The Picture Scam - Don't get caught by this one! : eBay Guides

This guide details the 'Picture' or 'Box' Scam.  

It's very simple and is easy to get hoodwinked into bidding.  Usually this scam is performed using gaming equipment, computers, cameras or cars!  Popular highly priced items where it's easy to get 'snowblind' when looking through the lists.  'Snowblind' is the term for when you have seen so many of the same thing that you don't see the difference between the genuine auction and the scam auction.

It's important to stress that you have no redress with eBay, as you win what is being offered - So, you bid on one of these and you pay for one of these! BEWARE...

Let us take a look at how it works -

What the seller does is they describe the item in a way to disguise the fact that they are not selling the item, but the BOX or even a PICTURE of the item.

For instance, they may use wording like "This picture shows a 2006 BMW M3"  or "Fuji Digital Camera Perfect Box". (You may think that they just missed out a punctuation mark "Fuji Digital Camera. Perfect box")

They have to refer to the picture every now and then to keep the legally binding thing going... "In the picture you can see..."  "When the picture was taken this car had only done 23,000 miles" "In the second picture you can see the log book, the fully stamped dealer service history and the tax disc."  "The picture clearly shows the car has wolfrace alloys worth £3,000" and so on... it all relates to the picture they're selling you!

Legally, when you bid on auctions like these all you're bidding on is a picture or a box and NOT the ITEM that you think.  By hiding behind legalities and using the law to ensnare the unwary, these scammers are reaping in the rewards bigtime!

Don't think that you can spot them easily by their feedback rating either - These people are more than happy to buy 100 - 200 penny items off their scamming buddies to get upto 200 positive feedback rating 100% positive, just to sell one item for £9,000 -e.g.  The BMW - picture. (Some even have multiple accounts, some for selling to themselves, others for scamming us - Free Positive Feedback for the cost of a listing!)

Read the small print very carefully, and if you're unsure, ask the seller a question - Make them state that it is the car and not the picture -that it is the computer, not just the box!   Once they have said that, then they're the ones who have to come up with the auctioned goods  :o)

The worst part of this is that because they hide behind the law, they are the ones who ebay will stick up for in a dispute!  It's not right - But that's the law (they say).  You bought the item which was described in the auction and you are contractually bound to buy it / live with having bought it.

Please take extra care when you're buying something for an amount of money you can't afford to lose!

Check out "Car Picture" or "Nokia Picture" on the searches... half are selling cheap feedback - The rest are trying a con!

The other thing you can do, which is fun, is look to the right of this guide and there's usually a load of ebay policy breaking listings - feel free to join me in reporting them!  just click the listing and at the bottom there's a 'report this item' link... listing Policy Breach / Intangible Item / 'Emailed picture for feedback being sold - electronic delivery'

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Thanks for your time, I hope I've been helpful!

SuperCooper