Is this a scam?

[flyingharp]

A few weeks ago, while trawling eBay, I came across a 5.57ct F/VVS1 for sale at *ONLY* £6000 (USD 10,000 approx). Very curious... There was only a sample picture and a copy of the GIA cert (very impressive!)

A search of P/S revealed the EXACT same diamond offered for sale by Dirt Cheap Diamonds, although a pricematch symbol made me wonder if they were only brokering it.

The seller''s location was listed as a housing scheme that I know well, and I seriously began having doubts (although the alarm bells had starting ringing long ago!) especially, as this was the seller''s first sale, and his 3 previous purchases had been rock-concert tickets! (Having said that, perhaps this just happened to be a mega-rich rock fan...

)

My question is: does this happen often? Has anyone come across this? I noticed this one because it was so blatantly obvious (a 5.57ct diamond doesn''t crop up every day!)

But the old saying about free lunches still applies - if it looks too good to be true...

 

[dimonbob]

Listen to your alarm bells. Something has to be wrong. Maybe its an honest mistake, maybe not. Maybe a zero is missing.

People, I have learned over the years that when your alarm bells ring, it is time to be somewere else!

 

[Richard Sherwood]

Yeah, that should be more like a $100,000 stone.

Nobody's gonna sell a stone like that for $10,000 when they could walk to their nearest estate dealer, jeweler, or diamond dealer and get FAR more than that for it.

It's most likely a mistake or a scam.

 

[flyingharp]

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On 11/8/2003 4:56:12 PM Richard Sherwood wrote:



It's most likely a mistake or a scam.

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Well, the bidding actually started at £530, the £6000 was the last bid, which makes it even more certain it's a scam.

Should things like this be reported, and who to?

 

[fire&ice]

Yes, to ebay safeharbor.

It's a rapant problem. A few friends have been victums of "photo stealing". They have photo's on their gallery websites that they have in inventory. The pics & description of the item have been pirated; and, the object *supposedly* put up for ebay auction. Most of the bogus activity was coming out of Thialand.