It is becoming notorious. EBay should do somethi

[Austinav]

It is becoming notorious. EBay should do something before this becomes like an international free wheeling scam cork board.

I got this reply. Should be similar to the other one kmwong posted.

Hello and thank you for your email,

Look here all the details about this auction I think you need to close this
deal quick and successfully. Before any bidding takes place you must know
that for the moment I accept payment only in cash either through wire
transfer or direct pick-up because I am currently in Europe. I have
preferred this special type of auction because of the multiple problems I've
had in the past with non paying bidders. The item Toshiba Portege 3500 -
PIII-M 1.33 GHz - 12.1 (Item number: 3454267314 )is brand new ,sealed, still
in original box and come with full accessories and full manufacture warranty
.It´s a promotional price and I have more than one. All are US version.

The price for one unit it is only US $1,000.00 !!!

Shipping: I will ship via UPS 2 days air, but you can choose other mail
carrier if you want to. It usually takes 48 hours till the package arrives
to your door. The package will be fully insured. If any damages appear! on
the road, you will get your money back or the same product.

Payment: I'm a serious seller with more than 2 years of experience in this
field. I'm a fair trader with a very good feedback on eBay which is the
proof that I have closed a lot of successful deals. The payment method you
will have to use is wire transfer. Western Union does the job well. Probably
this payment method it is not very familiar to you but since I am in Italy
(where is a lot of beaurocracy) I have used it for many times and each of my
customers were satisfied and they had to admit that it is the most efficient
process to go through. I will label the package as a gift and I will declare
a smaller value for it (although insuring it for it real value). This way
you won't have to pay customs fees.

Return policy: 15 days

Safety: But, with all the scams going on today safety is the most important
thing - I am ready to provide you a recommendation from eBay Safety Board
that will confirm my details and my good standing on eBay. If anything goes
wrong (it won't be the case here), they will backup this transaction and you
will be entitled to a full refund. The product is ready for shipment. Once
the payment is received, the package will be sent right away. You will get
the tracking # in your email the same day.

If you have any other questions or any proposal, please feel free to mail
me.

[dabowles]

Some more wisdom to add, do not bid on anything from Cindy Hill, crystalpistol, or crystalpistoltradingpost. She is a scam artist, and I just became the next victim. However, I am fighting back and very soon Federal agents will be knocking on her door, preparing her for a live long vacation to the glorious Levinworth resort.

[personarbol]

I got the same replay, but the "buy it now price" was $1700

He used this address
Â*<<
My address is:
VIA DELLA STAZIONE 74
ROME , zip 00040
Italy.
Â*
Thanks,
Roy Reynolds

>>


The Safety Board an eBay fraud protection email was the next ( pay attention to the last note "IMPORTANT: Please do not respond to this email as your reply will not be received" ):


Dear eBay member personarbol
Safety Board an eBay fraud protection

At the request of cen017 Safety Board an eBayÂ*is recording the transaction .

Toshiba Portege M200 Tablet PC (Item #3454000149)

Both the sellerÂ*cen017 and the buyer personarbol are protected and in case of fraud, Safety Board an eBay will cover up to 100% from the trade amount.
After verifications we confirm the seller's contact information. Also, we have verified the buyer's informations. This is needed in case something goes wrong. We will take full measures against persons that will brake the eBay's rules.

Please continue with this deal as you are both fully insured against fraud, You can send the moneyÂ*via Western Union, now you areÂ*Under Ebay Fraud Protection andÂ*if something goes wrong, we will take the needed measures. We will recover the funds. However, in case this isn't possible we will pay back 100% from the specified amountÂ*US $1,700.00.

IMPORTANT:
Please do not respond to this email as your reply will not be received.

Best Regards,
Safety Board an eBay Company

[Trev]

David, what happened to you? I am always interested to hear these stories as they help the rest of us protect ourselves. My only rip off on ebay was for a cd. I was out $8. I actually bought my tablet off ebay.

[LiLxBoi]

I was about to purchase a new tablet pc on ebay also. The seller had a good feedback of around 80 and also looked like they had a website called www.itqcomputers.com

Auction stated it had seven but didnt really have any. I bought one using buy it now and sent an email asking to go through escrow. No reply for 8 days and then came the news that the seller did not have any of these.

I did not feel safe to pay becuase the only thing this seller sold out of 80+ feedback were 5 or so printer toners for about 20-30 bucks a pop.
I figured buy it now to ensure I can get one, then offer to pay for escrow services.

