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 :)
Recently I was defrauded on Ebay myself. It was only $6.00, but I really wanted the diapers I was buying. Well, he used an Earthlink account, and I called Earthlink, and was able to get his phone number. I recieved my diapers the next day. :)
I've been burned 3 times. but out of the hundred or so auctions I have won in the last 5 years... they don't really bother me much.
first was a $10 win on a bootleg video for my favorite band, TOOL. I sent out $10, I got back nothing. I think the seller got busted for distributing bootleg videos. I just wish I had got mine.
Second was for a Cisco 3101 dual ethernet router that was advertised to have 16 MB ram and 8 MB of flash. I got it, pretty quick shipping I might add. However it didn't have 16 MB of ram and 8 MB of flash, it had 4 and 2, respectively. With that little memory.. you couldn't route CRAP nowadays (it was a project router, but I still wanted to run IOS 12.0). Well, I wrote the guy, he apologized and said he'd send the replacement ram/flash. He sent me 4 sims from a compaq and 2 flash chips from godknowswhat. I wrote him back and told him that he sent me the wrong stuff, and he apologized and said he'd send me the replacement ram/flash. I got 4 sims in the mail, it was 4 1MB cisco sims. I got exactly what I already had. The guy was stupid, apparently he was the proprietor of a warehouse of similar stuff and was hawking it on ebay, but didn't know what it was that he was selling. I ended up buying my own ram, and I use TFTP to boot it so I don't need flash.
and last was a lot of 5 used 15" monitors, I paid $120 for the lot to include shipping. A week after my money order was cashed the guy seemed to disappear. His ebay account was restricted, his phone number disconnected, and his website was gone. The guy had a LOT of positive feedback, so I thought the guy was for real. I'm thinking he got arrested or got "cleaned" by the mob or something. It sucked but I got over it.
Well of course it is better to contact law enforcement agencies! They really know how to get the job done!
Of course that's all bullshit. I wish the article had elaborated on legal action the AZ DA might take against the vigilantes. That will probably pan out to a prosecution. Ever notice how law enforcement will frequently go after people for criminal charges when they were victimized, but not really make an effort towards the original perpetrators?
Look at this situation. These people were told to fill out some forms, and wait 30 days to complain to eBay and maybe get about 200$ (a fraction of what all of them were scammed). Law enforcement agents simply do not know how to handle cybercrime. They would have sat on their asses, wondering how they were going to find this guy who committed fraud... and after a short while of not making any progress, move it off to the back burner.
Now of course, they have a big, huge, easy to nail target in the form of this group of people demanding justice. It's nonsense.
I think it's silly that provisions aren't in place that allow people to non-violently pursue people who screw them over. This was not always something that made sense in the "real world" because people address people face to face. They make deals with handshakes, and if someone is screwed over IRL, they probably had some physical interaction.
The Internet however, a place where a great deal of anonyminity may be gained, where law enforcement is apathetic towards real criminals, people should be allowed to take a few steps over the line. So long as there is a clear motive as to why they're digging on the wire that multiple people can attest to. Why shouldn't this group's behavior be legal?
Why bother.
I've used ebay to both buy and sell... everything I've sold has sold for much higher than I anticipated- some of it sold for more than I could be purchased NEW!
On one hand, there is the concept of WINNING- that people lose sight of how much they are spending on an item. Next people forget about shipping- which can cost as much as the item itself.
People are also cost conscious, and usually do not want to pay extra for escrow or shipping insurance... which makes little sense if you consider many people packing merchandise are far from shipping pros.
Also, there is usually no return policy at ebay... one person's "like new" condition is another person's, "almost trash," and some sellers don't even know what they are selling (ie. a photo of a Slot 1 CPU listed as a socket chip), blah, blah, blah.
Bottom line, the mantra at ebay true is "buyer beware." I think it is great these people are going after this seller, but the fact remains, if they were truly safety conscious buyers, they could have taken additional steps to protect their purchase. I wouldn't blame ebay for only reimbursing $200. If they guaranteed every purchase, it would actually encourage fraud!
Those that suggest you "dance like no one is watching" really want to see you make a complete fool of yourself.
Speaking as one of the people having been ripped off by this seller, I just want to note that this "seller" was a complete asshole. A few weeks after not sending any of us merchandise, he claimed his mother passed away, a claim later proven false when we spoke to her. What a jerk.
While I'm sure the people involved were justified in their efforts, when you start playing games with credit cards, you're getting into some pretty murky legal waters yourself.
I personally feel that ebay should be insuring for the full value of the auction, and should charge a percentage on the sale for insurance costs. Of course, seller (or buyer) could choose to not purchase insurance, but at least it would put some pressure on ebay to handle huge cases of fraud if they happened.
Pay with credit cards if you can. Granted, there's a fee involved but the credit card companies in most cases will reimburse you if you're defrauded.
-Restil
Play with my webcams and lights here