This dude was selling a $10,000 Trek Team TT bike for bugger all – the winning bid was ~$3k: Dodgy Ebay Trek
Before the bidding ended I noticed the ad was simply taken straight from Trek’s website. I emailed the seller about this:
Dear jayt91,
This photo appears to be from promo material. Do you have pics of your actual bike?
and shortly after, when I noticed no size, I emailed this question:
Dear jayt91,
Oh, also, what size is it?! You’ve cut and pasted the details from Trek’s website (which makes it look well dodgy) and didn’t specify a size..
I received this:
From: Mihaela Lacraru [jayt91@msn.com]
Dear potential customer,
First of all I want to thank you for your message.
I have a various sizes of bikes right now so please let me know what size do you need so I can see if I can find the size that you need.
The bike model year is 2004. All my bikes are new in boxes and be sure that it will be a prompt delivery and the bike will be fully insured for the total amount.I’m handling the liquidation of a big store stock. The product is brand new in box with all the warranty papers for lifetime. So the best price that I can make for you is $2400.00 including shipping. Let me know if you like the price in order to go ahead with the deal. If you are ok with my price and we will decide to move forward with our deal you must know that we will close our deal under protection of eBay.
Feel free to ask me any other questions. I’m waiting for your reply.
With all due respect,
Mihaela
and 10 minutes later (without me doing anything else) this:
From: Mihaela Lacraru [jayt91@msn.com]
Dear potential customer,
First of all I want to thank you for your message.
I have a various sizes of bikes right now so please let me know what size do you need so I can see if I can find the size that you need.
The bike model year is 2004. All my bikes are new in boxes and be sure that it will be a prompt delivery and the bike will be fully insured for the total amount.I’m handling the liquidation of a big store stock. The product is brand new in box with all the warranty papers for lifetime. So the best price that I can make for you is $1200.00 including shipping. Let me know if you like the price in order to go ahead with the deal. If you are ok with my price and we will decide to move forward with our deal you must know that we will close our deal under protection of eBay.
Feel free to ask me any other questions. I’m waiting for your reply.
With all due respect,
Mihaela
Wow! Some guy just won the $10k bike for 3k and in the space of 10min the price for me has dropped to $2400 and then $1200!!! That’s the price of the groupset alone, let alone the frame, wheels and extras! With some well-justified doubts in my mind I emailed back:
So you are offering a 56cm Trek Team Time Trial bike, complete with wheels, groupset and extras like saddle, stem, seatpost.. all for $1200AUD, including shipping?
..to which I received:
From: Mihaela Lacraru [jayt91@msn.com]
Hi,
I have a size 56 cm avaible for you.
I will ship the product as a gift and you don’t pay any extra taxes. As I have told you the product will be ship via UPS 2nd days air insured in my shipping cost. It will be there in two days.
Usually, I accept paypal but for the moment I can’t do that because I want to sell this item quickly and I haven’t enough time to clear the deal in a week (4 days for charge my bank account from paypal account +3 days shipping) and second, I had many transaction though paypal in the last days and I’m over the limit (I can’t transfer in my bank account though paypal more then $5,000/month and I already transferred this amount).
You can do the payment via wire transfer under eBay protection because I need the money to pay my bill in time. If yes I will announce eBay Safety board about our transaction and we can do that under their protection.
Thank you,
Mihaela
Oh, really?
What do you mean ship it as a gift? You said you were based in Sydney – there wont be a need to pay taxes, hence no need to ship as a “gift”.
Ebay’s protection only covers items up to $400 worth. This is a $1200 item. Where will the extra protection come from?
Will you do an escrow transaction?
How do I do a ‘wire transfer’?
..and for some strange reason I have yet to hear from him!
It appears that someone has hijacked this account and was trying to con someone into handing over clams for a deal ‘too good to be true’. I feel sorry for whoever actually won this auction and hope that they realise just how dodgy it is before they lose $3k.
Interesting – I’ve also been emailing with a "Mihaela Lacraru", although with a different eBay screen name and different location ("Ohio, USA"). Here’s the emails back and forth…. although my last email was just this evening, I haven’t heard back once I stated that I required a escrow service for my protection.. I’ve removed my email address below….:
—–
Hello again
Dear Jeff for Trek 2200 54cm the WSD model the price is a $1100 and also i
have a Trek 5200 WSD for $1200 .Let ma know what exactly bike and what sisez
you whant to buy.
Mihaela
>From: ****.net
>To: "Mihaela Lacraru" <grammychic@msn.com>
>Subject: RE: Question for item #3689406376 – Trek 5200 WSD
>Date: Mon, 19 Jul 2004 18:43:08 -0400 (EDT)
>
>Mihaela,
>Thank you for your response. By replying that you have a Trek 2200 54cm
>bike available, are you implying that you don’t have a Trek 5200 WSD
>available in 54cm? Is the 2200 54cm the WSD model, and if so, how much
>are you asking for that?
>I will have to look into the protections I have using wire transfer
>through ebay, as this sale is alot of money and I need to be certain that
>I am protected. As long as I can research the wire transfer protections,
>and they are adequate, I am ready to buy.
>So, as soon as possible, can you respond with the following:
>1) Do you have a Trek 5200 WSD model in a 54cm size for $1200 USD
>including shipping?