Escrow is a safe way to purchase an expensive item. If the seller were understanding, they would be willing to go through escrow. It's just another security measure to ensure a safe transaction.

[Pirnie]

This is going on all over. I, too, got the same reply. Here's the link to the thread I started on the HP/Compaq side:

http://www.tabletpcbuzz.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=9353

Bob

[Austinav]

Indonesians using fake credit cards.

http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/singapore/story/0,4386,231125-1074722340,00.html?

[kmwong]

yeah thats the exact same email i got from "roy renolds"...

i like the part where it says "that will brake the ebay's rules" hahhaa

[Wcrocker]

Between these scams and the Paypal scams doesn't it make you wonder if some enterprising young hacker/virus writer would turn their efforts to figuring out a way to trace and identify these slugs and figure out a way to attack them that would be devasting.

Sorry feeling particularly old testament this morning for some reason.

[rktech]

I'm in the process of completing some eBay transactions, and so far so good, I'm happy to say. I've come away with a favorable impression of eBay and PayPal, but beneath it all you know there's a scam or two afoot.

[lordofxring]

SO!ebay safety departament ? is not a scam i have recive the Toshiba T600 in 2 day`s .. but nothing happend
So.., wath is here ?
a conplayn departament ?! or wath ?



i`m sorry for all of you but.. i have not beend scam`ed at all[usa][usa][italy][roma][madrid][hothead][hothead][hothead][hothead]

[pkeogh]

Umm, there is no such thing as a ZIP code outside of the USA. Hell, it's a TRADEMARK. That was a major tip off.

[shalexim]

I got my TC1100 from ebay and I'm satisfied.

[ben777]

I first of all want to thank all of you for posting these ebay scams.. THANK YOU VERY MUCH!!!! I was almost scammed if it wasn't for people like you that keep others informed. Here is what was sent to me 2 days ago...and today I get a "E-bay Safety/trust letter letting me know that ebay will cover 90% "if anything goes wrong" It sound shady so I thought I would check it out and I found this forum.Thanks again everyone!! Hope you enjoy this fraud...:D BEWARE!!! - Ben

Hello,
As you can seen i`m legitimate eBay seller and you must understand that i must protect my self more then you because i`m doing this almost everyday and you must know that seriosity is what i`m more affraid.
The safety of my coustomers is my safety too.
I usually use PayPal but for the moment i`m extanding my account and i can`t send or recive any money.
All you must do is go to web site www.westernunion.com and pay with your credit card from your Name to my Name or go to a Western Union Office nearest from your. I need your Full Name and Address for shipping details. For shipping i use UPS(Express shipping 2 days) and i will pay for the shipping costs because you will have to pay for the money transfer taxes. The money transfer taxes form Western Union are 7%.
Here is my Full Name and Address:
First name: Stan
Last name: Guy Francis Mike
Address: Blvd. Levski #9
Zip code: 1000
City: Sofia
Country: Bulgaria
Your order is one unit Toshiba Satellite P25-S607.
As I have told you the product is brand new in factory box with all the warranty papers for 1 year and you can use them at any dealer Toshiba nearest from your town. It will be comes with all the accesories,keyboard in English,version US.
The total amount of money that you have to pay for it is $950.00 . I have just contacted eBay SafetyTrust Customers Departament and informed them about our transaction. You will be contacted by eBay.
Let me know how much time do you need for arrange the transfer so i can get the package ready for ship in time, and imediately as i have your payment confirmation i will start the shipping and I will let you to know the tracking number of the package by UPS.

Hope to do bussines withyou,
Francis.

[TabletNovice1]

You have to be carefull on ebay![cry]

[joly]

i bought my acer off ebay last april and was lucky to buy it brand new from a computer dealer who was very nice to answer all my questions, send it second day air and email me to make sure it arrived ok the day it was delivered. i was very lucky!

i just recently sold a portable dvd player but had someone from indonesia write me to buy it (i posted US only) and wanted to use a credit card machine (i posted PayPal only confirmed address). i politely said no as it worried me. Glad i said no as there are alot of scams going on.

[Bing]

Agreed you have to be very carefull on Ebay.

I purchased my M1300 on ebay and was very happy with the service, but this was from a person with a high rating.

[steveh from motion]

Hi -

We have been tormented with fraud here at Motion as well. So I guess it is 'let the buyer _and seller_ beware...'

Thanx,
steveh

[sco_robinso]

My policy is - if you can't type good english - WARNING!!!!!!!!!

