mom
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posted on June 23, 2006 10:11:52 PM
Here's what happened.. we had an auction for a rare doll in the upper $800 range which was down to the last 10 hours to ending. We received an email (in our ebay messages) from an ebayer (with 100% feedback) who wrote saying "is that the same doll being sold at -----web address on ebay)...of course we had to investigate. big mistake! The address took us to an ebay auction for some software item..but an ebay sign in form popped up- without even thinking, I signed in. (and no doll). Within 20 minutes, all of our bids had been cancelled and our doll was at $0. We managed to get help quickly on the "ebay live" link. Ebay cancelled our auction- and froze our account.They refunded listings fees and said we could relist if we wanted. Ebay also sent emails immediately to all our bidders- which was great! Next we started getting lots of emails asking what happened to the auction...and one of them clued us in that someone named (or alias name) Luther Bolen was emailing our bidders trying to sell our doll for $600! He also was sending them a copy of our auction. We emailed as many bidders as we could, because since our auction was ended we couldn't access all the email addresses.
This happened 2 days ago. Again today, we received an email saying that he is still at it! Following up on his offers..
He had started cancelling bids on another item we had when Ebay froze our account, so he didn't get very far on that one, although we think this episode caused the item to sell for less than it would have. We sent all we had to [email protected] and [email protected].
This was one hell of a stressful scarey ordeal! I hope this message will help someone in case it happens to you. I hope and pray that noone sent this bast**d any money! Maybe this is what the second chance scam is about??
[ edited by mom on Jun 24, 2006 11:11 AM ]
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roadsmith
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posted on June 23, 2006 10:39:12 PM
My word, what an ordeal for you. This guy should be put away for good.
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sparkz
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posted on June 23, 2006 10:43:25 PM
What was the Ebay ID that person gave when he sent you the message?
If Murphy's law is correct, everything East of the San Andreas Fault will slide into the Atlantic
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mom
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posted on June 23, 2006 11:10:43 PM
sparkz,
the name of the emailer was snagabax.
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pixiamom
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posted on June 24, 2006 12:01:32 AM
wonder if snagabax was also a hijacked account?
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LtRay
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posted on June 24, 2006 01:16:59 AM
We recently sold a sailboat on ebay motors. Luckily I thought to add a warning in the auction that told bidders we would not be accepting off-site offers, nor would we be making any offers to sell the boat outside of eBay.
Within 9 hours of auction end, over half of our back-up bidders had been contacted by some low-life offering to sell them our boat. Not another boat mind you but our boat Their email included stolen pictures of our boat. The spammer/scammer claimed to be us. Thank goodness the first back-up bidder had been communicating with my husband during the auction. She let us know when she received the offer and we were able to warn the rest of the bidders.
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classicrock000
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posted on June 24, 2006 03:40:20 AM
A good way to avoid this is have a private auction,then no one else can contact your bidders.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
If you dont want to hear the truth....dont ask the question.
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mom
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posted on June 24, 2006 11:09:56 AM
Lt. Ray,
Sounds like the exact same thing happened to you! Thanks for writing!
How do you suppose he got your bidders emails? He has to get your ebay password to see them, right? I was thinking that with new passwords, and knowing about the fake email question and the sign in pop up, that this can not happen again.
Did he cancel your bids too?
Your warning idea is excellent! I guess it should be a standard addition to every auction from now on. sadly. I have seen it on other auctions now that you mentioned it.
We relisted our doll..with warnings and explanations...thinking that we are now safe. ?? Are we?
The suspicious thing about snagab*x is that the message (through Ebay messages)was written in the same poor (foreign type) English that Bolen used.
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LtRay
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posted on June 24, 2006 06:25:04 PM
Our scammer just had to pull the bidder's list from the auction and then contact them through the ebay "contact member" link. Our account was not compromised. I had already warned my husband to only respond to emails through the ebay mail system and to NEVER click on a link in any email.
There is nothing important enough to get me to click a link in an email from a stranger. I think I finally have my husband trained too.
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sparkz
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posted on June 24, 2006 06:34:09 PM
It looks like snagabax had his account compromised also, and the scammer used it to send you the message. He's been around for quite awhile and has a clean record. His account is still active. If Ebay had thought for a second that message came from him, he would be NARU.
If Murphy's law is correct, everything East of the San Andreas Fault will slide into the Atlantic
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mom
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posted on June 24, 2006 07:25:21 PM
LtRay,
The email did come to us through ebay messages! It was a question about our item. And it didn't have a link to click, it had an address of where our doll was supposed to be, which I cut and pasted into the address bar, like a good little sucker. Then up came the ebay sign in form.
He couldn't have cancelled all the bids if he didn't have our password.
Sparkz,
You're right- Ebay would NARU sagabax! So, Bolen must have access to that account too, so to use their ebay messages system. He's like a worm moving around Ebay.
