"Police have issued a warning to users of internet auction sites after a teenage fraudster conned eBay customers to fund a luxury lifestyle.
The 17-year-old from Pontypool, near Newport, built up £45,000 in various bank accounts by offering goods for sale that did not exist. "
Ever been had by this or another Ebay crook? If so how much did you lose?
Not me, but my sister. She lost about $70 on some Buffy DVDs, so at least it wasn’t a lot of money. She tried calling them but the number was disconnected - after a little detective work she figured it wasn’t worth going any further. Personally if it had been me I would have chased them as far as I could, but then again I think I’m more vengeful than the average bear.
I also know a couple of people who defrauded people on eBay. One girl seemed really sweet, and I never would have guessed that she’d be that sort of person. She was a student from Singapore, and sold a lot of expensive goods just before she was due to go home. She pocked the money and left the country, so people couldn’t contact her at her Australian home address.
The other girl didn’t surprise me at all. I used to be good friends with her, but like the guy in your story she always wanted to live beyond her means. She was always very jealous of what other people had, and we had a falling out years ago over some money that she owed me. Anyway she sold lots of designer clothing and never sent the items, and she also sold clothes on behalf of others, and never passed along the money. Her victims got together and calculated that she’d stolen $2000 or so, and they threatened to go to the police if she didn’t pay them back.
I bought 2 silver dollars off of ebay that were never delivered. The woman claimed that she was acting as an agent for her crooked boss and that he just up and ran away with the money. It was only a few hour drive and I thought seriously about going up and going through small claims to get the money back. But it was also only 26 american dollars and it was way too much like work to go through the process.
I bought some Speed Racer DVDs off eBay. When they came, they were really VCDs someone had made, and about 1/3rd of them were so badly pixelated that they were unwatchable. Repeated contacts with the seller to replace them finally yielded a response to send back the bad ones for a replacement. After I mailed them off, I never heard from him again.
I lost $5 on a CD-ROM chock full of MST3K related odd and ends. Even after I finally got in contact with the seller and he promised he would make it right, he didn’t.
I also lost $12 on a laserdisc. The seller (who had a 10,000+ rating) never sent the disc or answered my emails. He also refused to respond to eBay’s Square Trade people. He had several dozen negatives from other buyers with the same problem.
Wait, you bought bootlegged DVDs, and you expected the guy to deal fairly with you after that?
I bought a DVD of Finding Nemo; the day before it arrived, I had an email from eBay saying essentially ‘Don’t complete your transaction - the seller is a crook’ (but of course I’d already parted with the cash) - the item arrived and it was a really crappy DVDR with an absolutely unwatchable pixellated bootleg rendition of the movie (oddly enough the case itself was genuine, just not the DVD) - Unsurprisingly, there was no response from the seller. PayPal wouldn’t allow me to reclaim my money because he had actually sent me something, so it wasn’t fraud, apparently.
I bought a DVD off ebay that was never delivered. Seller promised me a refund, then never gave it. He/she even responded to the SquareTrade thing at first, but then stopped responding. I think they knew I had a limited amount of time to get a refund. There was some really irritating policy ebay had (and may still have) that says you have to file a claim after 30 days, and it conflicts with Paypal’s policy which says you have to file it within 30 days (not sure if that’s exactly it, but it was something like that) - so I got totally screwed and there was nothing either of them would do about it. Finally ebay closed the seller’s account, but I never got a refund. It was only about $14, but I was so mad!
Of course stupid little me didn’t check the seller’s feedback or I would’ve noticed that they had a few negatives. And I always checked the feedback - I’d forgotten because I was so excited to find the DVD at a low price - it was a foreign film that was selling for about $30 retail. :smack: I should’ve known.
My advice to people who have been defrauded on eBay: only do transactions via PayPal. I was sent illegally copied CDs of Outkast’s Speakerboxxx/The Love Below. As soon as a I filed a complaint with PayPal, the seller’s account was frozen and remained that way until he refunded my money.
This is why I never buy from Ebay.
Amazon only. You get an A To Z Buyer Guarantee.
I’ve had problems–Amazon fixed em.
Just once - CD of E.B. White reading “Charlotte’s Web.” Site showed picture of original jewel box, described story and Mr. White, etc. Turned out to be an illegal CD dub. When I complained to the seller, he said he had clearly stated what he was selling? How? By using “CDr” as part of the title. I thought that lower-case “r” was a typo. Had he put the normal CD-R, I probably would have twigged.
We left negative feedback for each other after he refused to refund the money or take it back.
So I got creative. Did some digging on the Internet. The CD was copyrighted through Doubleday (now owned by Bertelsmann, AG). Dug up a contact person from their website, explained the situation in some detail in an e-mail and asked them to forward the info to a Doubleday attorney. Within a week, I received an e-mail from an attorney who thanked me for helping the company defend its copyright, and was courteous enough to attach a copy of a letter he’d sent to the miscreant, which was a masterpiece of subtle surface intimidation, yet hinted at enough Don-Vito-Corleone offer-he-can’t-refuse undertones to set one’s nose hairs spinning.
I noticed the miscreant was gone from eBay shortly thereafter.
Then the attorney sent me a bona fide copy of the Charlotte’s Web CD, with Doubleday’s complements, plus a second book on CD as a bonus.
Now that’s class.
Fabio- yes, that Fabio- made a CD a while ago. They played it on one of our radio morning shows, and my friend had to have it, so I searched everywhere for it, and ended up paying $30 to some guy in Singapore for it on eBay. That was something like four months ago. He basically shrugged at me via e-mail.
(Hey, no one here has that Fabio CD, do they? “After Dark”?)
I haven’t been burned personally, but here is a heads up warning - Someone hijacked my account and was “selling” things. Lately it was a Harley bike. I contacted EBay and they say they fixed it. I use Ebay to buy things and not sell them. Here goes just in case…
My Ebay name is sgangi. I do not have an APO (Army PO), which the hijacker was using. I am a buyer, not a seller. Do not buy anything from “me”, as I am not selling anything.
Believe it or not I may have a very old copy around somewhere…my brother and I acquired it as a joke when we were teenagers. I haven’t seen it for years. Its pretty much just elevator music that he talks over in what I presume is supposed to be a sexy voice as you picture Fabio on the beach or something.