I've ordered several ham radio parts and accessories from Hong Kong over the past few years and I always get the items withing 7-10 days. I realize the rest of mainland China is not the same as Hong Kong, but still 18-25 days seems rather long and thus somewhat suspicious.

If the listing was pulled by the lister and not eBay, then that should still be a huge red flag. I suspect eBay and PayPal would never admit to a third-party that they had pulled a listing due to fraud as that would damage their reputation.

But on the other hand I don't care. I did not buy one and I think those who did should have known the risk. There is always someone waiting eagerly to buy snake oil or to pay an evangelist to rant and rave an hour or two. Otherwise we would not have late night infomercials broadcast on TV.