Beware - possible EBAY scam of Don Post C3P0 and Boba Fett Statues

[Korbanth]

Now, I could be wrong...but it just doesnt feel right...

I saw an ebay auction of a life sized Don Post plated C3P0 and Boba Fett up for auction - I wont post the auction, but if you search ebay for this
STAR WARS TRILOGY C-3PO PROP

you should see it...2 things strike me as odd, and maybe the rules are different for this kind of auction...but when I tried to place an absentee bid, it asked me to LOG IN to ebay, which I was already logged it...seemed like it was Phishing for my login and password....I had been scammed a year ago, the exact same way.

A friend of mine had tried to place a bid a few hours ago, but went ahead and logged in as it asked, and now his password wont work? Coincidence?

Also, in the description of the rules on purchasing, heres a cut n paste:

Credit Approval: Internet bidders are REQUIRED to provide valid name,
address, phone number and email address as well bank references or
credit card number (with corresponding expiration date and pin number)
to eBay to be approved for bidding. Potential bidders not meeting these
criteria will be approved on a case-by-case basis and ONLY after
contacting DuMouchelles regarding the status of their pending
application.

Did I read that right? your PIN number?

So does this auction make anyone else wary? also quite alot of negatives too...just wondering is all.

 

[TMP]

Contact e-Bay IMIDIATLY. Make them block your freinds account ASAP.

 

[acerocket]

Sounds like a scam to me. I would contact ebay and ask if the "...Credit Approval: Internet bidders are REQUIRED to provide valid name,
address, phone number and email address as well bank references or
credit card number (with corresponding expiration date and pin number)
to eBay to be approved for bidding. " is out of legal bounds. Nobody should ever have to ask for you credit card number AND pin number.

 

[General Anesthesia]

Tell your friend to go to live help, it's on the main page in the upper right corner. You may have to wait a few minutes but they will be able to take the problem right away rather than having to wait until Monday for a follow through with an email. I had to work with the live help recently and they were actually pretty good. I was pleasantly surprised.

 

[TMP]

Just got of the phone with the owner of the auction house.
I said, either you're account is hijacked or this looks like a scam.

I explained the situation and how it looked with a to low value estamete on the item and + the request of creditcardnumber + pin and expiration date.

He explained it with that ebay require this info in their account registration. something they do. I said that if that was the intention it to mean then he should rephrase it and explain it better or remove it.
Becaluse it looks bad like it is now. I also said you probably lose customers like me because of his request that is against logic and ebay law.
I even said the creditcards have in their policy to NOT let other people have this info due to danger of scam.

I said this is the most common scam in the world. I returned the question to him by saying if he bought an item of me and with his creditcard number and expiration date i could start shopping with his card in minutes.. He was a bit silent and he was like. Yea.. and said I dont like that sound my self. I will look into it.

I belive they just wrote the wrong thing without thinking.

The reason to its low value was because when he got it it was without hands. He said it was a divorce the whife had the hands and he the body.
It took him a long time to get the hands so when he intially got the body only he valued it to 500 USD. He said from the inside it was backed up with wooden pieces on the inside. He now got the arms so they just hope for more for it.

I said then i belive you lose the seriouse buyers with this request and by doing so you also lose money. I finihed it of with saying with what you are requestion a buyer can take you to legal action if his card is misused. I also said that since he is the owner and got employees, his employees could be scamming his clients by using that info and recomended him to look into the text it self.

He sounded like he was confused and seriouse at the same time, by ending the converation plesent and by saying he will look into this because he did not like the text him self.

 

[Korbanth]

ok. thanks for that. one thing that still puzzles me, is I am logged in to ebay, and I tried to place an absentee bid, and of course it tells me I need to do something out of the normal bidding process, but it wants me to log in again, and everyone in ebay says that once logged in, the system should not ask me to log in again...that has usually been a sign of Phishing for ones password...but I dont know how this type of auction works...but it just raised a red flag..