HI all,
This is not at all Linux related, but know a lot of people here are pretty up to date on scams, etc. I just had a very odd set of transactions. I needed a part for the pool heater at my condo that was very expensive through normal contractors, and found the part online for less than 1/3rd the retail price.
It is a $750 part that I found for $225 on E-Bay. I ordered the part, and several days later got notices from E-Bay and Paypal that the order had been cancelled and that my money was being refunded. The vendor gave no reason, and I did not think much of it and just went on to a second vendor on Bonanza.
Same thing, several days later I get notices from Paypal and Bonanza that my order was cancelled. Different was that a day later I got an email from the vendor explaining why it was cancelled. This is where it gets weird. The vendor claims the part was damaged in shipping. The part is a header (manifold), which is basically a big hunk of metal. It could get dropped out of an airplane and still probably not be damaged.
It smells like a scam, but I cannot figure it out. Both vendors only accepted Paypal, so it did not seem like they were directing me to a service that could get scammed. I checked the headers of all of the emails from E-Bay, Paypal and Bonanza, and none look to be spoofed. All of the money has been refunded per the emails.
It just smells like a scam, but I cannot figure out how it works, unless it is a simple bait and switch, and I never contacted either vendor before purchasing. Has anyone else run into anything like this.
Thanks,
Eric