[email]

JUST FOR THE RECORD: We sold out locally on the items we had in stock due to the exceptional pricing, expected more, but did not get them....at the same price, immediately alerted our ebay buyers of the incident and gave full refund. For more great deals on other pc components please visit www.itqcomputers.com or go to www.onelineamerica.com for no gimmick Nationwide Internet Service for as low as $8.95/mo.

We aim to please!

[danguyf]

Details of the latest TC1100 apparent scams I've come across:
http://www.tabletpcbuzz.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=9353

[bbbrackin]

Got burned about 2 years ago by an ebay scam in Utah. Feds cought the guy and gave him a nice long sentence and ordered restitution. However I can't believe I'll ever get anything significant. Was the first time I had ever used ebay and I haven't been back yet. I guess I am still stinging from my whipping.

bbbrackin

[harryguy082589]

"if its too good to be true, than it probly isn't true"

[Jaymz]

Wow I think I just got scammed. Users newest feedback all cry scams (about 5), and he cancelled his account just after selling several copies of king of the hill season 2. Originally I wasn't worried because I figured he would have sold more than just a few copies of a cheap item, but after all those new feedbacks I got very worried. Now I am pissed. Like my 10th purchase on ebay too, it may just ruin it for me as well. However, I am not one to mess with, which I just articulated in an e-mail to him. I not only have lots of time, but I dont let things die, and I have some resources (dad works for the government). Though I told him I wont treaten him yet, but that I expected a tracking number or $30 within 42 hours. GAR! RWAR! GAR!

[motion1]

doubt good old dad in government will be a lot of help....wish you well but dont hold your breath if in fact it is a scam....otherwise....you will turn blue before results.....hope it is not a scam

[Jaymz]

He may, if I can find a name I may be able to get the rest of his information.... but we would uhhh never do something like that... yea.... =P

[Jaymz]

OMG wow I heard back from the seller. I guess that certainly doesn't mean its not fraud, but it is nice to hear back from them. She (apparently) said that Ebay shut her account down and that paypal wont release her money. While that isn't quite comforting at least I know it should all work out, even if it takes longer. I am not sure on exact reasons, and as fishy as it all sounds she did offer a refund so I am not nearly as worried as before.

Plus no matter how fishy that sounds, it certainly fits the many pages of good feedback with just the last couple days being bad feedback. I did already contact ebay just asking if there was anything I could do (not wanting to wait 10 days) so maybe they will provide a story that will confirm her version or maybe even provide a reason her account was shut down. She certainly didn't have excessive bad (only a standard couple), and at least what I had seen was selling legit, legal, items. I could have missed some bad items or something that ebay doesnt like but hmmm.

Anyway its good to have heard from her. I think I can sleep calmly tonight. In fact I heard from one of my other auctions that was taking a while as well. I am thinking my last item must have been priority/air shipped because I was getting worried because it was like the 5th or so item I bought and I haven't received anything else. Yet when I thought it out its only been about 5 business days on the others, maybe 7 on a couple, and they were mostly stores so I need to figure in a few days to get packaged and shipped anyway.

Yea, im blabbering now... hoping someone will have a fix for my wacom drivers so I dont needa do a system restore.. =/

[dht]

quote:Originally posted by bbbrackin

Got burned about 2 years ago by an ebay scam in Utah. Feds cought the guy and gave him a nice long sentence and ordered restitution. However I can't believe I'll ever get anything significant. Was the first time I had ever used ebay and I haven't been back yet. I guess I am still stinging from my whipping.

bbbrackin


Liquidationuniverse, Russell Dana Smith (aka John Leary)? I was scammed by him too, but I got about 75% money back from eBay and SquareTrade. I bought my T3505 off eBay recently.

I think most people in eBay are honest, but a few are bad.

[Mac]

I've run across two or three hijacked accounts. They get ID's and passwords by sending fake Ebay emails asking for the seller to update their acoount (and include a link). When the seller try's to log into a fake ebay site using their password they get a white screen and may not think anything of it as that's not a uncommon condition on the internet. The crook then changes the users password and sets up shop untill the jigs up (which sometime can take a while if the original owner is not selling something at that time)

it's a jungle

[Kudzu]

I have bought and sold on Ebay for a couple of years. Not that much mind you but I have never had a proble so I will offer my advice.

NEVER buy from out of the countyry! Unless you know the person or have some really good reason to trust them. You have no recourse if they cheat you. (I did this once. Bought form a guy in Austrailia but I knew of him from a forum I was on)

Watch feedback closely and read it! Don't just look at how many good to bad. Read the good ones.Look and see what it was they were selling. Could be a cheap item gearing up for a big high dollar scam. Sometimes there are hints of problems in the good feedback comments.

