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Having a slightly odd experience selling my bike frame. I listed my it on eBay on Saturday night and on Sunday got a strange question asking if I was selling the frame on Facebook using the name of Samuel. Didn’t think much of it and got on with my day.
Later on I get another message from someone else saying that they’d just bought my bike of Facebook (for £80!). So asked if they’d send me photos of the advert, and sure enough they’ve ripped off my photos and used a fake Facebook account to try and sell it, even offering to deliver it too.
I’ve reported the Facebook account, but can’t think of anything else I can do to stop it? Anyone else got any ideas?
Here’s the eBay listing:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/324239599233
And the scammer:
Just tell the "buyer" to take it up with their "seller" because it's categorically not you and why would they think that getting a £600 frame for £80 is legit?
£90? doing you a favour really
I have no other advice to offer really
Saw this earlier, £150 for an evil frame.. no way it was on the up and up, and considering the price of bikes that ppl are selling on FB at the moment, anyone stupid enough to fall for it, is just that.. stupid (sorry to say). Latest ad I came across has a crappy woman frame bike going for £200 and the profit going to charity, hmmmm
Though yesterday there was a Kona stinky for sale, F/O all parts available according to the seller but no picture of the seat stays... seller was adamant he had them (I assume this is the part that breaks on old stinkys)
Not a lot you can do...
I’ve come across them quite a bit when trying to buy tickets to gigs from event pages before, just never seen it done bikes before.
It’s normally quite easy to spot the fake accounts though, as all their publicly viewable pictures are uploaded at exactly the same time.
Guy who messaged on eBay asked me to send another photo of the frame as proof, which I did, but that eBay account was setup this year and had no feedback. Wondering if I’ve just provided the scammer with another picture of the frame so they can try and prove they’ve got the frame 🤦🏻♂️
Dunno as it's anything to do with you? Someone scammed someone else by lifting your publicly available photos.
🤔 that’s very true Cougar. I guess because they’re my photos I kinda feel like I should do something, but you’re right it isn’t really affecting me
Guess the only thing anyone can do in future is watermark their photos (anyone got a free utility to do this?)
Take a photo of you holding the frame with your cock out. Either that or a photo with a note with their name saying date and time.
Guess the only thing anyone can do in future is watermark their photos (anyone got a free utility to do this?)
On the UK camera buy and sell FB group everyone has a piece of paper in each photo with their name and the date - makes it harder to re-use the photos.
Bit of a PITA but put a watermark across your images with your ebay username or if selling on fb your name. That said, £80 for that frame... Either the buyer thought it was stolen and wanted a bargain or they are completely unaware of what it actually is valued at.
Paper in the photo is another option but make sure it is right in the middle so can't be cropped. Although just at the edge will probably out the scrotes off enough.
🤔 that’s very true Cougar. I guess because they’re my photos I kinda feel like I should do something, but you’re right it isn’t really affecting me
Thinking about it, I suppose there's an outside chance someone might not believe you're two different people and report it to ebay? What the outcome would be there if anything at all I've no idea.
There again, you're presumably not in LA.
Do that on airgunforum as well, it cuts down scammers but doesn't prevent them.
Yeah, I had the same thing this week. Had my Whyte T-130 on eBay, and someone screen-grabbed the pics and used them to advertise a T-130 on Shpock in London.
I asked him to stop using my pics and his response was 'Yeah what ever 😡'.
Anyway, I flagged it with Shpock and thought no more of it.
What was weird though is my bidder (who tipped me off) contacted the bloke on Shpock, arranged to see it, and he did have a T130 same as mine (minus my upgrades obvs). So he bought it.
I just hope it doesn’t put people off. Had a third person asking if I am selling it on Facebook.
You should be OK. I was worried it would put people off, was going to put something on my ad saying mine was the legit one, but it sold with no issues. I'll do the watermark thing next time I think.