Why isn't this A**hole in jail yet?

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squt
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Why isn't this A**hole in jail yet?

Post by squt » Fri Dec 16, 2005 5:24 pm

Our old friend mr. chen is at it again.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 8737630651

I foolishly inquired about the item, and got this e-mail back:


Hi,

I need to talk to you. I need your telephone number. If you email me your telephone number before the highest bidder pays me, I will sell both the Alpha and the
Beta booster boxes to you for $4,000. Give me your telephone number, and I will call you.

I hope you are the winner of my MTG Alpha and Beta booster boxes. If not, you can still email me your telephone number. I want to have $4,000 for both booster
boxes because I have to pay some bills this week. If you can help me pay off my bills, I can help you get the two booster boxes for $4,000. I will call you.

Thank you very much.

- Patricia Chen

Can't someone put this jackass in jail?

gerrikabeitia
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Post by gerrikabeitia » Fri Dec 16, 2005 5:54 pm

Well,
It seems someone is paying $ 6.000 for this item! Is there any possiblity someone is put into jail for $ 6.000?
Let's wait and see

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misterpid
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Post by misterpid » Fri Dec 16, 2005 7:25 pm

Was that an e-mail or a message through ebay's message system?

Either way, if you forward it to ebay they may be able to take some action agaisnt the seller.

Here is the link for the "Offers to Buy or Sell Outside of eBay" page.

http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/rfe ... -sale.html


It may not do much, but it's something.
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squt
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Post by squt » Fri Dec 16, 2005 8:20 pm

G- I contacted the buyer and told him what was up. He didn't send any cash yet, and isn't going to because of my warning.

Pid - yes it was! And I already did. Anything to make this jerk's life more difficult...

Squt

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ende73
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Post by ende73 » Fri Dec 16, 2005 11:12 pm

Next time I'll e-mail my phone number : 911 8)

tetsuo42
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Post by tetsuo42 » Sat Dec 17, 2005 1:54 am

i'm just curious, but was the seller selling counterfeit card boxes?

The sellers response was quite shady, but what about the product?

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Post by Gryfalia » Sat Dec 17, 2005 3:25 am

If this is the same person I think it is, the answer to your question is...

'What product?'


Gryfalia

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squt
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Post by squt » Sat Dec 17, 2005 4:05 pm

Yeah - this guy has never played magic, and probably has never owned a magic card.

squt

random
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Post by random » Sun Dec 18, 2005 5:26 pm

I noticed that the Beta Booster box scammers all have the same wierd ebay history. It's like they all bought the same baby stuff and crappy music cd's. Maybe it's actually some chick(Ms Chen) who'se had a bunch of kids all over America and she dupes her 20 X boyfriends into her "cant miss" ebay scam to cover the child support.

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squt
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Post by squt » Wed Dec 21, 2005 6:09 am

It's just the same guy, and he's got a new angle. Now he has a bunch of ridiculous things up on e-bay (mint beta set, for example), with a huge (and accurate) BIN price. BUT - he has the 'best offer' option enabled, so he can collect the e-mail addresses (and heaven forbid phone #'s) of people who are interested.

I spent this afternoon warning many of them.

The shitty thing is, e-bay won't shut him down based on my complaint. Even though he offered to sell me his item outide of e-bay (and at a lower price!) in the e-mail, they say that they can't link that e-mail address to his account so they can't prosecute.

IMHO that makes them complicit with his fraud. This guy's scam is so obvious it hurts, but they won't even investigate.

Squt

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misterpid
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Post by misterpid » Wed Dec 21, 2005 3:02 pm

Ebay makes money off of other people's scams without being held accountable for it. The Beta box sold for $6000 - ebay gets about $100-$110 from this seller based on listing and final value fees. All they had to do was allow this auction to run to completion. If they get taken to court over a scam like this, they claim that they're just a marketplace. If you were to get scammed througn a classified ad in a newspaper, would the newspaper be responsible? That's their basic defense.

From their perspective, why would they want to stop this? They only really go after things that decrease their revenues (auctions closed because of an off ebay sale, people who don't pay their fees...)

Is it right? Of course not. But that's the reality of ebay, and why auctions like this will always be around.
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ende73
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Post by ende73 » Thu Dec 22, 2005 12:44 am

misterpid wrote:Ebay makes money off of other people's scams without being held accountable for it. The Beta box sold for $6000 - ebay gets about $100-$110 from this seller based on listing and final value fees. All they had to do was allow this auction to run to completion. If they get taken to court over a scam like this, they claim that they're just a marketplace. If you were to get scammed througn a classified ad in a newspaper, would the newspaper be responsible? That's their basic defense.

