This may sound weird coming from me if you've read any of my previous blogs. I am an American, Christian, Right Wing, Conservative, Republican, Pro-life, Heterosexual and pretty much stick to those titles. So you wouldn't think I would know a damn thing about being a hippy. We all start as a blank in the beginning of our lives. Some people stay that way for a long time. Others begin to suck up whatever comes in front of them, and before long they are able to claim at least one title. We are all heads full of mush waiting to be molded, and depending upon who or what we expose ourselves to we will take on characteristics of each experience. Deciding to claim a title based on those experiences is our own choice.
Before I was all of the above, I was the opposite of almost each one. I've always thought of myself as an American patriot and despite the titles I've claimed over time I remain an American patriot. These days though there is no exact definition of an American patriot. You can be anyone else as far as politics go and the same stands for religious or "spiritual" belief. (I emphasize "spiritual" because I think a lot of people are simply too politically correct to identify themselves as believing in God and going so far as to say they are Christians. So in their own chicken hearted way they claim to be "spiritual" so they don't ruffle any feathers.) So regardless of the other stands you take you can claim to be a patriot even if you are not whatever the mainstream thinks you should be.
So here I am, the conservative that most people will simply hate for saying I am, writing about being an old hippy. I have started a video blog to try and explain what being a hippy was back in the late 60's and early 70's. I did this because some people saw a video response I had made as a reply to another video about hippy slang. Apparently my response caught the eye of a lot of young people wanting to know what it was like being a hippy or even wanting to be hippies themselves. I was asked by several of these young people to tell them about my experiences. So I went to Youtube and started the, "Chronicles of an Old Hippy".
When I started to tell the story, I was thinking I would be able to do so in about 5 or 6 episodes. As I began to gather my thoughts though, it opened a door in the back of my brain and all kinds of memories started to come forward. Every time I would start a new epidsode I would think of about 20 other things that would have led up to the point I was trying to make. It was overwhelming. I thought I would be talking about the '68 Democrat National Convention by the third episode, but as I would begin to gather my thoughts, something else that made a point would jump into my head and I kept putting the DNC away until those points could be made. There was so much that I had experienced that it almost made me overload. I just can't seem to tell this story in a few episodes. So with this blog, I am hoping to start putting it into words so I can put it all on the proper timeline. It might end up being a book if these crazy memories keep jumping out at me. Whatever it takes, I want to tell this story.
This will dissappoint a lot of young people. Even if I spelled everything out to you on what it was like being a hippy, you can never experience it for yourself. It is impossible to compare what was going on back then to anything that is happening now. So many people think the war in Iraq parallels the war in Vietnam, and it just isn't the same. There is no way to compare one to another. I see protests popping up and people trying to relive the hippy days and thiking they are the same as the old hippies were. Sorry, but it isn't the same thing. You can maybe be neo-hip or whatever, but the days of the hippies has come and gone. The old hppies are well into their 50's and 60's and ironically, most of them have probably turned into the very people they were trying to rebel against in the old days. Some have become college professors in the hope of keeping their past alive, but they will find that today's youth are nothing like who they used to be. There can never be another 60's and 70's experience. I'l be happy to tell you what I used to be, but you'll never be able to be who I was. So follow the chronicles and learn about history, but if you are doing so to try and relive the era, it can never happen. You are in your own journey right now and maybe some day a kid will ask you what it was like to be you. You can tell them, but your era will come and go as well and they will never be able to be the person you were.
Monday, August 20, 2007
Monday, August 06, 2007
Be Nice To The Collection Agency Person
I just got done dealing with a lady from a collection agency. I was mad as hell that this company (1&1 Internet) had sent a single bill to collections, but as I was just about to go off on the lady it dawned on me that my argument wasn't with her. She is just an employee of a collection agency and really has nothing to do with your problems with the company that put you in for collection. She is just trying to make it through an 8 hour day. Most people however lose their cool and put the blame on that poor soul working at the agency. You know they take a huge pile of crap in place of the company that you owe the money to.