Power sellers are often times a pain if you have a problem. I think most are honest, their just so big it next to impossible to get in touch with them.. I watch the feedback closely on powersellers.

99-98% postive feedback minimum!! Again, read the negatives and see what is said. Some buyers are just a PIA. You can't make everyone happy. But if I see the same complaints repeated I go some where else.

Last and best tip. If your buying something very expensive offer to pay (u pay the fees) for an Escrow service. The buyer has nothing to loose. If they are not farmiliar with one it may take some explaining but I have used one and it's the only way to go. You generally will get 3 or 4 days to test the item before the Escrow servive will pay the buyer.

Ebay is a great place. I don't buy a lot there but I watch it for certain items, like old wood working tools almost daily. I have never been cheated, Matter of fact I just bought my tablet through Ebay and when I got it was defective. Seller swapped it out no problem.

[Ancient Newton User]

Want to join the eBay Posse?

Been scammed? Wanna get even? He!!, pi$$ed that Meg Whitless & Co. care more about their fat bonuses and big stock options than cleaning up ebay? Tired of waiting for the REAL SHERIFF, ie the Feds, to do something about it?

Then saddle up pardner, 'cus this is the Wild Wild West of our times. And instead of strapping on a six shooter, you're goning to power up at least a 2.6 GHz Pentium 4!

Here's what to do:

First, pick a category that scammers LOVE to frequent. Being that you're here on tabletpcbuzz.com, check out the tablet pc's. Type in "tablet pc" in search box on ebay and it will take you to the place.

Secondly, check all the listings. You know what a tablet pc is worth, heck, you're drooling over that Motion or HPC or Fujitsu, and know what they cost when they were new last year/last month/last week. So when you see a REALLY LOW price on a tpc, read listing.

Third, if the seller has a feedback of under 10, check to see how they want to be paid. Down at the bottom, after the product description, and the picture, it will be there. if it reads, "Money Order/Check" or "Western Union/Bidpay" and nothing else, like Paypal, then this is 100% a SCAM! (If they have more than 10 feedbacks, read them, a dead given away to a scammer is that they have 10-30 feedbacks all for things THEY'VE purchased...and the purchases are the $1-2 items. Also, check to see who has given them feedback. Another scam is that "no longer registered user" buys TWO tablet pcs from seller and is SO ENTHUSIASTIC ABOUT THE GREAT SERVICE AND PRODUCT. Nothing changed hands...just a few fees, $30+, and they've made everyone believe that they're legit.)

Whence you figured it for a scam, ask seller a question: "Did you send ?item? in for the recall on the QBS-69 switch?" (?item? being the name of the device they are 'selling. Make sure that BS is prominant in the "recalled" device)

Then bid $14999.99. This is crucial. If you bid $15,000 or more, eBay asks for a credit card number to "verify" your identity; and discourage p!ssed customers/children, from screwing up the system with million dollar bids. (Remember how eBay always says that they will NEVER ask you for your credit card information? They do. they also state that they won't charge your account, that it's 'just for verification'. I did it, bid $38,000 on a $5 toy, eventually running the price in a bidding war with another scammer, (friend/alternate ID of seller) to $23,000. No, eBay did not try to charge me $23,000, but they placed a $33.52 charge for the cost of the listing; I successfully had charge removed. Banks/Credit Card Companies don't like eBay/Paypal) Why such a large bid? Well, any bid that is above a certain threshold (eBay won't divulge the amount) red flags a listing, and an ACTUAL HUMAN checks the listing. Invariably this take 3-6 hours, and invariably you get the aw-confirm@ebay.com email telling you that the item #al;sfl;ahfasdhlf is no longer valid and you should not complete the deal, etc., etc.

SCAMMERS HATE THIS. I have been doing this since Dec 2002. I have "de-listed" roughly 300+ items. Along the way I have had death threats emailed to me--big whoop, and because eBay will allow your REAL NAME/ID to be given out if they give their "real name/ID" I have had death threats CALLED in to me---not a BIG WHOOP, indeed serious. That landed the "gent" from Golly Ol’ England in the clink (Thank you Scotland Yard)...our FBI takes THOSE sorts of calls seriously; now if they took the scamming on eBay seriously...

