Phoenix man sentenced in eBay fraud scheme

[webgoon]

Case of stealth gone wrong?

PHOENIX - A Phoenix man has been sentenced to five years in prison in connection with an eBay Inc. fraud scheme.

Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard said Friday that 48-year-old Eric Haywood Weinstein used fraudulent names and credit cards between 2003 and 2006.

Prosecutors say Weinstein proceeded to sell thousands of items on eBay using fraudulent accounts, and eBay was unable to collect its auction fees as a result of the invalid cards on file. The company's system did not catch the fraud until it had lost hundreds of thousands of dollars in auction fees.

Weinstein pleaded guilty last month to two counts of felony fraudulent schemes and artifices arising out of two indictments.

News Headlines

[rsot]

Ha "case of stealth" - hundreds of thousands of fees is not ONE case - interesting find though.

[webgoon]

Found a little bit more info along with a picture of the poor dood. Looks like Secret Service was involved too.


Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard

[Imback2010]

so stealth is still safe as long as you pay your fees..lol

[123]

Yeah I would never recommend bailing on thousands of dollars worth of fees obviously it adds up and eventually they will start looking for you. I always pay my fees.

[webgoon]

Yah, I guess it's like they know what's going on but decide to turn the blind eye since they still make their money. Once you decide to jip them enough, they'll go hunting for you. I guess you really have to be worth their while.

[mememe1972]

Most stealthers pay there fees

[pod]

Well the guy was a full on moron. An idiot. To owe 100s of thousands in fees means he was selling millions. And he decides to skip out on the fees. Moron. If I was selling so much my fees were 100s of thousands I would be just fine paying the fees thank you very much.

He just got greedy

[imthatguy]

Yep probably knew it was him because of same stuff he was selling and location. Somehow one day he decides to maybe call in or email ebay support and slipped up and they linked all his other accounts and starting investigating.

Im pretty sure too he was probably scamming but they probably couldnt get him on it so they chargerd him with this or maybe he was selling replicas and copped out to plea agreement.

But yea thats scary. Ebay trying to make a point\

But looks like he owe ebay close to 1 million dollar in fees.

probably was Modee since he said he never pays fees


In addition to the prison term, Weinstein was sentenced to six years of intensive supervised probation following his release and was ordered to pay restitution to eBay, the online auction company based in San Jose, Calif., in the amount of $900,000.

[chknlollypop101]

Speaking of Modee--> what happened to Modee? The website is there but no access to the forums....

I guess he was the lawyer defending himself in the long trial ...

[jeffweico]

I looked at this, and it was not a simple case of this guy not paying eBay fees. This was related to another case where he was ripping people off from 2003-2007. In addition to that, he has other felony convictions going back to at least 1983.

Unfortunately, the Maricopa County Superior Court does not allow electronic access to anything other than their court calendar and minute entries, so I couldn't get specifics.

[E-Nertia]

Greed is a very bad thing....

[123]

Originally Posted by jeffweico

I looked at this, and it was not a simple case of this guy not paying eBay fees. This was related to another case where he was ripping people off from 2003-2007. In addition to that, he has other felony convictions going back to at least 1983.

Unfortunately, the Maricopa County Superior Court does not allow electronic access to anything other than their court calendar and minute entries, so I couldn't get specifics.

Ah interesting

[rsot]

Sad but yeah, you do enough damage and scamming, you get caught. Point is that successful stealth is not about ripping people off - it's about making sales, keeping the account ALIVE, paying your dues, making customers happy all in the hopes that should you get blocked, you can live again.

[webgoon]

I guess he didn't get the steath book and read the section on paying fees and staying under the radar and not attracting attention...=P

[First Edition]

Originally Posted by E-Nertia

Greed is a very bad thing....

Then why do you care if you get kicked off of ebay?

[E-Nertia]

I guess I don't understand what you are asking with this.

"Then why do you care if you get kicked off of ebay?"

[jbluntz]

It means that if you need to make money on ebay then you have some form of greed, someone that's not greedy would be like someone that's homeless and lives off the land, in other words greed is what brings in the cash, there is different levels of greed though...

[E-Nertia]

Greed - excessive desire to acquire or possess more (especially more material wealth) than one needs or deserves

Wanting to get back on eBay to make money to support yourself or your family is not an excessive desire. Wanting to get on eBay, make millions and not pay your fees is GREEDY.

Again as a stated above, GREED is a bad thing.

If you think this is bad you should check out the guy that sold $900,000 worth of stolen goods from Macy's this year on eBay.

Macy's Employee Sold $900,000 Worth of Stolen Goods on eBay

[First Edition]

Greed is what drives commerce.

[E-Nertia]

Ok, whatever pointless argument you are trying to win, I'll let you have it.