This is the very TV I have my eye on, from $950 everywhere else… to $31 on ebay? It looks like the actual TV (reportedly), not like the remote or the box it comes in or something. Several sold per hour, 52 sold as of me writing this. 100% positive feedback (I mean, this could be faked I assume, but the effort seems like a lot for $30).
Brand new TV, original packaging, free shipping…? WTF? I’m firmly in the “too good to be true then it is” camp, but $31 seems like it would be worth trying at least. If it was like $200 or something I’d be like, nope and walk away. But I mean, I have $31 on me so … any reason not to give it a try?
It’s not obviously a “pro” account, despite pro levels of sales claimed. All the feedback is for them as a buyer, not as a seller. They have no other items listed. I mean, it’s clearly a scam, but I don’t know what it is beyond taking your money and not giving you a TV.
Maybe a legit buyer’s account that got hacked and is now being used for a selling scam? But you’d think it would be better to use a legit selling account. Maybe a prelude to a phishing attack.
Yep, pretty common scam. In this case it looks like someone who had their account compromised. The scammer will put up a high value item for pennies on the dollar and send – with tracking of course, to fulfill their obligation to Paypal – a worthless bauble. They’ll sucker in as many people as possible and use whatever Paypal releases to them before getting flagged and shut down. One of the tip-offs in this case is the description being in a font that’s common when Asian sites post text in English.
Huh, I don’t use eBay enough to have seen it much, but noted. The rest stands true though – I threw a few bucks at one of those scams on a lark to see what exactly they’d send me. eBay/Paypal to their credit flagged the account and refunded my money within a couple of days, and weeks later I received an envelope from China with a tiny bead in it.
Thanks for the feedback (everyone) - I went ahead and pulled the trigger. I’m wiling to pay $31 to see how this plays out, in case maybe he’s just fencing a bunch of stolen TV’s or something. Hey, you never know. Ebay protection should get me my money back, I think, but we’ll see. I do wish I’d thought to use a pre-paid Visa card or something, but I’d imagine Ebay should provide protection against any attempts made against my account. I’ll let you know if it’s like a box of dead mice or something next week!
Seconded. I mean, sure, now I’m curious, but you know this is not going to turn out well and the hassle of getting back your $31 would annoy me enough to not do it.
Sorry guys, I pussied out. I saw that the transaction still hadn’t been accepted by this guy, and he’s up to 68 units sold with “10 or more still available” so I cancelled it while I still could and PayPal immediately refunded the money. Kind of a relief, actually.
I find it interesting that $31 basically worked on you while $200 wouldn’t. For me personally, $31 is laughable for a TV. But if it was say $500 then I could almost see myself going for it, if it was truly the model I wanted and it was $900 elsewhere.
Guess we’re all vulnerable at some level, which is why we have to flag these sellers and call them out.
Yeah, but $200 (or $500 even, honestly) would have been a much greater gamble. If I’d lost $31 I’d shrug and be annoyed, but if I lost $200? $500? Nope, not even going to take a shot. If it had been $750 though, or something reasonably close to the target, I would have assumed (ironically, perhaps) it was more legit and just a warehouse flush with inventory they had to move.
But even then, I’d have doubts, because everywhere I look this thing is getting harder and harder to get. I watched Amazon go from 14 in stock to “buy from these sellers” on this particular TV in a single 12 hour period.
