Indonesian eBay Scammers discover Neumann

  • Thread starter Thread starter Bampei
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Bampei

New member
Hello all,

This is a warning to all of you that may be looking at Neumann microphones on eBay. The Indonesian eBay scam system seems to have discovered Neumann and other high-end microphones and are replacing their fraudulent antique auctions with microphones.

The telltale signs are as follows:
1. Usually only 1-3 items for sale
2. Newly registered
3. 3-5 day auction
4. Require Western Union or Bank Wire only. (no paypal or credit cards)
5. Often listed as private auction
6. If you contact the seller, they will often offer to "end" the auction early for a very low price if you'll send money quick
7. Registration country is not always listed as Indonesia, but the banking information, telephone contact, etc... will be in Indonesia.
8. The pictures of their auctions are usually lifted from other sources like eBay auctions, manufacturer sites, etc...

I have seen five of these frauds in the last week alone. One that is still listed (Until eBay gets off their ass and kills it) is:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2550352214

This supposed Brand New Neumann M149 was offered to me for $1000.00 if I would just "hurry" with the payment, as the seller "desperately needed money". That I don't doubt... I do too! But, it is a clear fraud and eBay isn't looking for them. They'll only kill and auction when a complaint or fraud alert is filed.

Can't even imagine how many people have been bilked out of hard earned $$ with the lure of a world-class microphone... for cheap!
 
One more thing...

I spoke with the guy on the aforementioned auction on the telephone. His registration on eBay was a women's name and for NSW, Australia. (The phone number on ebay was bogus)

I contacted him via email, and he sent me his phone number to arrange the wire transfer (hee hee). It was an Indonesian number. I confronted him about the discrepency, and he gave some long winded response about having businesses in both Australia and Indonesia, and going back and forth etc....

So I asked him for proof of his ownership of a M149 mic by sending me a photo of HIS mic, not the standard Neumann pic from their website. This he supposedly did claiming the photo he sent me via email was just taken by him within the last few minutes.

Now... Examine the attached photograph carefully. See anything??? Keep looking....

Still looking???


OK.. check out the watermark in the bottom right corner. Notice it says "iPix". That's eBays picture watermark for uploaded images for auctions. That means this bastard lifted an old photo from eBay and claimed he had "Just taken it". Sheesh... aren't these people any smarter? (Thank buddha they're not!)

Just for fun.. let's all bid this mic up to about $1,000,000 until eBay kills it (which should happen in the next 12-hours) That'll give "jhon" a rise!!!
 

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Continued followup:

Now this guy is emailing me to "not worry" about other bidders... he claims he has "plenty" stock of M149's in his "Store", so he will honor his offer of $1000 to me!

Well gee... how can I pass that up --- especially considering that the largest Neumann distributors in Ausralia, Japan, and elsewhere in Asia together only have two of these mics in stock!

This guy has some HUGE gazoongas!
 
Never seen a auction with Identity protected on the bidders.


Surely looks Fishy to me.


MAlcolm
 
Will ship to Australia, Mexico and Central America, South America, Australasia, Europe, North America, Caribbean

What the fuck is "Australasia"??? And wouldn't it have been easier to say "will ship worldwide"??? :eek:

:rolleyes:
 
Bruce,

Australasia is used to describe the region including New Guinea, New Zealand, etc., etc...............

:cool:
 
a good rule of thumb i use is if i can't look at quite a bit of positive feedback, i don't bid on anything from anyone...maybe i'm just paranoid though.
 
Mark7 said:
Interesting that they don't mention Asia or Africa.
Click to expand...

Probably doesn't know they exist! (Though if he did, I'm sure he'd be glad to abscond with funds from those areas as well...)

I told eBay about this auction two days ago, and I'm really pissed off that they are so fucking worthless and lazy that they haven't already canned this auction and warned all the bidders... as they have done with other fraudulent auctions.

If they don't do it soon, some poor sucker who is unaware of how convincing these con-artists can be is gonna lose on the order of $2000.00 --- *POOF*.

eBay is more frigging concerned with making sure that they get their $.10 for posting, than worrying about "Safe Harbor" and protecting their customers. Assholes!
 
Why don't people just stop Ebaying?
If they get ripped off, it's their stupidity. I find enough good deals and can have the thing in my hand when I walk away.
 
Well, in my case it's purely through necessity. I have zero chance of ever picking up a decent mic locally, especially second hand.
 
acorec said:
Why don't people just stop Ebaying?
If they get ripped off, it's their stupidity. I find enough good deals and can have the thing in my hand when I walk away.
Click to expand...
Because ebay is great! I have never been ripped off and the signs of a scam mentioned in this thread are fairly obvious.
That's why.
 
Bampei,

This auction is through Ebay Australia who I have found from past experience to be slow to act on this kind of thing, or totally reluctant to act at all.

I would suggest you keep a record of any correspondence you have had about this auction and send it to Ebay's head office and let them sort it all out.

:cool:
 
i asked the seller a question and they continued o email me offering to lower the price of the item. when they told me a number to call them at i looked it up as you did and saw it was indonesia. i then reported them to ebay for suspicious activity. we'll see if i get a response from ebay.
 
one more thing....when I emailed asking him "why does the auction say you're located in Australia when you're phone number is located in Indonesia?" He responded with "Thank's for you care. For this time Im still on indonesia to open the music store at medan. If you deal reply me and let me know." Now what the hell does that mean?
 
Well, I see the auction has ended. Winning bid was AU $2,750.00
(Approximately US $1,804.00).
Let's hope the winner got the heads up :(

Mark
 
and... there's no way to warn him/her unless eBay does, because this scammer kept it a private auction to hide all the bidder names.

I got an email yesterday from eBay Australia... three days after reporting the auction... that stated that they were in receipt of my warning, and would investigate. But... it would take three to five days to process! What a joke! You would think that eBay would protect their customers by IMMEDIATELY investigating fraud reports and warning all bidders.

This "seller" has probably contacted every bidder that posted a bid to his "auction", offering to sell them a M149 for "super cheap". After all, he has dozens in stock! Sheesh.

I buy on eBay all the time... but that doesn't mean I have to like them.....
 
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