I worked for the Post Office for 22 years. I had been hurt on the job (dog attack) and was on limited duty. The job they made for me was to field all of the inquiries and complaints from customers. It was usually some jerk who ordered the penis enlarger from late night TV who wasn't happy with the productwho somehow figured it became the blame of the postal service since we after all were the people who delivered the item. Whatever the product was, since we delivered it it automatically was our responsibility to take it back and make sure the company got it back. Why should the angry customer wth the small penis have to pay to return it? It didn't work, it wasn't what he expected, it was too small, it was the wrong color, or what ever. The bottom line - it wasn't my fault that you weren't happy, but you decided that I was mean or uncooperative because I didn't take your enlarger back to send it to the seller for you.
Well, just as I was about to go off on the lady from the agency, I thought about the man with the small weiner. Just like it wasn't my fault that he didn't like his enlarger, it wasn't Tina's fault that 1 & 1 Internet hadn't billed me properly. I took a deep breath and said I was sorry that I was about to blame her and that I knew none of this was her fault and that she must hate it when people tee off on her. She sounded pretty happy and relieved. She responded that she hated to be the person stuck in the middle and that it is a terrible job when that happen. I would guess it's like being a punching bag. The customer, who is mad at the company, forgets the agency worker is just a person stuck with a horrible job, and goes off like a mad dog.
What ever it takes, just contact the company you are having problems with directly. They send bills for collections because they are cowards who don't want to do any "customer service" because they might get yelled at or called an a--hole. When you deal with the collection agency remember that they are just people stuck with a really crappy job that almost always ends up with them having to take a lot of grief from you because you're angry. I sure hope they get paid well because it is a lot of stress to have people blowing up and calling you names and threatening your job because their uncle is a lawyer or they know a senator. Sure you'll feel better after you unload your anger on this person, but then think about how they feel at the end of the day with all of that bad energy shouted into their ear. What a stressful job! I wonder why we never hear about a collection agency employee shooting up the office. They must have a very strong constitution to put up with all the crap they take every day.
My hat is off to you collection agency employee. I'm sorry for any other times I've used a middle man for a punching bag. And as for the guy with the little weiner that went off on me, I hope you finally found your cure. If not, I'm retired now so at least I won't have to take any more of your crap. Thank your mailman for delivering what ever it is you ordered and remember that when you are off of work because of that deep snow or howling wind, your mailman is still out there delivering. And that lady on the phone at the collection agency - she's just trying to make it through each 8 hour day without having to endure the wrath of every person who "forgot to sign the check", "called and told them the correct account number", or "was sure I made that payment".
I worked for the Post Office for 22 years. I had been hurt on the job (dog attack) and was on limited duty. The job they made for me was to field all of the inquiries and complaints from customers. It was usually some jerk who ordered the penis enlarger from late night TV who wasn't happy with the productwho somehow figured it became the blame of the postal service since we after all were the people who delivered the item. Whatever the product was, since we delivered it it automatically was our responsibility to take it back and make sure the company got it back. Why should the angry customer wth the small penis have to pay to return it? It didn't work, it wasn't what he expected, it was too small, it was the wrong color, or what ever. The bottom line - it wasn't my fault that you weren't happy, but you decided that I was mean or uncooperative because I didn't take your enlarger back to send it to the seller for you.
Well, just as I was about to go off on the lady from the agency, I thought about the man with the small weiner. Just like it wasn't my fault that he didn't like his enlarger, it wasn't Tina's fault that 1 & 1 Internet hadn't billed me properly. I took a deep breath and said I was sorry that I was about to blame her and that I knew none of this was her fault and that she must hate it when people tee off on her. She sounded pretty happy and relieved. She responded that she hated to be the person stuck in the middle and that it is a terrible job when that happen. I would guess it's like being a punching bag. The customer, who is mad at the company, forgets the agency worker is just a person stuck with a horrible job, and goes off like a mad dog.
