New F3 sold on Ebay

Hi All,

First post here.

I am/was the winner of this F3! I knew something was wrong by looking at the stock photos & specs as well as many other signs as indicted by other posters here. However, I did bid on this and won the item with the mind set that I have nothing to lose until I have to pay. First, I made sure it was covered by ebay buyer protection then contacted the seller asking her detailed questions about what will be actually included and how the camera would be shipped. The communication was very slow and the seller would not answer most of my questions. I refused to make the payment until I felt comfortable with the transaction. But the seller constantly tried to avoid using ebay and paypal for payment. Here are a few things that was requested by him/her:

- Offered a 7% discount if I would do a bank to bank transfer of money - no chance I would do that!
- Would not identify herself and would not accept phone calls.
- Claimed his/her paypal account was locked and wanted a bank transfer or western union - heck no!
- Offered to send an invoice using another paypal account (called it his businiess account) - what a joke!

I finally had enough and called ebay to report the seller and shared with them all my communications. I subsequently contacted the seller and asked them to cancel the transaction (which they did.)

Unfortunately, there seems to be a lot of scams on some large ticket items on ebay these days and you have to be extra careful. I'm happy to say I found another F3 (although used with less than 100 hrs) and bought it! But I was on the phone with the seller a number of times and knew he was a legitimate owner of the camera and a DP in LA (ended up being an excellent guy to deal with.)

Thankfully, the scam got shut down this time without a victim; I thought everyone curious enough here would like to know what happened with this "too good to be true" deal.
 
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eBay only cares when a copyright holder reports counterfeit goods. I confess to a rather sartorial phase before a recent massive weight gain. For the business side of my life (certainly not shooting) I wore Zegna suits / sportcoats and there were constant Zegna knock offs. I contacted Zegna when I saw a knock off, they contacted eBay and the listing would be gone within hours. And I would often get a $150 Zegna tie as bounty! Beyond that, it's a dangerous world out there.

BTW, I did report Wendybeans latest $2500 F3K (F3L) as it is advertised.

Ned
 
Steve R said:
Well ntoussi - I hate to tell you this, but the F3 was relisted, and it looks like eBay didn't do anything with the info you gave them... :(

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Sony-PMW-F3K-PMF-F3L-Camera-/121018069273
Click to expand...

Thanks for keeping an eye on this Steve! I hoped that she would be discouraged after reporting her to ebay- but there are no ends to evil intents! As you can see, she has changed her accepted payment method and does not entertain local pickup.

Nick
 
nsoltz said:
eBay only cares when a copyright holder reports counterfeit goods. I confess to a rather sartorial phase before a recent massive weight gain. For the business side of my life (certainly not shooting) I wore Zegna suits / sportcoats and there were constant Zegna knock offs. I contacted Zegna when I saw a knock off, they contacted eBay and the listing would be gone within hours. And I would often get a $150 Zegna tie as bounty! Beyond that, it's a dangerous world out there.

BTW, I did report Wendybeans latest $2500 F3K (F3L) as it is advertised.

Ned
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Hi Ned,

Thank you for the info and reporting Wendybeans' latest attempt. I will do the same and report her again.

Nick
 
Nick

Since you were nearly scammed by WendyBeans, what you need to do is keep digging through eBay contacts until you can find someone to whom to present the facts. That will ensure that the auction is taken down.

Ned
 
Thanks Ned, that's good advice. I have already reported the auction as suspected fraudulent listing, but it may not go far enough in ebay. I will try to put in more time into this and see if I can have them take this down.

You would think ebay could at least have an automated fraud flag system that would prompt someone to review a previously reported seller/item. I know they must be dealing with thousands of claims and reports on daily bases but this is the business they are in and they should do everything to keep the place as secure as possible. Maybe its just wishful thinking.

I will update here if I come up with anything on this and hope that others reading these postings also report the auction.

Nick
 
ntoussi said:
Thanks for keeping an eye on this Steve! I hoped that she would be discouraged after reporting her to ebay- but there are no ends to evil intents! As you can see, she has changed her accepted payment method and does not entertain local pickup.

Nick
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there may be no ends to evil intents, but there're definitely no ends to sloth and idiocy. not that i condone scamming, but really, "wendybeans" if you want to make some bucks, at least make an effort.

Here's another unreasonably lazy scammer:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Canon-Cinema-EOS-C300-/190752647438
 
For what it's worth, I reported as well, I'm an avid eBayer and I hate these kind of douche bags.
 
From the C300 listing, at least 1 of the photos really looks a bit Photoshopped. If not than it looks really weird how a couple of people are bend down like that.
http://i.ebayimg.com/t/Canon-Cinema-EOS-C300-/00/s/NjgwWDEwMjA=/$%28KGrHqZ,!i4FBYzSew%29HBQn%28vPuucg~~60_57.JPG
 
Camera Expert said:
From the C300 listing, at least 1 of the photos really looks a bit Photoshopped. If not than it looks really weird how a couple of people are bend down like that. http://i.ebayimg.com/t/Canon-Cinema-EOS-C300-/00/s/NjgwWDEwMjA=/$%28KGrHqZ,!i4FBYzSew%29HBQn%28vPuucg~~60_57.JPG
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First photo has watermark of "the verge" and all others taken from same webpage I believe. Stupid scamming stupid
 
aly324 said:
there may be no ends to evil intents, but there're definitely no ends to sloth and idiocy. not that i condone scamming, but really, "wendybeans" if you want to make some bucks, at least make an effort.

Here's another unreasonably lazy scammer:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Canon-Cinema-EOS-C300-/190752647438
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Yes, very true! Some of these people are so lazy (or think everyone else is not as smart as them) that won't even put enough effort in their scam to make it look somewhat real.

I'm still trying to get her auction taken off.

Meanwhile, here is another one trying to push an Alexa:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/arri-alexa-...rofessional_Video_Cameras&hash=item35c171d596

Nick
 
The Alexa auction seems legit. eBay would only take down the F3 auction if the seller had listed multiple high-ticket items at low prices. That is the trigger. In this case, eBay simply won't bother.

Ned
 
Camera Expert said:
What are the clues that makes the Arri Alexa posting seam like a scam?
Click to expand...

A number of clues:

- An expensive camera listed as NEW with a starting bid of $1000 & no reserve. Kind of crazy for an $80K+ camera.
- Seller has zero feedback.
- The description, although a bit personalized, doesn't list why would someone buy an Alexa, doesn't even use it (listed as New) and go out an get an Epic.
- Only accepts wire transfer (and I'll bet the winner of auction will be asked to transfer the funds directly to his account & not through ebay or PayPal.)
- There is no S/N listed or offer to help with transfer of ownership after the sale.

The pictures look legitimate but it looks like a set of images from an un-boxing of an Alexa that may have been posted somewhere.

Beside that I emailed the seller with some questions. For a single listing of a high value item, the communication was slow. I asked what he would accept as a minimum and if he would allow local inspection of the camera. He just returned with a $30K number and nothing else. I would jump at the opportunity and give the guy cash for a new Arri Alexa at $30K! But sadly the auction was already over $32K and he was not really paying attention (or something else was distracting him.) After I emailed him again with an offer, he just responded with: "If you have the funds available, I will send you my bank account information." WHAT?? Just ignored everything else I asked the guy.

Sorry to be so long winded, but as an active buyer of film & video equipment on ebay, I am just getting tired of these scams when I have to second guess every listing.

Nick
 
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