Page 1 of 2 12 LastLast
Results 1 to 25 of 27

Thread: The eBay bogus ad F-4 that reappears over and over

  1. #1
    Site founder Scott Tichenor's Avatar
    Join Date
    Sep 2002
    Location
    Lawrence, KS
    Posts
    5,220
    Blog Entries
    103

    Default The eBay bogus ad F-4 that reappears over and over

    I think it's time this F-4 gets its own thread. I privately call this mandolin the most viewed Gibson of all-time (maybe outside of Monroe's F-5) since it has probably appeared on eBay at least, what, 250 times? More? For those of you that have trouble distinguishing right from wrong, you never reply to an ad where a seller embeds an email address inside of an image, which I'll attach below. These are all compromised eBay accounts so in this case this account has over 11,000+ transactions and a really nice rating. 24 hour sale to try to beat eBay to figuring out it's a fraud. No use in linking to it really as it'll reappear many times more in the next 30 days and long after.

    Anything else missed here? The other reason for saving this information here is hopefully Google and specialty ad search engines will be able to find the images here to assist in alerting someone that might actually bid on this one.

    I've never paid attention to the serial number to see if it's consistent from ad to ad. Anyone know?

    Pity the poor person that actually owns this instrument...

    Click image for larger version. 

Name:	2.jpg 
Views:	324 
Size:	20.7 KB 
ID:	103828Click image for larger version. 

Name:	1.jpg 
Views:	445 
Size:	23.2 KB 
ID:	103827Click image for larger version. 

Name:	3.jpg 
Views:	324 
Size:	31.0 KB 
ID:	103829Click image for larger version. 

Name:	4.jpg 
Views:	368 
Size:	28.9 KB 
ID:	103830Click image for larger version. 

Name:	5.jpg 
Views:	421 
Size:	36.8 KB 
ID:	103831Click image for larger version. 

Name:	6.jpg 
Views:	375 
Size:	30.0 KB 
ID:	103832Click image for larger version. 

Name:	and.jpg 
Views:	422 
Size:	150.1 KB 
ID:	103833

  2. The following members say thank you to Scott Tichenor for this post:


  3. #2
    Formerly F5JOURNL Darryl Wolfe's Avatar
    Join Date
    Feb 2003
    Location
    aiken, sc
    Posts
    6,005

    Default Re: The eBay bogus ad F-4 that reappears over and over

    Yep...picked up on that awhile ago
    Darryl G. Wolfe, The F5 Journal
    www.f5journal.com

  4. #3
    Mandolescent John Eischen's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2009
    Location
    Fort Lauderdale
    Posts
    125

    Default Re: The eBay bogus ad F-4 that reappears over and over

    What's up with the piece of metal hanging off of the bridge post?

  5. #4

    Default Re: The eBay bogus ad F-4 that reappears over and over

    Quote Originally Posted by Scott Tichenor View Post
    For those of you that have trouble distinguishing right from wrong, you never reply to an ad where a seller embeds an email address inside of an image, which I'll attach below.

    Pity the poor person that actually owns this instrument...
    Scott, Please help me understand your post.
    Although I do have a (seldom used) eBay acount, I certainly don't know all the ins and outs of that site. I do know that there are many scammers who attempt to make a dishonest buck there.
    IF I were curious enough, or nieve enough, to reply to this ad, I can assure you it would be not be due to my inability to distinguish right from wrong. It would only be because I didn't know any better.

    Also, It seems you are suggesting that the person who owns the instrument is not the person who is advertising it on eBay.?.

    I'm amused sometimes at folks who are unable to detect an obvious scam. I guess in this case, I'm the dummy. So...if you could explain slowly (or at least I'll read it slowly), I'd appreciate it.

  6. #5
    Innocent Bystander JeffD's Avatar
    Join Date
    Sep 2006
    Location
    Upstate New York
    Posts
    24,807
    Blog Entries
    56

    Default Re: The eBay bogus ad F-4 that reappears over and over

    Its not "right from wrong" in terms of ethics, its right (safe) procedures to avoid scams and wrong (risky) actions that play into the hands of a scammer.
    A talent for trivializin' the momentous and complicatin' the obvious.

    The entire staff
    funny....

  7. The following members say thank you to JeffD for this post:


  8. #6
    Innocent Bystander JeffD's Avatar
    Join Date
    Sep 2006
    Location
    Upstate New York
    Posts
    24,807
    Blog Entries
    56

    Default Re: The eBay bogus ad F-4 that reappears over and over

    Quote Originally Posted by FLATROCK HILL View Post
    Also, It seems you are suggesting that the person who owns the instrument is not the person who is advertising it on eBay.?.
    .
    Pretty excellent chance apparently. Its easy to get pictures from anywhere and post them on an auction site or classifieds site, with some clever text, and hope the site is not policed vigorously enough, so that you can hook a few fish and leave.
    A talent for trivializin' the momentous and complicatin' the obvious.