What ever it takes, just contact the company you are having problems with directly. They send bills for collections because they are cowards who don't want to do any "customer service" because they might get yelled at or called an a--hole. When you deal with the collection agency remember that they are just people stuck with a really crappy job that almost always ends up with them having to take a lot of grief from you because you're angry. I sure hope they get paid well because it is a lot of stress to have people blowing up and calling you names and threatening your job because their uncle is a lawyer or they know a senator. Sure you'll feel better after you unload your anger on this person, but then think about how they feel at the end of the day with all of that bad energy shouted into their ear. What a stressful job! I wonder why we never hear about a collection agency employee shooting up the office. They must have a very strong constitution to put up with all the crap they take every day.
My hat is off to you collection agency employee. I'm sorry for any other times I've used a middle man for a punching bag. And as for the guy with the little weiner that went off on me, I hope you finally found your cure. If not, I'm retired now so at least I won't have to take any more of your crap. Thank your mailman for delivering what ever it is you ordered and remember that when you are off of work because of that deep snow or howling wind, your mailman is still out there delivering. And that lady on the phone at the collection agency - she's just trying to make it through each 8 hour day without having to endure the wrath of every person who "forgot to sign the check", "called and told them the correct account number", or "was sure I made that payment".
Thursday, August 02, 2007
Is eBay Ruined !?!?
How stupid are eBay sellers these days? Have they become so damn greedy that they allow it to effect their thinking? I'm afraid the answer is yes.
I've been looking on eBay to buy a PS3 console lately. I expected that since the price of a BRAND NEW PS3 has been reduced to $499 that maybe I could get a used one for under $400. Doesn't that sound reasonable to assume? But hell no! The starting prices of items are usually set by what the average selling price turns out to be on auctions of like items. Because stupid people see the Nigerian Bidder Scams driving the selling prices into the thousands of dollars, their greed gets them all fired up and instead of pricing their PS3 consoles or Xbox 360 consoles at a reasonable price, they jack the starting price up beyond what a BRAND NEW console costs! How stupid are these greedy bastards!? In the end, these brain dead idiots deserve it when their final price is bid way up by one of these scammers. I hope they are also stupid enough to fall for the scam and lose their asses. It'll pay them for their greed and stupidity.
Last week I saw a guy put a starting price of his PS3 60 GB console at $900. I emailed him and asked him if he was maybe making a typographical error since BRAND NEW PS3's are selling for $499. His response was, "Hell no dude! Last night I saw one gor for $6,000 and I don't mean $600! If people are paying $6,000 for a PS3 then I'm getting in on that." I emailed him back and told him to go to Google and look up Nigerian Bidder. I then told him that any PS3 that goes up over $500 without including extra controllers or games is undoubtedly being bid up by one of these scammers. I'm sorry I didn't track his auction to see if he was a victim or not, but if he was stupid enough to start his price so high, then the scammers surely gave him exactly what he deserved. What a total idiot!
Are there still people out there who haven't heard of this scam yet? I am going to include an article I wrote for a website about this scam. If you aren't aware of it and you are a seller on eBay or craigslist then you better pay attention.
“Nigerian Bidder” Scams
Let me start out by saying that it is unfortunate that any one country or any one group of people should end up with this title hung on them. There is a scam on internet auction sites such as eBay that involve fraud and the origin and destination of this fraud just happens to be Nigeria.
Imagine being the seller of an item that only sells retail for $100 originally and ending up with a final bid of $1,000! It seems too good to be true. Well, every nerve in your body should be ringing alarm bells when something sounds too good to be true. Why? We all know that 99 times out of 100 it will be too good to be true.
This is what is happening at an alarming rate for some sellers of high tech and high end items such as laptop computers, digital camcorders, gaming consoles, and the like. When an item that should only sell for perhaps a little bit over retail price goes as high as ten times retail, the seller should immediately realize that rather than having made the sale of the century they have been scammed. It just doesn’t make good sense to believe that your item should be selling for such a high price. Maybe when PS3 or Xbox 360 consoles were brand new and hot on the holiday wish lists they would have gone this high, but when your every day run of the mill used laptop suddenly sells for triple what you paid for it new you should be mindful. So what’s the catch?
