Ebay is full of more than good deals.

I bid on a lens for my camera on ebay, and didn't get it. I only bid up to $885.00, basically because I forgot to watch the end of the bid. Well, very soon after the bid ended, I received a second chance offer. I'm not crazy about these deals, because I had all ready had someone try to take advantage of me.

I received my first email from the bidder, asking if I was interested. I said yeah. So they said that I would receive an email from ebay, and of course shortly after I did.

This one was from aw-confirm@eBay. com , so I knew it was legit. I was interested. I got a very complex looking email telling me all this crap, looked like it was straight. I scanned through, not paying attention to most of it. But here was the problem, I didn't want to use Western Union. Apparently, you have to use Western Union if you don't win the auction...

Alex and I looked for a Western Union all over Lex Vegas, I just couldn't find one, because Yahoo directions was wrong. I was upset, and really wasn't crazy about sending it through wire anyways.

So I just decided against it. I emailed the person back, and asked them if they would mind me paying through paypal, because I didn't want to use Western Union.

No response.

I decided that I would send it again. I really wanted that lens. I sent another email, just saying I wanted to pay with pay pal because I didn't trust paying through Western Union.

Boy was I in for a treat.

Here is the response I got from the person:

(Warning, message is copied nearly exact and does have foul language. I only partially edited this message, as I would like for people to realize how easily this happens and the attitude of those who do it. Parental guidance and censorship is advised.)

"I am a romanian scammer and I target greedy idiots like you that think you can get something brand new for less than half the retail price.

You need to grow a brain because ebay is full of scammers like me.

I hope you get scammed soon f***head you dumba**. "

Everything I told you sounded like it was the real thing, right up until that last response, right?
Here's what I've figured out.

• The original email from the person is a personal email, in which I shouldn't have gotten first if the seller had really done a second chance offer.
• When I received the email from aw-confirm@eBay. com, notice the space at the end of the .com. That was only the name used, the person had put aw-confirm@eBay. as their first name, and then com as their last name. The actual email after I looked closely wasn't anything to do with ebay, it was info-transaction@email.com.
• I never received any messages in my ebay account. Always look for those. You should be getting emails sent to your ebay account and your email. These guys are very good at convicing you it's real.
• Western Union is even advised against by ebay. Never ever try it. It and MoneyGram are the two most unsafe ways of transfering money between people who don't know each other.

I've turned this guy in through two complaints and I am confident ebay will take the proper actions to punish them. Ebay even locked down my other account after it was hacked.

Talk about your share of bad luck & shams.

The Doctor is out.