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FBI Targets Online Auction Sites' Criminal Element
coondoggie writes "The FBI has made a number of big busts using the eBay and other online auction sites this year. Today comes news that it played a big role in the indictment of an Alabama man for wire fraud. Joseph Davidson, has been charged in U.S. District Court with wire fraud in connection with an eBay scheme in which he allegedly received approximately $77,000 for stolen goods sold on the auction site. "Online auction houses present an opportunity for a thief to turn a stolen item into cash. Thieves should know that law enforcement can surf sites too in investigating crime," the FBI said."
With an FBI employee getting caught surfing ebay from their desk instead of working. They claimed to be looking for stolen property, the excuse caught on, and now it can be an assignment. :)
This article was about catching people selling stolen merchandise and not about fraud on ebay.
I would think that fences would have good feedback ratings. It is not like they are trying to cheat the ebay buyer. A fence would want to get the stolen merchandise out of their garage and into the hands of the buyers as quickly and with as little fuss as possible. Since the entire sale is profit, the fence would make enough from the sale to expedite the whole process, package the goods well and communicate with the buyer.
Someone who has stolen merchandise to sell would probably want to sell it with as little fuss and notice as possible. So they would have a good feedback. The complaints would all be about people committing fraud.
It would be interesting to study the different feedback rates for different types of criminal.
"Thieves should know that law enforcement can surf sites too in investigating crime," the FBI said.
I don't see why. Assuming that things are going to be stolen regardless, it's surely better to let (stupid) criminals believe that they have a secure way to dispose of their loot. It sounds unlikely that there are now loads of thieves thinking "Shit, I was going to nick a load of stuff to sell on eBay, but now I think I'll mow the lawn instead".
Granted, I'm not working in law enforcement and have no idea what I'm talking about, but I've been hanging around here long enough to know that that's not considered a drawback.
I don't have to RTFA - we had a case that made the local papers where a guy was bilked out of a $40,000 painting through eBay. They got the painting, never sent the money, so he's out both. feeBay did squat. The FBI did nothing, either. Why the f*ck do they have to have people "surfing the net looking for crime" when they've got people saying "hey, why the fuck don't you DO something about this - here's the proof, here's the people involved ..." and their response is "Its a civil, not criminal, matter. Take them to civil court." Fuck that.
Several years ago, I got stuck with some bogus cashier's checks. I think the amount was around $10k. I went to the FBI, I went to the Secret Service, I went to the Postal Inspector. They all work for the same Federal Prosecutor, and they all broke the same news, that they couldn't afford to waste their time investigating because even if they brought the culprit in he would never be charged. "The AG's office has to allocate its time" was how it was explained to me.
Apparently the Feds are too busy prosecuting sick and dying invalids for smoking state-legal marijuana after they're brought in by DEA thugs http://www.huffingtonpost.com/reena-szczenpanski/m ultiagency-drug-task-fo_b_62401.html to be bothered with protecting the property stolen from nobodies like me.
So, as I say, I'm pretty sure the best of the on-line scammers are onto this, and they carefully craft their hits to be less than, say, $20,000. It is, literally, a "get-out-of-jail-free" card!
True, True, but they should start, a lot of little people suffer much more relative damage to small time scams, and these people seem to operate with impunity. A lot of scammers try to take legitimate sellers as well. My Girlfriend likes to buy and sell online a lot and I can't tell you the number of scams and insincere people out there. Don't forget these scams are not limited to the big sites like Ebay, in fact they thrive on the small locals. The current most popular scam I'm seeing out there seems to be:
1. A potential buyer contacts a seller.
2. Potential buyer expresses interest in the item to be purchased but can only do an email money transfer.
3. Seller agrees but buyer then inexplicably decided to transfer a much larger sum than the item being purchased is worth and requests that the overage be given to a local 'associate'.
The way it works: The email transfer is actually from a dummy or illegitimate bank, or flawed in some way. Your bank receives the 'transfer' and dutifully displays the money in your account, however, in the banking world everything takes time and that money has not actually been verified as transfered from one bank to the other yet. If you carry out your end of the arrangement, you pass on the difference between the selling price and the overage you got to the 'associate', and that's the money you lose. In a week or so when your bank realizes that no money has actually arrived, they simply erase the transaction, wiping the entire deposit out of your account, (like a bad cheque!). However, any money you've given to the 'associate' was a legitimate transaction and it's gone to the scammers!
No, I haven't gotten taken by this, or any other scam, but I think it shows a level of ingenuity that could easily take someone a little more trusting. I had no idea how this could go bad until I looked it up, but I knew it smelled fishy at the time. As I'm sure everyone here knows, when something a little funny happens, even if you can't figure out right away what's going on, it's a scam! Wherever possible, meet the seller or buyer face to face, and pay CASH!
Just search for "wholesale list" to see one very obvious and recurring scam that runs on eBay every day. Crime is so rife in categories (e.g. memory cards) that they should put prepend warnings and advice to every single auction advising customers how to look for forgeries. Vigilant customers would prevent the scammers from getting good ratings and ultimately from being profitable. Do eBay do this? No.
These a couple of examples. eBay is in a position to squash all kinds of scams but if they're doing anything it sure as hell isn't enough.
it's not about proof of ownership. These snares are for people they already suspect of stealing from their local stores.
Say, the guy works at walmart. the store suspects he's stealing stuff but can't prove it. The FBI comes in and taps his ebay account.
They nail him for wire fraud for selling stolen items on ebay. They know he didn't buy 24 9" color tv/weather radios because the store is cooperating with the FBI also.
I agree this could be abused, however, the FBI doesn't really care about you selling your power ranger collection.
They're using their grammar skills there.
I worked for a large US manufacturer, and we noticed some of our tooling was going missing and seemed to be ending up on eBay. We marked similar tooling in the area where it was disappearing. Showed up on eBay. No problems proving it.
We've been hashing out how Joe McThief is pawning off the stuff he stole using eBay's gullible bidders. How about money laundering? Here's a quick example: USB flash drives. Small or large, we all have one, right? Nowadays, 1GB are going for around $15, 2GB around $25, 4GB around $40, 8GB around $55, 16GB around $75, a few 32GB for $100: there's a linear progression of the prices as the devices double in size. However, suddenly some "shop" starts offering 64GB drives for $5,000!!! FIVE THOUSAND DOLLARS. Heck, you can buy a high-end portable with 180GB of internal HD for that kind of money! Try and convince me that this is not some sort of money laundering scheme...