Here is what happens next. This is a statement made by a seller on eBay who was sent some notices telling him his money was as good as in the bank. “In the last 3 weeks I have completed almost 25 auctions selling new or refurbished laptops of various brands. Every one of these auctions were won by someone wanting me to ship to Nigeria! They all sent fraudulent "PayPal payment response" e-mails claiming to have transferred funds to PayPal.com These e-mails in various forms said that PayPal was holding my payments and would only release the money after I click on the link the e-mail provided and sent PayPal a shipment tracking number.” Unfortunately, the greed got the best of him and he clicked on the link before investigating things. Needless to say, he shipped out a $1,100 laptop and never received any funds nor was he ever able to retrieve the laptop. The phony buyer had gotten him to send the laptop off without ever verifying the payment was actually made. He assumed that the email he had gotten was real and sent the laptop to the address in Nigeria only to find out later that no funds were ever applied to his Paypal account. He went on to say that upon contacting Paypal, he was told that they never held funds pending tracking number confirmations.
A second scam informs you by email that the buyer will send you a bank certified check. Sometimes they will sweeten the deal by adding that if you will deposit it into your bank account he will add a few hundred extra dollars for your trouble. Now the greed really gets the best of you. Triple the value of the item plus a few hundred extra. It may take a few extra days for the check to arrive, but as soon as you deposit that “certified bank check” into your account, you wrap up the high priced item and ship it off to the “buyer” in Nigeria. 8-10 days later you get a notice from your bank informing you that the check you deposited is fake and that you will need to pay the bank $80-150 for handling and processing costs of the “certified” fake check. By law YOU are also responsible for the amount of the fake check! Now you are out the $1,100 laptop, and the fees your bank is charging you to process a phony check plus whatever amount the check was for. But it doesn’t end here either!
Scam number three goes like this. The buyer sends you an email from a company that acts as a third party who will handle the entire transaction. (This scam usually involves a company called T.N.T. and is centered on a sale going to the U.K.) Supposedly this company will receive the final selling price from the buyer and will hold it at their shop in the form of a wire transfer through Western Union. You will wrap up and send your item to them. They will examine your item to assure the buyer that it is as advertised and in good working order. You will receive a claim number for a wire transfer from Western Union and you will be informed that your buyer will receive a claim number to pick up the shipped item from the shop. Your buyer will of course have your laptop in his home and when you go to Western Union after the transaction has been completed, your claim number will be totally worthless. You will have sent the laptop directly to the buyer and the email you received, as well as the wire transfer claim number will be totally fake. You might have even been careful to check out the URL of the third person company the buyer has emailed to you by clicking on the very official looking link provided in your email from the buyer. Unfortunately the link on the email will go to an elaborately fashioned fake website that will look very real to you. It will include bar codes, and disclaimers, and photographs, and everything else a legitimate website has, but it will be a total phony. So what if this scammer has paid a few bucks to make the website. He just scammed you and probably another 100 sellers out of thousands of dollars in a single day. The end result is – you get nothing – the “buyer” gets your laptop. (This scam also works in reverse if you are a buyer. You send a wire transfer to the third party and you never see anything on your end.)
So this is why you have to be careful for the “Nigerian Bidders” when you sell on internet auctions. You will notice many sellers adding “No Nigerian Bidders” on the title of their auctions. You are able to specify countries you will or will not allow bids from in your auction to prevent this from happening, but these scammers are able to obtain U.S. addresses with which they continue the scam. In the end, it is up to you to be diligent when you sell items online. If you see a gaming console sell for $5,000 and think that you need to hurry up and get yours on the next auction, BEWARE. That greed that will make you jack the starting bid up to double what the console is worth will draw the scammers right back to you. They’ll happily bid your console up to $5,000 - and then they will also happily relieve you of your console and teach you an expensive lesson about your greed.
