Rash of Ebay and PayPal Scams

[Electrophil]

Originally Posted by Green1995SVX

We've had problems with people scamming our customers on high dollar items. Here's how it works.

Customer buys item X
Scammer emails second to highest bidder telling them the winner has backed out and they can now buy item X
Second to highest bidder sends money via western union to an international address because we're supposedly 'out of the country on business'

The only way we can stop this is by making our auctions private, but that usually makes people suspicious and less likely to bid. It really stinks.

Now I haven't heard of this one. And you are right, I won't bid on an auction where the bidders are kept private. We end up right back where we are scared there is shilling afoot.