I recently lost all my gear to a home fire. Naturally I wanted to replace it and being human looked for good used prices. I ran into an endless number of high end audio product scams.

All were easy to spot once you know to be suspicious:
1. Sellers E-Bay name and e-mail doesn't match the place your are asked to contact was the biggest giveaway.
2. Demands for wire transfer or cashiers check only.
3. Item shipped free by air no less form the other side of the planet. In many cases the shipping costs (as per the airline) exceeded the asking price.
4. Exact same photographs and pasted text from another ad.

An additional scam, after loosing a bid, suddenly second chance offers arrive in your inbox. Check those addresses, yep wrong! One offered to sell me an item "new in box" that had been out of production for over 10 years.

True audiophiles are easy to spot, send an email ask some specific questions about some sonic detail, an honest seller can't wait to share his experiences with a piece of equipment, this is his hobby. Ask for the units serial number.

I did buy some expensive stuff on E-bay even after these experiences, once you are alert it's just not that hard to spot the crooks.

I did contact e-bay and they tried to stay ahead of the worst scammers, but one gets the impression they are overwhelmed.