It should be painfully obvious that these scams have ruined any legitimate uses of ebay for people like me looking to find a deal. The greed and stupidity of sellers who set their starting prices so high make such a deal impossible. The fear of being caught up in one of these scams has also made buying and selling risky business. I hate to admit this since I've been calling people stupid, but I fell for one of these scams when I thought I was buying a digital video camcorder from craigslist. I should have known better when the seller who was supposedly in Colorado Springs responded to my emails from England. They told me they were in the military and had just gotten transferred and that was part of the reason they were selling their camcorder. Since Colorado SPrings is a military town (Army, Air Force, Space Command, Air Force Academy) I figured this was possible. I got that email from the seller telling me that this escrow company called T.N.T. would act as a third party in the sale. When I went to send off the $300 via Western Union, the guy at the shop even warned me that most of these things were scams and that I should think very carefully about sending the money. I assured him that a third party escrow company was handling things and that I had checked them out by visiting their website (using that fake link) and that everything looked good. I lost my $300 and of course never saw the camcorder. Only then did I take a closer look at the emails I had received. All of the links were fake. T.N.T. apparently does exist in the U.K. but the tracking numbers came up as "tracking number does not appear in our records". I had relied on the seller's email link to this escrow company until now, so when I typed the URL in for this company and found it was for real and tried to find my purchase, it wasn't there. I had falen for the scam.
So who am I to be complaining now? I'm the guy who realizes that these scams have ruined eBay. I know I'll probably never get that deal on my PS3, partly because these scammers have no problem bidding them up to thousands of dollars, but also because sellers see this and let greed drive the prices up. I can only hope that everyone will soon be made aware of the Nigerian Bidder Scams and that prices will once again fall down to the "deal" levels. In the meantime I will probably end up going to one of the local electronic superstores to buy my PS3. I'll politely listen to why I should buy the extended warranty programs that the employees are forced to push (but that's another story) and I'll decline their sales pitch. I'll get to choose 5 free Bluray movies that I would never choose if they weren't free. I'll pay for the extra controller, games, HDMI cables, and whatever, but at least I know that I won't be getting scammed by some very rich guy in Nigeria.
(I have been a seller on eBay for over 7 years. I have also been a buyer of about 100 items over that time and save for one VCR full of cockroaches, I have never been the victim of a bad sale. It's unfortunate that these scams can ruin such a good thing, but until these online auction sites can put some safeguards into their systems, then it just isn't safe to buy or sell high end items from the sites. I'm not saying that every sale is subject to a scam, but high end items and electronics are the top targets of these scammers. Putting something like "No Nigerian Bidders" in the title or body of your sale isn't going to work either. These guys are smart enough to phish accounts and find ways to take over a sellers account long enough to buy up a few high priced items and then once they have their money, dissappear into the ethernet never to be heard from again, until they get someone else's account. Right now it's "buyer beware" and until that changes, it's ruined.)
I've been looking on eBay to buy a PS3 console lately. I expected that since the price of a BRAND NEW PS3 has been reduced to $499 that maybe I could get a used one for under $400. Doesn't that sound reasonable to assume? But hell no! The starting prices of items are usually set by what the average selling price turns out to be on auctions of like items. Because stupid people see the Nigerian Bidder Scams driving the selling prices into the thousands of dollars, their greed gets them all fired up and instead of pricing their PS3 consoles or Xbox 360 consoles at a reasonable price, they jack the starting price up beyond what a BRAND NEW console costs! How stupid are these greedy bastards!? In the end, these brain dead idiots deserve it when their final price is bid way up by one of these scammers. I hope they are also stupid enough to fall for the scam and lose their asses. It'll pay them for their greed and stupidity.
Last week I saw a guy put a starting price of his PS3 60 GB console at $900. I emailed him and asked him if he was maybe making a typographical error since BRAND NEW PS3's are selling for $499. His response was, "Hell no dude! Last night I saw one gor for $6,000 and I don't mean $600! If people are paying $6,000 for a PS3 then I'm getting in on that." I emailed him back and told him to go to Google and look up Nigerian Bidder. I then told him that any PS3 that goes up over $500 without including extra controllers or games is undoubtedly being bid up by one of these scammers. I'm sorry I didn't track his auction to see if he was a victim or not, but if he was stupid enough to start his price so high, then the scammers surely gave him exactly what he deserved. What a total idiot!
