The Wholesale List Scam

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the wholesale list auction appears to be a real auction for the particular item a buyer is looking for, while instead the auction is only for a list of "wholesalers" who sell that particular item.
Thus the buyer can be tricked into believing they are bidding on an expensive item at a cheap price; when in fact, they are bidding on nothing more than a useless list of wholesaler's names & addresses (it is useless because only retailers can buy from wholesalers, not regular consumers).
To clarify, let's say you're searching ebay for your laptop, and you decide you want a Sony Notebook®. You would then do a search for Sony Notebook® and a wide variety of auctions would come up.
Now here's the scam:

• During your search you may come across a few auctions for what appears to be the Sony Notebook® laptop, however they are at a much cheaper price then all other similar products listed for sale.

• After quickly looking through one of these cheaper auctions, it appears to be what you're looking for (a decent laptop at a good price) and thus you place a bid.

• If you go on to win the auction, the seller then contacts you requesting payment.
• Once payment is made you receive only a list of various wholesalers throughout the country, from which you are suppose to buy your product. This worthless list is instead of the actual laptop computer you had expected to receive
• Now if you try to contact the seller, he or she will probably point out some very small section of the auction which states "you are bidding on a wholesale list only, not the actual product."
• This section is often hidden somewhere within a big block of text, or in the middle of the item introduction, or at the very bottom of the page, and even in some cases it may only be implied.
• Since the buyer missed or simply misread this small piece of text, there is almost no recourse they have against the seller because "they got what they paid for".

Below is an example of one such misleading item:

These are clipping from a screenshot from a wholesale auction

Notice how the title of the auction is the same as it would be if you were selling an actual laptop; Or how it just plainly states "Wholesale..." instead of "Wholesale list only!" as it probably should. This is actually done on purpose to mislead buyers.
You should also take note that it is listed in the "Laptop" category, not the "wholesale" category, where it should be. (This also is done to purposely mislead buyers).
The description of the item is also very deceptive; below is the actual item description, exactly as it was layed out on ebay.

This is a Brand new "January 2003" List of Wholesale and below wholesale suppliers of Notebook Computers and accessories. Some under $100.00. No need to buy large lots or cases. Included free is my GOLD updated list with over a million products sold for pennies on the dollar. Sources for Closeouts, overstocked items and drop shippers. This is "not" a list of old discontinued items or reconditioned electronics.

The seller uses terms like "Brand New 2003" and "not discontinued or refurbished items" to make it seem like they're talking about a computer to someone quickly browsing the introduction.

Notebook Computer Product Highlights ·All-in-One Design ·High Performance P4 Desktop Processor ·Large LCD Display ·Communication Features · Advanced Graphic Engine ·Audio Capability & SPDIF Output ·Firewire (IEEE1394a) and USB ports ·Standard PCMCIA Slot ·Notebook Carrying Bag CPU: Intel P4 478-Pin 1.7GHz Desktop CPU @400MHz FSB Memory: 256MB High Speed DDR Memory, 2 SO-DIMM (Support up to 1GB) HDD: 30G Hard Drive Display: 15" XGA Active Matrix LCD w/ 1024x768 resolutions Secondary VGA & TV-Out (S-video) provided Video: SiS 650 Chipset, Integrated AGP-bus 2D/3D video processor for high performance graphics, Share Memory up to 64MB CD/DVD: DVD/CD-RW Combo Drive PCMCIA Slot: Support CardBus Type II Floppy: 1.44 Floppy drive (Removable) LAN: SiS 900 LAN Chipset, 10BaseT/100BaseTX support Sound: 4 built-in speakers, SB Compatible, AC97 Codec with SPDIF support Modem: 56K / V.90 HSP modem Mouse: TouchPad with 2 buttons I/O Ports: VGA 3x USB ports 1x 1394a Firewire IrDA Mic Line-out RJ11 (Modem) RJ45 (Lan) TV-Out 9 Cells Li-Ion Battery System Dimensions W x D x H (inch) 12.8" x 10.8" x 1.6" All sales final no returns PURCHASE PRICE BELOW WHOLESALE

The seller then goes on to describe the features of a Laptop (just any good laptop of course) hoping that the buyer will be mislead into believing this is what they are bidding on.

Why else would the seller list laptop features if they weren't trying to mislead the buyer, especially since it has nothing to do with the wholesale list for sale.

Pay me securely through PayPal or Money Order. S/H $17.00 US only.

Finally, the seller puts a large shipping and handling fee for the item. These shipping costs are realistic for the shipment of a computer, however since this list is being sent via email, the shipping and handling should be free.

Thus even the shipping charges can mislead the buyer into believing the item is an actual computer.