Slashdot Mirror
Bad eBay Experience Spurs Internet Manhunt
An anonymous reader submitted an entertaining story running on the
Chicago Trib that discusses a fraudulent eBay dealer, and the
tale of his victims
tracking him down. Nothing super technical, just amusing to read
and remember that while sometimes the crooks get away, sometimes they
become the hunted. My favorite part is when they call his mom. Man
I'd love to do that to people who DoS us :)
Well I guess many of them felt like it was either sit back and take it up the ___ or try to do something about it.... sure seemed like nobody else was gonna help
Fearing the worst, auction winners contacted officials at EBay, who said they would not accept complaints until 30 days after an auction's closing date. Local law enforcement officials in Arizona said they did not have the resources to handle the case. And the FBI told them to fill out a form and wait.
Seriously, if I just shelled out 3 grand for a notebook, I would consider it a veritable slap-in-the-face if eBay only compensates me 200 bucks (minus 25 dollar deductible, US$175 really) for a auction that they made money on, and that they insure.
I don't see many things wrong with this situation, only the fact that this is a testament to the power of groups and anonymity. Here you have a gander of people screwed by a common guy, united at first, then when this starts rolling all the l33t hax0rs come out of the woodwork to "help", asking for the guys CC number, SSN, and a host of other info.
I don't think I like that type of behavior. Although due process doesn't always work, we have it for a reason. Sure in a few isolated and clear cut cases like this it's easy for all of us to look at it and say "Well they got the bad guy, good for them.", but at the same time the mob mentality something like this can foster isn't pretty. What if they had fingered the wrong guy, what could have been done? You can be sure you wouldn't have been able to convince them otherwise.
Sigs are awesome huh?
As to why you shouldn't use Ebay. They don't care if
you get ripped off. All they care is they get their
money. Guess that's why I stopped using ebay years ago.
*puts on Flame Proof Suit*
Imagine how the people who get Slashdotted feel ;)
-- Dan
One of these posses will go too far and lynch the wrong guy soon. If you were a thief and knew about the possibility of retribution from angry geeks, wouldn't you set up a patsy? I know I would.
From the article:
But like vigilante gangs of the American frontier, ad hoc communities seeking justice on the electronic frontier sometimes trample the very laws they seek to enforce, as their quest for justice warps into a plot for revenge.
"You just end up with might makes right," said Jonathan Zittrain, co-director of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard Law School.
not like the group is known for making good desicions though...
cashiers chaecks and money orders only please...
that the usual evil-government-electronic-surveilance paranoids will not care that a group of vigilantes can fuck up somebodies (real) life - guilty or not.
Lars T.
To the guy who modded me down from perfect to terrible Karma - Apple haters still suck
The fool (supposedly) shipped it via plain parcel post and no small wonder, it went missing.
What is "plain parcel post," and why is it so unreliable that it would be expected to go missing??
I got ripped on eBay too. A couple of years ago I won an auction for Quake II. When I got it in the mail, it was nothing but a pirate copy with a nice lable. I checked out his selling history and found out that he had 8 to 10 other auctions in the last 6 months for the same thing. I also checked the current auction and found that he had 2 current auctions for Quake II. I assumed these were also pirate copies. So, I got the USPS and the FBI on his ass. 12 counts of mail fraud, computer piracy, etc. I got my money back. Got some nasy emails too, apparently the seller wasn't too happy talking to the FBI about this. Got ban from eBay, but their security sucks, he was back on with a new account in a week.
If you only buy from sellers with consistent positive feedback, a low percentage of negatives, and a history of selling similarly priced items, you will rarely be ripped off. I've bought and sold tens of items on Ebay and only one deal went bad. I bought a lot of 3 old hard disks and sent a check, but the check was never cashed and the items were never sent (maybe the seller died, or something?).
You need to vigilantly protect your money BEFORE you send it, so you won't run into this trouble in the first place.
Anon
Regarding insurance... I don't think ebay should be doing it at all. They are not handling money. They shouldn't even be guaranteeing a $200 refund. Ebay is there to hold the auction, not to do anything else, they make that very clear
Secondly, regarding credit cards.
It's not in most cases, it's in ALL cases.
If you buy something with your credit card, and it is not delivered, you get your money back (Unless the merchant can prove they DID deliver it to you and you are lying)