    The entire staff
    funny....

  9. The Following 2 Users Say Thank You to JeffD For This Useful Post:


  10. #7
    Mando-Accumulator Jim Garber's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2003
    Location
    Westchester, NY
    Posts
    30,753

    Default Re: The eBay bogus ad F-4 that reappears over and over

    Quote Originally Posted by John Eischen View Post
    What's up with the piece of metal hanging off of the bridge post?
    That should be the give-away for the photos on this scam.
    Jim

    My Stream on Soundcloud
    Facebook
    19th Century Tunes
    Playing lately:
    1924 Gibson A4 - 2018 Campanella A-5 - 2007 Brentrup A4C - 1915 Frank Merwin Ashley violin - Huss & Dalton DS - 1923 Gibson A2 black snakehead - '83 Flatiron A5-2 - 1939 Gibson L-00 - 1936 Epiphone Deluxe - 1928 Gibson L-5 - ca. 1890s Fairbanks Senator Banjo - ca. 1923 Vega Style M tenor banjo - ca. 1920 Weymann Style 25 Mandolin-Banjo - National RM-1

  11. #8
    Certified! Bernie Daniel's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2006
    Location
    Cincinnati, Ohio, USA
    Posts
    8,347
    Blog Entries
    4

    Default Re: The eBay bogus ad F-4 that reappears over and over

    Quote Originally Posted by JeffD View Post
    Pretty excellent chance apparently. Its easy to get pictures from anywhere and post them on an auction site or classifieds site, with some clever text, and hope the site is not policed vigorously enough, so that you can hook a few fish and leave.
    Exactly! And really on the last image you see their selling policies. We accept Pay Pal for purchase up to $1000 above $1000 we require wire money transfers.

    IMO, that is all one needs to see to see to tell you that this is probably a fraud. You have almost no protection whatsoever with that kind of transaction -- you'd probably do just about as well burning your money.
    Bernie
    ____
    Due to current budgetary restrictions the light at the end of the tunnel has been turned off -- sorry about the inconvenience.

  12. #9
    Registered User Gary Hedrick's Avatar
    Join Date
    Sep 2002
    Location
    Martinsville, Indiana formerly of Brown County
    Posts
    1,377

    Default Re: The eBay bogus ad F-4 that reappears over and over

    I think what Scott is getting at is that this mandolin has been used in literally a hundred or so fake ebay listings....the listings always say to email them first or your bid will be rejected. It is the oldest scam on Ebay....I have reported this one well over 50 times....It just chaps my butt that these jerks are out preying on the public.....

    Also let us not forget the ever famous H1 mandola that often is listed at the same time with the same bait....

    Also the same folks often list a D18 with the same stuff and also there is a D28

  13. #10

    Default Re: The eBay bogus ad F-4 that reappears over and over

    Is there a state where this fake is located? If so, please give me a link where it is presently listed. If it is really a fake and listed on the Internet, that is federal fraud and I will write the Federal Attorney in the appropriate state to prosecute.

  14. #11
    Registered User Bill Snyder's Avatar
    Join Date
    Feb 2004
    Location
    Central Texas
    Posts
    7,316

    Default Re: The eBay bogus ad F-4 that reappears over and over

    vegas, the point is the location of the mandolin is not known and the perpetrator of the scams can be anywhere. They hijack a legitimate ebay account and make multiple sales of the same instrument they do not possess by directing them away from ebay to make the sale.
    Bill Snyder

  15. #12
    Martin Stillion mrmando's Avatar
    Join Date
    Sep 2002
    Location
    Seattle
    Posts
    13,103

    Default Re: The eBay bogus ad F-4 that reappears over and over

    I did try contacting one of these perps a couple of years ago (with full awareness that the ad was fake) and I remember forming the impression that he was actually in the UK. Of course, whatever information led me to that conclusion (and I don't recall what it was) might have been false as well.
    Emando.com: More than you wanted to know about electric mandolins.

    Notorious: My Celtic CD--listen & buy!

