To avoid getting scammed, you need to know who you deal with. If you are a BUYER who looking for high price items, You will deal with ROMANIAN SCAMMERS once.

ROMANIAN SCAMMER are mostly act as a SELLER while NIGERIAN SCAMMER are mostly act as a BUYER. These  ROMANIAN SCAMMERS are got bigger brain than their cousins (NIGERIAN SCAMMERS) in terms of: hijacked account, auctioning bogus items, deal with html code or flash for fake website, etc). They are two opposite of scams type. ROMANIAN SCAMMERS are wants your MONEY while NIGERIAN SCAMMERS are wants your stuff for free!.

Please read more below.

If You are a buyer, you need to pay attention to avoid getting scammed by these crooks/ ROMANIAN SCAMMERS.

PLEASE CLICK "ME" next to my ID/ under the picture on the right To see sample of a FAKE paypal and a FAKE ebay e-mail, also a sample of a fraudulent item.

IT IS LIKELY 99.99% A FRAUDULENT ITEM IF:

--ITEM LISTED IN WRONG CATEGORY. example: a LEICA M7 35mm rangefinder camera listed in: Crafts > Sewing > Sewing Machines & Sergers > Singer. WHY? if the crook listed the item in the right category, it is so easy got spotted by many photographic equipment enthusias and they will reported this item to ebay soon. Do not feel lucky if you find an item in WRONG CATEGORY!.

--Seller posts an email address on the auction (not a BUY IT NOW price) asking buyers to contact them BEFORE bidding because they have a (VERY LOW) buy it now price and you can have it for that amount . That means that it is a STOLEN/ HIJACKED ACCOUNT, and they will ask buyers to send money (outside Ebay) via Western Union or any banks wire transfer after or while the auction still run, usually to foreign countries like ROMANIA, BULGARIA, ITALY, UK etc. Telling you that they need the money right away because they need to buy medicines, pays the hospital expenses for their uncle, niece, grandma or whoever. That is their reason why they sell the items so cheap.

--The BUY IT NOW price offered is so cheap.

--You won an item and the seller ask you to pay via WESTERN UNION or BANK WIRE TRANSFER. BUT in the auction page is stated accept PAYPAL payment.

How to spot a HIJACKED ACCOUNT? The hijacker who now is "the seller" is revised or upload an item stated that their e-mail is not working for some reason so you need to e-mail them directly from their provided e-mail on the auction. WHY? because if you hit "ASK SELLER A QUESTION" button, ebay will also forwarded that e-mail to the original owner e-mail address, so that the original owner of that account will know about it even they can't access their ebay account. They can still call ebay or using relatives account to report this issue. Here is a clear sample of HIJACKED ACCOUNT: http://members.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewUserPage&userid=realcameras

--ALWAYS check/click "SELLER'S OTHER ITEMS" or their feedback history before you bid. USE YOUR IMAGINATION. be aware of seller with thousands of feedback who got their feedbacks from cheap items sold and suddenly offering a $5,000.00 CANON EOS 5D mark III for only $1,500.00. There is nothing wrong with selling cheap items, I did sometimes but the point is about unusual seller behavior. e-mail the seller by click "ASK SELLER A QUESTION" DO NOT e-mail seller by clicking the e-mail provided in the auction page.

-- When you click "VIEW SELLER'S OTHER ITEMS" there are hundreds valuable items auctioned, but nowdays/ crook's new trend will only posted 1 or 2 items because these crooks already knew that posting hundreds of item will only make it suspicious.

EXAMPLE: For auction is a Leica M8 digital rangefinder camera with box and accessories.  This camera is in mint condition and operates properly.  It was purchased earlier this year and has seen very little use.  I would guess it has less than 400 actuations on the shutter.  There are no marks or signs of use on the camera.  The bottom plate still has the plastic protective covering on it.  This camera delivers incredible results.I will include a Luigi leather half case made for the M8, plus 1 GB of memory, and an extra Leica battery.I WILL END THE AUCTION EARLY FOR $1500.00 !!!  contact me at Asedefac_at_aol.com or another crook's e-mail: svittengl9_at_aol.com (I have replaced @ with _AT_ so it can posted here).

