I LOVE/HATE EBAY. AM I REALLY AN A$$HOLE, ANY THOUGHTS

[CHASWINGMAN2]

Well, I've always enjoyed buying/selling on ebay, met a lot of nice folks and every once in a while find a good deal.  But I'm at my wits end with one particular idiot.
    I put my A4 Silver 69 on ebay and wrote a long winded auction.  I give a lot of details and am very honest with my descriptions, I do that avoid the dumn emails and phone calls.  Apparently one ebay member found my auction offensive, sent me a very nasty message called me an a$$hole and such.  So I responded and posted it on my auction.

  The next message I got was from someone that stated they would buy my car and asked me confirm if the specs were the same as another car.  In the message they provided a link, so I copied it and pasted it on my browser, it sends me right to an ebay sign in page.  I smelled a rat so I backed out and used the auction number provide in the link and was to something unrelated to a car.  I gues this is the latest scam to hijack ebay auctions.  What a trip.

[rt green]

i really dont like answering questions on ebay. i know sometimes you have to. sounds like you put plenty of info in the auction, although i havent seen it, i think that should be enough for the person. if they like it and want it then they should buy it. i wish there was some way scammers could really pay for screwing around with other peoples autions. cops or something. 

[Big Sugar]

It's sad that Ebay still hasn't figured  out how to run a safe auction. Personally I wouldn't try to sell thru E-bay I would prefer Hemmings or AutoTrader. At least then I could decide who a serious buyer and who wasn't.




Ron

[mikepmcs]

Man, some people huh.  I just spent the last few minutes reading your description again as I am tracking it, i can't buy it but just like to track some auctions, specially people on the DC site.

I for one think your description is perfect!  That takes a long time to sit there and write all that stuff out in such detail. Don't let some mean person get you down.  I'm actually very surprised your car hasn't gone a lot higher than it has.  I have some items on ebay as well, and my listings suck compared to yours.

Once again, great listing and you could teach a class on how to advertise a car properly, cause you did it right.
Good luck on the sale.

v/r
Mike

PS, that other guy that questioned you is definitely a scam, don't ever fall for that cause that is exactly what they're after is your password and id, so they can scam other people and get your account locked up.  That's the sad thing about ebay for sure, is their security.

[Shakey]

I hope all goes well.

Personally, I cringe when I read posts on this site where members here feel the need to e-mail someone that is selling something on e-bay to do nothing but criticize.  They are the true a$$holes!

I didn't check out your auction but when I get the chance I will.

What did he find offensive or will I read that once I check you auction?

[69_500]

I don't love or hate it. i tollerate it. I haven't sold too much on there ever, but I have bought a few things. I am now trying to sell some of my diecast cars on there, but unsure on what to put for an asking price.

[CHASWINGMAN2]

I hope all goes well.

Personally, I cringe when I read posts on this site where members here feel the need to e-mail someone that is selling something on e-bay to do nothing but criticize.  They are the true a$$holes!

I didn't check out your auction but when I get the chance I will.

What did he find offensive or will I read that once I check you auction?

I think he took offense to the fact that I started my auction with instructions for people to actually read the text.  But after reading his question, he seems a little challenged with reading/writing, so I guess I understand his frustration.

  He also took offense to where I commented about Not making this car into a General Lee.  I would like to see the car preserved to some degree. 

  I get lots of messages on the car with people making nice comments or just want to tell me about their car, which is cool and what being a mopar nut is all about.  But some people are just idiots.  My opinion of course.

[CHASWINGMAN2]

It's sad that Ebay still hasn't figured  out how to run a safe auction. Personally I wouldn't try to sell thru E-bay I would prefer Hemmings or AutoTrader. At least then I could decide who a serious buyer and who wasn't.




Ron

Ron.
I do like selling through ebay, mainly because you get maximum exposure for minimal cost.  Of course that brings out some idiots as well.  You are right, ebay could easily make a program that would catch the scammers or at least stop them, as the IP addresses for ebay sellers are unique to themselves and a program could detect a major change and initiate a red-flag, leading to a human doing some investigating.  I guess they either don't have time or just don't care.  It's a Love/hate thing with me.  Years ago I advertised in hemmings and did ok, however never did will with auto trader.  I buy/sell to support my hobby so I don't have to use family funds for my toys.  Some folks don't like that, but I don't see what the problem is.
Todd.

[Charger_Fan]

But some people are just idiots. 