Why does eBay allow these scams to continue on? It is pure economics/greed IMHO. Think about those 300+ listings I spoke about. On average, eBay gets $2 for the insertion fee. Many of the scammers use the "special" features of highlighting (the purple band through their listing) and multiple LARGE FORMAT pictures, thereby jacking the price to $10+. DO THE MATH, EBAY MAKES MONEY OFF THE SCAMMERS. So while they officially condemn scammers/illegal sales/fraud, do you think they give the scammers their fees back???? Of course not. How many scams are out their? Interesting...but a non-scientific search through CANON XL1S on ebay brought up 45 items in CAMCORDERS listing. Of that 45, 23 were for actual cameras, and of that 8 (EIGHT) were scams...cash only, email me first before bidding, private auctions, CASH/MONEY ORDER ONLY. Some were even pictures/listings from other peoples' legitimate listing not even three months ago. (A truck driver in CA sold his Canon Xl1S dv camera in October of 2004...and again in December, twice, and three times in January already. Driving trucks must pay well to be able to afford $25k worth of camera goodies! First was legit, the rest were scams) I am NOT SAYING THAT NEARLY 25% of all eBay listings are scams, but in the high target areas, tablet pcs, high end dv camcorders, plasma tvs, etc., I think that more than the "less than 1%" of transactions are fraudulent on eBay. Remember, even if 99.999% of all transactions on eBay are legit, if you get hosed, do you give a s#!t that everyone else got theirs okay?

Why do I do this? Well, why did average folks in Western Towns in the 1880's form posses to go after bad guys? 'Cuz the West was worth saving...and I've gotten really cool camera equipment for great prices, old toys from my youth, made a couple of serious friendships, and sold a closet full of my CRAP that others feel is TREASURE for a few grand.

[krypticide]

Interesting post. Anyway, I never buy any electronics on eBay, though I've successfully sold a Palm, a Pocket PC, and now a tablet and a ThinkPad. Same policy: Paypal or money order, always wait for money to clear first. Anyone not willing to do that probably isn't trustworthy anyway.

[Mac]

I think the Internet in general is a danger zone.

I just recieved an email supposedly from Smith Barney saying that I need to log in to fix something . A scam to get all my money.

Now, there are loads of people that will fall for this and other scams like them.

Not to mention all the perverts.

Wild West indeed.


Tex

[arebelspy]

Haha you guys are so silly.. posts like the above ones just make my day. Cautious is good. Paranoid is funny. :)

-arebelspy

[Mac]

Ha ha ha

The Smith Barney email I recieved is like many others. It is a official looking document stating that there is a software update in progress and I will need to log on to my account for the update. Supplied is a link.

Now, perhaps there is a retired person who clicks this link (not me-I don't even have an account at Smith Barney) and logs on to the fake site (definitely) giving away their passwords will have their identites stolen and their life savings removed.

So If you think this is paranoid i will send you the next email like this I get ( I deleted this one, but I don't need to wait long for another one)

[alienrat]

My mum (who is a retired person) knows not to click on any link in an email, and I would have thought that most people would have learned that by now. I get about 10 of those a day, luckily most of them tell me to log into an account at an american bank!

[cera]

so what's the consensus on this item?
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=39980&item=6754380354&rd=1

i've seen these listed for a while on ebay, and they don't seem to have been shut down yet... i was basically ready to purchase until i saw this thread...

the only thing that set off a red flag for me was the fact that the "please check our other auctions" link goes to an invalid user id...

[danguyf]

That's interesting... The invalid user id, "kique4u2", that the "other auctions" link goes to used to sell TC1100s using an identical listing, images and all, except that he only sold the PM 713.

So either [1] he is kique4u2 under a new account or [2] he ripped off kique4u2's listings.

His feedback looks really good, though; he's allegedly sold other TC1100s to happy buyers.

I would email him and ask if he'd accept going through escrow.com if you pay the escrow fees. If he says no then I wouldn't trust him. If he agrees then I'd just buy it outright.

[bebe]

If you click on seller information "wwweblcom" and on the next page click on "id history" you will see where the seller changed his id on Feb 09, 2005 but has been registered since '02. At least that is the way I interpret the info. I would still say buyer beware even though it does appear this user has good feedback.

I was under the impression that HP factory new TC1100
models come with a 3 year warranty. This item states a 1 year warranty and you can purchase a 3 year extended warranty. I would certainly want to question if this is a "refurbished" or "new" in the factory sealed box. It could be either and still be factory sealed. It is also stated the seller is an authorized HP reseller and this could be verified by obtaining the company name for verification with HP. Even though the price is good and this may be a perfectly legitimate seller it is better to be safe than sorry.

