[beauxgoris]

F.Y.I.

I received an email from what looked like eBay informing me that the 2002 flat brass classique seller fell through and that the bag was being offered to me through ebays "second chance" offer.

Needless to say the person PRETENDED to be an eBay seller that recently sold one of these bags. They sent me an invoice (THROUGH EBAY!) - it was only when I read the fine print that I realized that the location and name was different.

Basically someone knows that I really wanted this bag and tried to "sell" it to me. If I hadn't picked up these details - I would have been really screwed.

I know there are a lot of authentic b-bags on eBay and fantastic sellers in our community. But this persons emails and forms all looked SO AUTHENTIC!!

I want us all to get our (rare) dream b-bags - please be careful!!!

[aaallabama]

OMG, that's terrifying beauxgoris, i can't believe that happened

[crowgal]

Yes,,,eBay has addressed the issue & sent emails regarding fake second chance offers. Good thing you read carefully. Unfortunately, a lot of people don't...

[BalenciagaLove]

The same thing happened to me. Thankfully, the person who was selling the bag was a tPF'er, so I was able to ask her. I notified eBay about it, but I'm not still certain how they got my email and how they knew what my high bid was.

[Serenity Now]

Did you get this email in your eBay Messages as well?

[des]

if you haven't already, you can forward the email to spoof@paypal.com - glad you read the fine print.

[Pupsterpurse]

OMG!!! That's awful! I can't believe this person was trying to steal your money!!! Do you still have the e-mail? Doesn't it have the IP addy of the person who sent it? These people seriously need to go to jail. This is beyond just irritating and frustrating now.

Also, everyone be sure to check your eBay accounts. There have been reports of scammers selling items using other people's user IDs. I think someone posted here(or was it somewhere else?) about logging onto their account after not using it for awhile and finding a lot of items being sold that they did not list!

Gosh, good thing you caught it, beaux!

[valerieb]

Several months back I received a bogus second chance offer on a high priced Bottega bag I was bidding on and didn't win. These scammers seem to target bidders on high priced items rare items and their emails really do look official. Always be skeptical of second chance offers and before accepting an offer, I suggest contacting the seller via the "ask the seller a question" link in the original auction listing to verify that the offer is legitimate.

[aaallabama]

geez, i've never heard of this before & am grateful for the heads-up!!!

[Serenity Now]

That's why I like private listings. I got a whole lot of spam like this on some LV auctions I bid on some yrs ago. Scumbags are getting craftier and more creative these days tho, I give u that!

[fayden]

wow i didn't know this either....

[orchids]

How awful! Thanks for the heads up--just a good reminder to sellers to make the auction private to protect bidders. Even sellers get spammed with all kinds of E-mails offering fakes--it's horrible.

[beauxgoris]

^^What's a "private listing"?

I just wanted to put the word out there so anyone (like me) that wasn't aware of the lengths that people can go to scam you - would have a heads up.

[Serenity Now]

Private listing is when the auction is private, lol! What I mean to say is.. if you look at the "High Bidder" area in an eBay listing, it will say "User ID kept private" and you won't be able to see who is bidding.

Thanks for your post, Beaux! So important for all of us to be vigilant!

ETA: if it's not "private", this is where the scammers get their potential victims from. They stalk the high-end branded items on eBay such as LV, Balenciaga, Hermes, etc. and will get a list of bidders of these items from there. A private listing means they won't be able to attain that info.

[classwhore]

Originally Posted by SerenitySue

That's why I like private listings.

I don't like private listings, because it's much much easier to shill-bid (jack up the price of) an auction that way.

I think you need to be open to the scams and keep your head up so you know what to look for. You're going to get spam email regardless, so you might as well keep versed on what's out there.

Overall, I'm just not a huge fan of eBay anymore. There's too much conflict of interest between eBay and their fees, and they're basically a global front for scammers and dubious merchandise with inflated shipping charges.
It's like the world's biggest trailer park.