On Thu, 21 Aug 2003, Andrew Grebneff wrote:

> Does the FORGED bit above mean that the sender's address has been
> altered of faked? This is a private response to an eBay bid, offering
> me the same item cheaper; it was sent by an eBay member via eBay's
> e-mail forwarding system. I suspect that the fellow is out to scam me.

I'd be very suspicious of this.  Messages like this are against eBay's
rules, and you won't even have the scanty protections you get in a normal
eBay auction.  Besides, what will you do if you agree to this and then win
the auction?  Retracting a bid is considered poor form.

It's possible the guy is on the level, but under-the-table offers like
this leave a bad taste in my mouth.

David Brodbeck, N8SRE
'82 Diesel Westfalia
'94 Honda Civic Si