Item number: 250252465697 ebay,sorry not sure how to put link in,brother won this auction ive advised him not to pay it for as i think it looks very dodgy to me after checking through his feedback

Hi and welcome to coinpeople.

Unfortunately if you really cannot prove that the coin is really fake from the pictures or stolen from elsewhere, please don't use the seller's feedback as an excuse not to continue the transaction. Your brother made an agreement on buying it so that's how it is.

This forum is NOT a place for you to avoid paying and if you didn't know what you are buying, tough luck. You don't bid unless you really know what you are getting. You do the research BEFORE making the bid, not AFTER.

Sorry i wasn,t trying to use this forum as an excuse for him not to pay for it.my brother knows alot about coins unfortunately new to computers and ebay,he knows how much that coin is worth ,i checked it out for him and i googled some of the feedback on the seller and most of the names on there brought me to this site as scammers

A warm welcome to you Shearer.

First off, the feedback does look dodgy but it is the coin that will tell the truth, the guy does have a return policy and, if your brother pays by PayPal, you can get your money back anyway. This way your brother can buy the coin and then get an opinion from a collector as coins are easier to authenticate in person than a photo.

I'd say that it looks OK, but then again it is a photo...

Good luck with whatever path you choose to take, but remember that your brother entered a contract, so unless the seller and you agree that you do not have to pay then you have to.

Kindest Regards,

Clive.

I think you have given your brother very good advice because I believe there is an excellent chance that if he pays, then he will never see the coin nor his money again.

The feedbacks are highly suspicious and the accounts providing the feedbacks are also questionable. In the Russian forum in the last few months, someone posted a scam where pictures were stolen from a major coin auction and then offered for sale on ebay. I think this is probably the same criminal ring at work here with this offering.

See ariba's post HERE (and read the rest of the thread) then check who gave feedbacks to the "buyers" who gave feedback to the seller of this offering.

This auction doesn't pass the smell test.

Thank you for that info,that is how i found this site after googling the names on the feedback of the buyer and most of the names where mentioned in the russian forum.,we have twice sent emails to seller regarding the coin and have getting no replies back.

shearer77, in this case, I'm afraid you'll have to do a bit more homework searching. IF the seller is indeed scamming like you said, chances of him having such rare coins is very obscure. The only way out safely in this situation with no penalty is to prove that the images were lifted from a major auction which was how most of the fraud Russian coin listings were removed from ebay.

Otherwise, if you don't mind a possible ban on your account for not paying up when the seller reports, then I guess that's a way to go forward? I do agree that 800 dollars is a bit too much to handle.

P.S. I must warn that this is NOT a professional legal advise but an opinion. I will not be held responsible for further actions.

When I tried to visit the page a few minutes ago at THIS LINK I got an error page which lists the auction, but all auction information, pictures, lot description, terms, seller & buyer, sale price, really everything else except the lot number and the title, have simply vanished with the cryptic message

This page may have moved or is no longer available

UPDATE: I just tried again and it worked when I allowed scripting through NoScript. The page is still there.

Grivna, it's working at this time for me. Apparently ebay has been having some hiccups even with the recent auctions I have been trying to bid. I was about to bid on something with 30 mins left and when I refresh the page, apparently I got a notice saying that it got CANCELED!

I thought that was bizarre and decided to refresh it again to see if I was daydreaming. Nope, wasn't. Refreshed it again, still got the notice that it's canceled. It was only in the last 5 minutes that I decided to try again and the auction miraculously appeared again. I'm assuming that there is some kind of bug going on.

Check out THIS LINK

It sure looks like the same coin to me. (Heritage auction 425, lot 51667)

Now why would someone pay $4,025.00 for the coin in January 2007, just to dump it on ebay a year and a half later for only $835.00?

Here are the Heritage images of the coin. Ebay images (the ones with "fordgene488") have been added for ease of comparison:





I haven't checked, but my guess is that the seller's other offerings are likely images obtained the same way.

thanks very much for that link looks identical to me.

I agree. Great detective work Grivna

Thanks for searching Grivna. Shearer, this might be the page for you to report the issue: http://pages.ebay.com/securitycenter/reportproblem.html

Do address the issue that the seller did not reply any emails and that the images are stolen directly from Heritage with no additional photographs.

I'm glad the "lucky winner" didn't send any money. I wonder how many others have been successfully cheated?

Thanks very much for the help,ive reported the seller to ebay

Looks like a very lucrative scam to me.

Check the seller's recently sold items:

http://search-completed.ebay.com/search/se...p=32&fsoo=2

Over $5,000 in rare coins and banknotes sold on the same day, and 100% feedback from private transactions

The English in the auction is very poor.

"I only accept PayPal due to safe,If you choose not to pay by PayPal, you must send an email within 24 hours of the close of auction."

The buyers are only protected for $200/item

This 1831 William IV half crown sold for $635 despite being listed as 1851


All the users he derived his feedback from have the same type of username:

aonyeouyl5557
shenxin2100
lp42088
daihj1112
lyj80315
8881055peace.forever
brook5522241
jacob..duncan
47588donna85
anderson10030
andrew.80.00


all in China, all fraudsters

See also

26998orlandoce

all of his items are $0.99 coins ended early in order to create fake feedback.

Also similarly

http://feedback.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?...id=160243558571

In ariba's thread that first exposed this group, found here, the items used to generate feedback were numerous offerings of $1 notes, at least 3 of which (probably all, but I only checked 3 of them) had the identical serial number!!

So the 90 cents offerings you show are consistent with that pattern of generating fake feedback profiles to sell air by using stolen pictures of coins from legitimate auctions.

And you're right, it does look quite lucrative. We are probably just scratching the surface here.

I emailed ebay with the details as I posted above (i.e. all the usernames, plus an exhortation to check out all the users that are interlinked).

I will be curious to see whether they take any action.

I once complained to eBay about an auction that was clearly fraudulent. It appeared,
for whatever reason, that the message did not go through so it was re-sent the next
day.

The first message did go through and I was informed by eBay that I did not know what I was
talking about and nothing would be done.

The second message was also answered, by a different person. The second reply said
that the fraud was obvious and steps would be taken. The seller was taken off eBay within
a matter of hours.

One hopes that you reach someone like the second person noted above.

RWJ