Idiot pays £450 for a photo of an Xbox on Ebay.

Flyonthewall

sham63 wrote: »

Bit shocked that so many of you think that this kind of scam is fair game and it's the buyers fault for falling for it, however stupid or foolish you think they are.


This is a scam, regardless of the listing category etc.


It would be a sad day if we all had to scour Ebay listings just in case its a 'cheeky' (read con-artist) seller trying to pull a fast one.
It's not clever or 'fair game' - its just dishonest.


This does nothing for EBay's reputation as a safe place to buy goods.

Nobody has said it's fair game. The seller isn't right for listing it as they did. It was the buyers fault though. It said photo, he said he wasn't sure but went for it anyway. How is that not his fault? Nobody made him go for it, he decided to risk his own savings on a listing that he knew said photo.

He bid on a photo, he got a photo.

richie799

You have to be careful on eBay, there are lots of tricksters but that is an old scam and people don't actually get away with that because of buyer protection on Paypal etc... they always get caught.

Its the other tricks where a seller gets his friend to bid on an item each time a genuine bidder bids to raise the ending price which has you paying more

shegirl

Flyonthewall wrote: »

Couldn't agree more! It said photo, he was unsure, why risk all his savings? Plus the article mentions a little kid for sympathy. The kid probably doesn't even care about having an xbox one.

I was going to post exactly the same yesterday when I read the story but my window got closed that I was typing in and I couldn't be bothered to retype it lol.

Aww,come on.4 year olds all over the world are holding out for an Xbox one for Christmas...not for the fathers at all

martindow

The buyer was naive and didn't read the listing but the seller was out to deceive and has quite rightly been punished by Ebay. I'm surprised that anybody is, by implication, defending the seller by suggesting that this is buyer's fault. The seller was trying to defraud people and Ebay is a better place without him.

spacey2012

I agree with many, you list something in Games Consoles for sale, the buyer expects you are selling a games console.
If the seller is that daft they have made a mistake listing in the wrong category then the seller has made the mistake, but to deliberately list a misleading advert in the wrong category is to attempt to defraud and the seller should be dealt with by the police.
We have laws for a reason, to prevent people using "small print" and misleading people to get rich.
It is called Fraud by false representation.

Flyonthewall

martindow wrote: »

The buyer was naive and didn't read the listing but the seller was out to deceive and has quite rightly been punished by Ebay. I'm surprised that anybody is, by implication, defending the seller by suggesting that this is buyer's fault. The seller was trying to defraud people and Ebay is a better place without him.

He did read it, that's why he's an idiot. He read it was a photo and he bid anyway.

We're not defending the seller but it is the buyers fault. The seller stated photo and nobody forced the buyer to pay hundreds of pounds for it.

VictorCharlie

His local CeX has taken pity on him and gave him a free Xbox One.

Basically rewarding stupidity.

RFW

Flyonthewall wrote: »

He did read it, that's why he's an idiot. He read it was a photo and he bid anyway.

We're not defending the seller but it is the buyers fault. The seller stated photo and nobody forced the buyer to pay hundreds of pounds for it.

Fraud and con tricks rely on the stupidity and greed of individuals. There's a scale of course and perhaps this chap is at the wrong end, it doesn't mean they deserve to lose money on a con.

Idiots need protecting more than most. Sometimes the 'idiots' may be the elderly or disabled or whatever. This con is reprehensible with the pretense that it is somehow within the law. It isn't.

The full force of the law should come down on the scumbags who do this kind of thing. They should even get Microsoft to sue them for breach of copyright, I'm guessing they don't even have permission to sell the picture.

Flyonthewall

RFW wrote: »

Fraud and con tricks rely on the stupidity and greed of individuals. There's a scale of course and perhaps this chap is at the wrong end, it doesn't mean they deserve to lose money on a con.

Idiots need protecting more than most. Sometimes the 'idiots' may be the elderly or disabled or whatever. This con is reprehensible with the pretense that it is somehow within the law. It isn't.

The full force of the law should come down on the scumbags who do this kind of thing. They should even get Microsoft to sue them for breach of copyright, I'm guessing they don't even have permission to sell the picture.

Indeed.

If the listing hadn't said photo and he hadn't read that and still bid in hope then I'd feel sorry for him, but that's not the case.

I never said he deserved to lose the money, I just don't think he has the right to complain (and get a free console). As wrong as the seller is, the buyer should have known better than to bid because he knew what he was bidding on - a photo - and he decided to believe otherwise for some stupid reason.

He's not elderly or disabled though, opinions would be different if that were the case.

There's a difference between protecting those that make genuine mistakes and those that know better and are still idiots anyway.

Yes the whole thing was a con, mistakes happen, the seller shouldn't get away with it etc. Yes with a lot of these stories you do feel sorry for the buyer. Yes if it had been someone elderly or disabled or whatever who didn't know any better it would have been different. But it wasn't. It was a guy who did read the listing properly, he knew it was a photo and he bid anyway.

Principia_2

RFW wrote: »

Fraud and con tricks rely on the stupidity and greed of individuals.

And the time poor who are in a hurry and don't read things properly. Of course that is a form of stupidity but I know it's one I suffer from periodically

For me it's all about the intent of the seller. If the listing was set up with the intention to deceive with ambiguous wording in the title (and it seems hard to believe that someone would genuinely believe that a photo could be worth £450) then it is the seller's fault as he set up the circumstances to entrap his victim.

It doesn't really matter if the victim is below average intelligence, lazy or can't resist a bargain, he is only a victim because someone else set out to entrap him. No conman, no victim.