hi..does this look too good to be true?
 

hey i was browsing through ebay looking through the cameras and came upon this auction for the dvx-100 for 1500 dollars..he has 2 of them and its a buy-it-now for 1500....i fell out of my seat when i saw this and i am deciding whether i should jump on it or not..he is also selling brand new gl2's for 1400....i dont know what to do..i dont know if its a scam or not..but i dont wanna let this extremely great deal slip by me....what do u think? http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2964290194&category=20332

That is a FRAUD/SCAM no doubt in my mind.

WAY to good to be true when buying on eBay stay away from this:

PRE-Approved auctions - BIGGEST NO NO Around

Western Union Money Orders Only - 2nd Biggest NO NO
Stay away from sellers that accept only money orders and checks

Stay away from copied descriptions from the maufacturer's page with no infomation about why they are selling the camera, etc. If its copied with nothing else, thats a bad sign.

Look at other auctions - If there are multiple items that are of very high dollar value all EXTREMELY underpriced, STAY AWAY from that seller, they have gotten hold of somebody's account and are trying to sell as much as possible in as short of a period as possible before eBay or the actual owner of that account finds out. There are seller's who sell cameras and stuff like this all the time so make sure you're not ruling out one of those.

My reccomendation is buy from a seller with a reputation of selling equipment like this on eBay. Look at their feedback and check it for other auctions of this kind. Usually the above signs are all combined so its easy to weed out the frauds.

You don't need any of us DVX experts to tell you either way. As a consumer, you surely can just do a search on other DVXs for sale on Ebay and make the judgement yourself.

Hey Ben
If you look at the top of the business forum threads, you will find one called HOW NOT TO GET SCAMMED WHEN BUYING FROM ONLINE AUCTION SITES

For your own sake, go read it. It'll save you $1500.

Anything on Ebay that looks too good to be true is a scam. Why would anyone sell a product for half of the going value? If I wanted to sell my GL2 on ebay, there's no way I'd take $1000 for it when I know full well I can get $1800+.

Read the forementioned article about ebay scams also. Very good tips.

If you still want to buy the item, email me and I'll send you my address. You can make the check out to me personally for $1500, and I'll even throw in some beach front property I own in Utah. ;-)

Ben,

I saw a couple of those Ebay auctions myself, and in fact clicked on Buy It Now for a DVX that was being sold for a too-good-to-be-true prce. Funny how the email I got from the seller had English syntax that was almost impossible to understand. It was a scam, but fortunately I insisted that we use an escrow account. When he refused, I did not go forward. Lo and behold, the list was taken off Ebay the next day.

A couple more tips about these scammers, aside from them being unable to write in English, is that they want payment by Western Union Wire or direct bank transfer. They'll give you some excuse like their supplier demands it for quicker shipment. Don't believe it.

When in doubt, contact the seller and get a commitment to use an escrow service that you'll pay for, and use a credit card. If they are unwilling, you know it's a scam.

Also, the seller from whom I tried to buy a DVX 100 for way-too-cheap had great feedback. I don't know how the scam artist did it, but I suspect he highjacked the someone else's account. I don't think it was the same person, which greatly concerns me know for bidding on Ebay.

Good Luck

One way to check if an account has been hijacked is to look at the auctions that generated the prior good feedback. If all the earlier sales are for collector dolls or automotive tools and suddenly the seller is dealing in cameras, it's a good bet its a hijacked account.