I have followed the recent items about eBay scams with interest as
I was nearly the victim of one a few months ago.  Fortunately, I did
not arrive up the river Thames on a bicycle yesterday, and I spotted
the dirty trick.

However, the real problem was getting out of eBay altogether.  This
took me several weeks; they were very unhelpful.  Their various
departments are all over the world and every email I sent to them
elicited all sorts of automatic responses from almost anywhere, most
of which were very confusing -- all designed to be so, I suspect!
After all, they want your money.

So be warned -- if you are trying to sell a high value item such as
a player piano, the scammers are out there, but if you have signed up
to eBay you will have a real task on your hands to get out of it.

Also, another web site currently advertising my piano has now been
targeted by similar scammers.  The suggestion is to not advertise your
email address, but only your telephone number.

Dr. Andrew Leach (UK)