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mom
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posted on June 30, 2006 06:32:38 PM
We just noticed that Ebay NARU'd Snagabax!
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irked
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posted on June 30, 2006 06:47:51 PM
About time he was narued, how did the relist do?
OH if a message comes through ebay they are not supposed to be able to put url addresses in any message so that has me stumped. At least I don't think url's can be put in body of message.
**************
You're just jealous because the voices only talk to me!
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tomwiii
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posted on June 30, 2006 06:50:45 PM
Yes you can -- I do it all the time...
Got stuff? PLEASE join RALPHIE & ME in some AUCTIONS for our favorite NON-PROFIT~Thank You!
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LtRay
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posted on June 30, 2006 07:16:54 PM
Ralphie fesses up.
He did it!
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mom
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posted on July 1, 2006 03:12:17 PM
Hi Irked,
The doll is doing great! All the bidders came back and more. They were so supportive after getting our emails and warnings, etc. She was at $500 in the first hour. She's up to $1,026. with 80 watchers and ends in 4 hours.
If you want to have a look at her, she is #15000054172. I think the doll collectors are excited about the original tag from the 1930's.
One day, I was headed home from an art class, and there was a car accident ahead, so I turned around to find another way, and got lost...and happed upon an estate sale sign w balloons. Went in, and it turned out that they were just setting up and decided to put out the sign.No advertising! I was the only customer there. I looked around and things were marked 10 cents- 25 cents...I could hardly breathe...was I dreaming? Got a lovely ruffly carnival glass bowl for 25 cents, antique furniture was marked 10- 25$, green depression glass pitcher for a buck...went upstairs and found a small box of dolls marked $10. looked at the top one - a mint Miss Revlon in the box..and thought wow! I'll take it. So, when I got home and looked in the box- there were about 10 fabulous dolls! This was one of them. The dolls had belonged to a lady who made doll clothes. These were some of her models. On the bottom of the box, was a Barbie, dark ponytail, in the B& W bathing suit- I was dancing- a #1? no- it was a 4 and she has green ears, but still! I had plenty to be joyful about.
I wish that all of you have a day like mine and soon!
Blessings, mom
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sparkz
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posted on July 1, 2006 03:30:02 PM
The item number you gave is the old one. Entering 15000054172 in search by item number shows that the auction has been nuked by Ebay.
If Murphy's law is correct, everything East of the San Andreas Fault will slide into the Atlantic
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pixiamom
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posted on July 1, 2006 03:31:46 PM
See this item: 150000541732 What a sweet baby!
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tomwiii
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posted on July 1, 2006 03:50:44 PM
Look Ralphie! It's a BABY! You were such a BEAUTIFUL baby!
Got stuff? PLEASE join RALPHIE & ME in some AUCTIONS for our favorite NON-PROFIT~Thank You!
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pixiamom
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posted on July 1, 2006 04:06:42 PM
I think Neglus had a #1 Barbie. Doubt if it survived in any form. When she outgrew it, our little brother tied Barbie to the tracks of his electric train set. My dolls weren't really 'broken in' until I shampooed (or cut) their hair.
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glassgrl
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posted on July 1, 2006 04:17:23 PM
 wonderful story! wonderful auction!
thanks for sharing!
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ladyjewels2000
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posted on July 1, 2006 04:21:55 PM
Nice doll and I love the estate sale story. We all dream of that kind of sale and of course being the only one there!!
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irked
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posted on July 1, 2006 04:23:47 PM
Wow! Want a find, great for you. That doll looks almost mint, no wonder it has gotten so many wonderful bids. You had an angle on your shoulder that day stumbling into such a sell. I have run into a few #4 & 5 Barbies that I got for 25 cents and 50 cents I felt kinda bad knowing what I knew and getting them at that price. But I got over it. That was back when the dolls really sold for a lot of money compared to today.
Congrats and thanks for the link everyone.
Tom I thought you could not put links in so I been putting them in round about way LOL, Maybe I am thinking of answering questions I get from buyers, I have gotten errors and thought it the url or who knows.
**************
You're just jealous because the voices only talk to me!
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tomwiii
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posted on July 1, 2006 06:04:05 PM
"Tom I thought you could not put links in so I been putting them in round about way LOL, Maybe I am thinking of answering questions I get from buyers, I have gotten errors and thought it the url or who knows."
When I respond to buyer's questions in "MY MESSAGES," I quite often enclose URL's -- they CANNOT be clickable, since one is NOT allowed to use HTML, nor can ya use QUOTES...
But a plain ole everday run-of-da-mill URL has never been a problemo as far as Ralphie can remember...
Got stuff? PLEASE join RALPHIE & ME in some AUCTIONS for our favorite NON-PROFIT~Thank You!
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LtRay
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posted on July 2, 2006 03:11:33 AM
Way to go MOM! That is the kind of thing thing keeps us all going. Thanks for sharing your story and auction with us.
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