The nerve of some people!

[potofsky]

Hi all, I walked into my local staples today to ship my items and there was a group of 5 young guys there and you would not believe what they were discussing. They stood right there at the post counter talking of how and from where they could purchase ebay accounts, yes thats right purchase existing accounts. Apparently their current accounts were shut down for fraud (taking money and sending nothing) They were openly bashing eBay for closing the accounts, I was trying so hard not to laugh. Anyway the store manager, with whom I have a great relationship with told me that they have been "red flagged" in his store for shoplifting as well. I wish I knew at least one of them I would have gladly reported him or her to ebay, but the crooks are getting so much smarter then the system so in reality the chances of them getting caught seem slim as it is.
I am posting, I guess, just to vent and let you all know that fraud isn't as far away as we may think.

[amberwoodottawa]

How difficult is it for 5 people to set up 5 or 10 or 20 eBay accounts and give each other positive feedback?

Those punks will be back in business before the day is done.

I think there are a lot of scam artists in the eBay travel area where I see people with "0" feedback, newly registered and have 30+ ads selling airline tickets for $79.95 plus they are members of Square Trade.

I saw this yesterday however all the auctions ended yesterday with no buyers. Who knows, maybe it was those guys you saw.

Malcolm

[potofsky]

Yes, I agree with you I said to the clerk, they'll be up in a few hours for sure, there are about five or six of us "real" ebay sellers that use the post in this store, and it was a disgust to us all. I wish i knew what they were selling then i could at least look into new auctions and see what comes up out of this area. They could not have been older then 18 - 19 max kids fooling around at other peoples expense. Losers!

[cutecoins]

It is too bad people like that kill it for the average person....I wish we could figure out how to nail the SOBs. The spam I get ticks me ....I wonder if we will ever come to grips with it in Canada... JAB

[shooger]

Fraud is WAY out of control. I guess it's just up to the average person out there to look out for themselves. I consider myself pretty "fraud-proof" but I find myself deflecting at least something every week, whether it be someone buying from me with a stolen credit card, or contemplating buying something from a questionable seller, or receiving a strange email proposition. It gets me so upset that I work so hard to make a little extra money, and dishonest people can make twice as much in half the time (at our expense). I have to just let it go, or I'll go insane.

Oh, here's an email I just sent to PowerSeller support. I'm sure you can figure out the story, based on the email:

Hi, I've been having trouble with someone for a month or two. I don't know their real name, because they always use a different variation. His most recent account is "buyourcollection" but he has used at least 3 others to buy my items. He purchases 30-70 small priced BIN auctions (only one per seller) and then sends out mass amounts of emails, saying "RATE ME POSITIVE IMMEDIATELY AND SEND ITEM OR I NOT PAY YOU AND RATE YOU NEGATIVE!" His first two accounts have been banned (after receiving quite a few POSITIVE ratings!) but his most recent two are still active. Each new account pays from a different PayPal account. The address is always either in Florida or Chicago, and the name of the person is always very different. But attached in the "note" portion is always a message saying "SEND TO THIS ADDRESS BECAUSE I AM ABOUT TO MOVE:" The address is always a PO box in Plant City, Florida. A few days afterward, another mass emailing occurs, this time saying "I DONT NEED THE PRODUCT OR SERVICE I BOUGHT FROM YOU, SO REFUND MY MONEY IMMEDIATELY OR I WILL FILE CHARGEBACK WITH PAYPAL AND HAVE YOU BAN FROM EBAY WITH NEGATIVE RATING AND COMPLAINTS. THANKS." I'm sick and tired of this idiot. I've sent numerous emails in the past, with no result, so I'm trying my PayPal connection this time. Please, get something done about this idiot. EBay makes it far too easy for scammers like this to operate. While you're at it, nuke his other active account (which he's no longer using as part of this scam due to the huge amount of negative feedback on the profile): commandmented10. If your only response is "send all documentation including headers", then don't even bother asking, because I'm not going to. If nothing gets done because of this request, so be it. I've spent far too much time cleaning up after this fraud's endeavours. And I've lost far too much in fees... but I don't suppose you're in a hurry to rectify that situation.
Thanks,
Daron