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Humblepipe

Lifer
Sep 13, 2019
1,929
6,917
Guerneville, CA
I was poking around doing pipe shopping on the web and was initially excited about good pricing on "gotosale.ru" (at first, I did not closely examine the URL). It's a decent looking site, with a sophisticated enough interface, shopping cart, etc. Then, I stumbled on to an item I recently sold on eBay. In fact, I custom made it with my own two hands! My description, my photos, verbatim, utilized for the listing. It is definitely a one-of-kind item and yet I was able to put 2 of them in my shopping cart (I went NO FURTHER than to add them to my shopping cart). Here is the URL. Just thought I'd share....
 

ziv

Part of the Furniture Now
Sep 19, 2024
688
4,518
South Florida
Looking at their sources (in incognito window lol), all of the products seem to be taken directly from ebay.

<img class="lazyload" data-src="https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/18wAAOSw65poRVlT/s-l240.webp" alt="Meta Quest 3S 128GB">
<a href="/product/405947797153">Meta Quest 3S 128GB</a>

<img class="lazyload" data-src="https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/xSYAAOSwLd5lJIrP/s-l240.webp" alt="Apple iPhone 14 128GB Network Unlocked Very Good Condition">
<a href="/product/355095070816">Apple iPhone 14 128GB Network Unlocked Very Good Condition</a>

etc.
 

Humblepipe

Lifer
Sep 13, 2019
1,929
6,917
Guerneville, CA
Looking at their sources (in incognito window lol), all of the products seem to be taken directly from ebay.

<img class="lazyload" data-src="https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/18wAAOSw65poRVlT/s-l240.webp" alt="Meta Quest 3S 128GB">
<a href="/product/405947797153">Meta Quest 3S 128GB</a>

<img class="lazyload" data-src="https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/xSYAAOSwLd5lJIrP/s-l240.webp" alt="Apple iPhone 14 128GB Network Unlocked Very Good Condition">
<a href="/product/355095070816">Apple iPhone 14 128GB Network Unlocked Very Good Condition</a>

etc.

That makes sense now... Thanks for this.
 
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Reactions: Briar Lee

sablebrush52

The Bard Of Barlings
Jun 15, 2013
23,084
59,125
Southern Oregon
jrs457.wixsite.com
Some years ago, there was a Chinese crook running a similar scam. He would download the components from various eBay pipe listings and reconstruct them on eBay, offering to sell pipes at a fraction of their market price, like an Eltang for $20.

You would think that people would spot an obvious fraud and you would be wrong,

I reported him to eBay, and of course they did nothing about it. So I continued to report all of his scams and they finally blocked him. But he would just create another account and be back in a couple of days, making his fake posts and defrauding people who were thinking that they were defrauding some simpleton.

I tracked this guy for about a year, getting him banned a number of times, before he quit and disappeared, probably to another part of eBay, like collectible housewares of something.
 

anotherbob

Lifer
Mar 30, 2019
18,526
33,687
47
Central PA a.k.a. State College
Some years ago, there was a Chinese crook running a similar scam. He would download the components from various eBay pipe listings and reconstruct them on eBay, offering to sell pipes at a fraction of their market price, like an Eltang for $20.

You would think that people would spot an obvious fraud and you would be wrong,
The trick with scams seems often to be to bypass critical thinking by overloading the crazy desire part of the mind. People get so desperate or greedy that is all they see. Oh a great pipe I want for the price I can afford.
I reported him to eBay, and of course they did nothing about it. So I continued to report all of his scams and they finally blocked him. But he would just create another account and be back in a couple of days, making his fake posts and defrauding people who were thinking that they were defrauding some simpleton.
Ebay doesn't care until effects their profits. Sadly how things work.
I tracked this guy for about a year, getting him banned a number of times, before he quit and disappeared, probably to another part of eBay, like collectible housewares of something.
That's funny I thought he was chilling under your rose garden. ;)