GARMIN Scams --BEWARE! : eBay Guides

This concerns all GPS units (aviation, personal, marine, etc).

Really quickly for those of you who like to just get to the point .... THERE ARE A LOT OF SCAMS DEALING WITH PORTABLE GPS SYSTEMS.

Specifically if you've found a Garmin 396 or Garmin 496 for less than $1000 and the seller's email address is in the listing stating "Email me to BUY IT NOW for $400" or something rediculous like that, you should read on ....

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You think you found your dream GPS for a third of the cost, huh?

Don't feel like a sucker, I'm a Powerseller and have well over 1,000 transactions under my belt and I still wanted to believe it was true.

More than once (and now they seem to be popping up everytime I search for Avionics / GPS units) I've discovered a GPS for well below what it's worth (in this case let's say a Garmin 396 for $99 NO RESERVE). Upon closer inspection of the listing I read: "Email me at somedumbemail98989-at-yahoo.com to buy this unit for $400 FREE SHIPPING -- buy 2 and get a huge discount!". A huge discount? These things are currently selling retail for about $2200!

I actually emailed the guy and told him I would buy every single unit he had for that price. I received an email back shortly from a Romanian IP Address stating that "I'm currently in Spain and cannot accept PayPal, the only payment I can accept is Western Union ... but dont worry it's all protected by eBay and 100% safe".

Ummm,,,.... no.

When you take a closer look at the seller's account, you'll notice most of the time the seller has a history of being a BUYER, not a seller ... and if he/she did ever sell anything it was more along the lines of a homeade purse .. not avionics.

Don't fall for these scams .. it's obvious the user's ID has been hijacked and the seller is a fraudster. It sure would be great to get a $2200 GPS for $400, but I guess today just isn't the day.

Stay safe by using PayPal or an escrow service when dealing with a questionable seller or when it seems too good to be true. For added protection, read up on the eBay Buyer Protection Polices.

Never pay for your eBay item using instant cash transfer services such as Western Union or MoneyGram or by recharging someone's prepaid credit card. These methods are not safe to pay people you do not know personally. These payment methods are also not eligible for the eBay buyer protection programs.

I like to even take it a step further and request the seller's phone number (request a land line #), call the seller and touch base and then use superpages.com to reverse lookup the number to verify the person is who they say they are. You've now made positive contact with a person who can be held responsible if something goes wrong.

I'm not suggesting that because a listing is dirt cheap it must be a scam ... just use some common sense. If the buyer insists on some payment method other than what you're comfortable using, DON'T BUY FROM HIM.

If you found this info helpful, please click the "YES" button below (it helps my reviewer ranking). Thanks, hope the info helps!

-Mike