eBay/Craigslist BX22 eBay Auction - Is this too good to be true?!?

[Bucky4]

Hello everyone. I've been lurking in the shadows for a few weeks absorbing your superb wisdom & knowledge. I can't tell you how much I've enjoyed learning. Still looking for "The One," but narrowing it down a bit. Hopefully soon!

While checking the Kubota auctions on eBay, I came across a seller with two BX22s listed. (separate auctions) http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3461318718&category=41493

The price sounds too good to be true. (Yes, I'm aware of the old saying!!) Does anyone know anything about them? I'm thinking they're grey market units. I emailed the seller, but so far no response.

Thanks,

bucky4

 

[BANDAMAN]

Unfortunately, I would be 100% confident that those auctions are scams. This is a growing trend on Ebay, and these crooks are ruining it for legitimate business people. If you get a chance go to www.equipmenttraderonline.com Type in BX22 or BX23 as the keyword on the search page and you will see the exact same picture that you see on the ebay auction. These scammers search the web for photos of items they don't have, and fabricate phony auctions. I would imagine that if the person does respond to your e-mail they will ask you to send money to a foreign country and the fake BX22 would be shipped freight collect. yea right.....buyer beware!!!! /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif

 

[BANDAMAN]

Oops, forgot to say welcome to the Forum! I recently joined, and I became easily addicted!

Mike

 

[shvl73]

Definitely a scam. Why would anyone sell a BX22 for that price when he could call a dealer, have the dealer pick it up & still get 2-3 times his buy it now price. Too bad there isn't some way of nailing these con-artists.

 

[Junkman]

The worse part of eBay is that there is no easy way to report fraudulent auctions to them. They, eBay, have their heads in the sand when it comes to reporting anything that doesn't directly effect the way that they make their money..... Listing fees, and sales fees. I sell and buy a lot on eBay, but I am very careful in my dealings and have never been burned. If you are not an astute buyer, then you would be better off not bidding. Check the sellers wares and if the item that they are selling doesn't fall into a similar category, then you can be more than certain that there is some form of fraud involved. Bid with your head and you will be OK.......

 

[Inspector507]

RUN as fast as you can from that tractor.........it's a scam with a hijacked eBay ID

 

[Bob_Skurka]

One sure fire way to know that this is likely as scam is to check the seller's other auctions. In this case, the seller is probably a legitimate seller of AVON products and other cosmetics. But the tractor is a hijacked auction. I don't quite understand how the illegitimate people do this, but it seems to be a common scam. The crooks find a good ebay seller, and then somehow attach a scam item to them, usually the scam item is TOTALLY DIFFERENT than anything else the legitimate person sells. In this case a tractor is being sold by someone who sells cosmetics.

 

[herdfan]

Check out the other auctions this seller has.
Did Avon expand into the tractor business too?
Gotta love companies exploring new product lines.
Who knows, maybe McDonald's may start putting American made toys in happy meals next!
(was that politically correct? /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif)

 

[frank_f15]

WELCOME TO THE FORUM! and yes it has to be a scam!!!! either that or this guy is so dumb that it would be criminal to take advantage of him. i will vote for option #1 SCAMM

 

[California]

Aside from the drastic shift in type of item sold and the unreasonable Buy It Now price, another thing screams SCAM:

"Email the seller to be placed on the pre-approved bidder/buyer list".

This is unusual and seems to be the trademark common to several auctions where an inquiry got a reply to send payment to the Netherlands for an off-ebay sale. Email correspondence allows the bogus seller to offer an off-ebay sale to more than one customer on the same tractor.

I think the scammer targets sellers with good feedback and sends them a spoof letter along the line of "your credit card has expired, please log into this (bogus) ebay screen and update your ebay account." That gives him the naive user's ebay password and that's all he needs to hijack the account. I've received five of these spoof emails so far in February, and I suppose most of us have.

A sophisticated scammer would at least have a US address to receive payment without arousing suspicion. This is probably some kid in Amsterdam putting all these tractor auctions up, hoping someday a sucker will bite and he will receive a big check via international mail. Aint gonna happen, kid.

 

[raynman]

Bucky4,

Welcome to TBN, I don't think I need to state anything else about this posting, after reading what everyone else has stated /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

Buyer Beware /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif

 

[Gatorboy]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( The worse part of eBay is that there is no easy way to report fraudulent auctions to them. )</font>

I guess it depends on what you deem as easy, but I have reported violations from this eBay webpage.