From their perspective, why would they want to stop this? They only really go after things that decrease their revenues (auctions closed because of an off ebay sale, people who don't pay their fees...)

Is it right? Of course not. But that's the reality of ebay, and why auctions like this will always be around.
I posted several times here about how idiot Ebay is at times and I have to agree with what Squt said above.

I understand Ebay will take the stance that they're not responsible for scam listings since they're a mere marketplace, but if that's the case then they shouldn't be allowed to advertise all their safety measures. It's no use allowing Ebayers to report suspicious activities if absolutely nothing is ever done in response.

What Ebay lacks to see is that people are getting sick to pay fees on listings (and often on their associated Paypal payments) if they can't even benefit from an environment and staff that will use just the slightest common sense in pursuing obvious scammers.

They're playing on the fact they have no real competitors for the time being, but that's just not the right attitude in my opinion.

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Post by coolio » Fri Dec 23, 2005 3:32 am

do we have another silver or higher lvl pseller to file the complaints with me?

they tend to listen.. hell they opened up a LOT of options to me with that upgrade email..

suggestions as to how I should go about reporting, as well as things you think I should include that be brought to ebay's attn, pls let me know.

I'm thinking of going with the angle that by plastering ebay with fradulent auctions, it hurts me, a legit seller, because he is undermining the faith of buyers of this market.

and btw.. that "beta" box.. anyone notice the booster pack says REVISED?
oh.. and sketchiness on the alaska and ny locations.. he's not a trading assistant.. 2 diff locations seem v sketchy.. anything else you can dig up.. pls let me know.. better if you can link him with a previously banned ebay acct.

I actually just 2 days ago got some dipstick nailed

-Morgan

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Post by hammr7 » Fri Dec 23, 2005 6:07 am

This guy has used a number of different resellers and trading assistants. He has done so in the US, in the UK, and at least once in the Netherlands. In all cases he was able to convince the reseller to host the auction without having the actual cards (or in a few cases he supplied some junk cards, but not the supposed big cards, packs or decks). He has tried to give each reseller a slightly different version, but has been known at times to send many of them exact copies. In such instances his arrangement has always been to promise to send the items directly to the winner after receipt of a Paypal payment (less fees and comissions).

In a few cases, he made deals with college students who were willing to trash their accounts for a good chunk of money. Apparantly there are chat rooms and bulletin boards where such opportuunities are posted and discussed. In one case that I researched, a college kid needed $400 to fix his car, and was willing to sacrifice a 200+ feedback (100%) to do so. The college kid figured it was safe, since he was graduating and leaving the state, but got caught when the same auction information showed up in 2 other eBay auctions.

Not only does this guy supply fraudulant offers, but he also sends a host of follow up e-mails and / or phone calls in violation of eBay rules. He has gone through a number of accounts and I don't know if he has ever completed a valid sales transaction. I have spoken (from an untraceable phone) a few times to to him, and also to a female accompliss. This has proven hilarious when I have feigned interest and asked for a face-to-face. When he has hedged that the cards were "somewhere else", I have claimed to be wherever he claimed to be. He has actually hung up on me.

As best I can tell he actually does live east of Tampa, FL. I don't know if the female is a wife, girlfriend, or sister, but she used to work out of a business establishment (possibly a dry cleaner) north of Tampa.

I am not certain why this guy is still active. It might be because he has been totally unsuccessful in completing a big sale - we all know something is wrong with him - maybe others do. Maybe he is a crackpot who keeps paying eBay for his listing failures. Typically eBay is so slow to react that they don't listen until they start getting major monetary claims against them. If everything he has done so far still hasn't gotten him tossed off eBay, I don't know anything short of a major successful fraud that will.

A more successful strategy might be accusing him of stalking if he continues to make phone calls or send e-mails. You have a right to not be harassed by phone and also by e-mail. If you have a phone on the do-not-call list, and he violates it, he can be subject to fines. And unlike stopping a potential ecommerce scam (which isn't against the law until it succeeds), harrassing is a crime based upon his actions of just contacting you.

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ende73
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Post by ende73 » Tue Jul 04, 2006 3:02 pm


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