Appeal to other Ebay sellers
 

I have a number of sample 1GB/2GB MP4 players in transit from China, my plan is/was to sell them on Ebay and wholesale, once I select a manufacturer with sufficient quality.

Now I hear about this 4GB scam - I actually have one supposedly on the way from e-britian that I bought on Ebay - I wanted to find out how they could sell the 4GB model so cheap. Once it arrives I will be tearing it apart and taking pictures.

Here's my appeal - check out my Ebay "auctions": BEWARE 4GB/8GB MP3/MP4 PLAYER SCAM - SOFTWARE & GUIDE .

I appeal to other sellers to copy my auction, and list it once a day on Ebay. Cost is about 75 cents US. Maybe this will get the word out. Anyone have suggestions to add/change/delete from the "auction" let me know.

EDITED JULY 9, 2007:
I have been at this for about 4 months now, hopefully in some small part I am getting the word out about these scammers. FYI - it is costing me about $0.25 per listing on these, so I am losing money.

AlbertaSatellite, Great idea, thankyou. I hope others follow you lead.

Re: Appeal to other Ebay sellers
 

Well, I tried but one of the scammers must have complained. I assume it was the highlighted section that got my "auctions" closed. I think I am going to retry this again, but offer a software tool for sale for checking the memory of a player. Any funds earned will go to relisting the same auction.

Dear alberta_satellite,
We appreciate that you chose eBay to list the following listing(s):

140072160246 - BEWARE 4GB MP3/MP4 PLAYER SCAM - FREE INFO
140071936467 - BEWARE 4GB MP3/MP4 PLAYER SCAM - FREE INFO
140071970927 - BEWARE 4GB MP3/MP4 PLAYER SCAM - FREE INFO

However, your listing was in violation of eBay's Compilation and Informational Media policy and has been removed from eBay. All fees related to this listing have been credited to your account. We also notified members who placed bids on the item that the listing has been canceled.

We would like to take this opportunity to let you know what part of your listing is not permitted.

Your listing(s) contains the following information:
Listed in category: Consumer Electronics > MP3 Players & Accessories > Apple iPod, MP3 Players > Other MP3 Players

BEWARE 4GB MP3/MP4 PLAYER SCAM - FREE INFO!!!

Listings that include compilations or informational content on any media must:
- Not contain any cross category information
- Only be listed in the "Everything Else > Information Products" category.
- Not be combined as a bonus item with any other listing.
- Not contain any specific brand names or keywords unless the listing is offering the item in question.
- Not contain excessive use of keywords to describe the contents of the compilation or informational media.
- Not offer information on how to either purchase specific items or receive them for free, outside of eBay.
- Not provide lists of URLs that offer buyers the opportunity to purchase items outside of eBay.

For more information on Compilation and Informational Media visit the following Help page:

http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/compilation.html

IMPORTANT NOTICE: If you relist this, or any other item that violates eBay policy, your eBay privileges could be suspended. We value you as a member of our community and wish to continue this relationship, so we must ask you to refrain from further violations of the User Agreement and eBay policy.

Please review eBay's Listing Policies and User Agreement at the following locations:

http://pages.ebay.ca/help/sell/policies.html
http://pages.ebay.ca/help/policies/user-agreement.html

For more information on why eBay removes listings, or to write to us with questions, please review the following Web page:

http://pages.ebay.ca/help/confidence/listing-ended.html

We thank you in advance for your cooperation.

Regards,
eBay Trust & Safety

I just noticed that Ebay removed your listing.

I'll tell ya, sellers posting and exposing this fraud should be applauded. Maybe I'll do the same thing.

I am definately fighting with Ebay about them locking me out of their messaging system. So maybe I'll strike back with an auction myself :twisted:

Second attempt - this isn't how I wanted to do this, but if Ebay wants to play games...


http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=140072316917

AlbertaSatellite,

I would be interested to see what you posted in that auction though (as it has been removed).

Maybe you can share with us what you wrote?

I think you've got a great idea.

Well, they deleted all the original auctions, so I can't cut-n-paste. But it was the same as the existing one, but not actually "selling" anything. I only added the line about "Check your player with this software tool and guide!", "Contact me for more information about this issue. I can supply you with website addresses to read more details." (I had this website and a couple of other ones listed) and I added this "All proceeds from this auction go to relisting this item."

They have no legitimate reason to pull the auctions now.

I think that looks pretty good and seems to follow the guidelines.

Though there is that line that saids:
"Everything Else > Information Products" category. I don't think you posted in that category.

Maybe we should all bid on this and help keep it going and show we are all wanting this product because we feel ripped off :)

By the way, I made the first bid on it. OK, on this one posted I was.

But we have another one:

Bid on this Alberta's auction here.

Oh, and buy the way... Leave positive feedback when you win ;)

AS: Don't forget to stagger the number of days... all your info auctions are on 6 days... should have some less than 6 days.

Re: Appeal to other Ebay sellers
 

I applaud your ad, its a wonderful thing! I hope you might consider adding a couple of things. I believe it could be more effective if you specify which players might have less than 4GB. As it stands, you pretty much cover the entire market of 4GB+ mp3/mp4 as being possibly hacked. This definition you've chosen also includes the Apple Nano's which (if genuine) are not hacked. It might have the effect of people dismissing your ad and not listening to the message. We know that ALL Nano clones above 2GB are hacked, and most (if not all) NO-NAME Chinese MP4 players. If you specify that, then you can better target your audience and make your point.

On a technical point of order, you tell people that formatting their hacked players under windows will reveal the true memory. Not so, as I understand things. I tell people the opposite in my 4GB Fake Guide, that the players hacked firmware can easily fool Windows format command. The only true way I know of to properly format your player to check for a hack is using the method described here in the hacked player thread, which employs a double low level format that utilizes the encryption and decryption method.

I realize you (probably) can't mention this site in your ad under eBay's rules, and you do have to be careful with this ad. But I believe you can link to sites on eBay, so since I mention mympxplayer.org, you might wish to add a link to my FAQ (The Official 4GB+ Fake Nano Clone Guide) in your ad.

Lastly, there's a spelling error in this line: "The flash memory in these players if the highest cost ..."
^^^ (is)