Slashdot Mirror
When Good Ebay'ers Go Bad
An anonymous submitter sent in: "This guy "Stewart Richardson" had over 6000 positive feedbacks on eBay, held a fake estate sale, and scammed around $250,000 out of people before disappearing. 'There seems to be little doubt among his would-be customers that Stewart Richardson pulled off one of the most remarkable con jobs in the almost seven-year history of eBay, and U.S. federal investigators agree.' Some other links: a messageboard and ebay itself. I was scammed on eBay for $3600 a while back. I was able to get my money back because I had a bank issued cashier's check. I had written "For Deposit Only" on the back, and that was crossed out by the recipient. The bank teller should have been suspicious, but was not, and cashed the check. The idiot who had it cashed wrote his bank account number on the back of the cashier's check, and also wrote his Dad's business bank account number on the back and stamped it with his Dad's signature. In the end, the bank reversed the payment, and took the money out of his Dad's account. When his Dad found out, the idiot was in some serious trouble, but I got my money back. There were a few other's scammed in the same transaction, and they recieved about half of the money back after the police started to put the pressure on these guys. The story is much more involved, so I won't go into the rest of it."
It's a classic scam. Build up a rep for being honest, upright, soforth. Once everyone trusts you, you can strike it big with little difficulty. It requires a lot of patience, but police and government officials in Third World (and some first and second world) countries have been known to use it. Instead of taking measly little bribes all the time, make yourself out to be "incorruptible" and wait for the big one.
The big question is: Did this guy plan it from the beginning? If he did, I applaud his patience and cunning, while also disapproving of the result of his actions. If he decided on the spur of the moment to do this, i.e. let temptation get the better of him, I have nothing but contempt for him.
---- El diablo esta en mis pantalones! Mire, mire!
I bought one very high ticket item on EBay once (admittedly this was a while ago), an expensive Sony video camera. Before I mailed off my $1900 cashier's check, I got the other person's phone number and actually spoke to them. In this way, I felt I had at least some recourse in case something went wrong. Fortunately nothing did, and I have happily used my TRV 900 for years now.
The point is that the more information you have about your seller, the easier it will be to go after them in case something goes wrong. People can hide via email, but by phone it's much harder.
-- What is this Earth thing you call "slow"?
It has happenned to me a couple of times - in all instances though, the "top place" buyer either had a zero feedback rating (ie, possibly never intended to buy the product to begin with), or was booted off eBay soon after the auction ended.
In all cases, the seller contacted me a week or two after the auction ended, and asked if I still wanted it for my bid price. Sometimes I declined, having bought the item through another auction, or locally. Other times I accepted, and got the item a couple of weeks later.
I personally have no problem with this - if the seller seems sincere and has a good track record, and the product warrants it (by either being some kind of "dutch" auction, or by being a unique item - not liable to be seen again for many years), I will go for it.
But, as this story illustrates, sometimes good sellers (or what appear to be good sellers) "go bad" (sounds like a bad Fox show - heh).
The one thing I always keep in mind (since I learned about it) is to use an escrow service for pricey items - it is the safest method...
Reason is the Path to God - Anon
This is exactly why you should always use your credit card for payment. And I don't mean through PayPal or BillPoint. If the seller has that high a feedback, and a legitimate business, he should have his own merchant account to process the credit card payment. If you haven't received your goods within the 60 days after your statement arrives, simply dispute the charges, and you won't lose anything.
In essence an Escrow scam is exactly what this person pulled. By getting such a high postive feedback rating he earned the trust of his buyers. What is Escrow? It's you trusting another party with your money. I'm guessing that the chances of an Escrow company waiting for one big score are just as good as some well respected ebay auctioneer. The best part about the 'official' escrow scam is that the scammer gets the money and the merchandise. Don't think it can happen? Neither did the poor schmucks who wanted rodent statuettes.
"I don't think there is anything else on this Earth that would turn a normally law abiding citizen into a criminal any faster then a desire for money. "
Revenge.
-Adam
No, the parent really had a good point. You usually can trust a large registered corporation, because they generally have good contact information and an image to keep up. Sometimes, however, large registered corporations *cough*Enron*cough* go bad. Perhaps a larger corporation is slightly easier to track down if it tries to pull a fast one, but it's not necessarily more trustworthy by nature. Say some employee at the escrow company is handling a $100,000 transaction for some rare artwork. There's not really that much stopping him from taking both, or sending the artwork and keeping the money - certainly no more than some guy with 6000 positive feedback points.