*edit* Just thought I would add it would be a good idea to verify the HP model number with the seller also. On the specs listed, the b/g wireless is shown but there is also a $79 upgrade price listed for that item. Not sure what to make of that. Also you should verify if the 512mb memory is 256/256 or one 512 as this will make a difference when/if you go to add memory to the unit. Sorry lots of questions here but things I feel are of importance if I were buying.

[wiggy1]

The TC1100 comes in two versions though there are many model SKU numbers. There is the Dubbded down reseller modesl that have the celeron processors and they come with only a 1 year warranty. The other type of reseller models come with a Pentium M 1.1GHz processor and 3 year warranty automatically. These models are targeted at the enterprise users and are the more expensive (~$2100+ USD) versions. So you have to be careful when specing out your TC1x00 of choice. HP has lots of configurations.

[megaoptimus]

I emailed a faux seller a couple of weeks ago. The email you got is VERY similar to the one I got. These fakers become rather indignent when you call their bluff. I always ask for pictures and proof of the unit in hand, if not, too bad. No sale for you!

[cera]

nice - thanks for the tips... i'll email them & ask... cheers

[deratristar]

For the record:

wwweblcom is totally legit. I am one of his satisfied customers. I had reservations about him at first (like any other high ticket item on Ebay!), but I emailed him with some questions. He very quickly replied to me, and I decided to go ahead and purchase item number 6754380354 on Ebay, along with a 3-yr accidental damage warranty. I paid a little extra for overnight shipping (my request). He shipped it that night (March 24), and I got it yesterday afternoon.

The box had the original seals on it, although the configuration stickers on the outside were removed (His reasoning seemed legit... without stating what is on it, it is less of a theft hazard in transit - I agree, although I was going to use this to verify the contents). Everything was in order in the box. All disks and accessories were still sealed, and the unit still had the antistatic keyboard protector sheet in place, with no signs it had ever been moved and replaced.

The unit serial number checks out, and the configuration code on the unit matches exactly what he offered in the sale. FYI: The unit DOES have wireless b/g (Don't know about a, I haven't checked... yet), and does have BT. I figure he just goofed in leaving the generic upgrade info in there... I've done that on auctions I have ran myself.

There was one problem... the morons at HP included the WRONG PEN with it! This one has a AAAA battery in it, and the TC1100 pen is supposed to be the batteryless penabled pen. Dennis (the guy behind wwweblcom) has sent me out a replacement pen by Fedex. Now, unless FedEx doesn't have a lot of work to do, I won't get it before school goes back in session Monday (anyone here in the Sacto area want to loan me a penabled pen???), but that isn't Dennis' fault. It is HP/Compaq's.

Overall, I am very satisfied with wwweblcom. If anyone has any questions for me, please feel free to ask.

Renee Roberts (aka palmtools on Ebay)

[cera]

ok i've just gone back & forth with dennis a bit - and renee's right - he is a completely honest seller
& he's offering a great price for an item that should cause no problems whatsoever, especially with a 3 year warranty...

these do seem to be the PP834AA series, so they've got the specs you see there (or under PP834AA#ABA on the hp site)
the $79 extra is a typo - that was supposed to be for a/b/g - he said he'd fix it next time he posted them
the 512Mb is indeed on one chip & the other slot is user-accessible...
as far as escrow - he said he'd never been asked to use it (except by scammers, along with western union money orders), but i explained that escrow.com is quite reputable & he agreed to go through them if necessary

as far as refurbished vs. factory-new, he told me: "All of our units are labeled as excess inventory or corporate returns. They all come in their HP factory sealed boxes with all the accessories (pens, AC adapters, keyboard, etc.) and sealed software and a one year warranty from HP. The marketing department labels all of them as "refurbished" because once they leave the factory the first time they cannot be labeled as new. We usually get an assortment from completely new machines to refurbished ones. In one or two occasions we received a unit that had a blemish, such as a scratch or a dent. In these cases we immediately exchange your unit for another one or give you a full refund."

anyway i guess i'm going to pass...
i have a general (and probably unjustified) distrust for refurbished computers...
i guess i'd rather kick down an extra $4-500 to know that it is "factory-new"
like i said, that's prolly a little silly, but when i'm spending this much money for an item,
i guess i'd just rather not cut any corners

thanks to everyone for their help...

[jameswats]

I have been reading comments and reviews here for a while. I found this site when I was first shopping for a Tablet and I have found a lot of good information since them. I am not the type of guy that tends to blog everything he does and write a lot of postings (Let's just say I am more of a watcher) However, I felt obligated to say something after catching this thread.

