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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."
I always wondered why anyone would trust EBay auctioneers with large amounts of money. I mean, it gets to a point where a few negative feedbacks aren't going to make up for loss of any serious dough. Anyone else have scam stories?
If you fall off a building, go real limp, because maybe you'll look like a dummy and people will be like hey, free dummy
...since I am not an ebay costumer: is it possible to create fake identities and buy stuff from yourself in order to pump up your approval rating? Does ebay have any safeguards against this? I could see this type of fraud as very detrimental for online auctions in general...
Reminder: find a new sig
"If Mr. Richardson's eBay sales ultimately prove to be fraudulent, the scam would rank among the costliest frauds ever perpetrated over eBay."
Were there bigger frauds on ebay? Anybody know of the other biggies?
Yes but every time I try to see it your way, I get a headache.
You should use Winning Bid Pro to do the last minute bidding for you. I use it all the time. Just set up the bid you are willing to make and have it send it in 10 seconds before the auction ends. That way you don't drive the price up ahead of time. Sometimes someone has a max bid higher than yours, or is using a bidding program the same as you and you get beat. But, you put in the max amount you were willing to pay, right? You win some, you lose some. With Winning Bid Pro, you'll win more.
By the way, the program is free, I didn't write it, and get no money for praising it.
She purchased a laptop off ubid.com and was naive enough to send a $600 money order. When she told me that she bought a laptop overseas and all they accepted was a MO, I knew she was screwed. I wish so much that she had checked with me before sending money. She was suspicious, but ended up asking her father (Never touched a computer) instead of me. All I have is the source IPs of the emails sent and they trace back to 2 DSL ISPs in Romania. I contacted their NOC and they in turn contacted the Romanian authorities. We have also contacted the FBI and the National Fraud Information Center. Word of advice: Do not purchase anything outside of the US and Canada and avoid placing yourself in any situation where you're not covered. Paying by CC is usually the safest method because you can dispute the charge and have it reversed. Sellers, use paypal.
...I kinda like this guy.
:)
Not because he's a thief. That's despicable.
But to know that a person has it in him to act one, predictable way for years and fool even those closest to him, then instantly change into a completely different persona restores some of my faith in human nature.
He's not a robot. He's not a brick in the wall. He's a free thinker, even though this particular manifestation was lowly.
We read stories about Blackbeard, Jack the Ripper and The Great Train Robber. They make for some of the best stories. But we rarely consider what type of people these characters are.
Stewart Richardson was one of those guys, merely under different circumstances.
Best of luck to those that were taken at recovering your booty. And luck to Mr. Richardson, wherever he may be running, because the only stories as interesting as criminals pulling off the big one, are criminals getting nabbed by The Good Guys.
Admit it. Elliot Ness in The Untouchables was a bad ass
Knunov
Why do users with IDs under 100,000 or over 700,000 usually have the most worthwhile comments?
Winner of Auction sends money to Auction House, which holds said money.
The Auction House notifies the Seller that payment has been received.
The Seller then Ships the item using a certified carrier(UPS, FEDEX, etc.), and requires a signature.
When Item is received, Auction house contacts buyer to confirm receipt, and then transfers money to Seller.
That should solve most problems, but I'm sure there would be holes - please point them out!
(it also recursivly checks any patterns of individuals found by examining their feedback ratings for patterns)
this is what i found on his last 4 auctions: all of these bids were placed on the last day of the auction
edster007 (19) $20.00 Nov-30-01 07:46:45 PST
tennisdoc (416) $21.06 Nov-30-01 12:55:09 PST
edster007 (19) $30.00 Nov-30-01 07:46:07 PST
tennisdoc (416) $32.99 Nov-30-01 12:53:48 PST
edster007 (19) $30.00 Nov-30-01 14:00:09 PST
tennisdoc (416) $31.99 Nov-30-01 12:52:38 PST
edster007 (19) $25.00 Nov-30-01 07:44:09 PST
tennisdoc (416) $31.52 Nov-30-01 12:56:20 PST
while this doesn't mean this guy (whos account im not posting
before people shout 'thats not what the article is talking about' let me point out .. that if this guy (who had over a 90 rating on ebay) WAS doing this .. he has been doing it for at least 6 months. its relativly cheap to win your own e-bay auction .. like 1% or so .. and build up false creadibilty.
--Ne auderis delere orbem rigidum meum, non erravi pernicose!
I've always wondered this about escrow:
What's to stop the buyer from scamming the seller? Say he never got the goods, or that they did not match what was sold, get his money back, and keep the goods.
I suppose you could protect against this by proving delivery of the item, but it still seems possible if you're tricky enough ("This thing he sent was broken! No, that exact same model over that was the one I already owned, which works fine and stuff."). Does this happen? Is there some protection I'm missing?