    Lyon & Healy • Wood • Thormahlen • Andersen • Bacorn • Yanuziello • Fender • National • Gibson • Franke • Fuchs • Aceto • Three Hungry Pit Bulls

  16. #13
    Site founder Scott Tichenor's Avatar
    Join Date
    Sep 2002
    Location
    Lawrence, KS
    Posts
    5,220
    Blog Entries
    103

    Default Re: The eBay bogus ad F-4 that reappears over and over

    Any time an eBay auction/sale owner asks you to bypass eBay and contact them directly that's a hands down 100% red flag. Walk away. eBay recommends you not contact to try to arrange sales outside of their system. This is in part for your safety, but it's also in part because with the sale they get their profit. They don't exist to help people make money for free. They're a business. This is their only way to help protect people that really do indeed need protection from their own decisions.

    I don't know what a "pre-approved sale" is but it sounds like b.s. to me. Everything stated there is trying to tell you it's OK to bypass eBay. You have to email someone before you bid? Really? That's pure horse doo-doo.

    Email address and instructions are all embedded into a graphic made to look like it's plain text. If you don't know how to spot the difference between plain text and an image on the web you're at risk of being taken in a scam like this. They do that because eBay's text scanners can't read an image--so far. Try placing ads for illegal items or putting text emails in and they'll try to stop you.

    The super low starting price and no bids should tell you something too. Greed is a powerful motivating force. Everyone would like to pick up a 20s F-4 legitimately for $100 and they're counting on someone coming along thinking that's just what they're going to get. Unfortunately, all you'll get is the satisfaction of sending them money.

    Now: with this said, watch the parade of people saying they've done some of this or that "in this case you can... yadda, yadda." You *may* be able to. You may get ripped off, too. I've arranged a purchase or two through eBay by communicating with a seller but I wasn't real sure I was getting taken until the instrument actually arrived.

  17. The following members say thank you to Scott Tichenor for this post:


  18. #14
    Site founder Scott Tichenor's Avatar
    Join Date
    Sep 2002
    Location
    Lawrence, KS
    Posts
    5,220
    Blog Entries
    103

    Default Re: The eBay bogus ad F-4 that reappears over and over

    It's for this same reason that the Posting Guidelines on our Classifieds state:

    - Openly posted emails will be removed for your safety. It is dangerous to post your email in the body of the ad. If someone contacts you directly and bypasses our "Reply to Ad" tool and you are scammed, we will be unable to assist you because we will not have access to a wide range of information that feature captures. In addition, you're placing your email address on the internet for spam bots to harvest. The "Reply to Ad" section of every ad allows users permitted to use this resource to contact you without exposing you to unnecessary danger.

    Just cleaned off emails posted inside of three ads.

    You can imagine my delight when someone writes to me complaining they received a reply they could barely understand from someone in Nigeria that plucked their email out of the ad text and contacted them directly, bypassing the Reply to Ad feature. Had they forced the visitor to use the ad reply it would have never reached them. I'll say it again. Anyone posting their email openly on this forum or in a Classified is only making it difficult on themselves and asking to be contacted by people they'd rather not hear from.

  19. #15
    but that's just me Bertram Henze's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2005
    Location
    0.8 mpc from NGC224, upstairs
    Posts
    10,054

    Default Re: The eBay bogus ad F-4 that reappears over and over

    It works like this:

    the world is better off without bad ideas, good ideas are better off without the world

  20. The following members say thank you to Bertram Henze for this post:


  21. #16
    Registered User Gary Hedrick's Avatar
    Join Date
    Sep 2002
    Location
    Martinsville, Indiana formerly of Brown County
    Posts
    1,377

    Default Re: The eBay bogus ad F-4 that reappears over and over

    and it's back


    another report since to Ebay......seems it is England this time that the dear chap is from.....yeah right....Nigeria.....
    Last edited by Gary Hedrick; Jun-26-2013 at 1:01pm.

  22. #17
    Site founder Scott Tichenor's Avatar
    Join Date
    Sep 2002
    Location
    Lawrence, KS
    Posts
    5,220
    Blog Entries
    103

    Default Re: The eBay bogus ad F-4 that reappears over and over

    Correct link.

    Different seller this time. Imagine that. Ho hum.

    10 bids. Not hard to get a lot of bids turning up on these when you have access to that many accounts.

  23. #18
    Registered User Gary Hedrick's Avatar
    Join Date
    Sep 2002
    Location
    Martinsville, Indiana formerly of Brown County
    Posts
    1,377

    Default Re: The eBay bogus ad F-4 that reappears over and over

    Sorry for the link being wrong.....

    Remember you can always spot these with the $9.27 starting bid price........why these odd and small numbers I can never figure out....must be some reason for them doing that....or perhaps it is just a "chumming" the water concept......put lots of blood and fish pieces in the water and the "sharks" will close in for the kill......a kind of something for nothing greed factor that we humans have.

