Scammers Send Concrete Block in Place of Playstation 5

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A weighty mistake

PlayStation 5
(Image credit: Tom's Hardware)

Imagine looking everywhere for the fabled PlayStation 5 and finally giving in to the demands of an overpriced scalper. Only to find out that you were scammed by this scalper, who sent you a piece of concrete instead? According to Fox 13 news, this happened to an unwitting customer who paid double the list price to secure a PS5.

The Utah resident who was the unwilling participant of an eBay scam paid $878, nearly twice the price of a PlayStation 5. The victim, who was convinced they would receive a PlayStation 5 was shocked when they ended up with a concrete block instead. We can only imagine how frustrated the 38-year-old victim was, but thankfully eBay has stepped in and will issue a refund. 

Paying more than the original asking price is a bad practice. Still, in the current climate, where consoles and GPUs go out of stock instantly, it is a known and undesirable situation where scalpers have the advantage largely due to automated bots. When making any online purchase, just be careful with who you are dealing with. Make sure wherever you go that there is some form of buyer protection, and if you can, make sure to pay via a credit card.

As for when we'll see more PlayStation 5's in stores, Sony says it won't have more stock until early 2021. Even then, there will still be the little issue of scalpers using bots and grabbing all the stock before we humans can even blink an eye.

Keith Mitchell
Keith Mitchell

Keith Mitchell is a Contributing Writer for Tom's Hardware US. He is an IT professional during the day, and a passionate lover of video games and tech after his 9-5 grind. He has a weird affinity for Soulsborne games and plays them non-stop.

12 Comments Comment from the forums
  • DookieDraws
    That's so screwed up! I hope they catch the bass turd and hang him by his sack, out in public for all to see his sorry self! I apologize if that was a little too harsh for some of your to read, but that's EXACTLY what ought to happen to scumbags who do this type of crap! I hate a sorry thief!!!!!!!

    Have a Merry Christmas, everyone, and a Happy New Year! :)
    Reply
  • ThatMouse
    I see a lot of listings that will send you a picture of the box. $750. You can report them, but eBay doesn't take them down.
    Reply
  • Endymio
    Paying more than the original asking price is a bad practice.
    Not for those who have the money, and want the product.
    Reply
  • USAFRet
    Endymio said:
    Not for those who have the money, and want the product.
    It encourages the scalpers/scammers.
    Reply
  • Wolfshadw
    ThatMouse said:
    I see a lot of listings that will send you a picture of the box. $750. You can report them, but eBay doesn't take them down.
    Why would EBay take them down? If the auction clearly states it's a picture of the console box and not the actual console, it's the bidders fault for failing to note the difference.

    -Wolf sends
    Reply
  • Darkbreeze
    Endymio said:
    Not for those who have the money, and want the product.
    Drug addicts have the money and want the product too, but that doesn't make allowing those kinds of deals to continue a good idea. And before you say, "But drugs are illegal, and the PS5 isn't", let me remind you that in most states scalping too IS illegal.
    Reply
  • cryoburner
    How do we know this guy wasn't the scammer? For all we know, he got sent a PS5 and got his money back. Or maybe the seller was scammed by someone who sold it to them. Though the original article does make it sound like he may have bought from a seller with zero feedback, and if that's the case it seems probable that the seller knew what was going on.

    Darkbreeze said:
    ...let me remind you that in most states scalping too IS illegal.
    Something tells me those laws don't apply to luxury physical goods. They tend to be limited to things like tickets to events, and there can be similar laws for essentials during times of shortages. No one needs to have a game console during its first few months of release, and they should become widely available for anyone who just waits a little while. There aren't even any must-have games exclusive to these consoles yet.
    Reply
  • Darkbreeze
    Really? Like the abuse of Ebay by scammers isn't WELL documented? Like we don't already KNOW that accounts get hacked, so whatever you're looking at in terms of feedback ratings probably matter about as much as a grain of sand thrown into the ocean? Like the seller wouldn't have been part of the story IF they were denying the situation? This just feels like playing devil's advocate for absolutely no reason.

    And as far as the scalping laws are concerned, it's true that those that exist are not specifically meant for enforcement of RETAIL scalping, HOWEVER, and it's a fairly large however, you can be sure that existing laws that give attorneys general the right to broadly pursue price gouging, are very relevant here, IF the attorneys general in question had ANY desire to pursue these issues. Under normal circumstances we'd probably see at least some talk of this. With the current state of things, it's likely the last thing they are in any way concerned with. Consumers are mostly on their own right now, aside from solidly established and easily pursued violations.

    Mod Edit - Political Comments Removed
    Reply
  • ThatMouse
    Wolfshadw said:
    Why would EBay take them down? If the auction clearly states it's a picture of the console box and not the actual console, it's the bidders fault for failing to note the difference.

    -Wolf sends

    I believe eBay itself just verified in another article linked below that in fact the auction does break eBay's rules. However, that rule is not one you can select in a report. You can see this by reporting a listing yourself.

    https://www.tomshardware.com/features/ebay-vigilantes-selling-rtx-3080-pics
    Reply
  • Darkbreeze
    Which is EXACTLY why Ebay's reporting structure is horrible, terrible, no good and just plain sucks. There are any number of valid situations where something IS in violation of an Ebay rule or guideline, but doesn't appear on any of the reporting mechanisms, not even an "other" category. This is because Ebay WANTS to discourage people from reporting problems so they don't have to deal with them. Changing ONLY this type of behavior from themselves would be all that would be required to affect a lot of positive warm fuzzies from the community at large, and would be so easy to do that it's laughable, but it will never happen, because they know and just don't care.
    Reply