OVERLAND PARK, Kan. -- An Overland Park woman said a scam artist tried to make money off an auction item she was trying to help a friend sell.

Jackie Waechter said she buys and sells stuff on eBay all the time. KMBC's Lara Moritz reported that when she tried to help a friend sell an electric keyboard, it seemed to start off well.

"The winning bid was $8,220.77, which was a lot of money. We were very excited at first, but then everything started to go down the tube," Waechter said.

Moritz said one unregistered bidder kept upping the price, then turned around and e-mailed the other bidders posing as the owner of the keyboard.

Waechter said the e-mail said this:

"I'm the real seller. There was a scam on this. eBay told me to contact you with a second-chance buy. You can send me a check for this much money," Waechter said.

The scam artist was trying to get money from several bidders.

"This guy could have stood to make close to $20,000 had these people all fallen for it," Waechter said.

But the scammer was scared off with an e-mail from Waechter's friend.

"Once he sent him an e-mail saying, 'You know what? You're a scammer.' There was no other contact. He was gone," Waechter said.

eBay is investigating the incident. Moritz said that there is little that can be done because the Internet is mostly unregulated.

Moritz reported that buyers can use PayPal, which is a protection service eBay offers where buyers can pay by credit card on the computer. If a buyer fall victim to a scam, that person won't lose any money.