Beware of these eBay scammers

In the past, we’ve featured stories of scams and victims’ tales of being scammed. Here’s an addition to those tales. Following are posts of some members of the PMT Forum about their experiences being victimized by scammers on eBay.

The modus operandi is almost always the same. A product is advertised at an unbelievably low price. The victim bids for the product and, upon winning the auction, sends money via bank deposit, GCash or some other method of payment. A few days later, the product is still not delivered to the buyer. The seller, however, cannot be contacted anymore.

More details of these eBay scam stories:

Posted by miss_jane_smith_md:

I got scammed by an eBay seller who was trying to sell a Macbook Air for P25,000. I’m an eBayer for 4 years and it’s my first time to be scammed.

Yeah, I learned my lesson already. I googled his name but nothing came out so I thought it was true.

Here are his details:

• Name: Jewels Madrigal Pilongo
• Bank: Development Bank of the Philippines, Puerto Princesa Branch
• Account Number: 635-6653-221
• Address: #534 Phase 2 Scandinavian Subdivision, Sta. Moni, Puerto Princesa City, Palawan
• GCASH Cell No. 09052231191

I don’t know if these details are true, he blocked his cellphone already, so I guess he changed numbers as soon as he got the money.

Posted by macadamia:

I was going through eBay Philippines site (eBay.ph) to look for a cheap laptop and saw this ad from TOYCARS4BIGBOY (Sony Vaio-VGN z570n/b) under bidding (current bid then was about Php 16,000). I started bidding and he sent me a message that afternoon telling me that i won the bid and to close the deal at P20,000.

For the payment, he gave me a DBP account:

• NAME:  John Henry S. Tapnio
• BANK:  DBP Puerto Princesa City Branch
• ACCOUNT NUMBER:  635-6653-2219 (see the similarity with the account of the scammer of miss_jane_smith_md? He just gave me an extra digit.)

Very stupid of me and since I was really focused on getting this deal done asap, I was the one who offered sending the amount thru GCash. And so with that, he gave me the following details:

• GCASH ACCOUNT NAME:  John Henry S. Tapnio
• GLOBE NUM:  0917-347-6798
• ADDRESS:  No. 257, Phase 2, Gemsville Subd, Tiniguiban, Puerto Princesa City

The next morning, it was almost 10 am and I haven’t received any package yet.  I texted “John Henry” but he did not reply.  I tried calling his number and it’s not working anymore.  I called LBC and asked to check about the tracking number he gave me. It does not exist.  They even told me that the they don’t have a tracking number in that format.  I even tried calling DBP Puerto Princesa branch and asked if there exists an account with those details he gave me. Of course, there was none.

With my stupidity and being a panic buyer, I lost Php20,500.

Right now, I think, there’s another post connected to this scammer network.  User is FLOWERROSE2001, with current bid for ASUS F8VA-B1 C2d laptop of Php 17,850.  This is the only user who has a feedback to “TOYCARS4BIGBOY” — my scammer.

Have your own eBay scam story to tell? Post it in the eBay scammers discussion thread.

Read more about scams and scammers’ tactics in the Scams Discussion folder in the forum.

Topic keywords for this post:

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