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trading standards letter!!!
 

hi, i recieved a letter from trading standards who came round to my house to speak to me although was not at home so couldnt speak to them but they have left a letter saying someone has made a complaint alleging i am selling ⊗⊗⊗⊗ goods.

It does go on to say they are not going to take action on this occasion however they are writing to let me know the requirements in selling branded goods.

Was wondering if anyone has ever experienced anything like this before?

HI
what were you selling? might help to know

vero items mainly clothing. They recieved a complaint from someone who said i was selling ⊗⊗⊗⊗. They have said in the letter that theyre not taking further action "on this occasion"

the letter outlines a few laws, i think maybe this is just a first warning, and should i continue to sell they will take further action.

i just wanted to know if anyone has recieved one of these letters before???

never recieved one but if i was u i would sell stuff like that on a stealth account then you wont need to worry

:faint:...

Thank god I never even THOUGHT about selling "a software company" stuff. If I were you I'd be ****ting my pants and start crying and kneel down to him and promise him that I will never sell that again since I didn't realize it was ⊗⊗⊗⊗. A company worth billions and billions of dollars can easily eliminate you from the map, legally. :rip:

At least be happy he didn't send someone to light your house up in flames, because I would of. :rip:

my accounts were stealth, the only way they could have found out my address is the return address supplied to accept returns from customers, i either need a mail forwarding service, any one know of any?, or stop selling what i am selling.

Your lucky trading standards never had the police with them to arrest you and search your property.

one complaint isnt that serious, no proof really, is there tbh..you could have bought it off ebay and be reselling it, right..

dont sell that sort of stuff is best advice,

if you have to, make it good stuff at good prices, dont state it is genuine, or put receipts on it - regardless of what some forumers say, I think this is dishonest..you will then get the buyers who are understanding of what goods are, in general...

dont sell this stuff in mid to large amounts at all, if you do sprinkle a few of thse about make it on various accounts, and always make them stealth - why have a stealth account if return address isnt stealth - thats actually one of the most important parts of stealth!!!!!!! Get po box

if you are getting more than 5% returns you are selling WRONG products , full stop..

the problem now, is TS or customer may be watching that account, and they have that address - take no more risks on it...

You should stop selling that kind of stuff full stop and don't do it through stealth either. Doesn't matter what kind of money it makes you, it has trouble all over it.

If Trading Standards actually came round, then what would happen if they went to a stealth address and knocked on and realised that it wasn't actually your address? The warning signs would go off straight away, they wouldn't just go "oh well, that wasn't the address he uses" and walk off. They'll think they've uncovered a fraud. Especially when they are getting complaints that you are selling dodgy stuff.

Not really to the OP but to other people on here I would say that:
People seem to think that Stealth is somekind of super human form of protection from the law and the taxman but it really really isn't. Unless you have somehow set up a bank account using ⊗⊗⊗⊗ details, you have registered an actual real persons bank (whether or not it is yours) account to Paypal. If they wanted to, the revenue and law enforcement could get that off Paypal (even if they are in Luxembourg) and link it back to you almost immediately.

Infact, the name being incorrect on a bank account could be enough to trigger it. If you do 50k a year into your bank account and they change the system and realise it is a different name (some banks like Lloyds know straight away) then they too might well report you if you are not known to the branch.

Stealth is a nice way to deceive Paypal and sell your goods but it ain't gonna get you very far if the law or revenue are sniffing about I can tell you that, they can trace the money and what bank account it has gone into with consumate ease (if you've ever had a tax investigation you'll know what I mean) and if trading standards did go to a dodgy *stealth* address then that may well be enough to trigger a bit of an investigation into you.

Big Boy, as your accounts are stealth my best advice would either be

1) A po box as Oompa says above. Even though there is no anonymity with a PO box it creates a "buffer" between your sales and your physical address.

2) My other advice (which I prefer) would be to NOT have a return address on a packet. Now I know you might think "what if the item is lost?"

In my experience I have only had 1 parcel in 350 arrive back at my PO box. Now I dont sell any vero but as you do you might want to consider NOT having a return address on your item packets.

The worst would be if action was taken against you, and yes these people have you on file now.

DUMB!!!

Stealth is for getting back on eBay/PP to rid yourself of the junk you bought on eBay/PP in the first place.

Stealth is not a means of getting one over the law and going about your business selling crap and ⊗⊗⊗⊗ without disclosing it to the customer. If you plan on selling **** then by all means disclose it first. And if TS get in touch with you, that's that.

You must stop selling what you selling at the moment. Stealth is not protecting you information at all stealth can only ⊗⊗⊗⊗ the paypal and ebay it is not more then that and any one can get your address easly even a buyer can send you a message on your ebay and will ask you he want to pickup the goods ? if some one is selling ⊗⊗⊗⊗ goods he must have to cover himself under many layers of protections.

1 - He must have ⊗⊗⊗⊗ bank account maybe same name but wrong address he should not update his address in any place not even in council and property Estate Agent should not register him in Estate Agency Database. He must rent his house on someone else name.

2 - Accept no returns feel them as lost item if some one want return.

3 - Don't use franking Machine as they will get you from the licence number and will come to you.