It's true. You can't help that, or plan ahead for it.
I wouldn't let him get under your skin.

[TruckDriver]

Jusy buy and sell over at Moparts. Some of the prices are just as bad as Ebay

[69_500]

Hey Todd, what if I buy it to make it into a Daytona clone ? Is that acceptable? Just kidding.

[Doright]

I do Ebay Buy and sell You cant be to cautous with your password

Never trust emails claiming they are from ebay messages always log into your own acount then check your messages from their and respond there.

Scamers are the pits, Some pepole on there just cant read and refuse too as well.

If they really want the Car they will come and look or flat bid and buy and pay the bill and ship it sight unseen.

Good luck   

[xs29j8Bullitt]

I have not been active on eBay for several years now, but I am planning to start again soon... I don't like the grief and scammers that involves today, but need to get some things done!

XS

[65post]

I have not had too much trouble buying but I have had trouble selling.0 feed back non paying buyers and so on. Ends up costing me money.Until and if they can get rid of all the crap on there I am going to sell else where.

[CHASWINGMAN2]

Hey Todd, what if I buy it to make it into a Daytona clone ? Is that acceptable? Just kidding.

Ok, well that's a toughie, A sliver daytona with air, 318 with hwy gears, you might have a good idea there.  May not even run hot.  Lets do it.

[Troy]

I have to make a point regarding spammers and scammers. It is NOT as easy to identify and block this stuff as some people would like to believe. Even with a massive budget, eBay (and any other online entity) will have difficulty with the problem. The scammers have the advantage as it takes a long time to change/modify/upgrade the code on the part of the web site which allows hackers and scammers time to find loopholes. There are many thousands of people coming up with new ways to abuse the system and they often can work faster than the guys trying to stop them. The idea that internet security is just something that is overlooked by most companies is a fallacy. Along with that, there is no "magic button" that will immmediately make the software or application immune to the bad guys forever and ever.

Take the spam on this site for example. For every single one that gets through there are 40-50 that I manage to block. There are over 200 attempts every day and - even though I've spent countless hours tracking and identifying them - a few still manage to foil the system. The big problem here are normal people who haven't the slightest clue about security. Their computers get infected by a virus or trojan that allows the spammers/attackers to use their computer as a relay. These are the same people with weak passwords or the ones who willingly give out their eBay information so that account can be hijacked as well. There are *millions* of hijacked PCs so the bad guys have an almost endless supply of points to attack from. You cannot just randomly block IP addresses because those IPs may be dynamically assigned and are used by normal people who may legitimately be trying to get to the web site. If a site becomes inaccessible the complaints add up fast even though the root cause may be the person complaining.

Computers are very good at recognizing patterns so the bad guys have gotten pretty good at making sure their patterns are well masked and always changing slightly. It's easier to write the program to change at random than it is to predict a random change in an attack.

The other thing to realize is that no one would go through these great lengths to cover their tracks, write thousands of lines of code, or annoy everyone on the planet if there wasn't some benefit. Someone, even one out of a thousand will fall for it and the bad guys will make a profit. If you scale that up to millions of scams then it's a pretty good living for some. If people weren't so gullible or paid more attention (or refused to click on unknown links) then there wouldn't be piles of money for the scammers and they wouldn't make enough money to justify the effort. It's easy to blame eBay for the rampant scams but if they started locking hijacked accounts and blocking hijacked computers they'd be sued and bad mouthed by half the planet - for doing exactly what people want them to do!

As for the people who just feel the need to be jerks... well, I hope everyone knows how I feel about that. Unfortunately, eBay hasn't found the cure for stupid people or they'd be out of the auction business altogether.

Troy

[CHASWINGMAN2]

I have to make a point regarding spammers and scammers. It is NOT as easy to identify and block this stuff as some people would like to believe. Even with a massive budget, eBay (and any other online entity) will have difficulty with the problem. The scammers have the advantage as it takes a long time to change/modify/upgrade the code on the part of the web site which allows hackers and scammers time to find loopholes. There are many thousands of people coming up with new ways to abuse the system and they often can work faster than the guys trying to stop them. The idea that internet security is just something that is overlooked by most companies is a fallacy. Along with that, there is no "magic button" that will immmediately make the software or application immune to the bad guys forever and ever.

