The Romanian Scammers

To describe these characters as persistent would be an understatement. To say they constitute TradeMe's biggest scam problem is bordering on the obvious.

They always list expensive items: plasma teles, Rolex watches, laptops, guitars, motorcycles, Nokia N95 phones... the more desirable objects of a consumerist society. And they're always selling for around a third of their real value.

The thing is, our Romanian friends are not running auctions. They don't give a damn who wins or whether the auction even runs to its natural end. These people only want to make email contact with gullible victims. That's it! That's when they start making their money.

The low prices quickly attract bids and the scammer tries to make email contact with the potential victim before he gets disabled. That's why you'll always find throwaway email addresses (Hotmail, Yahoo Mail or Gmail) listed in their auction descriptions.

Once contact is made the scammer will promise anything to induce his victim to send money. The average wage in Romania is around $200 a month, so every bit of cash he gets from kiwis goes a long way. On average our Romanians net close to one thousand New Zealand dollars for every successful scam they run. Not bad for a morning's work.

As a gesture of "goodwill" the scammer will often offer his victims a deal. "Send half of the money in advance, I'll dispatch the goods and only when you're happy with them do you send the balance."

There are no goods and numerous kiwis are being conned out of tens of thousands of dollars by these people every year. We say enough is enough.

Spotting a Romanian Scam

The Romanians almost always cut and paste genuine auctions from eBay. An obvious giveaway can be the little eBay watermark on the bottom right of their photographs (see photo). Note however that this watermark alone is not enough to declare an auction a scam. Sometimes the scammers crop stolen photos to remove this mark, and some genuine traders "borrow" photos from eBay.

If you suspect that an auction may be dodgy, try cutting the title and pasting it into an eBay search. If the scammer's lazy you'll probably find the same auction within minutes. Be careful though, as the scammer may have changed a word or two.

Another technique is to find a unique string of text or a mispelling in the auction description. Shove it into Google and you'd be surprised what may turn up.

For example, this image comes from a scam for a Fender guitar listed on TradeMe in February. Note the distinctive line, the capitilisation of the P in "plays" and the lack of a space after the comma.

FROM A SCAM AUCTION ON TRADEME

And here's the same piece of text in the eBay auction.

THE GENUINE AUCTION ON EBAY

Exactly the same text, punctuation and photographs.

Congratulations... you've just discovered a scam.

Other Warning Signs

This gang favours Hotmail, Yahoo or Gmail addresses, usually promise shipment via UPS and require payment via Western Union. Neither of these services are big in New Zealand.

The scammers often list their location as a small town like Te Anau or Raglan. ScamBusters often ask questions on their auctions like,

"I see you're in Dargaville. I'm just down the road in Queenstown. Can I pop in and view the plasma TV before I bid?"

A genuine kiwi trader will respond in a geographically correct manner, whilst the scammer will usually just offer you an email address.

Remember, these people are not running auctions - they need to make contact with potential victims if their scam is to succeed.

I've spotted a scam - what next?

If you spot a scam please report it to TradeMe via the Community Watch link at the bottom of every auction page. Unfortunately the practice of warning other traders via the message boards was outlawed by TradeMe, so our Romanians continued to find new victims every week.

You can also post scams on our forums. Experienced traders will be able to advise if you have any questions. TradeMe read our forums daily and generally take immediate action on any reported scams.

Related info

      Romanian phishing scams

      Main Scams page