It's a scam!
Gorman's name used in eBay con
Dave Gorman’s name has been exploited in a new eBay scam.
A seller calling himself eb_ayflash set up an online auction purporting to be part of an experiment the comic is running for a new TV show.
But Gorman has no such show in the pipeline – and warned would-be buyers not to be taken in by the scam.
He said: ‘It's someone trying to fleece eBay users by invoking my name. It is entirely fabricated, and nothing whatsoever to do with me.’
However, after Gorman found out about the scam, the seller closed the auction
He had been offering 1,000 imaginary ‘widgets’ for sale at £1.01 each. Although the seller was frank about the fact buyers would receive nothing it return, he did try to hoodwink buyers into thinking they are taking part in the bogus TV experiment.
The badly spelt blurb for the sale read: ‘TV comedian Dave Gorman is currently filming a new TV special about eBay. He needs your help... He's investigating the existance [sic] of one of various "eBay phenomena" that apparently exist. Using this alledged [sic] phenomena he has worked out exactly how many people will click Buy It Now and purchase an immaginary [sic] "widget"!’
But few buyers took the bait. When the auction closed at 4pm this afternoon, the seller still had 996 widgets left.
Gorman added: ‘I'd like to think that it's obvious to most people that it's not me. For a start, I can spell words like “imaginary” and “existence”.
Published: 5 Mar 2006
