I've been bidding here and there on used Apple TiBooks on eBay, which has brought the scammers running to my email doorstep. Yesterday, I had an exchange with someone who wrote me using eBay's communication feature. The message related how the writer had noticed me bidding for PowerBooks and wanted to offer me one for $750, shipping and insurance included. The writer also made pains to include a link demonstrating his great eBay feedback.

After a quick check of the domain from which his email was sent (some cheesy non-validated email service from Czechoslovakia) I was pretty much immediately suspicious, but a morbid curiousity led me to check out the feedback he claimed as his own. Lessee: a few model train purchases, tickets for a Santana concert in VA, and a few horse racing prints. Nothing about computers. There was more feedback, but it had become too old to research. So, in my first reply to the writer, I asked where he is from. The reply was "the UK", along with instructions on how to pay for the item via http://www.uk-escrow.co.uk/register.php.

I checked out the escrow site, which looked professional. However, I immediately noticed that the registration page was not secured (the URL begins with "http", rather than "https"). Also, I've heard about scam escrow services becoming a big problem. So, I replied to the guy with a mail asking "how was the Santana concert?", to which he replied "Santana concert?". I followed up with "how is the model railroad coming?", to which he replied "how does this concern the offer I've made you?".

Assuming that this dude had hijacked a legitimate eBay user's account, I decided to determine whether the guy had been sharp enough to change the user's email address to his own. So, I sent a mail to the user via eBay's mailing service. The scammer replied with essentially the same escrow note he'd sent before, so he'd at least covered that base. Tiring of the game, I finally sent a mail wishing the guy luck "selling" his "PowerBook" (I didn't include the quotes). It was very hard for me not to write him back and tell him what an idiot he was not to at least do the research on the stolen account's feedback in order to be able to answer my questions. But I decided that it was wiser not to give him scamming tips.

About midday today, I got another mail offering to sell me a PowerBook at a very attractive price. However, this one offered to work out an inspection before payment. I suspect scammage, but I'm not sure yet. I'll report back here when I know more.