What's the scam here...?

[PatrickG]

http://cgi.ebay.com/5-000-USD-Cash-Money-Mystery-Box-Envelope_W0QQitemZ9523846409QQcategoryZ102534QQrdZ 1QQcmdZViewItem

No. Really...

[sk716]

Only 4 feedbacks and they are from his/her buys, not sells.

And check out his other auctions:

http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQsassZscrQ5fcustoms (http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQsassZscrQ5fcustoms)

[Corsair]

The "pre-approved bidders only" bit generally indicates someone farming email addresses for a spamlist (especially on an auction of this particular stripe).

[stealthwise]

American money looks like Monopoly money.

[PatrickG]

If anybody's got a way to bust this guy and hold him liable for $17,005...

I'm willing to go in and split it evenly. :)

I think the trick on this...

http://cgi.ebay.com/5-Boxes-one-with-10-000-CASH-MONEY-Envelope-Mystery_W0QQitemZ9524467839QQcategoryZ102534QQssPa geNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

... is in the "could".

My take:

He's inflated prices by at least $5 on shipping in order to cover himself by putting $5 in every box. There's no guarantee of a $500, $1,500 or $5,000...

He IS guaranteeing a box with $10,000 and my feeling is that he or a friend has a dummy account to buy the 5th box so that four losers get $5 a piece. However, that violates eBay's Terms of Service and... if it could be proven... well... He keeps the top bidder's identity secret. Therein lies the rub.

There is no $10,000 box, I imagine... But he's got it rigged so that five friends never get more than four boxes. That's my guess.

So how would you prove this guy as a fraud? I'm sure he thinks his scheme is fullproof. But it's not.

Is there an effective way to report him?

[PatrickG]

Incidentally, a friend of a friend's girlfriend makes money on eBay using some kind of "mystery box" auction scheme.

So I wouldn't be quick to assume this is a farmer and not just a simple scammer.

[Crowley]

i think the best bet is to set up fake ebay accounts to go after the guy

[Red Berens]

I just checked the link and it's been pulled by eBay with a warning not to do instant money transfers.

[Azrael52]

Dammit! I wanna know I wanna know! What did I miss, guys?

[steeler80]

That was...interesting. I didn't get to see how many people had bid on it.

My favorite eBay auction of all time though has to be the one where you could bid on a person who you had to fly to where you lived and would beat you up in a sneak attack.

He'd also slap around members of your family for a little extra.