  24. #19

    Default Re: The eBay bogus ad F-4 that reappears over and over

    Quote Originally Posted by Bill Snyder View Post
    vegas, the point is the location of the mandolin is not known and the perpetrator of the scams can be anywhere. They hijack a legitimate ebay account and make multiple sales of the same instrument they do not possess by directing them away from ebay to make the sale.
    Thank you for clarifying, Bill. Now I understand what kind of grift is going on here. It was listed on eBay again today and I reported it (as I assume did many others) and now it's gone. I wonder how many trusting souls wrote this fraud directly? I remember the days when eBay was a great place. What a shame.

  25. #20
    Registered User Gary Hedrick's Avatar
    Join Date
    Sep 2002
    Location
    Martinsville, Indiana formerly of Brown County
    Posts
    1,377

    Default Re: The eBay bogus ad F-4 that reappears over and over

    Oh I reported also and as of a minute ago it was back up........kinda like Kudsu......really hard to kill and spreads....

  26. #21
    Carpe Mandolinium
    Join Date
    Nov 2011
    Location
    Hyde Park, Illinois
    Posts
    515

    Default Re: The eBay bogus ad F-4 that reappears over and over

    But was it ever owned by Duane Eddy?
    == JOHN ==



    Music washes away from the soul the dust of every day life.

    --Berthold Auerbach



  27. The following members say thank you to John McCoy for this post:

    vegas 

  28. #22
    Innocent Bystander JeffD's Avatar
    Join Date
    Sep 2006
    Location
    Upstate New York
    Posts
    24,807
    Blog Entries
    56

    Default Re: The eBay bogus ad F-4 that reappears over and over

    double post
    A talent for trivializin' the momentous and complicatin' the obvious.

    The entire staff
    funny....

  29. #23
    Troglodyte Michael Weaver's Avatar
    Join Date
    Sep 2005
    Location
    Excelsior Springs, Missouri
    Posts
    538

    Default

    One of you guys should buy this so they will stop posting it....poor mando just needs a good home.

    Click image for larger version. 

Name:	image-3623650700.jpg 
Views:	167 
Size:	41.5 KB 
ID:	103909
    The Favs
    2013 Jacobson Nautilus #23 Semper Concinentī
    2007 Weber Custom Yellowstone
    2003 Gibson A9
    2013 Godin A8
    2007 Martin 000-18 Norman Blake #62 of 134
    2000 Heritage Millennium H-155

  30. #24
    but that's just me Bertram Henze's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2005
    Location
    0.8 mpc from NGC224, upstairs
    Posts
    10,054

    Default Re: The eBay bogus ad F-4 that reappears over and over

    Quote Originally Posted by Michael Weaver View Post
    One of you guys should buy this so they will stop posting it...
    Oh yeah.

    It's a bit like this Dead Horse Raffle story I found:

    When Chuck was a young cowboy in Montana he bought a horse from a farmer for $100. The farmer agreed to deliver the horse the next day.
    The next day the farmer drove up and said, "Sorry son, but I have some bad news... the horse died."
    Chuck replied, "Well, then just give me my money back."
    The farmer said, "Can't do that. I went and spent it already."
    Chuck said, "Ok, then, just bring me the dead horse."
    The farmer asked, "What ya gonna do with him?"
    Chuck said, "I'm going to raffle him off."
    The farmer said, "You can't raffle off a dead horse!"
    Chuck said, "Sure I can, Watch me. I just won't tell anybody he's dead."
    A month later, the farmer met up with Chuck and asked, "What happened with that dead horse?"
    Chuck said, "I raffled him off. I sold 500 tickets at two dollars a piece and made a profit of $998."
    The farmer said, "Didn't anyone complain?"
    Chuck said, "Just the guy who won. So I gave him his two dollars back."
    Chuck grew up and now works for ... (insert your favourite institution here).
    the world is better off without bad ideas, good ideas are better off without the world

  31. The Following 4 Users Say Thank You to Bertram Henze For This Useful Post:


  32. #25
    Troglodyte Michael Weaver's Avatar
    Join Date
    Sep 2005
    Location
    Excelsior Springs, Missouri
    Posts
    538

    Default

    Bertram....very fitting!
    The Favs
    2013 Jacobson Nautilus #23 Semper Concinentī
    2007 Weber Custom Yellowstone
    2003 Gibson A9
    2013 Godin A8
    2007 Martin 000-18 Norman Blake #62 of 134
    2000 Heritage Millennium H-155

Tags for this Thread

Bookmarks

Bookmarks

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •