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Ebay ripoff Internet
Logged on and registed with ebay.com and searched for a boat. Found boat and started bidding. Won bid and went to pay through ebay client. Sent deposit through western union of $3500.00 dollars. Never received shipment of boat or cash back. Western union confirmed pickup of cash.
After finding out boat was not going to arrive contacted authorities and they could not help said to contact FBI online. I filed report with FBI online and through western union. Requested copy of pick receipt and western union had name blocked out. Money was sent to Italy's Western Union. A small town. Never got money or boat. Noone will help me!
Pam
Hillsborough, North Carolina
U.S.A.
8 Updates & Rebuttals
Denny
Honolulu,Hawaii,
U.S.A.
Ebay not at fault
#9Consumer Comment
Thu, September 08, 2005
*****Also, all ebay.com transaction were done on ebay site.*****
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No, all you did at ebay was bid on a scam auction from a hijacked account
The payment was done OFF of ebay's website.
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***** Apparently using ebay and clicking on ebay email links is not good enough. I filled a spam and fraud report with ebay.support@ebay.com and nothing was done.*****
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Why? its not spam. It was a fraud/scam auction from the start from a hijacked account
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***** They said the persons email was stolen and used through their site. How in the hell did that happen. They are suppose to be secure. *****
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the real owner of the account probably responded to a Phishing email sent by a scammer, and they were stupid enought to reply or click on the link and give the scammer all their information. That they are "casual" users of ebay, and didn't know that hteir account was compromised by a scammer.
Or they had a VERY Easy password that a brute force attack on Ebay's server with their user id and pw found it quickly.
Easy enough to do. Nothing about being secure. ITs about stupid customers of ebay using simple passwords.
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****This was not a simple 1 day sale, it was over several weeks the auction occurred and their were other bidders.****
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Several weeks? ebay only has 1, 3 , 5, 7 and 10 day auctions. Nothing about weeks here. If you mean that the stolen account was used for several weeks, just goes to show you how "dumb" the original owner of the account was, or how infrequent he uses ebay.
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***** I received emails through ebay and my personal email as well as the seller. I spoke with him by phone and by email.*****
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No, you received bogus emails from the scammer who strung you along like a dog.
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***** Verified shipping company, tracking number and everything. After deposit was made everything disappeared.*****
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NO, the scammer gave you the information from the THEIR scamming site, and tracking numbers from a previous shipment that was "in transit". And scammer also set up fake escrow and shipping sites to keep the scam going.
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**** If ebay.support had responded in a timely manner,(i.e. within 24 hrs) I would have not completed transaction but they did not respond for several days. It took 1 week for the fraud department to even respond to my fraud report on the ebay site. They verified the emails and weblinks were copied but they were identical to ebay's site. I ask them to explain that. They said many people can copy graphics. Yeah right! Something fishy went down. More than fraud, it seems to be an internal scam. *****
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Are you daft? Clueless? GOOGLE eBay Phish. This scam is so common its unbelievable. ITS VERY EASY To "File > SAVE AS" on ANY ebay page to grab the graphics and HTML code and upload it to a fake ebay website to make it look like the real thing. Nothing "internal" about it, but a scammer who took you in, hook line and sinker.
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*****That next month our local T.V. station showed another ebay member who got scammed the same way. Even 5 on your side could not get the seller to respond to the buyer. Ebay did nothing. Would not give other ebay user's information to investigator to track that person to their home.****
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Why would Ebay give a reporter the name/information of the person who's account got stolen? That would be stupid. Scammers only change the email address of the ebay account. The rest they keep of the original owner. So those "reporters" would be harassing someone who's account got stolen, not the actual scammer
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***** I wonder if that person even existed. They really need to do something better with the screening process of new users on the ebay site. The seller I used even had 5 previous sales in the past 3 years. I traced the history. Not once did the sending email address change through ebay. We had hundreds of email contact through that ebay site over a period of two months.******
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Screening of new users? no, users need to educate themselves and aCTUALLY READ The help content before BIDDING or SELLING on ebay. They have several sections dedicated to fraud, SCAMS, PHISHING and Spoof
Pam
Hillsborough,North Carolina,
U.S.A.