 

[KENSFM]

Thankfully eBay has ended this auction. I have found that if I report these scams to eBay I ususlly get fast results.
Ken /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[Junkman]

I don't believe that e bay ended that auction, but possibly the seller. If eBay had ended it then they would have deleted the entire auction and say that there is no record of the auction any longer.

 

[Bucky4]

Well folks, all those who said it was a scam can all sleep well knowing they didn't miss out on the buy of a lifetime! /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Mr. California gets the star on the forehead for calling it correctly! (Hope you never learned it the hard way!)

Below is a message I received in reply to my inquiry about the tractor. (Yea, my curiosity got the better of me.) I hope I didn't set myself up for future problems. /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif

Have a good one and thanks for all the replies. Keep the tractor info coming...

bucky4



Hello there,

Thank you for your interest in purchasing my 2003 KUBOTA BX22 TLB with back-hoe
and loader. I know that are numerous offers on eBay and I'm glad that you choose
to contact me regarding your willingness to purchase.

First of all I must inform you that currently I'm in Netherlands and I have to
let you know that the tractor is here with me at my farm and it is in a perfect
condition, I am the first owner of the tractor. It is all most brand new Kubota
BX22 sub-compact tractor, loader & backhoe. 22 Engine horse power / 16.7 PTO
horse power. Two range hydrostatic transmission, mid & rear PTO, 48" bucket on
front loader, 12" bucket on six foot backhoe, 18x8.50-8 front bar tires /
26x12.00-12 rear bar tires with only 40 hours on it.

The tractor has a clear title which you will receive it once with it. The
shipping and handling right to your residence is paid by me. You don´t have to
pay duty custom taxes, shipping fees or any other hidden costs. The price that I
am willing to sell it is US $3,000.00 and if you agree with this price we can
start to complete the transaction.

Warm Regards,
Mrs. L Jackson

 

[MessickFarmEqu]

As a dealer, we get the same kind of emails offering to buy equipment that we list on used equipment sites.

The scam works by the "buyer" sending you a check and asking that a portion of that check be forwarded along to their shipping company who will come get the tractor. Turns out that the check that they send is no good and they hope that you forward the shipping money before their check comes back to you.

 

[JWE]

Neil, I know someone that advertised that he had a used tractor ($2500) for sale and someone from Nigeria responded via Email. The buyer said that he had a business acquaintance that owed him money and that he would have him overnight a cashier’s check to cover the cost of the tractor. A day later he received a cashiers check for $5000 via Fedex and a follow-up phone call from the buyer. The buyer said to cash the cashiers check in the morning and wire $2000 back to him in Nigeria. The buyer said to keep $500 extra dollars for his efforts. The seller went to the bank and cashed the check and then wired the $2000. Needless to say the check bouncer 3 days later and he is out $2000. Although the cashier’s check looked authentic, it was drawn on a bank that closed its doors two years ago. He even asked the bank to check the funds before cashing it but they refused. He reported the incident to all of the authorities and the bank but they were no help.

John

 

[RonR]

I have a friend who runs a truck dealership. They were hit by this same scam. When the check was presented, they called the bank it was drawn on in Washington State, asking about the validity.

The guy at the bank in WA heard enough of the info, he interrupted and said "and it's check number XXXX, right?" The forgers had created a good check blank, then reproduced it many, many times to run the scam.

My buddy called the police, and the pickup person must have seen the police, as he never showed up.

BEWARE.

 

[herdfan]

I wonder if you ask the seller a question for these bogus auctions if the highjacker of the E-Bay account would add your e-mail address to its list of potential victims? When you post a question to the seller on E-Bay, your email is linked to the question the seller gets so they can respond. The seller then can reference your E-Bay ID from the email address and then try to hack your password. My wife's E-Bay account was highjacked from someone in Canada and it was a pain to get it back. We have since used an alphanumeric password so that these hacker programs that use a dictionary-type of engine won't figure it out.

 

[theboman]

I nearly got suckered into the trap. If it's too good to be true, it is!
I was ready to wire $$ to the Netherlands for 2 Kubotas with low hours and the price was, well I could have kept one and sold one and the $$ would have paid for both and for the B7500 I've had 2+ years.
A few days on the road and chatting with Western Union convinenced me this was a scam. I have all the details including name/addy of the person.
He was a "former" Kubota employee and got "preferred pricing" on units.