Heads up everyone. I was contacted by two different People wanting to sell me a helmet I bid on last week but was the second highest bidder. I have turned them over to ebay but I thought I should post there email addresses here so you can watch out for these dirtbags. It look as if all sales of items with high prices should be kept private bidder to protect these crooks from getting the second and third biddders addresses. Here are two to look out for.Ken

[email protected], [email protected] (Erick Ambramson)

Erick Ambramson" [email protected],

probaby changes his email names many times

and another:

Nathan Cothalis
38 Court Street.
Brooklyn,New York 11242
United States

Thanks for the "heads-up", Ken and Marc. Best to be wary of anything that comes in unannounced out there. As Ken says, it also gives a valid reason to use the "private bidder" option...to protect your bidders against such post-auction scams.

I received one of these last week.
I knew the winning bidder and asked him if he paid for the helmet amd copleted the transaction.
I was pretty sure he did.

I e-mailed the second chance offer and said I would take it, just send me a photo of the helmet with todays newspaper in the photo.....

Guess what, never heard back from the guy.
Matt

The scammers are getting quite brazen,,,I woke up to find my name and auction format being used to sell cell phones on UKebay...
The private option is a bit uncomfortable...that used to be one of the criterion I used to AVOID a seller...it always seemed a way to sell bugus stuff...like a no return policy. In the US gear, some of the"good guys" would let folks know if they were bidding on a fake item. (which we know is always being sold.) What I can't understand is why the bay can't control it..its been going on for two years.
Paul

eBay doesn't really care as far as I am aware, They are still getting rich and you getting ripped of doesn't charnge that.. I always get fake paypal receipt in my email for things I did not order, you have got to be vigilant when ever dealing with anything that everone in the world has access too.

Thanks to ken leach for bringing this to the fore. It is a big problem.

On several occasions guys have pirated photos from my website and used them to illustrate auctions. When they were pegged on it, the response was always something lame like "I am selling this for a friend" or else there is simply no response.

You cannot offend these people by telling them off. They are used to any response. You cannot apprehend them. They do this for a living and know the ropes. You can stop them in a specific instance but you cannot keep them from thier activities.

Ebay jusy keeps gett'n scarier.