eBay Scam

[Gary Caulfield]

Warning to all!!!!

There are currently many auctions on eBay for Penn International Reels at absolutely crazy prices.

These are being offered shipping from China, but by USER ID in Germany, USA, Australia, New Zealand etc, anywhere except China.

In addition, these "sellers" want you to pay by Western Union or by Bank Transfer.

I have already had one of these fake sets of auctions removed by eBay, and having asked questions of other suspect USER IDs, have received strange answers, ranging from offering to send the goods if 1/2 of the winning bid is paid up front, with the rest on delivery, to ignoring my request for the serial number of the reel they are selling.

I can state all the above as I am the sole importer of these products into Europe.

There are many legitimate sellers of Penn products on all eBay sites worldwide, but please ask yourself, why would I be spending time & money warning everyone, particularly those of you outside of Europe, when I do not get a sale of a product.

I only want to see eBay used by legitimate sellers, using legitimate accounts, selling items they actually own.

Any concerned parties should feel free to contact me at gary@pennfishing.com and I will be more than willing to help in any way I can.

Sincerely,
Gary Caulfield
Penn Fishing Tackle Europe

[trigger fish]

i never get anything from ebay , because like you think its soo cheap u have to buy it .. its has been on the news too .

[Ben]

cheers for the heads up

[pingu]

thanks for info will be carefull

will also add watch out for cheep course tackle in next few weeks after last weeks big steal(10K) from major tackle show(midlands)

[MRG2000]

Great info Gary,i`ve used E bay a lot both buying and selling, and you do need to be careful,especially when the price is too good to be true...

[Simon TorbayFishing]

I too have been using ebay for a long time and it has saved me thousands of pounds.

Anyone who wants to be paid by weston union only or has really low or bad feedback gets ignored. I've lived by this rule and so far (touch wood) I've never been conned.

[gullyworm]

Thanks for the info,got to say ive never had a prob with e-bay,mind you i bought a new headlamp and have now been waiting 8 days

[Gary Caulfield]

Just a quick update guys.

Having just checked out "Penn" in eBay, and found 125pce of the International 50VSW for sale, all on 1-day auctions, all with ID's registered anywhere but China, where the item is supposed to be shipped from.

We are collecting a record these ID's and constantly keeping eBay advised of them.

To give you an idea of the amounts of money being "conned" out of people here - the RRP on a Penn International 50VSW is £850, and the buyer thinks he's getting a steal at buying the reel for about £150 + £50 p+p. In fact, the only stealing going on here is by the seller. So, £200 a time / 125 reels a day = £25,000! All of which is paid, without any trace of who it's going to, and therefore completely unrecoverable!

What actually startles me is the huge amount of people, (who must be even a little wary), who still buy anyway!!!

I know what the demand for the Penn International 50 VSW is, for the UK, Europe, USA and Worldwide - and without divulging trade information, it sure as hell isn't anywhere near 125pce PER DAY!!! So people must be "buying" these, just because it looks so cheap.

After a little digging, we have found that we are not the only tackle manufacturers having this problem. In fact, pretty much all products in all industries are being targeted.

I guess the old saying is right - "If it looks too good to be true..."

We will continue to fight this until all these "traders" are stopped. And thanks to all members who have emailed and posted their comments!

[Simon TorbayFishing]

Just did a search on the phrase.... wow that person has been busy putting that lot on and quite a number have bids.... hope the auctions gets closed down quickly!

Someone was stealing my bandwidth on Ebay.... look at what I replaced his photo with

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Abu-Conolon-Xo...QQcmdZViewItem

[Timberwolf]

i have just noticed that they have all dissapeared now that ebay has banned the use of western union payments and money transfers, this has been done with the support of the police to stop internet fraud.