WARNINGS! Last updated: 27 August 2007

Subject:	Ebay Warnings for Telescope Purchases 
Sent:	Sunday, August 26, 2007 20:57:53
From:	Cathy Taschler (smcmahon@accessus.net)
I hope the subject line was specific enough.  Nonetheless, the criminals
out there have updated the scams.  Here are two to watch out for.

First, a hacker will take over a legitimate Ebay account. The hacker
will break in and list items you will never see after paying for them. 
I found one today on a meade lxd.  The auction ended in about 16 hrs. 
No bids yet. THe opening bid was $520.00.  WOW.  Maybe I could get a
great buy.  But wait, my first clue was that the seller noted you could
e-mail him outside ebay to buy it now. Red Flag.  Then, I checked his
other items for sale.  A long list of high ticket items with great
prices.  They were all listed about 24 hours ago and ended in one day.
The guy is hoping greed gets people to buy fast.  Last, there was an ID
on the picture that did not match the seller's ID.  I reported the scam
and it was down in about an hour.

Second, some hackers will have an auction that jumps from ebay to a fake
ebay site that looks exactly the same. This is very hard to detect.  I
noticed one.  The original page pops up and very quickly it refreshes. 
The URL is not a legit Ebay URL.  I guess my slow computer saved me
there.

Great site and I hope no one gets scammed.

Subject:	another telescope purchase scam
Sent:	Thursday, June 30, 2005 21:42:41
From:	Aldo (mail@aldohanson.org)
Just to confirm   M. J. The Madjordainain (madjordainian@insightbb.com) 
telescope scam salutory tale,  as if confirmation of it is necessary,   
I've had TWO very similar experiences to that described in your 
Telescope Purchase Scam  featured on the site, the craziest about 8
weeks ago, after I bid  a ridiculously low $1250 for a Questar telescope
on eBay, a day or two after the end of the auction (it reached $2875) 
the "seller"  came back to  me  (instead of the first, second, third 
.....  ninth, tenth or eleventh unsuccessful bidders who had bid several
hundred $ more than I had)  with a totally genuine-looking eBay SEcond
Chance Offer & an improbable  story offering  me the "second chance
option" at my bid price of $250  because the many bidders who bid more
than me had ALL failed to come up with the $$$!

Fortunately it was obvious right away that was a scam & I forwarded to
spoof@ebay.com who confimed it.

In other words, the tale is exactly what happened,  but my maximum bid
was $1250  & the Questar eventually went for $2875.75 ; 11 different
people put in 14  bids after mine, so the "Second Chance Offer"  that
appeared to come to me from eBay offering me the Questar for $1250  was
suspicious immediately & I reported it to eBay.  But some people might
get "more realistic Second Chance Offers"  that do not make them
suspicious, hence the importance of the warning.

Best wishes,
 
AL

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