Are computers for sale from China on eBay a scam?I was on Ebay searching for a macbook pro when I saw all these items really cheap from China. The problem is, I'm not sure if they are real of just a con. Can you have a look and help me? To find one, just go on ebay.co.uk and search for macbook. Usually they are in a big group together and they have around $50 shipping. Actually, I don't need to look on eBay to tell you the answer, and I bet you already know that answer yourself too. It's summarized by a favorite acronym in the instant messenger and text message space: TANSTAAFL (There ain't no such thing as a free lunch). In this context, you have to ask yourself how someone in China, of all places, would get ahold of brand new Apple hardware and then decide that their best avenue for selling it is the free and loose world of eBay? "Ah, but Dave, they have a great feedback rating of 136, all positive, including comments from people who have bought MacBooks from them and been very pleased with the transaction. How do you explain that?" So let's talk about something called shilling circles. This isn't new to eBay, but the basic idea is pretty interesting and quite manipulative of the trust inherent in auctions and community feedback systems. Remember those early 1900's shows from great "mentalists" who could accurately predict everything in someone's wallet? Well, that wasn't too hard because the person with the wallet was part of their team, part of the show, or, often, part of the con. Take that idea to an auction and you get a room full of people, a few of whom are actually part of the hustle: they eager bid against each other for a given item, bidding the auction item far above its logical value, and hope to sucker some innocent third party into the bidding who then wins, paying far more for an item than it's worth. On eBay that's called a "shilling circle", among other things, and it's when a group of people sign up for eBay accounts and give each other very good ratings. That might be from $0.01 buy-it-now transactions for a few months between them all, or they might even legitimately sell products on eBay to get to the point where their account is ready for The Big Hustle. Remember also that I can buy a ballpoint pen from you for $1 then leave in my feedback "Love the computer, great transaction. Recommended A++" hoodwinking the next person into believing I bought a computer from you with good results. Then, with a good feedback rating, they list a few dozen multi-thousand dollar items, insist on Paypal or some other untraceable payment system, and if they can close on 75% of them, they can clean up with $20,000-$50,000 in a week. Then the account is shut down, the user vanishes, and no-one ever gets a product. So, you still sure you want to save 20% and buy what you hope will be a brand new Apple MacBook computer from someone you don't know in China? As always, be careful out there.
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Never miss another useful Q&A article again! Subscribe to AskDaveTaylor with Google Reader. Suspected shill bidding on eBay should be reported to eBay Customer Support before bidding ends. Posted by: Paul Masters at June 6, 2006 12:28 AMWith regards the ebay Macbook scam, you might also notice that most of the positive feedback in the suspect seller's history comes from accounts that are closed down - "no longer a registered user." As you say, TANSTAAFL . I would also add - Caveat emptor! Posted by: matthew horton at August 7, 2006 2:08 AMI just searched on google and found this article,thanks,dude..this article really helps me! Posted by: Richie at August 15, 2006 5:34 AMThe latest variant on this scam seems to be where the scammer has several similar items (I've seen them use Macbook Pro notebook computers) for sale at really cheap prices. The adverts are all from different ebay user ids but the advert text is 100% identical and says "you must contact me before placing a bid and the ebay 'contact seller' button does not work. Email me at AAscammerAA@yahoo.com for terms of the auction and the Buy It Now price". I smelled a rat and sent an email from an anonymous account - got a response within a couple of minutes (from a Romanian IP address) which said "The B.I.N price is £600 and I want a smooth transaction so if you mail me your name and address, I can get shipping underway and you will be contacted by ebay with payment instructions" I'll bet the notebook computer doesn't even exist and the real-looking ebay payment instructions I would have received are in fact a fake designed to extract your bank details. Ebay would never 'contact me with payment instructions' unless I actually placed a bid. I informed ebay support and got a "thanks for letting us know but don't expect further contact from us" email. Really helpful. Remember, whenever you are buying off ebay (especially if it is a high value item), make sure you do your background checks on the seller and never EVER do the sale outside of the ebay website, otherwise they will not help you if you fall victim to a scam. I think ebay should have a 'report this auction as suspicious' button. I get the impression they are not really interested in protecting people from fraud (unless they really, really have to) Posted by: El Duderino at October 12, 2006 3:39 PMIn general it is extremely unlikely you can buy any genuine Apple products from China. Although iPods are made in China, and some people own the genuine article here in China, Apple Mac computers are virtually unknown. I recently wanted to buy a guitar, and thought Ebay would be a good source for a used one. NOT!!!! This group of conmen is currently sending spam through ebay. I have talked to and emailed ebay more than 20 times but they are reluctant to take action. I have also emailed hotmail more than 20 times to block these conmen from using hotmail and MSN as communication tools but to no avail. You are on your own. They are constantly changing their company names, websites, email addresses and phone numbers. Past and current fronts include: +8675581811905 