Fraudulent offers of Apple Macbooks on eBay

On a seemingly valid auction for an apple macbook pro on eBay with 100% good reports in 140 auctions, there was a statement in the body of the advert that the poster had many more units of various configurations even though only one was offered on the auction, and a direct email given for further information on other auction items and questions [url]Victoria Turner <[email protected]>[/url] purportedly of 101 Shellharbour Road Port Kembla NSW 2505 Australia

On emailing I was advised by return that evening that the units were the same as detailed in the Specification part of the advert and if interested to send my name and address and eBay would invoice direct.

The invoice was in the form of an email purportedly From - [url][email protected][/url] and looked very professional and directed payment be made via Western Union thru an eBay payment protection agent (essentially a escrow) by the name of Stephen Convery 36 Uxendon Hill London SW1A 2AA United Kingdom.

As i said the email was quite convincing - EXCEPT that

A test email directly to [url][email protected][/url] is bounced with "Undeliverable - reason - Unknown Domain" by the mail server, and an NSLOOKUP [url]orderbuyerprotection.com[/url] returns "non-existent domain" further proof that the email is trying to hide its real perpetrators.

The Return address in the expanded headers from the mail server indicated it was NOT the From address but to [url]helengpa@gmail[/url] presumably in order to catch any attempt by the prospective buyer to ask "[url][email protected][/url]" for validation, which of course they would get but from helengpa@gmail in another bogus email.

Investigation shows eBay dont seem to have a buyer protection scheme or use payment agents

Google did not show any results for this particular ebay scam however it seems to be rife on eBays Motor Car Auctions in some countries.

Yes it seems if I was not as careful my money would have ended up in the hands of Mr Stephen Convery in the UK and I would have ended up with - a red face.
Yes eBay rules say Dont email direct - but sometimes the reason seems valid and the only way to get more info especially when the current auction is about to close.
Yes it seems that Western Union Payments are a dead giveaway if you know about its use in scams.
Yes Payment via what is essentially an escrow in the case of eBay is also a dead giveaway if you are aware.
eBay dont seem to have an active fraud portal any more and Emails with all the relevant data to [email protected] have so far gone unconfirmed and unanswered. Good one eBay


copy of headers
-------- Original Message --------
From - [email protected]
Subject - Your invoice for eBay purchases - item(s) : Laptop Apple Macbook Pro 15" i7 2.3Ghz Quad 8GB 512GB SSD
To - Me
extended headers
Return-Path: <[email protected]>

Message ID: <CACv_tWWxeoa+dueSY+u_b7JcBbnC9M3w9M9Tt8t6De-4Noq5Aw@mail.gmail.com>
X-Original-To: myemail
Delivered-To: myemail
Received: from mail-pz0-f45.google.com (mail-pz0-f45.google.com [209.85.210.45]) (using TLSv1 with cipher RC4-SHA (128/128 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by mymailserver (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 8C5C7E024D for <me>; Fri, 13 Apr 2012 23:28:33 +1000 (EST)
Received: by dacx6 with SMTP id x6so4737130dac.4 for <me>; Fri, 13 Apr 2012 06:28:30 -0700 (PDT)
DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=20120113; h=mime-version:sender:date:x-google-sender-auth:message-id:subject :from:to:content-type; bh=07zDfACZNmFjRd3zndibi88B96Ndj9wdHiZVrPAYWZ4=; b=VXFA1QKd+FqwvAGWos5ezN8MSthGeDDP5kORZmlCT0t9UznwvCtQ45X6SCr9+PhCyv TcniUxr1YhIUAp4bLMFqCusSQzE2sqki/TMoqx2Er5xgi4DNaeq3zJlOZ1wPgkG5jUTF RFJKpn9TV7yfOIvTVxDmDQaEFVJYNO95Q3YAB/HkmDuSQaSwAW1HoCYqKa31Rh5P4kfT 2jqk/lBA1mwgpU203eCXnCx8s8kltMW9sG5hxq0RSKSqR+/W+Jmhp0BZljfQbPBmFuiZ zJKP9tHgPLQc9Gii++0c43ouKkPUQf7q4sWu4yDDJAEFfHuXlzp+MTwSFIgMFpW6vpDn Xyvw==
MIME-Version: 1.0
Received: by 10.68.219.34 with SMTP id pl2mr4869286pbc.56.1334323710320; Fri, 13 Apr 2012 06:28:30 -0700 (PDT)
Sender: [email protected]
Received: by 10.142.4.4 with HTTP; Fri, 13 Apr 2012 06:28:30 -0700 (PDT)
Date: Fri, 13 Apr 2012 16:28:30 +0300
X-Google-Sender-Auth: BawJAvdFBD_6Psgoz3ndCd4LqNw
Message-ID: <CACv_tWWxeoa+dueSY+u_b7JcBbnC9M3w9M9Tt8t6De-4Noq5Aw@mail.gmail.com>
Subject: Your invoice for eBay purchases - item(s) : Laptop Apple Macbook Pro 15" i7 2.3Ghz Quad 8GB 512GB SSD
From: eBay Buyer Protection <[email protected]>
To: myemail
Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary=e89a8f234c27c4ded304bd8f7266

Why didn't i c this first?
I have been tricked by this method and payed $950 for same computer, same configuration but date is different its 19 may 2012.

Hello sandhu and welcome to Scamwarners,
I am sorry to hear that you lost money to this scam.

Call Western Union now at 1-800-448-1492 and if the payment has not been picked up you can cancel the transfer.

it was picked up within minutes. i rang western union to find out the location of pickup, it was picked up from LA NewsAgent, London. Now i have filled the details of this on http://www.actionfraud.police.uk/. hopefully some results will come soon.

Hullo Sandu. I am the original reporter in this thread, and I am truly sorry to hear you were caught by this scam.
As a matter of interest I also reported it to the UK police as it was clear to me that the recipient in my case was the so called Stephen Convery of 36 Uxendon Hill London UK (in the borough of Brent)- defined as the "Agent" and recipient of the Western Union transfer. I received a reply from the Westminster Police who were forwarding the information to the Brent Police station - Unlike ebay who have NEVER responded.
If its any help the email address of the sender at Westminster was [email protected] which said

Hello .....

Thank you for your e-mail, if you have not lost out financially you will
need to contact e-bay direct so that they can investigate this
Seller, the address given is as you stated in the Borough of Brent
however the post code does not correspond to the address, which is in
the NW6 postal area of London. The police station that covers the
address is Brent Police Station I will forward e-mail on for their
information.

Regards Westminster Police.
-----Original Message-----
From: Stewart Ann - TP CCC On Behalf Of CCC Mailbox - Internet Mailbox
Sent: 14 April 2012 11:39
To: IBO - CW
Subject: General enquiries CGE01-00071797