-Puk
I very very nearly got scammed for about $1000. I was very excited about buying an Olympus E10 digital camera. i was too excited, I kept ignoring the clues of a scam.
.)
first Clue: seller ignored pre-sale email asking questions.
second clue: After I won the auction seller insisted on Western Union. When I protested at the high transaction fee ($75) on the ~$1000 purchase. He very cheerfully offered to pay it himself. Again in my niave excitement ignored this.
third : refused to accept a cashiers check
fourth : used copy and pasted info in item description
fifth : claimed to be from boston, but mis-spelled Massachusettes (I cannot spell either but I am not from there. . . )
sixth: no feedback/transaction (I figured you gotta start somewhare. .
Anyway I lucked out solely because God and Western Union were looking out for me. WU called two minutes after I confirmed and said the name I was wiring money to was on their fraud list. So while I was lucky there must have been a few before me who were not.
Just thought I would share my somewhat off topic story in hopes it will save an over eager ebay buyer from trouble.
-MS2k
It's easy to get scammed on ebay. This happened to a friend of mine.
A seller put a brand new digital camcorder on ebay. After winning the auction the seller said he wanted cash (cashiers check) but would take a credit card number for deposit and ship the camcoder for him to look at.
The seller orders a camcorder using my friends credit card from a online shop and has it shipped to him. The shipping information and the credit card billing information match so the online shop had no problem shipping it.
He got the the camcorder and was happy so he sent the cashiers check.
Imagine his surprize when he got his credit card statement. He could have returned the camcorder (it came from a legit business and it was what he wanted so he kept it.)
He lost the money he sent (~$800.00).
Be Careful
AdFuel
You've had good experiences with Discover when dealing with fraud charges and other problems? Hmm.
Discover is my primary credit card. But I didn't really think of them as a company that had really strong fraud protections. I've put some decidedly odd things on my Discover card over the years, way outside my "normal buying patterns" both in type and cost of stuff, and never had Discover show any wish for ID verification or anything like that.
Now, I've never had any fraud problems with my Discover card, so I haven't had to deal with their customer service people on that subject, but the lack of hassle in putting odd things on the card has made me think they wouldn't be as useful as other cards might be in case of fraud or other problems.
Of course, on the flip side, I had a problem with that on a VISA card, recurring fraudulent charges over several months, and that took *way* too much effort to resolve. (Is it so complicated to "cancel this account number, issue a new card on a new account number and DON'T ACCEPT NEW CHARGES ON THE OLD NUMBER" ??? They linked the old acct # to the new acct, and passed new fraudulent charges right along to the new account.)
This is my sig. There are many like it but this one is... Oops. Frank, I've got your sig again! Where's mine?
I've been an eBay seller for 3 years. I started off selling stupid things like Apple IIe manuals. I've gotten pretty good at it too an in my 3 years I've probably sold about 1000+ items. Not bad for an 18 year old (yea technically I should only have had an account for like 2 months now). Well anyways in those 3 years I've learned 3 things: Ebay buyers are stupid Ebay buyers are stupid Ebay buyers are stupid Why? I have a form for people to fill out and return if they use a money order. 1 out of 10 of my money order based transcations come without that form and I'd say probably 1 in 20 of those come without an address on the money order or the envelope. Now lets think about this. No mention of what item you bid on, what your ebay ID is or what your address is. How do these people think I figure out what they're paying for. Worse than getting ripped off buy a seller is ripping yourself off on ebay. I try to figure them out, but most of the $$$ I just keep since I dont have a clue what it goes to. -Tim
Tim Smith - Ramblings from Nerd Land
Actually, I've watched a number of camera auctions go way above list price on eBay. A simple visit to a reputable camera dealer site online, and people would *know* not to do that.
But that's how auctions are. I've been at real-life, stand-around-and-hold-up-a-sign auctions, where people just get hung up on something. I've seen cars go for 20% above blue-book. Now, maybe there's something I don't know about with those items, but my suspicion is that people just get caught up in the moment and the competition of things.
That's why real auctions have shills -- you may know about what you want to spend, by by God, you're not going to be outbid by that twerp over there!
It's an interesting "feature" of human psychology.
Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachtani?
www.fogbound.net
A few months back, I was watching auctions for Dreamcast broadband adaptors. One auction caught my eye because the seller was in the same city as I was. I thought it was great, because I could potentially save shipping.
Then I watched the people who bid on it. Some guy bid the BBA up to 400$ USD. There are many actions where the BBA is 120$ or so... and the original winner who had it for 120$ dutifully followed that account in up-bidding it. The end result? A very suspicious transaction which I reported.
eBay downplayed it.
--
Internet Explorer (n): Another bug -- that is, a feature that can't be turned off -- in Windows.