86-755-81811905 www.elec-country.com www.elecshoppingmall.com/ www.happy-purchasing.cn www.sinke-digital.com www.digitalshoping.cn www.hightech-supplier.com www.fully-supplier.cn Hi I have just sent money to elecshoppingmall.com at the bank yesterday and today I then found this site and went to my bank to try and stop the payment, only to be told they could not stop it although I was told the money would take 8 days to get there and only 1 day has passed surely if this site is a scam the payment should be stopped? Thanks Chris. Posted by: Chris Kemp at March 20, 2008 8:54 AMHi, I have sent money to www.digitalshoping.cn Phil, 1320 Euros is their one year's salary! Even if you are unlikely to get your money back, please do whatever you can to stop more victims. For a start, email ebay, hotmail and MSN to stop these conmen from using these services as marketing and communication tools. Inform your local police and police dealing with international crime. Email the authorities in China, Beijing informing them that you will boycott their Olympics because of their inaction to stop these scammers. Do whatever you can do pressure them. Posted by: John at March 21, 2008 12:30 AMLatest front for this scam company! http://www.china-hightech.com Another scam but probably belongs to another scam group. http:www.ourseller.com MSN: ourseller@live.cn How do I get my money back? Was cheated of $900 by www.icnelec.com and www.ourseller.com. Cut off communication with me after I sent the money! Didn't receive the goods. Bank was of no help. www.icnelec.com www.ourseller.com MSN: ourseller@live.cn www.jd-digital.cn Latest scam website! http://www.jd-digital.cn TEL: 86-755-21379944 Jing dong Digital E-business Co.,Ltd. Another scam website from same scam group: Scam www.china-hightech.com Scam More scam sites churned by the same scam group! Posted by: John at April 17, 2008 7:44 AMI was scammed by this website www.huaketrading.com I haven't received my goods yet Posted by: Tony at April 23, 2008 3:06 PMI can confirm that www.jd-shopping.cn is a scam because they took my money and didn't send me my goods. It is an uphill battle to recover your money because these people are experience crooks. So DO NOT SEND THEM YOUR MONEY! Please learn from my expensive mistake. Posted by: Alex at April 25, 2008 9:20 AMI lost 450 quid to www.huakai-commerce.cn Blame my greed and stupidity. Can anyone help? Posted by: Alicia at April 25, 2008 10:24 AMwww.shopcyht.com and www.digital-sales.cn are scams. BEWARE! www.shopcyht.com SHENZHEN LONGHAI Digital E-business Co.,Ltd. MSN: digital-sales8@hotmail.com TEL:86-755-21066727 Posted by: Danny at April 28, 2008 4:55 AMScams www.zhongqiaobusiness.com Scams www.buyhome99.com Hi, I've bought here a XBOX 360 PREMIUM, today they say I would get it but I don't have received anything. Does anybody know how I could my money back or the XBOX which was believed? Many Thanks, Mennez. Posted by: Ingmar at May 12, 2008 2:09 PMDo not, I'm experienced, and buy goods from China companies, but i live here, and I ensure i route the money thrugh a china bank. macs ARE available in China , but one trick is selling seconds as new , this includes hard disks. there are massive public markets where you can go to buy this sort of crap very cheaply.
Eleaaa.com is a other fraudulent website I have came across. Posted by: Phill Easley at August 17, 2008 7:09 AMhello, this is their lates attempts http://www.shengang-trade.com/ from the same group and their newest site www.elekiss.com Posted by: shane at October 18, 2008 4:10 PMWhile I think it's rather foolish to attempt to buy anything high dollar from China through ebay, I bid on a few things from there. I bid on some jewelry for the melt value and low and behold, the items were actually sent. I figured it was only a few bucks and if I got burned, lesson learned. Granted it took like 20 days, but the items came and they were legit.. Posted by: Matt at January 29, 2009 3:20 AMDoes this mean there is almost no genuine website where one can buy an apple macbook laptop from china? Posted by: Rich at January 29, 2009 10:12 AMHi i don't know about computers from China being sold on eBay but i do know fake gold from China that eBay is doing all it can to cover up and documented on ebuster,co,uk. Many members have reported these people and eBay has even been known to delete neg feedback left to warn others about the fakes. We have reported 100's of people that are selling feedback on eBay and yet eBay does nothing so we published the adverts along with feedback but still eBay thinks they can keep quiet and it will all go away as if we don't have two brain cells btween us all. eBay is the problom and eBuster is the solution Posted by: eBuster at November 21, 2009 5:51 PMI just bought 2 7in Mini laptops on eBay (from member onfine2008) I wasn't expecting much, just something for my daughters to FB and email. If you are thinking about buying a computer from eBay... DON'T. Go to you local used computer store instead. There are plenty of refurbished systems out there that need a good home and in most cases, come with a warranty. Just the 2 cents from a scorned eBay buyer. Posted by: Heidi at December 22, 2009 12:15 PMI've just been scammed by a company called Rifeng Company or Rifeng Trading Ltd. The man goes by the name of "Mr Qin" and you can see him on many trading websites, such as tradekey.com. I ordered two MacBooks (one shipped by EMS and one shipped by DHL). It's been over a week, I've not received the items and the tracking numbers are unrecognizable on EMS and DHL's systems. I paid by credit card but I still can't see me getting my money back. Oh well, live and learn. Posted by: matt at January 26, 2010 10:57 AMMatt, call your credit card company and file a complaint. They can pull the transaction and initiate an investigation. Don't walk away from the transactions, take action! Posted by: Dave Taylor at January 26, 2010 12:29 PMI have something to say, now that you mention it, but ...
I do have a comment, now that you mention it!
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