A laptop for £50? pull the other one

[Shapers]

BARGAIN hunters in Liverpool paid out hundreds of pounds for decrepit cameras and kitchen knives after being scammed by tricksters.

People turned up in their droves to an “ex-catalogue sale” at the Manor House pub, Kensington, hoping to walk away with electrical goods and computers at knock-down prices.

But some, after handing over cash, found they had been tricked into paying out for virtually worthless goods.

A flyer was posted through local doors in the week before last Sunday’s sale, offering the top-of-the-range goods at bargain prices.

One man was shown a laptop in a box and told he could have it for £50. He was given a sealed up box in exchange for his cash, but when he got home, found it contained a metal flask and a kitchen knives.

Another man handed over £120 for a laptop and was told it would be delivered to his home, but it failed to materialise, while a third thought he was paying for a state-of-the-art digital camera, only to find he had been duped into buying a camera at least 20 years old.


Andy Pennington, a plumber from Wavertree, said: “I came down hoping to buy a Nintendo Wii (worth up to £300) for £40. I thought it sounded too good to be true and it was.”


Trading standards officers want to hear from anyone at the sale and anyone who handed over cash.


A spokeswoman said: “Special sales are held across the country, offering “bankrupt” or “liquidated” stock at bargain prices.


“By a combination of hard-sell techniques, psychological pressure and confusion, customers can be led into paying hugely inflated prices for sub-standard goods.”


Contact Liverpool trading standards on 0151-233 3002.


Don’t be conned by the Arthur Daleys

ALWAYS examine goods carefully before buying.

Salesmen who give free items, reduce prices after bidders have made an offer, or restrict bids to certain sections of the audience are likely to be committing an offence under the Mock Auctions Act 1961.

Always obtain a property receipt, and get a note of the trader’s name, permanent address and where possible a telephone number.

Think before parting with your money. Make sure you have not just been caught up in the excitement created by the organisers at the auction.

Beware of bidding for unknown items in one lot. You are probably not going to get a good deal.

The people who seem to be getting the bargains could be phoney customers planted in the crowd.


http://icliverpool.icnetwork.co.uk/liverpoolecho/news/echonews/tm_headline=a-laptop-for--pound-50--pull-the-other-one%26method=full%26objectid=19069779%26siteid=500 61-name_page.html

[steveb]

This scam was shown on a BBC program called the real hustle.
It pays to see the goods in the box before handing over any money.
It proves the point though that nearly everyone want's something for
nothing :)

[Cloggie]

It's true, we'd all like something for nothing but as u get on years - like wot I have - u realise if u want something u have to paid hard cash for it!! If it's going ridiculously cheap then there's something wrong.........obviously!:shock:

[lindylou]

I thought people would be well used to these scams by now. They have been going for years. :rolleyes:
I thought everyone knew that these so called bargain sales are a rip off.

You only get what you pay for. I don't buy from street sellers or door to door callers or tatty market stalls, If I want something I buy it from what I call a 'proper shop' - a reputable shop.
As for those 'auctions' or 'sales' they are a joke.

[theninesisters]

I remember years ago - about 15 years ago this happened to me. There was a shop in town where I was passing and being a young chappie, the lure of paying £5 for a walkman was too good to resist. You go in, there's two large chaps taking your money who even Max wouldn't argue with, and then pay your £5 in exchange for something that doesn't work. There 'were' bargains for the lucky one or two but they were probably part of the set up.

In a word E-bay is the same these days, what's to stop you asking your mate to bump up the price a bit for an item you want a lot of money for?

[Shapers]

Reminds me of an episode of Bread were Jack Boswell buys what he thinks is boxes full of Ghetto Blasters, only to discover its only 2 of them with Apples under them filling out the boxes.

[Max]

I remember years ago - about 15 years ago this happened to me. There was a shop in town where I was passing and being a young chappie, the lure of paying £5 for a walkman was too good to resist. You go in, there's two large chaps taking your money who even Max wouldn't argue with, and then pay your £5 in exchange for something that doesn't work. There 'were' bargains for the lucky one or two but they were probably part of the set up.

In a word E-bay is the same these days, what's to stop you asking your mate to bump up the price a bit for an item you want a lot of money for?

There was a shop like that you described opposite central station a year or so ago I think. Apparently they keep on the move I think too.

[Gerard]

I remember years ago - about 15 years ago this happened to me. There was a shop in town where I was passing and being a young chappie, the lure of paying £5 for a walkman was too good to resist. You go in, there's two large chaps taking your money who even Max wouldn't argue with, and then pay your £5 in exchange for something that doesn't work. There 'were' bargains for the lucky one or two but they were probably part of the set up.

