Monday, November 27, 2006

PS3 and Wii Scams are in full bloom on eBay

Make sure you read carefully before bidding on a Nintendo Wii or Sony Playstation 3 gaming console on eBay. Several sellers are attempting to mislead buyers into believing they are purchasing a game system, when in fact they are simply purchasing an email address from one of the free email providers. Below are two screenshots of this scam as seen through gumshoo's auction analyzer. Note that in both cases, gumshoo's auction analyzer has flagged the listings as suspicious for one or more reasons.


Above: A seller lists an email address for sale with a Buy It Now price of $500!


Above: Another seller is looking to take advantage of Nintendo Wii fans who are not paying close attention.

Happy Cyber Monday

The holiday season is all about hype and Cyber Monday is yet another example of that. According to news reports I overheard while doing some online shopping, online shopping sites should see the highest traffic of the year. However, the biggest sales numbers will come about 2 weeks into December (when people will be biting their nails in hopes that their package will arrive before Christmas).

Speaking of hype, two new gaming systems have beeen released just in time for the holidays. The problem? They've only released about 1/4 as many as can keep up with demand. As a result, eBay is all abuzz with sales of Nintendo Wii and Sony PS3 systems. If you're desperately seeking one of these systems for the holidays, be prepared to pay roughly double the retail price. Also be prepared for scam artists. Pricey electronics that are in high demand always attract unsavory characters. Shopping eBay with gumshoo.com is a great way to give yourself some additional information when you need to decide whether or not to place that bid.

Tuesday, November 14, 2006

Service Interruptions

You may have noticed that gumshoo is not its usual, reliable self these days. We've noticed too and we are in the process of fixing the problem. We apologize for the downtime and we thank you for your patience.