Good Ebay Seller doing bad things

[sdot10]

Just some background info

I have been looking for gift cards to sell on ebay. Alot of times you can get a really good deal for large cards and then split them up to sell. Had a guy who was selling iphones and I asked if he also got gift cards. He stated yeah and quoted me a great price. He wanted to do a wire transfer which immediately set me off. When I asked for proof he sent me a "receipt" that looked really good, but he made the mistake of not changing the cash paid to something else so it was saying he paid like 10k cash for the gift card which i found to be absurd. When I asked for a phone number he gave it to me and I googled it and found quite a few people scammed by him. The problem is that his ebay account is flawless. Powerseller, like 100% feedback, so my question is does anything happen to this guy. Seems like he runs the ebay business but anyone that contacts him "outside of ebay" he screws. I counted like 30k on one forum so there has to be more. Even if hes getting funds wired shouldnt there be something the police can do or do they just not care.

[gurusgrafx]

I got burned out a grand one time found out everything about the guy even his moms name and her number. I was told the only thing I could do was take a trip to Florida and file a small claims court case against him. If I had gone all the way down there over a grand I'd have rather left a body than end up with a judgment that would go unpaid more than likely anyways. The guy that got me burned a company in the UK for 50K and one in Australia for 35K. Last I heard they hadn't gotten anything back yet either.

[sdot10]

how did you pay? with wire? so is it just pay with wire hope to got you dont get screwed.

[gurusgrafx]

pretty much gotta trust them. I have a friend paid for a turbo kit for one of his cars with a check for right at $4,000. he got ripped off too. similar situation to mine, police told him they couldn't do anything to help him either. bank wont help you out on a check either. credit card or an escrow service would be your safest bet.

[GreenBean]

If it is too good to be ture, it is not good. You already have found out there are problems so why risk your money?imho, dealing with him either on ebay or off is dangerous for your wallet.

[sdot10]

Oh def not going to do it. I know they are fraud but it just seems like if you have like 20 people losing an average of $2000 or so seems like its pretty open and shut. Is it a thing of the whole youll never be able to prove that he didnt send it type thing.

[GreenBean]

Oh, pleased to hear that. I know of someone that got scammed for $4000
in a similar way.
Only thing that annoys me is when people say 'the police will not help'. This is NOT ture. IF a transaction is done on the internet it can and should be reported to the FBI. They have special units that check these scams out.

[gurusgrafx]

^^^^ yeah they do however I was told they will not touch it unless its a substantial amount of money or they get a ton of complaints about the same person. $50,000 or more is what I was told.

[GreenBean]

^^^: maybe the FBI have changed a bit. About 13 months ago, we had a scam & the FBI did take action. Must say it was successful for us.

[eseller]

wire transfers is a big no no . . . I once had the local police at my ex-girl friends house for a cell phone I sold on ebay - It was the verison evny I bought it off the street for $100 buck at the time it was sell on the bay for $200-$300 - Think it sold for about $285 - so the dude never contact me no negative no charge back no emails no nothing then a few months later the copps show up at my ex-girls house looking for Jose Perez - LOL - Needless to say I think the phone was stolen - I had no idea at the time (thats why I never sell verison phones anymore)

anyway if you wanna try to get the dude in trouble contact the police - its worth a shot

[sdot10]

Originally Posted by GreenBean

^^^: maybe the FBI have changed a bit. About 13 months ago, we had a scam & the FBI did take action. Must say it was successful for us.

Do tell. You did a wire? Define successful. Did you get all your money back, did the guy go to jail?

[fyoufragu]

Originally Posted by ricky_price

Interesting to hear the FBI story as well, fill us in !

ditto. tell us!