Take the spam on this site for example. For every single one that gets through there are 40-50 that I manage to block. There are over 200 attempts every day and - even though I've spent countless hours tracking and identifying them - a few still manage to foil the system. The big problem here are normal people who haven't the slightest clue about security. Their computers get infected by a virus or trojan that allows the spammers/attackers to use their computer as a relay. These are the same people with weak passwords or the ones who willingly give out their eBay information so that account can be hijacked as well. There are *millions* of hijacked PCs so the bad guys have an almost endless supply of points to attack from. You cannot just randomly block IP addresses because those IPs may be dynamically assigned and are used by normal people who may legitimately be trying to get to the web site. If a site becomes inaccessible the complaints add up fast even though the root cause may be the person complaining.

Computers are very good at recognizing patterns so the bad guys have gotten pretty good at making sure their patterns are well masked and always changing slightly. It's easier to write the program to change at random than it is to predict a random change in an attack.

The other thing to realize is that no one would go through these great lengths to cover their tracks, write thousands of lines of code, or annoy everyone on the planet if there wasn't some benefit. Someone, even one out of a thousand will fall for it and the bad guys will make a profit. If you scale that up to millions of scams then it's a pretty good living for some. If people weren't so gullible or paid more attention (or refused to click on unknown links) then there wouldn't be piles of money for the scammers and they wouldn't make enough money to justify the effort. It's easy to blame eBay for the rampant scams but if they started locking hijacked accounts and blocking hijacked computers they'd be sued and bad mouthed by half the planet - for doing exactly what people want them to do!

As for the people who just feel the need to be jerks... well, I hope everyone knows how I feel about that. Unfortunately, eBay hasn't found the cure for stupid people or they'd be out of the auction business altogether.

Troy

Wow, I never knew it was that big, or difficult to deal with.  Thanks for the input, puts things in a different perspective.
Thanks Troy.

[Ghoste]

I don't want to drag this off topic, but what would you consider a weak password?

[bull]

Take a break from it. That's what I have to do once in a while. People there will make you crazy.

[evil1]

"The big problem here are normal people who haven't the slightest clue about security. Their computers get infected by a virus or trojan that allows the spammers/attackers to use their computer as a relay." Troy

My isp recently suspended my internet account because of spam complaints, i didn't  even know i had a problem, my computer was running alittle slow but that was it. so i've actually broke down bought some software 

[Old Moparz]

I just wanted to add a comment on asking questions for an ebay sale item. No matter how good, or how detailed the description is, I still ask the seller several questions. The reason for that is to see the type of response I get. I will use that to help judge whether the seller is legit, or that his description is sincere. That might be a PITA to the seller, but if it's an expensive item such as a car, you have to face the fact that it's part of what happens when dealing with the public & trying to get their money.

For every legit buyer that's well informed, there will be others that aren't. I never had any serious problems with sellers & the few small ones I did have were resolved to my satisfaction, but I have also sold a few things & had more problems with dead beat bidders than anything else. At least I wasn't scammed out of anything other than my time to re-list an item. On the same level though, I've had the dumbest of questions come from the dumbest of people when calling on a local newspaper ad I placed.

Two of the most memorable morons were, someone who answered my ad for a project that I had in the paper saying "Not running & must be towed" but they asked if they could test drive it & upset that they couldn't. The other one was someone who showed up when I wasn't home. They looked over a rotted Duster on jack stands that was parked next to the car I was selling, a rust free Dart Sport, & told my wife my ad was misleading & that the car was loaded with rust & I was a liar that wasted their time.

Oh, & by the way, thank for the post on tracking scammers Troy, it is a bit more complicated than I had expected. (But I still hate ebay's policy & attitude on resolving disputes.)

[Charger1973]

I agree.  If I am unsure about something I will talk to the seller.  If they dont respond or come back with a rude or dodgy reply I will buy from someone else.  I like that part of the system.

[Arigmaster]

I just posted mine last weekend but I am concerned about one of the bidders... Shows they have been a E-bay member since 2003 and not a single bit of feedback or activity as a buyer or seller. Hell, they even out bid themselves once. Shows Denmark for a buyers location.

I'm not trying to hose anyone with my auction but how do you know if someone else is perhaps trying to mess it up with fake bids?

I don't tell anyone my reserve and have just replied that they should just bid what the car is worth to them and see where it ends up. No one has sent anything abusive yet.... I wish I could provide some of these people more pic's but my camera is out of wack and I borrowed one just to add the interior shots. They turned out crappy (dark warehouse and the car is boxed in with 2 boats and a old fire engine)

[chargerboy69]

I don't want to drag this off topic, but what would you consider a weak password?