Are there still people out there who haven't heard of this scam yet? I am going to include an article I wrote for a website about this scam. If you aren't aware of it and you are a seller on eBay or craigslist then you better pay attention.
“Nigerian Bidder” Scams
Let me start out by saying that it is unfortunate that any one country or any one group of people should end up with this title hung on them. There is a scam on internet auction sites such as eBay that involve fraud and the origin and destination of this fraud just happens to be Nigeria.
Imagine being the seller of an item that only sells retail for $100 originally and ending up with a final bid of $1,000! It seems too good to be true. Well, every nerve in your body should be ringing alarm bells when something sounds too good to be true. Why? We all know that 99 times out of 100 it will be too good to be true.
This is what is happening at an alarming rate for some sellers of high tech and high end items such as laptop computers, digital camcorders, gaming consoles, and the like. When an item that should only sell for perhaps a little bit over retail price goes as high as ten times retail, the seller should immediately realize that rather than having made the sale of the century they have been scammed. It just doesn’t make good sense to believe that your item should be selling for such a high price. Maybe when PS3 or Xbox 360 consoles were brand new and hot on the holiday wish lists they would have gone this high, but when your every day run of the mill used laptop suddenly sells for triple what you paid for it new you should be mindful. So what’s the catch?
Here is what happens next. This is a statement made by a seller on eBay who was sent some notices telling him his money was as good as in the bank. “In the last 3 weeks I have completed almost 25 auctions selling new or refurbished laptops of various brands. Every one of these auctions were won by someone wanting me to ship to Nigeria! They all sent fraudulent "PayPal payment response" e-mails claiming to have transferred funds to PayPal.com These e-mails in various forms said that PayPal was holding my payments and would only release the money after I click on the link the e-mail provided and sent PayPal a shipment tracking number.” Unfortunately, the greed got the best of him and he clicked on the link before investigating things. Needless to say, he shipped out a $1,100 laptop and never received any funds nor was he ever able to retrieve the laptop. The phony buyer had gotten him to send the laptop off without ever verifying the payment was actually made. He assumed that the email he had gotten was real and sent the laptop to the address in Nigeria only to find out later that no funds were ever applied to his Paypal account. He went on to say that upon contacting Paypal, he was told that they never held funds pending tracking number confirmations.
A second scam informs you by email that the buyer will send you a bank certified check. Sometimes they will sweeten the deal by adding that if you will deposit it into your bank account he will add a few hundred extra dollars for your trouble. Now the greed really gets the best of you. Triple the value of the item plus a few hundred extra. It may take a few extra days for the check to arrive, but as soon as you deposit that “certified bank check” into your account, you wrap up the high priced item and ship it off to the “buyer” in Nigeria. 8-10 days later you get a notice from your bank informing you that the check you deposited is fake and that you will need to pay the bank $80-150 for handling and processing costs of the “certified” fake check. By law YOU are also responsible for the amount of the fake check! Now you are out the $1,100 laptop, and the fees your bank is charging you to process a phony check plus whatever amount the check was for. But it doesn’t end here either!
Scam number three goes like this. The buyer sends you an email from a company that acts as a third party who will handle the entire transaction. (This scam usually involves a company called T.N.T. and is centered on a sale going to the U.K.) Supposedly this company will receive the final selling price from the buyer and will hold it at their shop in the form of a wire transfer through Western Union. You will wrap up and send your item to them. They will examine your item to assure the buyer that it is as advertised and in good working order. You will receive a claim number for a wire transfer from Western Union and you will be informed that your buyer will receive a claim number to pick up the shipped item from the shop. Your buyer will of course have your laptop in his home and when you go to Western Union after the transaction has been completed, your claim number will be totally worthless. You will have sent the laptop directly to the buyer and the email you received, as well as the wire transfer claim number will be totally fake. You might have even been careful to check out the URL of the third person company the buyer has emailed to you by clicking on the very official looking link provided in your email from the buyer. Unfortunately the link on the email will go to an elaborately fashioned fake website that will look very real to you. It will include bar codes, and disclaimers, and photographs, and everything else a legitimate website has, but it will be a total phony. So what if this scammer has paid a few bucks to make the website. He just scammed you and probably another 100 sellers out of thousands of dollars in a single day. The end result is – you get nothing – the “buyer” gets your laptop. (This scam also works in reverse if you are a buyer. You send a wire transfer to the third party and you never see anything on your end.)
