FRAUD Alert!

[rboomsma]

I have delat with many sellers in the former Soviet union. Most use paypal, through someone in the USA. If this person is registered in Utah, and does not use paypal, I find this very suspicous.

I didn't undertsand this to be a shipping problem, but a probelm that the seller is not answering his emails now, and lied about a problem with another sale.

It is true that packages from the Russia and eastern block can take a very long time. At least 14 days, and as long as 12 weeks. 3- 4 weeks is the average.

[dannybou]

Have been buying through eBay for quite a few years and even more so now since I started the hobby of Soviet medals. One thing I will not do is deal with someone who doesn't take Paypal, and buy articles/medals which are too high a price. I will buy the C and R1 medals from eBay as long as the seller has positive feedbacks in excess of 99%, but will not buy R2's from anyone but a dealer and/or member. My 2 cents

[Tretov]

What I find most curious is the fact that, after all this seller has 30 positive feedbacks, both as seller and buyer. Why this scam now?

[dannybou]

Originally Posted by Tretov

What I find most curious is the fact that, after all this seller has 30 positive feedbacks, both as seller and buyer. Why this scam now?

Did you check what the feedback was for? Was it for small inexpensive items? He may have purposely sold inexpensive items to have a good amount of positive feedback, only to defraud when the more expensive ones came on the auction? Only a thought....

[Tretov]

Most of the earlier deals were too old to be checked up (older than 90 days). Considering his earlier "trade partners" he has not traded militaria, it is more phones and electronics.

[Tretov]

The eBay account in question had been hijacked. I hope to get at least some money back. DAMN.

[Chuck In Oregon]

Hijacked? What exactly is that? I have an Ebay account and I'd sure like to prevent that from happening to me.

Chuck

[Tretov]

Someone managed to find out his password, either through a "good guess" or using some program (I know such programs exists, I have friends that sniffs passwords to certain pay-sites that way ). Then he listed three auctions, three-day auctions, and wrote his email adress in the auction. His email closely resembled the email adress of the user. Then he got three winners, gave them the bank details and cashed in about 1000 USD... and disappeared, leaving two very disappointed and furious customers and a account owner in Utah that does not have regular internet access.

[scook17]

Paypal's refund policy sucks. I bought an 'original' Elton John DVD off a seller on Ebay only to be sent a cheap copy on DVD+R disk. I complained to Paypal and they said because I'd received something, I had to get my money back from the seller! After much bitching to Paypal and Ebay, they neither removed his account or refunded my money.

So I reported this to UK trading standards and they did nothing either, I guess to small a fry to worry about. I then started to watch all the auctions the guy had and emailed every single bidder to tell them what had happened. He's obviously caught on because he simply started using 'private' auctions so I could not contact the bidders.

So in the end, you have very little recourse against Ebay sellers, and IMHO the refund policy by PayPal sucks. However, that said, it's still the easiest way to pay someone, and I still use it regularly.

Kind Regards,
Shane Cook.

[dannybou]

One thing I do in case I get done by a dishonest seller, is always pay by Paypal linked to my credit card. Then if I don't receive the item or whatever I paid for, I call my credit card security and do a reverse charge. There is some paperwork involved but that it the best way to do it. I've never done it as my experience with e... has been alright.. so far (touches wood!) but a coworker of mine had two instances of a bad seller and had his money refunded by the credit card company. Hope this helps.