First of all, let me say that I LOVE eBay scams. I get a total kick out of it and I enjoy sharing them with friends and co-workers. I particularly love the "I will sell you this $2,500 item for $1,000 if you send a money order to this address" deal. I have seen them all. From Canon cameras to Tablet PCs. From the registrations from Romania to the billing addresses from Greece passing through the poor widow from the Nigerian president and so on and so forth. How could I ever be entertained without them?

I also love to get good deals, and when I decided to get my TabletPC in order to use it with my photography business a few months ago I thought that I was smart enough to get it from eBay without getting scammed. I went back and forth and got my usual array of ridiculous proposals as detailed in all the previous postings. Then I ran into Dennis when he was still using the kique4u2 eBay id (now wwweblcom). I was somewhat surprised to see it at a price that was a good $700 below what HP was asking, but unlike the usual scammers, he had a ridiculously good feedback record. I sent him a couple of emails and he got back to me right away. He explained to me the condition of the Tablets as outlined above, and he told me that he had just received a shipment of supped up Tablets, which is exactly what I was looking for. The configuration I settled on was:

- Pentium M 1.1GHz w/ 2MB cache
- 2GB RAM
- 80 GB HD
- a/B/G Wifi
- Bluetooth etc.

I priced this configuration from HP and got a quote for over $3,500. His price was (get this) $2,199

I asked him to give me a call and we had a really nice conversation where he answered every question I had. After consulting it with my wife I decided to take the plunge and bought it from him. I could not be HAPPIER with this decision. First of all, he was awefully nice; he shipped the computer on a Saturday and made sure I got it Monday morning. Then, a week later, my Dalmatian got a hold of the case (which thankfully was not attached to the Tablet at that point) and broke the zipper. I sent him an email and I asked if I could buy a new one: He gave it to me free of charge after I sent him the damaged one. I have experienced good customer service everywhere (mostly from Amazon.com) but he definitely ranks in the top three.

I think it is great that anyone is willing to spend an extra $200-$300 to get piece of mind. I do that myself when the savings are not all that significant, but I saved over $1,600 on this operation. I did my numbers, and there is NO way HP made any money on this tablet. The stand-alone components are more expensive (by $560) than the price I paid. Whatever sources Dennis have they are definitely good.

I know this may be an extraordinary circumstance as I got the absolutely most maxed-out TC1100 that you can get, but after seeing the thread I thought I should throw in my two cents.

As for the refurbished issue: I knew what I was getting and I was ready to send it back at the smallest sign of trouble. I am ridiculously anal when it comes to this type of stuff (my profession requires an enormous amount of attention to detail) and I simply could not see a single thing wrong with the Tablet. It was flawless and I seriously doubt it was ever turned on before I got it.

Don't get me wrong. I think you should shop around and never settle for an inferior machine, but Dennis did sell me an outstanding item.

Just for the sake of full disclosure: I am a regular buyer of refurbished equipment (Dell computers and Canon equipment), and I do believe that only fools pay full factory price, but hey, someone's got to keep the stock price up.

Please feel free to ask me or email me any questions that you may have. I'll be happy to share additional details if you need them.

[alienrat]

seen this one in the UK.
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=6762969193

seems ok? Check his feedback, and then the feedback of the people who left feedback for him.
Yes, for some reason, the people that left him feedback had not been active for between 6 months and 2 years, then all of a sudden start bidding and buy 10 or so laptops each from different people who all seem to have the same style of advert!

I reported it to ebay a few days ago, but nothing happened yet.

[willem]

It is removed now by EBay

[deratristar]

Our Hong Kong scammer is at it again on Ebay. "Christina" (aka thron@shkmail.com) is again posting bogus auctions. Same usual rhetoric in the response to a p/n and s/n question (I always get p/n and s/n to verify the unit):

"Hi there!

The HP Compaq Tablet PC tc4200

It is brand new and will be delivered in it's original box. I will give you
the receipt as well. It will have the warranty of 1 year.It comes with the
manual (in English). I have bought it at a govermantal auction for a very
low price and I want to make some profit. If this work I intend to acquire
more products for further sale

I have a contract with http://www.imperialescrow.com/ a cyber escrow company..( fees allready covered)


These is my assurance.
The item is brand new with 1 full year warranty.
You will have 30 days to test it and if anything is wrong you can get your money back.
Also I'm looking for a long business relation and all what I sell is brand new and unused.


The buy it now price is 950 USD , and if you agree, please send me your
full name and adress in order for me to start the transation and prepare
shipping.You will send the payment to escrow company, they will tell me to send you the package and I will send it in your direction via UPS2day - it will reach your destiantion in 2-3 business days.
The Escrow fees and shipping cost are on me.