People trust their banks because of FDIC insurance. Before/During/Right after the Great Depression, this type of security did not exist, and (especially during/after) people did not trust their banks. There were many people who had their life savings in banks only to show up one day to be told that there was no way in hell they were ever getting any of that money ever again.
Yes! That guy!
So this will only get worse when an ebay merchant dies and the heirs realize that his 9000 positive feedback is worth a quick 20grand on the black market. What's to stop that? Or a merchant themselves realize they can get a little extra retirement juice by selling their account to the mob.
I've hit Karma 50 and gotten a Score:5, Troll... I win!
Scenario 1: Even if he's dead, he had employees who should've been able to continue the business without him. He kept them out of the loop on these auctions, so they can't.
Scenario 2: His wife is his next of kin, and she doesn't know where he is (or so she claims).
Scenario 3: Again, his wife should know where he is, and if he just had to "step out" for a bit, his employees would be able to fulfill the orders if they were real.
If he had just disappeared, it would be one thing. But he apparently set this up with a lot of planning, so this isn't just an accident.
God invented whiskey so the Irish would not rule the world.
You can get to the max bid by bidding up the minimum increment over and over.
Let's say somebody's max is $50 and the current is $20. The increment is $1. If you bid $21 it will say you have been outbid and the current bid is $22. When you get to $50 it will still tell you that you have been outbid because bids are first come, first serve but it will then say that the current bid is $50 and not $51. You know right them what the other person's maximum is.
Man, that's a pretty lame scam you're friend fell for. People who fall for things like that deserve what they get, IMO. Who in their right mind gives their CreditCard number to some anonymous nobody for a deposit???
I have no scam stories, and I suspect few people do. This wanker Stewart Richardson is an aberration, and to think otherwise is a disservice to the untold thousands of legitimate exchanges that take place on ebay every day.
I personally have done 40-odd transactions as both a buyer and a seller. I have made good money selling stuff I didn't need, and found great prices on hard to find items for myself. It's gotten to the point where, if I need to buy something, I check ebay first. And, I have not had a single bad experience.
I realize my good experiences do not diminish the loss felt by those whom this dork scammed, but I am not daunted by it and will continue to use ebay. Fraud is part of human life, unfortunately, in and out of ebay.
Actually, I hesitate to call these scams - but more on the level of "selling an article to a person that could be had cheaper somewhere else". Let me show you a perfect example:
Look up electric bicycle motor on Ebay. Now, I am going to pick an auction that doesn't "die" until the 28th so that others can see what I mean - I am picking the last one on that list - click here.
Now, look at that picture of the "dual motor" at the bottom - seems pretty cool, huh? Pretty professional, get a little kit and convert your bike to electric. Cost doesn't seem too bad (if you have priced EV bikes before) - heck, "Buy It Now" is only $1.00 over starting bid - so this motor combo, a cheap bike from WalMart or a garage sale, and a cheap gel-cel battery - and I can have my own electric bike for under $200.00!
The motor only cost $93.00...
Now - go here, and on the left hand side select Battlebot Parts - or click here to see them. Now, go down to the fourth item on that page - look familiar?
MECI sells the exact same thing for $40.00! Just above it is the battery you need (actually, you will need two of them for enough amps to go far enough - and really, this isn't the best motor system to use, but might be fun to play around with).
So, here is an example of an eBay seller using their own ignorance against them.
Unfortunately, this seems to be the "way" of our capitalistic society - middlemen, etc everywhere always scamming for a buck. You see this on Ebay a lot - cheesy CDs of "info found no where else" (yeah right, just everywhere on the internet) - these I would take more seriously if they were selling the CDs as "fruits of labor for scouring the Net" - at least then it could be seen as an internet information gathering service thing. You also see it in the multitude of "plans" showing how to build a 100" projection TV with a special lens (but, you do get the lens - nevermind the fact that plans are everywhere to do this, it uses nothing new, and the lens can be had cheaper at the local Walmart).
These guys aren't typically shut down because they do offer a real product, and actually sell it - and people love it!
Another "scam" - I have seen sellers of SDRAM bidding for memory on other auctions - sometimes within hours of their own auctions - for the same type of RAM - they buy the RAM cheap from another auction, then resell it the same day for a profit to other bidders (and typically, for much more money than they could find it for on Pricewatch).
Many times I have wondered if I could pull these same kind of "deals" off - and each time I stop thinking about it, because it just isn't in my "moral fabric" to rip people off - I would rather tell them where to get it cheaper.
I guess that is one reason why I will never own a business - I am too honest for my own "good"...
bleh.
Reason is the Path to God - Anon
If you think this is happening, how about withdrawing your bid near the end so that the shill EBay account ends up having to buy the item?