[geeks] FYI - crazy offer from Microsoft Live, eBay, PayPal (25% cashback)

[Dan Sikorski]

Patrick Giagnocavo wrote:
> Imagine a two friends living in separate towns, each with separate 
> eBay and PayPal accounts.
>
> Friend A lists a $2000 item (say a pair of speakers) BIN.
>
> Friend B "buys" the item, gets the maximum amount back ($250).
>
> Then they do the reverse, each one paying the fees etc. out of their 
> own pocket.  And walk away with over $450 between themselves.
>
> Fraudulent to be sure, but how would such a situation be detected?
Well, i suppose they might try to find people who "sell"  three things 
to each other.  Certainly if you had a handful of people involved, say 
four, you could buy and sell one thing to each person.  List things that 
you actually do have, but would be overpriced at $1000 (but with free 
shipping ;) ) so that on the chance that someone outside of your group 
bids, you actually do have the item to ship (and will happily sell it 
for your inflated price.)  The bigger the group, the harder it would be 
to detect.

    -Dan Sikorski