Something looks weird about this auctions?

just got an email from user :carolap53

on the same scam, different TV, though.

I sent the following to Fred Vanover and he's not replied:

OK, sounds good to me. There's just one catch-- I know a guy in Spain that owes me money, so I'll just send the money order to him for the difference between what he owes me, and the price for the TV, and you can just collect the debt for me. That would be safe for both of us. He's a real honest guy, I think you'll like him.

I notice the auction has been removed from Ebay, probably some computer glitch- so would you just accept $3500 for the smaller plasma TV- the Panasonic 42"? Bruno owes me $2000 so I'd just send a moneyorder to him for$1500, and you could meet with him to get that money + the $2000 from Bruno. Bring the TV. Bruno has to put something else in the box for me and then he'll ship it all to me directly.

Perfectly safe. What do you think?

They're still at it-- plasma TV ads right now on that huge auction service, claiming to be in Oregon-- username fmv503 shows almost 200 + feedbacks (although some call him by a different name than his email below uses)

Just after I got an email reply from him, all his ads disappeared from the server and he's shown as "not a registered user". The email was in reply to a request to register to bid on an item, and he doesn't even care about that, just wants me to send him a money order...


From: Fred Vanover

To :
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Subject :
Re: Answer from eBay Member

Date :
Thu, 10 Jul 2003 01:09:19 +0200 (CEST)


HI ,
Thanks for your email.
The product is brand new,completly working and very performant ,in
unopened box,comes up with all accessories and the unit has international transferable warranty from the manufacturer.I will send you in the package an original invoice with all the papers (warranty,insurance...) .

I am right now in Spain with this kind of deal and I prefere to receive the money via Western Union wire transfer ,because its fast and trouble free and as a shipping carrier i will use UPS express services because I have worked with them in the past and they were very fast and secure.Now,I understand u need protection for yourself and I need protection for myself so please take a good look at the situation:

My feedback rating speaks for itself. I am a completely trustworthy
person. I take online transactions extremely seriously.I am a man of my
word and I will promise to do this deal safe. I will allow you to send
this to a third party name via WU. I am not trying to be difficult, I am
trying to run this deal legitimately and smoothly.I know that it is a
large sum of money to just be sending blindly.

You do sound and honest and a genuine person and i'm like you in that and I want everything to be 100% fine.
Tell you what, you'll put the money in another name(your best friend
name for example), but with my location(Spain) to know when the money have arrived to my country.This way I'll be able to track the transaction
and check that the amount has been deposited accordingly.

Upon receiving the package with the product in it, you will check it
the same day and e-mail me back confirming it is all ok and that you have changed the name on the transaction itself to mine. This will enable me to pickup the money and i hope we can continue to do business on a regular occurence which is very swift, hassle free and beneficial to the
both of us.Let me know asap what you think.

Kindest Regards.

So, looks like they're using fraudulent Ebay accounts to troll and then trying to hook people via email. Do they actually get people with this schtick?