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back to article iPhone auction fakes swindle the impatient

Buyers unable to wait until Friday are looking to hundreds of eBay auctions to get their hands on Apple's latest Newton-a-like - but many of the auctions are fakes and scams, prompting eBay to tighten its restrictions on sales of the much-desired handset. O2 staff are already able to buy the phone at the Bath Street office, …

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  1. Mike
    Happy

    Not English?!?

    Prehaps these phones aren't UK versions.

    French law prohibits the locking of handsets to a network, while this may make them more expensive than equivilent UK versions, it should be possible to get a box sealed version.

    Although I'm not sure when the French lauch actually is...

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  2. Kenny Millar
    Stop

    Why is it always Caveat Emptor, when it should be...

    LOCK UP THE VENDOR

    If someone is offering something for sale in the UK, then it's covered by the consumer protection act, and therefore anyone who's offering fake or non-existant items for sale or who is mis-advertising the items, should be prosecuted.

    If more ebay scammers were found and prosecuted then maybe I'd start using ebay again.

    It shouldn't have to be caveat emptor, it should be exterminate vendor!

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  3. Andy Worth

    O2

    Well, the launch IS apparently 18:02, although why I have no idea. And UK I-Phones will probably remain unhacked until about 18:03

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  4. Vladimir Plouzhnikov

    O2 network seems to have major problems

    All O2 phones in our company (London based) stopped working today.

    Calls barely go out and no calls are being received. All divert information has been reset to default O2 voice messaging and any attempt to change it back results in "network problem" message.

    GPRS appears completely down.

    Their customer services don't say anything - just mumble about possible defective SIM cards.

    Can anyone else confirms this?

    I bet they screwed up their own network trying to suck up to Apple and impose the restrictions on iPhone.

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  5. Ben DAMET

    ] Mike

    I think the French law is something like :

    An operator is forced to give a simple way to unlock the telephone after the end of the contract time (for iphone it is probably 24 month term only), whether the contract is terminated or not.

    It is easily bypassed by renting/lending the equipment rather than selling it.

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  6. Mike Powers
    Joke

    I wonder if one can sell an ebay account?

    I've got an ebay account that's ten years old, but I hardly ever use it. I wonder what it might be worth on the market? Perhaps I should put it up for sale on ebay...

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  7. Tim Blair
    Happy

    St steve of jobbies

    what do you expect? at least MS users know to expect that "Deliverence" experience..... as the old saying goes "a mac'head and his money are easily parted"

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  8. Anonymous Coward
    Stop

    I shall do a protest and encourage others

    Friday i shall go into the shop and ask about this iphone and when it comes to signing ask if the phone is unlocked. i shall then refuse said contract and walk away. If enough people did this, then maybe they notice what the customer actualy wants.

    Beyond that I refuse to pay full unlock prices for a locked phone.

    There is a silver lining though to these phones. The package has a no download/fair-usage limits applied to internet acces on the phone and that compared to other O2 offerings is leaps ahead in the right direction. So much so that there are probably people after the package without the phone to the extent that they may bvery well get the phone for the real-use internet contract SIM and pop it into something a bit more flexable.

    Now all we need is a open push-email standard and a TCP/IP type standard biased towards mobiles and by I'm sure SKY/FOX will be selling cheap sat phones utiilising there old satalites that they will be upgrading. Interesting times as usual.

    But not for me just yet. So come friday. If you dont want a iphone but want to be able to buy unlocked phones. Go do some taunt-shopping and dont sign the dotted line.

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  9. Simon O'Hare
    Unhappy

    Title

    This is a far bigger Ebay scam, not that Ebay are doing anything to cut it down.

    http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/WARNING-FAKE-USB-Flash-Drive-8gb-16gb-32gb-64gb_W0QQitemZ120180878510QQihZ002QQcategoryZ108982QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

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  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Typical eBay

    ...just a token gesture, pretending to protect buyers, while allowing hundreds of scammers to continue to trade as we speak. eBay is the Port Royal of 20th century!

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  11. James Prior
    Stop

    @Paul Gray

    "There is a silver lining though to these phones. The package has a no download/fair-usage limits applied to internet acces on the phone and that compared to other O2 offerings is leaps ahead in the right direction."

    If you read the "coming 9th November" listing on the o2 website it actually says Data: Unlimited * with the * being "FUP Applies" in the small print.

    Apparently, until a few weeks ago, it was Unlimited aslong as Unlimited was 200Mb. The change to FUP was a recent thing.

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  12. toby powell-blyth

    The reason it's 18:02

    @Andy Worth

    It's dead easy. The company is called O2, therefore launching a product at 18: O2.

    Geddit?

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  13. Daniel Bennett
    Unhappy

    RE: O2 network seems to have major problems

    Perfectly fine up here in the West Mids.

    NEVER had problems with O2 - The best Network IMO.

    Shame about things being so pricy though - ****ing Apple.

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  14. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I shall protest

    Yup, walking into an O2 store and asking them if the phone is unlocked and walking out when its not will really bother them won't it, like that doesn't already happen EVERY SINGLE DAY with every other make/model/network and does it stop them locking the phones? We had an Orange salesman telling us that an "exclusive to Orange phone" could be unlocked by a shop just round the corner. Do they care? Do they stuff.

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  15. sleepy

    Ebay both ineffectual and paranoid over this

    I bought 5 unlocked iPhones from the same established seller on ebay in two transactions (1, then 4). No problem with the seller, or with the iPhones. Ebay removed him as a member of ebay, entirely removed all record of the listings and the fact that I had won them. This made me worried. I asked ebay - they said to refer to and follow the dispute procedure. No hint they had unilaterally excised him for NO REASON. Seller told me it was eBay being silly because he was suddenly selling a lot. In 2 days after paying, they arrived from USA. But no record of the listing, the seller, or my transaction ever returned.

    eBay is run rather like a nightclub. Burly bouncers come and beat you up if they don't like the look of you, and you go home. Pity it's a monopoly.

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  16. kerlmann
    Jobs Halo

    Acquisition tool....

    ....O2 is clearly using the iphone as a way to differentiate itself and get more people to join, that's the simple reason the deal is exclusive to them and the iphone locked to their network.

    From what I've seen, O2 always come top or 2nd of customer sat comparisons and their network is excellent IMHO, so if you can port your number (which you can), why wouldn't you switch if you really wanted the iphone?

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