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."
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
IIRC, someone attempted to sell their kidney on ebay, that had past the $1million mark when ebay stopped the auction...
Good quote, too many chars. Seriously, the slashdot 120 char limit sucks!
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.
...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?
(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!
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