ALERT: On-line auction scam

[U-96]

If that is the case, then I agree entirely.
Please feel free to remove this topic if the solution really is that easy http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif

However, I suppose there are people who
a) don't babysit their own auctioned items
b) wait "just that bit longer for a higher bid"
c) are new to the Internet

In either case more caution is needed.

A simple solution is to set a reserve, in spite of eBay's advice - it seems only people not covering themselves with adequate reserves would consider themselves "ripped off".

If you want to sell a PIII 500 for $2 then you are asking for trouble anyway, IMHO.

[KillerBug]

They are probalby the same person, just a different name. By the way, I just got something off ebay, this thing to get free Microsoft software, total lies, I have to register for meating, miss a day of work, o to the middle of no where, and she claims you do not have to go anywhere on the auction, changes the claim on the disket. Also, amny of the links on the disk are dead.

[KillerBug]

sorry for the re-post.

[This message has been edited by KillerBug (edited 08-05-99).]

[U-96]

I was browsing the latest edition of the Risks Digest - an alternately informative and humourous site - and came across this article which may concern the many Sysopt readers who use on-line auctions to sell stuff:


Risks of on-line auctions: eBay scam
"Peter G. Neumann" <neumann@csl.sri.com>
Wed, 28 Jul 99 10:28:25 PDT

eBay users have apparently been victimized by a nasty denial-of-service-like scam: Someone makes an early relatively low bid, then a totally out-of-line high bid (which discourages all other bidders), and then withdraws the high bid at the very last minute -- which is allowed by eBay. This is known as bid shielding. See a Website created by Jason Hamilton mars.superlink.net/jason/ebay/ (http://mars.superlink.net/jason/ebay/) who was one of the victims.


The Risks site (a UK mirror of an American site, I believe) is at catless.ncl.ac.uk/Risks/ (http://catless.ncl.ac.uk/Risks/)

U-96

[edited to tidy up messy quote formatting]

[This message has been edited by U-96 (edited 08-04-99).]

[Joel Kleppinger]

But at Ebay, isn't it possible to end an auction early and give it to the highest bidder? If you're more than happy with the price, which I'm guessing in this situation a seller would be, then go ahead and end it early, selling it to them (and richly burning them in the process). It seems like that would be the way to keep from getting burned.