Thank you and i will wait your reply.





--
Best regards,
Christina mailto:thron@shkmail.com"

The headers show that this person is using anonymizers:

From - Sat Jul 02 11:03:35 2005
X-Account-Key: account2
X-UIDL: )a$#!/^F!!d3S"!g3I"!
X-Mozilla-Status: 0013
X-Mozilla-Status2: 00000000
Return-Path: <thron@shkmail.com>
Delivered-To: renee@nyip.net
Received: (qmail 3190 invoked by uid 1076); 2 Jul 2005 15:38:52 -0000
Delivered-To: renee-pe-renee@portable-essentials.com
Received: (qmail 2255 invoked from network); 2 Jul 2005 15:38:35 -0000
Received: from unknown (HELO harris.anonymizer.com) (168.143.113.18)
by smtp.nyip.net with AES256-SHA encrypted SMTP; 2 Jul 2005 15:38:35 -0000
Received: from localhost (apeface.anonymizer.com [168.143.113.110])
by harris.anonymizer.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id 56E31824D21
for <renee@portable-essentials.com>; Sat, 2 Jul 2005 09:04:04 -0700 (PDT)
Date: Sat, 2 Jul 2005 18:36:54 +0300
From: Christina <thron@shkmail.com>
X-Mailer: The Bat! (v3.0.1.33) Professional
Reply-To: Christina <thron@shkmail.com>
X-Priority: 3 (Normal)
Message-ID: <82710833.20050702183654@shkmail.com>
To: renee@portable-essentials.com
Subject: Re: Question for item #6411384140 - HP Compaq Tablet PC tc4200
In-Reply-To: <1439927555.1120318651698.JavaMail.ebayapp@sj-v3conta03>
References: <1439927555.1120318651698.JavaMail.ebayapp@sj-v3conta03>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 2.64 (2004-01-11) on syrinx.nyip.net
X-Spam-Level:
X-Spam-Status: No, hits=-4.9 required=6.5 tests=BAYES_00 autolearn=ham
version=2.64
X-UIDL: )a$#!/^F!!d3S"!g3I"!

NOTE: Ebay has pulled this auction already. But beware!

[tabletpc adam]

It always pays to have a telephone conversation with the vendor if the item is a high dollar item. But then those can be scams too. I don't mind talking to customers over the phone as I'm sure it helps to build credibility. If you cannot speak to your vendor or customer, you should not continue the transaction. Communication is key.

Adam
www.tabletpcpro.com

[hotweiss]

I bought my Acer off of eBay without a problem... I see scams on eBay all the time... If you see a great deal with <10 feedback, think about it.

[DocNusum]

It has been my impression that most OEM manufactures don't honor the warrenty on their products sold at auction to a third party.

[onedyingwish]

"Christina" has struck again, and it happened to me:

Hi there!

The PANASONIC AG-DVX100 1/3" 3-CCD DV CAMCORDER

It is brand new and will be delivered in it's original box. I
will give you
the receipt as well. It will have the warranty of 3 years.It comes with
the
manual (in English). I have bought it at a governmental auction for a
very
low price and I want to make some profit. If this work I intend to
acquire
more products for further sale

I have a contract with http://www.escrowseze.com/ a cyber escrow
company..( fees already covered)


These is my assurance.
The item is brand new with 3 full years warranty.
You will have 30 days to test it and if anything is wrong you can get
your money back.
Also I'm looking for a long business relation and all what I sell is
brand new and unused.


The buy it now price is 850 USD , and if you agree, please send me your
full name and address in order for me to start the transaction and
prepare
shipping.You will send the payment to escrow company, they will tell me
to send you the package and I will send it in your direction via
UPS2day - it will reach your destination in 2-3 business days.
The Escrow fees and shipping cost are on me.



Thank you and i will wait your reply.

--
Best regards,
Christina mailto:burnout1221@shkmail.com

Seems like "Christina" has changed her email, however it's still with shkmail. anyways, now I am out $850. does anybody know how/where I could get help. Would ebay help me at all?

[deratristar]

If it was an Ebay auction, they should.

[wthor]

If you paid by credit card, your credit card company can help you ( they can reverse the transaction ).

If you paid cash/western union/some other untracable form of payment, then I think you are mostly on your own. Filing a complaint with eBay might get you back a few bucks, but not the full sum.

Of course, if this is an international scam, you might try Interpol ? ( FBI doesn't take the case unless there has been a damage in excess of US$10,000.- if I have understood the news correctly )