For those of you that buy stuff on ebay, I thought I would share this.  My dad had been looking at this Fuji Camera acution for the last couple weeks http://search.ebay.com/fuji-finepix-s3_W0QQsofocusZbsQQsbrftogZ1QQcatrefZC6QQfromZR10QQcatrefZC6QQftrtZ1QQftrvZ1QQfsopZ1QQfsooZ1   for fake eBay auctions for S3 camera.  They are easy to spot because the auctions start  for under $50 dollars.  When you look at these auctions you will find a email address to contact them before bidding on the auction.  This is a scam to have you send them money by Western Union to an address outside the US.  If you send them $900 right away they will give you two lenses or something like that.  You will never see the camera or what ever they have up for auction!!!   When he clicked on the third fake eBay auction to bring up the auction window a eBay sign in page came up instead. So he hit the backspace key to get the listing again.  The listing came up with the sign in page again.  Before he did anything else he copied the web address which was not in this country! (BUSTED)  So this time he put in wrong information to see what would happen and it came up with a page error see the webmaster!  At least eBay had it removed within five minutes of it being reported. He also found another one with a fake seller page that wanted you to give your password & info to that he reported. After he told me about it, I signed in a found another one just like it within a few minutes!

According to a US Today article, most of these auctions are coming out of the Czech Republic and the mob is behind it. (Guess they are looking into alternative income streams)  If you play along with them they will give you a address in the Czech Republic to send the money to using Western Union.

Any time you come across a scam like this or are suspicious of something that seems too good to be true, you can report it at spam@ebay.com.   I'm sure there are variations of this scam for other items on eBay and other auction sites as well.

To make sure your account is secure, go to "my eBay" and check to see if you have anyone authorized to use your account. If so, report it immediately to eBay as well as your financial institution that you use online.

So the next time you are on eBay looking for a new camera, be careful.  If it sounds to good to be true, it probably is! -Charles