Ebay and NGC pre-filled information Can Be Used as a Scammer's Tool

poorguy

Attention:

The NGC information pre-filled into the ebay auction with the input of an NGC certification number can be used by scammers to take advantage of the trust buyers have for the pre-filled information being accurate.

For instance. I was setting up an auction today and entered information for a new coin without changing the pre-filled information from the previous coin I listed. When going to the review page I noticed the mistake I made and before entering the cert for the correct coin, I just looked over the other details to make sure they were correct. Upon looking over the auction I discovered that there is nothing to indicate that this NGC provided information did not coorespond to this coin.

This means that anyone with an NGC cert number can have that pre-filled information with population report used in the auction to falsely promote any coin!

Possible Scenario: If someone just has the picture of an MS65RB indian cent cropped out of the slab and locates the ngc cert number for an MS66RD indian cent of the same issue and uses that cert number to pre-fill the information NGC provides, this could be intently misleading. In the auction to the untrained bidder, this would appear that the coin being sold was an MS66RD when in fact it isn't. I'm sure by now bidders are "trusting" the pre-filled information because it is from NGC. While the information from NGC is correct for the correct cert number, it could potentially be used for malicious purposes to mislead and scam bidders.

It seems that eBay and NGC are covering their bases by stating: "The seller, <sellername>, assumes full responsibility for the content of this listing and the item offered. " When did this ever stop a scammer?

Everybody, please be careful when using this NGC pre-filled information. Make sure that you see the coin in the holder before you bid and buy from respectable sellers.

To prove this point I have set up an auction with an 1882-P morgan dollar in NGC MS65 but I used the cert number from an 1880-S NGC MS67 to prefill the information with seemingly "trustworthy" information. Notice that there is no prefilled information that indicates that it cooresponds with the coin in the auction.

Fake Auction for 1882 NGC MS67 Morgan Dollar

Don't worry about the javascript error. I scheduled the auction, saved the page on my server and quickly deleted it so it no longer exists as a true auction.


If somebody already posted this, the search for a topic like this came up empty.

TomB

I think I know what you are writing, however, you have to edit your text more in this post because it doesn't match what is in your pseudo-auction. The auction is titled as an MS67 Morgan yet in your text you are writing that it is an MS65. This leads to some confusion.

relayer

Well it lasted a good 3 weeks before somebody figured a way to cheat the system.

But if the auction is for a MS67 and you only get a MS65, I think the buyer would notice. You could do the same thing without the NGC pre-filled info.

Dog97

All you need now is linkage to the CU Price Guide and your scam auction will be ready for suckers.

poorguy

I think I know what you are writing, however, you have to edit your text more in this post because it doesn't match what is in your pseudo-auction. The auction is titled as an MS67 Morgan yet in your text you are writing that it is an MS65. This leads to some confusion.

No the text in my post is correct. The auction item is an MS65 1882-P but I am selling it as an MS67 using information from the certification number off an 1880-S MS67 pre-filling all of the pop reports and so called "trustworthy" information provided by NGC.

The NGC information is correct for the 1880-S certification number but in no way cooresponds to the 1882-P I am trying to slide by as an MS67. Nowhere in the prefilled information does it coorespond to the actual coin that the certification number uniquely defines. Therein lies the flaw. If they included the date, mintmark, and designation for pre-filled information then the problem would be solved.

But if the auction is for a MS67 and you only get a MS65, I think the buyer would notice. You could do the same thing without the NGC pre-filled info.

I agree, but it would only take a week of scam auctions with the spread between MS65 and MS67 pouring into scammer's pockets to more than justify the loss.

Dog97

I guess the moral of the story is make sure there is a picture of the slab so a bidder can verify that the coin being auctioned is the same one the pre filled out NGC info describes.

poorguy

ttt for the night crowd.