4 - he should not accept, Cheque, postal order, or any other payment method, only paypal.

But even after doing all this you will not safe and they will take you without any warnings as all the warnings you may never recieved because of stealth address.


The good thing is to make a full stop now as trading stander can take any action any time now on any next or few next complains. As I heared they only give warning if they have more then one complains so I believe in your case its not one complain they recieved they might have more then one complains and if they have this now on continue then they will take you off.
:attention:

Thanks

I tell you man..... Watch it.... they usualy have no mercy ; i think ur very lucky that you're not in court by now...

I've been there few years ago when i've sold unbranded phone covers localy and got fined badly....

Watch it man... i'm telling you...

thanks for the replys guys, i have created a new account, to get rid of anything i have left over, and dont think i will continue selling these items.

With or Without Ebay, did you also get a warning letter like i did?

they said to me, if i get any more complaints they will investigate further, im assuming they will do a test purchase or something.

Yes they normally give warning letter on first attampt and if they get recieving same complains from buyers aginst you they will do no marcy at all and they can fine upto 100,000£. I remeber a story of a chines couple they were selling NDSL with copy games from there website and they get fined for 500,000£ as there account turn over was 800,000£ a year. I will say you should disapear from yur this address and you must be a new seller with new product lines

thanks

Yes i did get a warning letter from a football club. Problem is you're online and less visible so take the advantage of stealth account but mine was a local shop that why i got busted and fined.... It can send you to prison to 6 years.... Thats why i leave in a geniune feykk paradise but i stay away from anytrhing to do with it...

well i have stoped selling these sort of items now, as much as id still like to carry on :(, as thier is alot of money involved but i think its just too baits for me right now what with ts on my back.

anyone selling F*** items on ebay pm me, i have a nice ££££ propsition for you!!!

Shame on you. This site does not condone selling ⊗⊗⊗⊗.

pm'd .........

You not see this story Trading standards story and that was just for shill bidding but it shows you where they are concerned they will dig deeper and they will find all your other accounts no matter how hard you hide them.

If it were me I would be off to selling something new and nice rather than the ⊗⊗⊗⊗ you are trading, as they are just looking for their next victim, as a nice prison sentence always gets the message across.

Are you sure they have not handed your name on to customs and excise, as they may figure they can do more damage to you?

Bizarre story..

How did TS get involved? The first line of defense against shill bidding is through eBay itself. Who actually escalated the case to CPS, was it eBay or buyer??

Crap reporting. The story may well be a fabrication to discourage such behavior, due to the level of inconsistency.

I heard it first on national radio news and it was probably on the TV news. So I doubt it is bogus. But ebay had nothing to do with it, which I found as funny as they were advertising their new six million dollar security system at the time.

The basic story is the seller sold a clocked van, the buyer reported them to trading standards, who went after the seller and ebay sat there looking red faced, probably wishing they had paid the extra fifty pence for the on switch of that six million dollar security system.

The good thing about it is how little the seller had to do to have his accounts.

Does not matter. If the story was bogus it could still have been released to the entire media as such.

I find it extremely funny, "ebay had nothing to do with it." In that case how did the CPS come to realise there was shill bidding going on, on eBay, whilst eBay were unaware?


eBay's security system against shill bidding and other offenses has in actual fact been in place for quite some time. Their modern system dates to at least early 2007. Shill bidding was always an issue and dare I say rampant since eBay's very early days. But eBay was quite lax on the issue for a while at the outset. They could detect shill bidding on their system, albeit manually. They also could take matters further against offenders if they wanted to.


I don't understand what you mean by this?

They did not go after him for shill bidding, that was just a break for them I suppose. They went after the one account holder, but no idea how they did it. But read several versions of the article and most of them have the same slant, that ebay were sat on their thumbs, if they knew about it then they did nothing about it.

If you look up the article on google there is one of them that links to the article on ebays new system that is supposed to be able to deal with this sort of thing. But it does not seem to be working.

And the last part for those that fear ebay security, it is not unbeatable, as I am sure if a lot of those on here got a job on ebay working out their security this could be fixed in an instant. But ebay seem very reluctant to really prevent anything happening. Trading standards on the other hand will, as long as they get the glory that will keep their offices open.

"eBay seller fined in court for bidding against himself to rig online auctions"

eBay's system against shill bidding does work.

But what cannot be fathomed is that generally eBay's platform is flawed. It lets users make mistakes before making the user aware that the user has contravened a certain eBay rule or law. Same with PayPal, PP will deal with you indirectly before slamming on a suspension or limitation on you. The user experience is absolutely terrible. Then they enforce their heavy handed approach of denying the user access.

look it is usually a TS job when they catch you red-handed at a market stall. Its all about proof, even if you use a real address and dont overdo it, they are unlikely to take it far, unless they get alot of complaints.

and anyway the chavs have to wear stuff too..we dont want them going out naked..

I have watched too many sellers using the flaws in the ebay system to either shill bid or to clean up their feedback by buying their own goods.
Some of the sellers are so blatant about it, that I am wondering if ebay have any system defense at all. If you think about it, in the case of buying your own goods to clean your feedback, it is like the seller paying protection money to ebay, as if you do not do it then they will send the boys round.