They implicitly trust the facilitator of the transaction. It's a variation on the "greater fool" scam. They think it's the old days where the auction house had any skin in the game, they're not wise to the old (in this case almost 30 year old) silicon valley grift: we profit off a scam, but [ its such small amounts/backed by enormous VC capital/"safe" (for the scammer) harbor/ done across state lines/authorized by predatory ToS (with arbitration clause) ] that the victim is powerless. Thanks for playing, better luck next time :D
Bingo. Some rich shmuck who's collecting Imagineering memorabilia and Avatar 3D movie cutouts will see that on Ebay and think it's a great deal. Maybe another 20 such people ignore it because it's sketchy (or because they read an article like this), but somebody less-informed will take the risk and give the seller a profit.
When I first read the article, my knee-jerk reaction was that this is a victimless crime. If you pay $700 for a laminated square that has an Apple employee on it, you probably shouldn't get upset when your due-diligence fails you and it's a fake.
You sneakily jump from "victim is trusting" to "victim is powerless"
Yes the victim is trusting because he probably won't think to authenticate the fake.
The victim is not powerless, actually. the victim has all the power to get money back. many stories how very easy to get a transaction reversed with paypal/ebay and leave the seller holding the bag, even if the seller is legit.
> The victim is not powerless, actually. the victim has all the power to get money back. many stories how very easy to get a transaction reversed with paypal/ebay and leave the seller holding the bag, even if the seller is legit.
Ebay's policies have substantially reversed from where they were in the past and the scammer's know it. Make sure to always pay for ebay with a credit card to be confident that you can reverse fraudulent transactions.
eBay sneakily allows the listing to be posted in the first place, even though they have access to the same information as the rest of us. They trust that there will always be a greater fool, they trust that they can claim "we didn't know! you assume the risk when you buy this stuff, we're just a third party ", again, SV shenanigans. Not innovation or even an honest business.
