I honestly would never buy a big-ticket item like a camera on Ebay. Great for accessories but too risky for cameras. One characteristic to watch for with scammers (other than the obvious things like rediculously low prices) is that they mostly avoid any and all questions you pose to them about the item. They'll reply to your email, but they either won't make any attempt to answer you, or they'll make some off-the-wall attempt to play off the fact that they have no knowledge about the product, where it came from, who their supplier is, etc.

All they want is that Western Union transfer, droning on and on about how honest they are and how you have nothing to worry about. They keep hammering away at you about that, with extensive directions on how to do it. They say to tell Western Union you're sending money to a friend so they wouldn't get suspicious.

And they seem to all be in Romania. Kind of like how most the Nigerian scams were from Amsterdam.

when we were looking to get a pro canon camcorder we were looking at Xl2. i saw one on amazon for £680 . 680 Quid in the uk they start from £2,500. they wanted us to send a qeck to romaina via weston union. we phone up amazon and they banned him from using it. there has been alot of stuff on the news in the last 6 months about people who sell on ebay and amozan selling fake Pro Camcorders to support a terrorist group. If you bort one from them u are probably supporting a terroist network.

the how not to get scammed sticky is on the taking care of business section. I applaud chris for the online classifieds and I usually check there first but if I want a used item and it's not on dvinfo, chances are I'll be on ebay.

I knew it was somewhere... ;-)

"In 3 days you will have the package at your door (Sunday UPS is closed here and I cannot use it). Please do not bid on my item. If you want a fast and secure deal just let me know and I will set up a private deal."




LMAO...if this is not a red flag, I don't know what it!

I've bought a few bits of kit on e-Bay including a camera and minicam kit. My basic rule is to meet up with the seller for any item over GBP 200 or so. That way I can check the gear out before I buy. I guess being in the UK, the distances are smaller than the US!! There are some good bargains out there but also many scams.
I have a page on my website which I direct people to if I suspect a scam - it allows me to check IP address and usually locate roughly where they're located. One who purported to be in Spain traced back to an Internet cafe in Romania!!!
Perhaps I should get out more!!