Type yours out, and we will let you know.

[DodgeChargerNeeded]

Ebay is a double edge sword, Can't live with it can't live without it. Also I swear some of the stupiest questions come in. It really gets me when you clearly explain everything in the ad including shipping charges and they email and ask how much shipping is. Have a set of wheels for sale on there right now. Had someone email me and ask how much I bought them for like that even matters. I mean they are at $150 right now not $1000. Even if they were at $1000 none of there business if I got them for free. No offense to anyone on here that plays on Ebay but there are some truly dumb people on there. But if you have something to sell its a great place to get pretty good money if you can get the high bidder to pay for it.

[Ghoste]

I don't want to drag this off topic, but what would you consider a weak password?

Type yours out, and we will let you know.

Should I?   

[xs29j8Bullitt]

I don't want to drag this off topic, but what would you consider a weak password?

A weak password word would be a name or normal word... like BILL, RACER, MAGNUM, etc

Try... B4I2L6L, IMARCR, MAAGNM... better yet, if you can remember it, alphabet soup... R2zW45AqZ

XS

[Troy]

I don't want to drag this off topic, but what would you consider a weak password?

Logical sequences, common words, "password", blank, all letters, all numbers, the same as the user name, birthdays or any other date, etc.

Here's some tips:
http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/privacy/password.mspx
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Password_strength

Troy

[Troy]

On the subject of spammers/scammers and IP addresses, I had one today that changed IP addresses four times within a few minutes and two of the addresses were not even real (globally reserved address space). I gotta figure out how they did that! One was a Comcast address which would have been an infected computer and the last was an email server. Any way, in my attempt to catch it I accidently banned a whole bunch of real members from the site (even for only a few minutes). This was *one* spammer and wasted 30 minutes of my time and caused all sorts of headaches. Imagine eBay with millions of legitimate users per day and the target of a lot more people trying to cause them problems. While I was researching the attck I ran across some guys trying to investigate a mysterious program on their server that continously hit the eBay "search" page with the same query. I imagine that when it got a "hit" it would notify a central program with all of the details so another automated program could do whatever annoying thing that it does.

Troy

[xs29j8Bullitt]

I am a Mod on one of the "new" Challenger forums which receives very few visitors compared to this site.  Still, there has been a very noticeable increase in Spammer attacks lately.  I average about 3 spammer bannings a day, even after new anti-spammer measures were recently put into effect.  The Admin & other Mod make "kills" as well...

So far I haven't seen the auto-posting of generic first posts like I have seen here, but I am sure I will eventually.  One of the measures taken was to restrict URL postings until 5 posts had been made by the new member...   within a week a spammer got around the restriction somehow!  I believe the site Admin is still trying to figure out how he did it.

Good Luck in the Spammer Wars!

Allen

[is_it_EVER_done?]

TROY: I couldn't agree more with your input, but the one thing you are overlooking/not addressing, is that E-bay does not address the majority of the complaints that are contained in this post due to the fact that to do so, would introduce a level of legal implication that they have been able to avoid by claiming that they are only an "item listing" venue with no obligation as to content.

If this was indeed the case, all the spam, hassles, etc., would be just a fact of doing business, but the reality is that they CAN, AND DO, block every listing - e-mail - message - question - item - etc. that is not politically correct, illegal, or crosses over whatever line they "draw in the sand".

EVERY listing is examined for content in order to eliminate Nazi/racist items/descriptions, guns, alcohol, drugs, tobacco, even refrigerant. Plus thousands of other P.C., or illegal items, questions, or descriptions.

This proves that they are playing "both sides of the fence" by being able to claim that they can not police everything, and so can't be responsible for the site, while actually "policing" everything even beyond legal requirements, as evidenced by there ability to check every word that they display, and eliminating those they don't like!

I'm sure it's difficult to police everything, but they prove it can - and is - done on a continuous basis,.

[Troy]

You'll catch the automated ones like that - the "human" ones will find a way around it. The spammers rank sites based on traffic. Higher traffic means it's more likely their links will be indexed by the search engines. I didn't want to negatively affect any real users by adding a bunch of rules so I made more work for myself. There's one trick I've been saving but my internet access at home is spotty and I want to be sure I can disable it in case I screw up...

Troy