fake payment e-mails to Paypal and eBay. They will refund your seller fees.

I emailed them.....no response as of yet.

What I don't get is why go through all the "Nigeria" nonsense which would raise an immediate red flag in most people?? Why not just pose as a "normal" buyer and then send the fake PayPal emails? I bet that would fake out a lot more people...

No doubt....just pissed me off. And Chuck does not like to get angry!!!!