So this is why you have to be careful for the “Nigerian Bidders” when you sell on internet auctions. You will notice many sellers adding “No Nigerian Bidders” on the title of their auctions. You are able to specify countries you will or will not allow bids from in your auction to prevent this from happening, but these scammers are able to obtain U.S. addresses with which they continue the scam. In the end, it is up to you to be diligent when you sell items online. If you see a gaming console sell for $5,000 and think that you need to hurry up and get yours on the next auction, BEWARE. That greed that will make you jack the starting bid up to double what the console is worth will draw the scammers right back to you. They’ll happily bid your console up to $5,000 - and then they will also happily relieve you of your console and teach you an expensive lesson about your greed.
It should be painfully obvious that these scams have ruined any legitimate uses of ebay for people like me looking to find a deal. The greed and stupidity of sellers who set their starting prices so high make such a deal impossible. The fear of being caught up in one of these scams has also made buying and selling risky business. I hate to admit this since I've been calling people stupid, but I fell for one of these scams when I thought I was buying a digital video camcorder from craigslist. I should have known better when the seller who was supposedly in Colorado Springs responded to my emails from England. They told me they were in the military and had just gotten transferred and that was part of the reason they were selling their camcorder. Since Colorado SPrings is a military town (Army, Air Force, Space Command, Air Force Academy) I figured this was possible. I got that email from the seller telling me that this escrow company called T.N.T. would act as a third party in the sale. When I went to send off the $300 via Western Union, the guy at the shop even warned me that most of these things were scams and that I should think very carefully about sending the money. I assured him that a third party escrow company was handling things and that I had checked them out by visiting their website (using that fake link) and that everything looked good. I lost my $300 and of course never saw the camcorder. Only then did I take a closer look at the emails I had received. All of the links were fake. T.N.T. apparently does exist in the U.K. but the tracking numbers came up as "tracking number does not appear in our records". I had relied on the seller's email link to this escrow company until now, so when I typed the URL in for this company and found it was for real and tried to find my purchase, it wasn't there. I had falen for the scam.
So who am I to be complaining now? I'm the guy who realizes that these scams have ruined eBay. I know I'll probably never get that deal on my PS3, partly because these scammers have no problem bidding them up to thousands of dollars, but also because sellers see this and let greed drive the prices up. I can only hope that everyone will soon be made aware of the Nigerian Bidder Scams and that prices will once again fall down to the "deal" levels. In the meantime I will probably end up going to one of the local electronic superstores to buy my PS3. I'll politely listen to why I should buy the extended warranty programs that the employees are forced to push (but that's another story) and I'll decline their sales pitch. I'll get to choose 5 free Bluray movies that I would never choose if they weren't free. I'll pay for the extra controller, games, HDMI cables, and whatever, but at least I know that I won't be getting scammed by some very rich guy in Nigeria.
(I have been a seller on eBay for over 7 years. I have also been a buyer of about 100 items over that time and save for one VCR full of cockroaches, I have never been the victim of a bad sale. It's unfortunate that these scams can ruin such a good thing, but until these online auction sites can put some safeguards into their systems, then it just isn't safe to buy or sell high end items from the sites. I'm not saying that every sale is subject to a scam, but high end items and electronics are the top targets of these scammers. Putting something like "No Nigerian Bidders" in the title or body of your sale isn't going to work either. These guys are smart enough to phish accounts and find ways to take over a sellers account long enough to buy up a few high priced items and then once they have their money, dissappear into the ethernet never to be heard from again, until they get someone else's account. Right now it's "buyer beware" and until that changes, it's ruined.)
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