In a word E-bay is the same these days, what's to stop you asking your mate to bump up the price a bit for an item you want a lot of money for?



Its called Shill bidding on Ebay Jona..Goes on all the time..
The big bump generally comes from sellers who have a what appears to be good feedback,on checking their feedback it all comes from people who have only low feedback themselves..I.E..done one or 2 deals themselves on ebay..
These are all mates..suddenly the fella with hundreds of what appears to be great feedback will then put a Rolex or something on and his mates will all bid to a certain price and then stop..
A genuine bidder will up the price and pay grands and be ripped off..
I was after a watch box and noticed one in Germany..I bid and all of a sudden someone came in at the last minute and outbid me..
The seller put another one on and the same thing happeend..
And it happened again..The people who were winning these Items were not leaving any feedback so I started watching this sellers activities over a month..
Same thing over and over..all the buyers were from Germany and none left any feedback...All were registered on Ebay from the same time in 1993 or something.
What was happening was I was the only genuine party interested in the Item but I would only go to a certain price,
The seller obviously wanted more and was not going to let me have it so thats where his mates came in with 2 minutes to go and out bid me.

I reported all this to Ebay,Names,Dates, Info on all the conmen concerned and Ebay did nothing about it.
Ebay is the most unscrupulous,greedy organisation ever..so is Paypal which is Ebays company.
You pay Ebay fees for selling something and then you pay them again through Paypal..
A way around it !!..Sell your Item for 99p and charge £50 (or whatever your Item is worth) in P+P charges....Ebay wont get much percentage out of the sale as they take it from the Item price and not the P+P.

[Ged]

I must be lucky because i handed over 50 quid for what I thought was a flask (because I was amazed how it knew what was hot and what was cold) - Oh yes, there were some knives in there too and when I got home, hey presto - A lap top - just what i'd always wanted. How do those flasks work by the way, as I never did get to dismantle it?

[Sloyne]

Not all web based auction sites are rip-offs. I introduced friends to an online vacation auction site and they won the first item they bid on, for $1.00. each + taxes of $122.00 each. The item was a week long Caribbean cruise with Norwegian Caribbean Cruise Line.

My rule is to bid, in an auto bid, the amount that I will pay for the item then sit back and let things unfold. I never "up the ante" no matter how much I like the item.

[Paul D]

This is the oldest scam in the book,will people ever learn.:disgust:

[Kev]

That reminds me about the Irish fellas in the white van (http://www.yoliverpool.com/forum/showthread.php?t=2556). It also takes me back to a time I spent 3 years in Kensington and was in a house off Holt Rd. This fella was knocking on people's doors offering cheap booze from a pub on Kensington (top of Holt Rd). We just had to give him money and we would go up and he would deliver the ale. So I was nominated to escort the man upto the pub. I did, he went inside and after about 10 minutes of waiting around, he was never to be seen again. He was a Manc.

[AntiPathos]

...
Ebay is the most unscrupulous,greedy organisation ever..so is Paypal which is Ebays company...

Roll on Google's competitor...

[snappel]

Andy Pennington, a plumber from Wavertree, said: “I came down hoping to buy a Nintendo Wii (worth up to £300) for £40. I thought it sounded too good to be true and it was.”
There's no such thing as a free lunch. Of course it was too good to be true! As if you'll get a laptop for £50! If people are stupid enough to hand over money to scammers like this, in some pub in Kenny, then I have no sympathy.

[SteveFaragher]

shoudlnt the pub shoulder some of the responsibilty with his one?

[SteveFaragher]

the first time I ever saw this type of false auction was in the foyer of the old Tatler cinema in late 1974 (I was catching a bus on Church street after going to art school showing me age there), they were selling a cheap pen set for a £1 (lot of money then) then they wanted a fiver before you coudl bid on anythting else, they locked you in and had bouncers on the door, it was a bit like a nazi rally in that people got carried away totally.

other scams Ive either seen include, "italians" selling leather coats, buying expensive (oh no they're not) hi-fi speakers out of a van, and the ones I love the most nigerian 419 scammers on the internet (419killer.com)

[steveb]

There are so many Internet auction/buying scams it is unbeleivable.
I use Ebay both as a buyer and seller, and touchwood over the years,
4 so far, I have only had one problem with a seller not delivering the goods.
I have had loads of,"offers", were a prospective buyer says hewill buy the goods and send a large amount of money to my bank account and all I need do is take the cost of the item plus a percentage and send him back the
money left, yeah right, money laundering at it's best. My advice is when
using ebay or similar, set your limit, never deal with African countries and allthough Paypal take a small percentage, you are better using them rather
than take western union, bank transfers, or indeed personal cheques unless
you wait for them to clear