all ebay.com transaction were done on ebay site
#9Author of original report
Thu, September 08, 2005
Also, all ebay.com transaction were done on ebay site. Apparently using ebay and clicking on ebay email links is not good enough. I filled a spam and fraud report with ebay.support@ebay.com and nothing was done. They said the persons email was stolen and used through their site. How in the hell did that happen. They are suppose to be secure. This was not a simple 1 day sale, it was over several weeks the auction occurred and their were other bidders. I received emails through ebay and my personal email as well as the seller. I spoke with him by phone and by email. Verified shipping company, tracking number and everything. After deposit was made everything disappeared. If ebay.support had responded in a timely manner,(i.e. within 24 hrs) I would have not completed transaction but they did not respond for several days. It took 1 week for the fraud department to even respond to my fraud report on the ebay site. They verified the emails and weblinks were copied but they were identical to ebay's site. I ask them to explain that. They said many people can copy graphics. Yeah right! Something fishy went down. More than fraud, it seems to be an internal scam. That next month our local T.V. station showed another ebay member who got scammed the same way. Even 5 on your side could not get the seller to respond to the buyer. Ebay did nothing. Would not give other ebay user's information to investigator to track that person to their home. I wonder if that person even existed. They really need to do something better with the screening process of new users on the ebay site. The seller I used even had 5 previous sales in the past 3 years. I traced the history. Not once did the sending email address change through ebay. We had hundreds of email contact through that ebay site over a period of two months.
Dave
Jacksonville,Florida,
U.S.A.
You were a victim of FRAUD, not Ebay
#9Consumer Suggestion
Thu, September 08, 2005
This is an online scam that has been going on for years. You obviously knew that the boat you were buying was worth a LOT more than the $3500.00 you paid for it. That should've been your first clue. Then the seller requests money via Western Union, BIG RED FLAG there. NEVER SEND MONEY via Western Union.
You will NEVER get your money back. Report it to the FBI, and they will file it away with the thousands of other off-shore scams. Next time, make sure the seller has a LOT of positive feedbacks, and never contact them thru an email link in the ad, always click on the seller's link to contact them. Some of the assholes will steal a seller's identity, and put their own email link in the ad.. don't fall for this. If you email the seller thru the Ebay link, then at least if it is a scam, the seller will email you back and tell you that he isn't selling a boat or whatever, and report it to Ebay.
Mathieu
Charlesbourg,Quebec,
Canada
Do Not Pay With Western Union
#9Consumer Suggestion
Thu, September 08, 2005
It's written just about everywhere on eBay that you shouldn't pay with Western Union, because there's no fraud protection. What are you, blind? It's your fault this happened.
Mathieu
Charlesbourg,Quebec,
Canada
Do Not Pay With Western Union
#9Consumer Suggestion
Thu, September 08, 2005
It's written just about everywhere on eBay that you shouldn't pay with Western Union, because there's no fraud protection. What are you, blind? It's your fault this happened.
Mathieu
Charlesbourg,Quebec,
Canada
Do Not Pay With Western Union
#9Consumer Suggestion
Thu, September 08, 2005
It's written just about everywhere on eBay that you shouldn't pay with Western Union, because there's no fraud protection. What are you, blind? It's your fault this happened.
Mathieu
Charlesbourg,Quebec,
Canada
Do Not Pay With Western Union
#9Consumer Suggestion
Thu, September 08, 2005
It's written just about everywhere on eBay that you shouldn't pay with Western Union, because there's no fraud protection. What are you, blind? It's your fault this happened.
Jason
Simpsonville,South Carolina,
U.S.A.
Common Scam
#9Consumer Comment
Thu, September 08, 2005
Money is gone. You just learned an expensive lesson.
Western Union money transfers are pretty much non-traceable, can be picked up by anyone and offer no security for the buyer. On Ebay's Buyer Information page, it states
"eBay does not recommend the use of instant cash wire transfer services. While sellers may offer this option, they cannot require you to pay this way. If you suspect a seller is trying to commit fraud by insisting on payment through an instant cash wire transfer, please decline to use it and report the seller to eBay.
Risks:
Difficult to identify and designate recipient.
Not traceable.
Generally, no recourse is available if the item is not delivered as promised, even if you used your credit card to send the payment.
Not covered by the eBay Standard Purchase Protection Program. "
So, Ebay can do nothing for you, Western Union can do nothing for you and since the money went to Italy, odds are that the FBI can do nothing for you.