Some people are making huge money on eBay by screewing other... people. Some auctions with 100 "garanted" customers ended at $3'000 or more!

Here is the sheme as I find it out:
--------------------------------------------

1 - the scamers open an account on eBay
2 - they buy some 99 cents ebooks to get some + feedback
3 - they launch autions at 1 cent starting price selling 10 websites per auction. The fine print of each auction indicates that the hosting is free for the first couple of months then it continues for $7.95 per month per website.
4 - they sell at least 100 websites for a total of 10 cents
5 - they launch the final auction: 100 garanted customers, make $795 a month on your reseller account!

6 - you won the auction for 3000 bucks then try to collect the money :angry:

Originally posted by edelweisshosting
Some people are making huge money on eBay by screewing other... people. Some auctions with 100 "garanted" customers ended at $3'000 or more!

Here is the sheme as I find it out:
--------------------------------------------

1 - the scamers open an account on eBay
2 - they buy some 99 cents ebooks to get some + feedback
3 - they launch autions at 1 cent starting price selling 10 websites per auction. The fine print of each auction indicates that the hosting is free for the first couple of months then it continues for $7.95 per month per website.
4 - they sell at least 100 websites for a total of 10 cents
5 - they launch the final auction: 100 garanted customers, make $795 a month on your reseller account!

6 - you won the auction for 3000 bucks then try to collect the money :angry:

That's how it works! I was wondering how they were doing it, that makes sense. I knew they were scams, just wasn't sure how it worked.

When you find such seller, just go to his feedback page and take a look to his last auctions.

One of them sold 300 customers for about 5000 dollars! he have got about 30 positive feedbacks. Except the first ones, all others came from 1 cent auction where he sold dozen of websites!

Some of these sellers use at least 2 eBay accounts to perform. They are harder to spot, but the concept is the same.

Look at this one:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=46689&item=3864446485
$5100 for 350 clients!

And this guy is selling his information for $22! http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=46689&item=3871301709

LOL! Item location Meseryside! Thats where i live. Maybe i should pay him a visit.

rotfl never ever deal even do not try something related "hosting" at Ebay! This maybe a good lesson for you. I got those lessons before 2000... dont be suprised still happening.

Originally posted by stealthdevil
LOL! Item location Meseryside! Thats where i live. Maybe i should pay him a visit.

Same here, well...its classed as cheshire now ;)

Originally posted by stealthdevil
LOL! Item location Meseryside! Thats where i live. Maybe i should pay him a visit.
Hahaha, act like you're very thankful too!

it's the same as those get rich quick info ad on tv.

I *knew* it was too good to be true! Thanks for posting and sharing this information.

Teresa

wow such scammers !!!
I don't know why ebay don't ban them :(

Actually this happened to me once here on WHT.

About a year and a half ago I paid a guy here something like $400 for several customers. (15 - 20... I can't remember.)

he has started a small company with free hosting and was selling and claiming revenue based on what he "thought" they would pay. I was pissed and asked for my money back. His reply was that he only worked at Taco Bell a couple days a week so it would take him awhile to get it. :)

Scammers all over.

Aaron

How can somebody shell out $5,000 for an auction filled with grammatical errors? This is beyond me.

edelweisshosting, thank you for elaborating as to how this works. Very interesting.

Boris

I got to admit it though ... these people are smart, or the people that fall for it are just stupid. Either way, thanks for posting this information.

Originally posted by MagicKeyword
wow such scammers !!!
I don't know why ebay don't ban them :(

eBay can't just ban people because they don't think the auction is ethical. They have to have something to stand behind, such as lots of negative feedback and Paypal disputes.

I contacted eBay about these auctions. I got no reply.

Just imagine how many bucks they earn on every listing and final transaction fees... they are not on the business of preventing people from selling any junk for a high price.

in a sense it didnt' really break any laws as buyer did get what they pay for or ebay scammer listed for.

what we really need is a better internet laws that will protect ppl like in the retail world.

my two cent

Originally posted by edelweisshosting
Here is the sheme as I find it out:
--------------------------------------------

1 - the scamers open an account on eBay
2 - they buy some 99 cents ebooks to get some + feedback
3 - they launch autions at 1 cent starting price selling 10 websites per auction. The fine print of each auction indicates that the hosting is free for the first couple of months then it continues for $7.95 per month per website.
4 - they sell at least 100 websites for a total of 10 cents
5 - they launch the final auction: 100 garanted customers, make $795 a month on your reseller account!

6 - you won the auction for 3000 bucks then try to collect the money :angry: [/B]

This may be an unethical sale, but I don't quite see the scam here? Maybe it's just me or how I'm looking at it (been a long day), but to me it's no different than when any host sells out to another. It's always a sale based on the selling host's current customer's "promises" to pay for next month's hosting.

And normally with a sell-out like this there's some loss of clients in the first month or so. People who for whatever reasons decide not to move/stay with the new host.

As I'm seeing it, at the time of the sale this ebay seller has X number of customers who have agreed (via their purchases of his $0.01 website auctions with hosting) to purchase hosting from him/her at a rate of $7.95 per month. While not exactly ethical, it's not like the seller is claiming client's who don't exist.

I wouldn't do business like this, nor deal with anyone else who did business like this, but I think calling it a "scam" may be overkill.

Scott

May be this not a scam, but it looks like if it is. When you pay $5000 for nothing the words are not too important... :)

Originally posted by ScottBannon
This may be an unethical sale, but I don't quite see the scam here? Maybe it's just me or how I'm looking at it (been a long day), but to me it's no different than when any host sells out to another. It's always a sale based on the selling host's current customer's "promises" to pay for next month's hosting.

And normally with a sell-out like this there's some loss of clients in the first month or so. People who for whatever reasons decide not to move/stay with the new host.

As I'm seeing it, at the time of the sale this ebay seller has X number of customers who have agreed (via their purchases of his $0.01 website auctions with hosting) to purchase hosting from him/her at a rate of $7.95 per month. While not exactly ethical, it's not like the seller is claiming client's who don't exist.

I wouldn't do business like this, nor deal with anyone else who did business like this, but I think calling it a "scam" may be overkill.

Scott

excatly. unless we have better laws otherwise this type of listing on ebay will be there and we all know ebay make money from scammer's listing and sales not from regular joe visiting the site.

It's definately a complete scam.

They are advertising 500 Hosting Clients paying $x per month. What they are delivering is 500 Hosting Clients paying 1cent.

This is, at worst, a scam; at best; blatant false advertising.

I think also that some auctions are not real. Group of people bid for each others auctions in order to drive the market high and gain some credibility. this system is well organised and some guys are making six figure income doing that.

Originally posted by edelweisshosting
I think also that some auctions are not real. Group of people bid for each others auctions in order to drive the market high and gain some credibility. this system is well organised and some guys are making six figure income doing that.

I'm not looking to create a debate here, I'm just curious if you have proof of those claims or are they just your beliefs?

Thanks,
Scott

it´s a pity that this happens i ebay. I was a seller and I was selling art dvds and some people complained that I was selling piracy which it's not..so now I can sell this stuff anymore,I already receive 2 warnings and these folks going free..

The dvd price was $11 nothing compared to these scam..


SHAME EBAY!!