Don't worry, some Nigerian did not run off with the numbers from some gift cards I bought at the pharmacy... however...
Ebay now has Classified Ad listings. And these transactions are not handled through Ebay AND they are not protected by Ebay purchase protections. And Ebay used to have a way to report listings for a variety of reasons, that I can no longer find a link to anywhere.
Let me start from the beginning... I have been on the lookout for a newer Macbook Pro, the one I am currently using is a 2014 model. I am a graphic designer, sort of, well I used to be for over twenty years working in a print shop. I got tired of that crap and quit, but I still dabble every now and then. I also started making video content and tried streaming gameplay... and that's where the newer computer search began.
The games I were playing were either able to run on my laptop or were played using GeForce Now, streaming online, either way not very taxing for my Macbook's video card or CPU. But streaming to Rumble using OBS was another story altogether. Since I was using a Mac with OBS, GPU rendering was completely out of the question, especially with an Nvidia video card. So I decided to start searching for either a separate computer to stream (maybe a Mac Mini just to push RTMP out from OBS) or a newer faster Macbook with a more current operating system that was just enough to stream at 1080p, 30 fps, without the stuttering and dropped frames I was getting. And thus began my search on Ebay.
I'm one of those weirdos that doesn't like to buy now, I prefer older and well tested, and for some reason I love trying to get older tech to work. I was searching for a Macbook that's just a little behind the times but still able to run the currently current version of MacOS. So I figured out the models that would fit my criteria and starting looking for whatever fit my budget. And I kept seeing a few listings at a good price for newer than what I thought I could afford... red flags went off immediately. Here's the first example:
See what I mean, not a bad price at all for an almost brand new Macbook Pro, however, laptops, especially Macbooks hold their value far beyond a standard computer. And besides, someone else had just sold the exact same thing for WAY more than that...
Hey wait a second, that is the EXACT same Macbook, it's the same pictures. Well surely AudiHans must have just borrowed the pictures for his Classified Ad listing, right?!?
Here we go, not that I'm interested in a Lenovo ThinkPad, but AudiHans is selling this one for a pretty decent price too... although, I thought his name was Hans, not Gary...
Wait a second here, he borrowed someone else's pictures AGAIN... directly from Gary's Tech Vault AND included the photo with the note that said "Gary's Tech Vault"?
Okay, obviously I know that this guy is scamming people, especially when he is flat out stealing people's photos and listing descriptions. Every listing he has, the description is all different lengths and formats, and run from very detailed to "Perfect condition.It comes with everything in the box" which was copied directly from Georgpurc_0's listing, even down to the missing space and the missing period at the end. And for every one he has in a Classifed Ad, I can find, via Google Image Search or searching the listing titles, the original sold listing that he stole from ON EBAY.
It used to be, on Ebay, that if a seller reported that your listing used their photos, your listing would be taken down. Now, you can't even report a listing at all.
Hey Ebay, you already had a scammer problem since the very early days. Why the hell would you add a feature to the site that almost encourages scamming AND you offer no protections against fraud. To top it all off, the seller, AudiHans, has a 100% seller rating with almost 1,000 sales BUT that has nothing to do with or is related to classified listings.
CAVEAT EMPTOR - the buyer can pound sand, sucker
Short preview of a new video coming out soon about the possibility of a strike by the IATSE union and what anyone with any creativity should be doing.
I am on the precipice of monetization on Youtube. Once the numbers update I will have passed the watch hour requirement and I am already past 500 subscribers. And it's all because of one A-Team parody video making fun of Joe Biden.
It all started In March of 2024 with my first video (don't watch it, it's horrible). WIth that first one out of the way, I kept going. Fast forward to the morning of July 4th, my A-Team parody was starting to get noticed a lot more than my other videos with 2,300 views and 35 subscribers.
Later that night, something crazy and miraculous happened...it really started to blow up. In one hour, between 7 and 8 pm, 15,000 views! My only idea as to why is that Americans enjoying their Independence Day picnics all decided to have a laugh at the expense of Biden after his horrible debate performance.
And it kept going...and going. My channel with 35 subscribers is now at 575. That ONE video in less than a week is now at 200,000 views! So thanks to every last one of my...
