A close relative rang me today. “You can get plasma TV’s for €60 on eBay”, she said. Continuing the conversation, she went on to say that it was in fact a Garda auction and they were selling off goods that were never reclaimed.
Although it sounded too good to be true, I’d hate to think that I could miss out on a deal like this!
So I ventured off on my merry was to eBay.ie to see what I could find. I searched for “Garda” first just to see what came up and unsuprisingly there were no results. So I thought I’d be better off searching for “Plasma” since that’s what I was told they were selling. The search for plasma gave me the results that I was expecting, “GAR DA AUCTlON PHILIPS 50″ PLASMA TV 8O%OFF RETAlL PRlCE“. Since they had clearly spelt “Garda” wrong, it was obvious that this was definitely a scam.
Looking a little deeper, you could see that the seller had over 180 positive comments - however, they were all made today and generally by the same person, who had spect € with them.
I really feel sorry for those people that have purchased something from them since they have in fact purchased 80% off the retail price of whatever the item sells for in the next Garda Auction and not a TV at all.
This person had many other items for sale such as Sony PS3 for €64, Sony Vaio for €64… God, wouldn’t it be great if they were eh?
But anything that is this good, you know it can’t be true!
Purchased from Garda Auction last night ,just read message from A Friend that It a Scam ,is there anything that can be done to retreive my Payment as I took it that payment through PayPal was Secure
Report the item as non-received and start a claim through paypal Saoirse.
I purchased a tv as well got onto paypal they are investigating it now HAVE TO WAIT 30 DAYS so I hope it all goes well
I purchased the PS3 as well. I made a claim with PayPal. Can anyone tell me if they have got there money back.
if u purchased an item of them how do you re-claim through paypal
Hi i purchased a tv too, sure it was a complete scam , i filed a claim through pay pal to and i hope it works out. I just want to know is my credit card safe when i paid through pay pal
Amazingly in view of date of this posting,i.e. March, Ebay and Paypal despite their vaunted ‘Prevention of Fraud Programs’ are still accepting such items in June!
Wish I had seen this before.
this auction was on again last weekend. i nearly got sucked in. same deal .the feed back was all from same person. i tried to contact ebay by phone but there is no number… unreal. so i sent about five emails to them. the GAR DA auction was still up that night saying 50mins left but there was a new one up saying 5hr countdown. i cant believe that EBAY are not even monitoring the emails regarding security and false auctions. wake up EBAY . i still have had no reply from anyone…
to report the auction to ebay you need to click the link at the bottom of the page and follow the choices. it works but can be a slow process. thanks for all those who take the time to do that, its makes ebay safer for the honest people.
LIKE EVERYBODY ELSE HERE I TOO WAS CONNED BY THIS GA RDA SCAM.
PURCHASED AN ACER LAPTOP FOR 62 EURO, KNEW IMMEDIATLELY THAT I HAD BEEN CONNED. CONTACTED PAYPAL WHO THEN CLOSED DOWN ALL THEIR EBAY LISTINGS.
EVENTUALLY PAYPAL TOTALLY SIDED WITH THE SCAMMER AND REFUSED TO ACKNOWLEDGE ANY SCAM WHATSOEVER.
I KNEW I WAS NOT ALONE IN THIS AND YOUR SITE CONFIRMS IT.
WOULD HAVE LIKED PAYPAL TO ADMIT THIS SO I COULD NO LONGER FEEL CONFIDENT PURCHASING ANYTHING THROUGH THEM.
eBay seem to be doing this a lot lately. I’m a it disappointed with them.
They refused to do anything about a seller who blatantly lied about my in their comments. They seem to be favouring protecting the seller now more than ever.
The auctions are up and running again today !!
Hi, I just got sucked in too, but haven’t paid for the items… a sony laptop for 52 quid. Does that mean I’ll have to pay or what?
FOR GODS SAKE DO NOT PAY PAYPAL WILL NOT REFUND AS I KNOW TO MY COST.
i agreed to buy a ps3 but didnt pay.have i broken a contract with ebay??