mrvex2004
Joined: Feb 03, 2004
Posts: 0
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Hello there guys, hope the above hasnt alarmed you too much  Right lets get stuck in.
I was looking through ebay at P900's and i came across an auction that was selling 10-20 units at once at a starting price of £2,000 and a buy it now of 2,200. I made an offer for the auction sinse the price seemed very cheap. I won the auction because he ended it early. Then we discussed payment over email. He wanted me to pay via an ESCROW site. Me not knowing what escrow was all about, so i found out all about it, then agreed. He said i should pay cash to a western union agent for the escrow site. I couldnt see anything wrong with this transaction...But i did begin to think, typically if you are about to spent a considerable amount of money over the internet you want to make sure it is 100% safe. He recommended we use an escrow site, which i will gladly reveal later on. He was quick replying to e-mails, he was a power seller on ebay about 400-600 ratings. This made me even more enthusiastic about the deal. But still i continued to think. Then i agreed and moved onto the next step in the transaction. Went onto the ESCROW website and sent a request for the transaction. Then i recieved an email back from this escrow site, saying to prepare to carry onto the next step after the seller has agreed to the amount offered. Upon inspection of reading the emails i noticed spelling mistakes and bad grammar. Not that mine is excellent but still! This somewhat alarmed me because this was supposed to be a high profile company, or seemed to be. This caused me into doing some research on the site. The emails i recieved from the Escrow site had an address which linked to holland. Also noticed the site was not secure, found out the address, and eventually it linked to a University in Amsterdam!! The site looked quite promising,but still i noticed spelling mistakes and more unaccurate grammar. This is when all my hard working investigation and gut instincs payed off, when i asked the seller if we could use the escrow service recommended by ebay he REFUSED and isisted in using the site he recommended, This is when all the pieces come together and the *ESCROW SITE WAS A FAKE*. He said he had used it before and he had a contract of loyalty to them, he was trying to convince me to send the money. But by now i had enough and reported the matter to ebay as a warning, and i want to warn all of you too. It was a very easy trap to fall into and i almost very nearly did. Now i will have the joy of revealing this site to everyone and hopefully people who will help me close down this site as it is still up and running. But this doesnt mean escrow is unsafe. i recommend you use escrow recommended by ebay.
http://www.EC-TRADES.COM (FAKE)
Thank you for reading.
Best Regards
Mike
[ This Message was edited by: laffen on 2004-02-03 15:53 ] |
Posted: 2004-02-03 16:50