--PICTURES were taken from some completed items. You can find them in COMPLETED ITEMS. type what you are looking for, check mark "completed items" then click SEARCH.

--Item listed in 1 day auction sometimes in 3 days auction. it can be in PRIVATE AUCTION or just in REGULAR AUCTION. Ebay new policy "member-specific information is not displayed in the bid history" is heaven to these crooks. you can't warns the bidders/ send them e-mail anymore.

ABOUT EBAY E-MAIL or PAYPAL E-MAIL:

EBAY and PAYPAL WILL NEVER ask you for password or any important log in information.  So, never ever click on a link in an email that (looks like) came from ebay that asks you or warns you to sign in direct from the link provided in that e-mail.  Save ebay original web page in your FAVORITE so you can click safely from the saved link:. Open a NEW internet browser, type in directly  www.ebay.com on that browser > click FAVORITE (top left of the page next to VIEW and TOOLS) > click ADD TO FAVORITES (you can add some folder in the FAVORITES). Always SIGN IN from the link mentioned above or open a new internet browser and type: www.ebay.com or www.paypal.com

NEVER EVER reply to any regular ebay e-mail (anyway, ebay will not allow you to reply directly in most cases). If the e-mail ask you to REPLY or SIGN IN, It is 99.99% positive that the e-mail is phising e-mail or spoof e-mail from crooks.

DO NOT BID on suspicious cheap item, when you placed your bid, they will get your e-mail address (any ebay seller can get bidder's email address). They will use your e-mail address to sign up many nasty things on the net from porn site to gambling site or send you a fake paypal or ebay e-mail, you name it then you will get thousands spams e-mail!.

Also when these crooks get a hold of your email address, they will send a fake email message to your email account, that looks like it came from paypal or ebay, and prompt you to log in directly from the message so they can steal your password. For example: you receive an email that looks like came from ebay from another user asking you a question about a certain item or from "paypal" told you that you have paid for an item and you dont know what is going on because you never bid or sold that item,. If you click on the "respond" button and type in your password they will steal your account and will use it for fraudulent transactions/ posted fraudulent items.
 
NEVER EVER FOR ANY REASON pays your winning item by WESTERN UNION or BANK WIRE TRANSFER to anywhere, even to within the U.S.  - Sending money to your relatives or friends are fine. I did many times.

BE AWARE pays the item with your personal check or money order. It is usually safe but you need to do some more research. go to superpages_dot_com or ZABA search (go to google and find the links mentioned), type in your seller's name and address or phone number. find out if it is legit. if you are not sure, call the number that show up in your search result. why? I have read in some website, they can use an empty house for their mailing address then open it's mail box anytime they want too. they can make a fake ID easily for cashing purpose. This usually happened to the high price items. not for a $20.00 DVD. Its not worthy.

NEVER EVER click the link(s) or pictures provided in that auction page. there are many software out there that can track and find which pages have changed once you click it, and collect all the new content for them. The all information is presented to them in an email and/or a personal web page. They can specify when and what the changes will be collected, so they are fresh when they want to read the changes. It is possible that they can read your password. . . . .except you are not in "SIGN IN" status.

Another interesting findings: Go to ADVANCED SEARCH (next to SEARCH button on top ebay page) > click FIND ITEMS (on the left page) > Type in a suspicious e-mail address you found in the search box > check mark: Search title and description >choose: EXACT PHRASE > then HIT the SEARCH button.

Wants more info? just go to youtube and type in: NIGERIAN SCAMS or ROMANIAN SCAM You will able to see some of their face!.

To learn more about ebay spoof or phising e-mails: http://pages.ebay.com/help/confidence/isgw-account-theft-spoof.html

About Paypal spoof or phising e-mail: https://www.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_help&leafid=2104  >Type in spoof or phising then hit the SEARCH button.

If you found that this guide the least bit helpful, please take just 2 seconds to click the "yes" button below. The more people click that button the more chance other people will get to see this warning as well. Please see my other guide NIGERIAN SCAM and BIDDER SCAM.

Thank you, and safe bidding or buying for everyone.