Slashdot Mirror
eBay Scam Victim Strikes Back
jcomeau_ictx writes "Justin Spence doesn't take lightly being scammed out of $1155 for a laptop he never received. The seller, Salvatore Wise, Jr. of Philadelphia, is growing openly more hostile over the webpage Justin produced exposing his and his wife Michelle Heinlein's scams to the world. So far Justin has documented $6841.00 total lost to this crook, but the total is more likely in the tens of thousands. " As it goes along it just gets more and more bizarre. My favorite part is when "Sal" says that all the earlier messages were sent from a different Sal, but you can tell them apart because the true Sal always writes his emails in italics.
This is a long and complex story. I dont blame either party but since I'm more intrested/concered in what eBay is doing to thwart crimes.
So, buying anything in those priceranges is taking a huge risk. I'm not saying that these scammer should get away with it (they should be thrown in jail), I'm just saying that I prefer not to take risks.
Ahhh...the great dumpster continuum. Many a free computer will be found there. -- sowth (748135)
What if he has a wireless keyboard, wireless mouse and uses voice recognition input?
"Glory is fleeting but obscurity is forever" - Napoleon Bonapart.
Threat to shoot him is illegal under the patriot act. He can call the local authorities and have him arrested if he has the threat properly documented....might as well use the peice of crap legistation for something useful.
Power Corrupts,Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely, leaving one person(group)in charge is absolutely corrupt.
This is why you only buy SMALL TICKET items off of ebay.
:)
Im talking dvds, videogames, maybe hdds. If you get ripped off, the loss is minimal.
I thought everyone knew this already
no
Isn't there some special online protection plan that can remburse you in case of an online purchase fraud? Why don't people just get one of these cards specifically for ebaying.
Yes, several credit card companies offer plans that "prevent" online fraud (and many other types of fraud) by refunding your money in the event that you are a victim of fraud. In this case, however, this would not have been possible because the seller mentioned in this slashdot article would not accept credit card payments / paypal. Furthermore, all the credit cards with fraud protection that I have seen have a limit to how much they will cover in a year's time or how much you can claim at once. Your fraud protection might have a $1000 a year limit and a maximum of $300 per fraud. Meaning, with expensive items you don't get great protection anyway.
What I really wish for is an offline protection plan that can crack skulls in case of an online purchase fraud.
-
Nothing is as bad as Yahoo auctions. I caught a fraudulent seller red handed, notified Yahoo as there was 6 other bidders on the same item... and Yahoo wouldn't / didn't seem to do a thing about it.
This doesn't surprise me. Yahoo also refuses to remove spammers who join a Yahoo E-mail group (even with overwhelming proof, the moderator's access was down for a week and they spammed mercilessly from one single account the whole time. Worst part is the group had quite a few underage readers and most of the spam was explicit porn spam.). Back when they had free personals they wouldn't remove ads that were obviously bogus (we're talking ads that say go to hotgirl.com/barbie to learn more about me in them).I don't know why Yahoo behaves the way it does but I long ago gave up on them as a lost cause, no matter what the offense they will almost never act on it.
Almost any crime associated with USPS is a federal crime...
love is just extroverted narcissism
I know this is funky, but while he blacked out the licese plate in the ebay car photo, the bumper is still reflecting (a tiny) portion of it. Wonder if one could deduce a partial plate from the reflected bit?
www.voiceofthehive.com - Beekeeping and Honeybees for those who don't.
They stick with their 'venue' status
A bunch of bullshit, too. I bought a $10 item and the seller added $20 for shipping (I expected $15, but whatever, I'll pay his overcharge), but then tacked a $20 "handling fee" on top of that! This was NOT mentioned in the auction!
eBay has a rule about this, so I complained to them, but they refused to enforce it because his auction said "seller pays shipping and handling". They also kindly informed me that if I didn't pay, my account would be subject to disciplinary action. I asked, "So, the seller could make up whatever number he wanted - $1,000, perhaps - and if I didn't pay, you would trash MY account?" The response: "Yes."
When I complained further, they pulled the "we're just a venue" bullshit, and compared themselves to the classifieds section of the newspaper. But they're not "just a venue". They have proactively taken steps to remove troublesome users and to create a large base of rules governing transactions. The fact that they go around slapping people who don't pay, no matter what the circumstances, proves they're not "just a venue."
eBay pisses me off. I still use it, because there aren't any other choices. But they're a bunch of asshats. Either you're a venue or not. Either you enforce rules or you don't have them at all. You can't have it both ways.
(I ended up paying half the seller's extortion fee and letting him keep some of the items in the lot that I didn't need, and making a note to never, ever bid on anything that doesn't have all shipping & handling costs clearly listed in the auction.)
-Ryan, with the unoriginal sig
Was I the only person who was completely shocked to see Sal spell "doubt" correctly?
;)
Wonders will never cease