>2) Is the Trek 2200 the WSD model (women’s specific) in 54cm, how much are
>you asking for that including shipping?
>Thanks for your responses. I understand wanting this to happen quickly!
>Jeff
>
> > Hi,
> > I have a Trek 2200 size 54 cm avaible for you.
> > I will ship the product as a gift and you don’t pay any extra taxes. As
>I
> > have told you the product will be ship via UPS 2nd days air insured in
>my
> > shipping cost. It will be there in two days.
> > Usually, I accept paypal but for the moment I can’t do that because I
>want
> > to sell this item quickly and I haven’t enough time to clear the deal in
>a
> > week (4 days for charge my bank account from paypal account +3 days
> > shipping) and second, I had many transaction though paypal in the last
> > days
> > and I’m over the limit (I can’t transfer in my bank account though
>paypal
> > more then $5,000/month and I already transferred this amount).
> >
> > You can do the payment via wire transfer under eBay protection because I
> > need the money to pay my bill in time. If yes I will announce eBay
>Safety
> > board about our transaction and we can do that under their protection.
> >
> > Thank you,
> > Mihaela
> >
> >
> >>From: ***
> >>To: "Mihaela Lacraru" <grammychic@msn.com>
> >>Subject: RE: Question for item #3689406376 – Trek 5200 WSD
> >>Date: Mon, 19 Jul 2004 12:50:18 -0400 (EDT)
> >>
> >>Mihaela,
> >>Thank you for your prompt response. I am looking for a 54cm Trek WSD
> >>bike. We were originally looking at the Trek 2200, but this is
>obviously
> >>a much nicer frame with the same geometry. Do you have this model (or
> >> the
> >>2200, for that matter) in a 54cm?
> >>Do you accept credit card payment directly, or only through PayPal? I
> >>would prefer if you accept it directly, as I then get warranty
>protection
> >>through my credit card.
> >>I eagerly look forward to your reply!
> >>Jeff
> >>
> >> > Dear potential customer,
> >> >
> >> > First of all I want to thank you for your message.
> >> > I have a various sizes of bikes right now so please let me know what
> >>size
> >> > do
> >> > you need so I can see if I can find the size that you need.
> >> > The bike model year is 2004. All my bikes are new in boxes and be
>sure
> >> > that
> >> > it will be a prompt delivery and the bike will be fully insured for
> >> the
> >> > total amount.I’m handling the liquidation of a big store stock. The
> >> > product
> >> > is brand new in box with all the warranty papers for lifetime. So the
> >>best
> >> > price that I can make for you is $1200.00 including shipping. Let me
> >>know
> >> > if
> >> > you like the price in order to go ahead with the deal. If you are ok
> >>with
> >> > my
> >> > price and we will decide to move forward with our deal you must know
> >>that
> >> > we
> >> > will close our deal under protection of eBay.
> >> > Feel free to ask me any other questions. I’m waiting for your reply.
> >> >
> >> > With all due respect,
> >> > Mihaela
> >> >
> >> >
> >> >
> >> >>From: ***
> >> >>Reply-To: ***
> >> >>To: grammychic@msn.com
> >> >>Subject: Question for item #3689406376 – Trek 5200 WSD
> >> >>Date: Mon, 19 Jul 2004 05:58:57 -0700
> >> >>
> >> >>Dear grammychic,
> >> >>
> >> >>What size is this? Is it brand-new never-used condition? How much
> >> for
> >> >>shipping?
> >> >>Thanks,
> >> >>Jeff
—-
My boyfriend has just fallen for this scam.
Unfortunately he had already sent the money. After not hearing anything from this person we decided to do some investigation.
Has anyone reported this scammer to ebay?
Yeah. I have fallen for this scam. Sent money from Canada to Paris, France for a Litespeed Tuscany Dura Ace Triple.
Now I have no bike and no money.
I have launched an Internet investigation with IFCD in USA.
I received the same type emails, same wording, etc. as yours have been described yesterday and today. I DID NOT INTEND TO SEND MONEY other than payPal. It looks like they hijack a legitimate ebay user account, since the profile shows 98% satisfaction, etc. but the guy has never sold any items. Only been a buyer for small golf items and no bikes.
I have reported this to ebay via their fraud reporting format. I will also file it to the IFCD (not exactly sure what it is though).
Brenda in Virginia
I have continually emailed ebay with these fraudsters. I noticed them when I was bidding on a 5200 wsd. They are very easy to recognize because the pictures are usually the same and the item description is off. For instance Trek Madonne in a wsd. Trek doesn’t make that bike. Also the component list usually is generic and doesn’t contain a size for the bike. I keep reporting these people, but they just keep popping up. I don’t know how they get into peoples accounts, but that is what they are doing.
I reported this one to ebay and they confirmed it was a hijacked account.
Usually it’s people with weak passwords (e.g. username=bob, password=bob) that have their accounts taken over. Emailing people your password, etc. is not going to help either..
The major clue (before the email exchange took place) was that the image and specification was taken directly from Trek’s website and no size was specified. Most legit sellers usually have an image of ‘their’ actual bike, leaning against a garage, etc..
Hopefully other people will find out about this scam before being sucked in by these scumbag fraudsters.
hippy
Welcome home hippy!!