AUTHOR: The Grimace DATE: 11:30:00 AM ----- BODY:
People, just because the Xbox 360 is highly anticipated and attractive machine that you probably won't be able to obtain at your local retailer for the first few months after its release does not mean that you have to get all stupid when you try to find one online. I've been watching eBay for the past couple of weeks and have seen so many obvious, even blatant scams that multiple people are actually bidding on- sometimes for thousands of dollars. The first scam I saw (this auction has since been removed) had a title something like: "Xbox 360 Premium- email sent". And the auction had a photo of the 360, details about what came in the premium package, and at the bottom it said "If you win this auction, I will send you an email with the following instructions" and there were typical instructions that an eBay seller might give, like send me your money and address, etc. But nowhere in the auction did it actually say that the bidder would actually receive an Xbox 360. I checked the seller's feedback and lo and behold, he had pulled this same sort of scam with the iPod Nano... a user left negative feedback saying, "Who'd pay $125 for a stupid email?" When I saw the auction there were already 10 bids on it... however both the auction and the user have been deleted. Good for eBay. But who are the people who bid on it? Lesson: Read the fine print (and, uh, the auction title) and check the seller's feedback. Next, I saw an auction titled "Enter the Matrix Xbox 360" (auction is now closed, I can't find the link anymore on eBay- there were numerous bids though). I immediately knew this one was fishy because Enter the Matrix is not an Xbox 360 launch title. It's a terrible game that came out in 2003. Anyway, the auction said that the game played on regular Xbox, but was "enhanced for" Xbox 360! At the very bottom of the page there was a note saying that all "best selling" original Xbox titles would be backwards compatible on Xbox 360, if not at launch then soon after. So "enhanced" isn't exactly the appropriate word, eh? But get this- Enter the Matrix is not even on Microsoft's list of original Xbox games that they even plan to support on Xbox 360, either at launch or in the future! This game simply will NOT run on Xbox 360, "enhanced" or otherwise. Apparently this seller has a habit of making misleading claims in his auctions, because numerous times in the auction's text he tells visitors to check out his "About Me" profile which claims he will only issue refunds if he "grossly misrepresents" the items he's auctioning. Clearly the guy knows that many people don't read very carefully and he intentionally uses that fact to mislead buyers. Lesson: Read the fine print, check the seller's profile, and do your homework! Now this one is probably the most suspicious I've seen so far. The auction title is "Wholesale lof of 20 units XBOX 360 Platinum + 10 Games." Some tip-offs right away: The seller can't spell the word 'lot' correctly in the auction title? Also, 20 units? That's as much as most retailers are getting to cover the entire holiday season this year- how the hell did he get his hands on 20? It gets worse, though: Open up the auction and you'll see he claims to be selling them in lots of over 100 units!!! It is simply not possible- not even you local Walmart is getting more than 20. Stranger still is the line, "We are a legitimate business registered in the United Kimgdom." Okay, so he misspells 'Kingdom' for one thing, but why does his user information say he's in the United States? Winnabow NC, to be exact? And if his business is in the United Kingdom, how can he have USA Xbox 360 models (they're not compatible due to different power requirements and television standards). On top of that, the guy's account was created just a couple weeks ago and he has zero feedback as either a buyer or a seller. And yet there are 35 bids on this auction, which is now up to over $10,000. You freaking idiots!!! Lesson: If the seller has no feedback, don't buy. Avoid sellers with conflicting user information. Avoid sellers making impossible claims. There was another auction that I almost thought may have been legitimate, but something just seemed wrong. (And it's been yanked, so my instincts were right.) The seller was offering a lot of five Xbox 360s, but he also said that he'd include various 'mystery bonuses' to bidders (even non-winning bidders) as the bids reached certain milestones. For example, once the auction ran up to $1,500 he said one of the random bidders would get a free iPod. Every time the bids went up, the seller would add little notes to the auction, congratulating the people with the highest bids and offering new bonus goals. The last time I saw it, the auction was over $5,000. Anyway it's gone now. Lesson: Avoid auctions where the seller offers incentives that simply seem geared to drive the bids up; the item you're bidding for should be enough. Also, unusual offers (like giving bonuses to random non-winning bidders) should be a red flag. Here's another fishy one for a single Xbox premium bundle. What seems strange to me is the bulk of the auction text seems like boiler plate stuff- doesn't sound like the seller wrote it. Also, I'm pretty sure I've seen auctions by different sellers with exactly this same auction text. It's possible he just swiped it from other sellers, or also possible that one person or organization is spamming eBay with virtually identical auctions which may or may not be legitimate. Anyway, the seller adds this single line to the very bottom of the auction, which is in a completely different font from everything else: "For the note my dad works on base and has a few of these guaranteed with the exchange, so I can probably do about 3 more, but serious inquires only." What does this mean, "my dad works on base?" What base? The seller's only got a feedback score of 4, and he was a buyer in every case. He's never sold an item before. I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt and guessing he was just too lazy to write his own auction so he just took someone else's text, but I don't see anything here that instills confidence that the guy's going to have an Xbox 360 to sell any sooner than anyone else. Another odd thing is a question asked by a bidder: "I would like to pay via paypal. If we need to discuss this over the phone let me know and I will speak with you. I saw where you were scammed. Landon". I didn't see anything in the seller's feedback that indicated any scamming had occurred. Also interesting is this sentence in the seller's public response: "I am hoping that all understand that I have 3 weeks after the 22nd to ship this out to you, more then likely you will get it way before that but just incase some of you didn't read." Almost all other sellers are claiming shipment on the 22nd or 23rd- the ones who are confident they'll have them. Oh yes, one more thing... near the bottom of the auction it says you can "pick any one game of your choice from here" but one of the games listed is Elder Scrolls: Oblivion, which isn't going to be released until March 21. Whoever this kid took the auction text from isn't being honest. Lesson: Do your homework and avoid sellers who make numerous qualifications.
-------- COMMENT-AUTHOR:Anonymous COMMENT-DATE:1:41 PM COMMENT-BODY:Great that you are posting these possible Ebay scams, I saw many "Xbox 360 PIC" on Ebay and one reached over $1000! I am not sure if the bidder could do anything since the seller was quite clear that these are just pictures to remember the hype of the launch. The thing I hate most is the seller copied a very long description somewhere and the actually sentence about this item is just a picture is burried somewhere in the middle. I am not sure if Ebay could pull this one out since he didn't lie but just simply taking advantage of other's desparation. The highest bidder I saw just probably a woman trying to buy for a kid. So unethical. -------- COMMENT-AUTHOR:Josh COMMENT-DATE:4:08 PM COMMENT-BODY:Wow, that's a new one. I just did a search and there are indeed a number of 'Xbox 360 PIC' listings. I also found one where the high bidder is apparently a vigilante called 'ibidonxbox360pics'. While that's funny, I'm not sure I agree with violating eBay's terms of use to get back at these scammers. I've contacted a few bidders who were bidding on obvious scams though, just to alert them. --------