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astronomy can cost you, BE-AWARE....OF SCAMS!!

rob7

By rob7
in The Astro Lounge

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rob7

rob7

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This is a another take on my previous thread 'astronomy can cost you, BEWARE'. Did anyone see a new Celestron C6s-gt for sale on ebay a few days before christmas. This is one of the scopes I own and was keeping my eye on it because nobody early on was bidding on it with no reserve set. I didn't like the 'aquired' of the internet picture given and some things said in the sellers add. Having been scammed for the mesely figure of £9 some weeks before on ebay,I took thought I'd email the chap to see if I could come and have a look at it, [to see if it was genuine], as it was less than 10 miles away from my home. I only got a response with less than a day to go and by then the scope was being bid on and was going up and up in price. I'd lost interest in bidding , but the the email would of put me off anyway. The seller said no to my request as it was 'supposedly stored elsewhere'. He didn't put my question up for everyone to see either. Anyhows the scope sold for '£670 including postage'. Its took till now for me to trace back and find out what feedback came from the buyer of the scope. Even though the seller had previous good feedback my doubts about him were realised. The buyer of the scope paid and lost all his money as the scope never arrived and the seller was uncontactable. There were other buyers of other items who were leaving neg' feedback with the same sad tale. So far from the last seven buyers, nearly £4000 has been 'stolen'. God only knows how sad and angry I would of been if it had happened to me when I originally bought my scope. I'm really feel for that chap who is nigh on £700 down before he starts. Its not a nice way to begin [if he is a beginner] in astronomy, just before christmas as well to boot. I did notice the other scammed items were sort of optical gear, like camera stuff, etc. We make good targets for scammers with the fact its a popular pastime with many telescopes and accessories coming with relatively high price tags, so theres a big hunt for the 'BARGAINS' from beginners and amateurs alike. Thats where theres good gains to be had by 'bad people'.

If your interested and before ebay pull the seller and his feedback column, [they hadn't done this when I lasked looked] you can look for yourselves. His user name is adamwhite 1212 and if you've never used ebay you search for his name after pressing the 'community' tab.

,

BE-AWARE.............folks!

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rob7

rob7

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I know when I bought my C6s-gt, I could't wait to receive it as it was my first full on scope set up. I also know that if I'd been scammed, I still would of moved heaven and earth to find the money for another fairly soon after. But the thought of spending £1400 to get 'one' wee 6" scope is frightening! Trouble is with ebay and astro buy and sell and alike, some of the gear they have fore sale at more affordable prices, is so tempting. Its very easy to post a cheque off on basic trust and hope alone.

Regarding paypal refunding, I'm sure I read that paypal wouldn't refund one of the buyers, who lost £300 to this rogue. From memory, I think the seller was trying to avoid paypal payments from buyers?

Rob.

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cygnusx1

cygnusx1

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hopefully they paid through payapl and will get a refund (not full but at least the majority), at least there is some protection for buyers...

still not nice tho :rolleyes:

Paypal will only refund if the seller still has money left in his account, ehich is unlikely in most cases, as they pull their dosh and run.

Kinda stinks really, as the exhorbitant charges (+-10% total on average )we pay to Paypal + Ebay should cover us regardless in any situation - hence paypalsucks.com

As we speak, i've just filed a complaint with Paypal having to deal with a rogue whose had 25 negatives in the last week, for a copy of "Turn left at Orion"

Before that his history was unblemished ( always amazes me why these guys decide to go "bad" all of a sudden)

Point is, sometimes we just can't foresee the future, or preempt peoples ethics or practises, no matter how cautious we are.

The bottom line for me is, I won't hand out large sums of money unless i can see the item firsthand.

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rob7

rob7

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With ebay especially, it amazes me what some people end up paying for an item. The chap who lost his money for the scope on ebay, could have bought it from any number of reputable dealers for not far off the same price. Saving a few tenners doesn't always add up! But we've all probably beenguilty of that crime at least once in our past. [them few tenners could buy a nice filter!!] etc, etc.

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dweller25

dweller25

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It's well documented that some E-Bay users have logged onto E-Bay with their user name and password not realising the web page was in fact a very authentic looking non E-Bay web site that is designed to steal your details. Scary isn't it ?

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geoff_k

geoff_k

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Something about E-bay and the like just put me off.

My wife's account got hijacked by some excresence selling dodgy mobile phones a couple of years ago. It was resolved but it caused her a lot of worry.

You might pay more but I generally stick with legitimate dealers or folks I know and trust on forums like this.

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rob7

rob7

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My mate has nearly been done over by another ebay seller recently. He was after a laptop and was going down the Currys/Pc world, before he came across a bargain laptop on ebay.The seller had two pages of good feedback, so he pressed the buy now button, but didn't pay instantly. He's a lucky lad, because hes just received a email from ebay to advise him not to continue with the transaction. He was on a tight budget and would have been out of pocket to the tune of £250 before he started. That's now three scams I know about in the last three weeks, so it must be more widespread than I had imagined.

By the way, the latest bad feedback for adamwhite1212 [fraudulant scope' selling trash] is for the theft of £620 for a another 'no show' camera..

Rob.

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