Help! MC183 & letter from Attorney!

[JGirl]

I got suspended from selling on ebay with a notice entitle MC183. I also just got an email from an attorney in L.A. saying that I must cease & desist selling the Insan*ty workout DVD's, which was already done by ebay suspending the account. The letter says that I supposedly sold this counter feit set to one of their "agents". It also says that I must hire an attorney & have the attorney contact them immediately to make arrangements for me to pay them $15,000 in lost profits!
What should I do? My actual info was on the ebay account, as I had this account for about 10 years! Should I respond to the email & tell them I bought them on craigslist or something?? Not sure what the heck to do here!!!

[eternity4u]

How may did you sell and where did you buy it from? Was these original or ? ?

[unfortuantemistake]

I have received similar letters, stating the law firm is working on behalf of the BSA, however, the BSA acknowleges the cease and decist letter, however have no record of asking for any damages.

Ignore it, ignore the law firm, my attempts to reach the law firm in the letter I received I was always sent to voice mail and they never returned my calls.

You have to receive 3 or more cease and decist letters and ignore them all before the BSA will take any legal action against you.

Your alright, just stop selling under that name and that account.

[gibsonton]

I got one way back for $7500 and called them that was a big mistake- got a few for $500 never called and they sent another lettr and never heard from them again .. i asked my cousin who is a attorney what to do and he said just stop selling and than stuck out his middle finger as far as the damages .. it is up to them to prove damages .....Bottom line dont call or make contact but quit selling whatever it is ..and ignore it , it is federal suit and the cost on there part is usually 10k or more to file the paperwork fly back and forth etc ...its a scare tactic that works and they just want you to take the midnight train to georgia and go away.

[Enigma]

Originally Posted by unfortuantemistake

I have received similar letters, stating the law firm is working on behalf of the BSA, however, the BSA acknowleges the cease and decist letter, however have no record of asking for any damages.

Ignore it, ignore the law firm, my attempts to reach the law firm in the letter I received I was always sent to voice mail and they never returned my calls.

You have to receive 3 or more cease and decist letters and ignore them all before the BSA will take any legal action against you.

Your alright, just stop selling under that name and that account.

What is the BSA?

[jbluntz]

Business Software Alliance, they're the big boys working with the FBI to keep us poor folk from eating the crumbs underneath Bill Gates and others table.

[GreenBean]

Originally Posted by JGirl

I got suspended from selling on ebay with a notice entitle MC183. I also just got an email from an attorney in L.A. saying that I must cease & desist selling the Insan*ty workout DVD's, which was already done by ebay suspending the account. The letter says that I supposedly sold this counter feit set to one of their "agents". It also says that I must hire an attorney & have the attorney contact them immediately to make arrangements for me to pay them $15,000 in lost profits!
What should I do? My actual info was on the ebay account, as I had this account for about 10 years! Should I respond to the email & tell them I bought them on craigslist or something?? Not sure what the heck to do here!!!

'email' is not a legal means of service. Scare and bully tactics. DO NOT REPLY
Send me a pm about this

[Sandy D]

Originally Posted by jbuntz

Business Software Alliance, they're the big boys working with the FBI to keep us poor folk from eating the crumbs underneath Bill Gates and others table.

JBuntz,

I got it. Cannot send the PM to let you know, but I finally got it.

Thanks

[First Edition]

Originally Posted by JGirl

I got suspended from selling on ebay with a notice entitle MC183. I also just got an email from an attorney in L.A. saying that I must cease & desist selling the Insan*ty workout DVD's, which was already done by ebay suspending the account. The letter says that I supposedly sold this counter feit set to one of their "agents". It also says that I must hire an attorney & have the attorney contact them immediately to make arrangements for me to pay them $15,000 in lost profits!
What should I do? My actual info was on the ebay account, as I had this account for about 10 years! Should I respond to the email & tell them I bought them on craigslist or something?? Not sure what the heck to do here!!!

This would never have happened with a stealth account!

[slapped]

These letters with all of these demands that these VERO Attorneys make are Horsesh** You can respond to them if you want, Just DO NOT TELL THEM ANYTHING ABOUT THE PRODUCT!! Simply tell them You created your listing with information Gathered on the web (do NOT MENTION WHAT SITES) including pictures, this is to protect you in case there is evidence in your item photo that Proves that it is Counterfeit. Tell them that you did not know that you could not list them on Ebay, and then tell them that you are insulted that they are accusing you of selling a Counterfeit item and that if they persist you will sue them for libel. Then tell them that they get NOTHING, No MONEY, NO INFORMATION as to where the item came from, NOTHING. Then tell them that your attorney will respond to any filings that they might start. Then tell them that you now consider the matter CLOSED. DO NOT NEGOTIATE IN ANY WAY!!! Once you begin to Negotiate like trying to get a $500.00 penality reduced to $50.00 YOU ARE ADDMITTING GUILT!!! and then they WILL surley file a case against you and use those negotiations as PROOF of your GUILT in Court, and they will win.

As you can probally Guess this happened to me a few years back. The first thing I did was Not to respond to the E-Mail, and Immediatly hire a Copyright infringment lawyer to defend me. In a nutshell over a period of 2 weeks he did Everything I Laid out above, and NOTHING more,---It cost me $3000.00----all he wrote is 4 E-Mails. And Ebay looks at most sellers as theives, What about the Lawyers? They are the REAL Theives.


=== What do you call 3 Dead Lawyers at the bottom of the Ocean? ===


++++++++++ A GOOD START +++++++++

[arsgunner77]

Originally Posted by First Edition

This would never have happened with a stealth account!

dont you think they would go alil further into the account info if no one responds to a letter?

[slapped]

Yes they will, No Doubt. But they will do that BEFORE the send you the FIRST E-Mail, so you do not lose or Gain Anything by Not awnsering.

By awnsering, There is a possibility that you can actually get them to have Ebay remove your Suspension, Depends. An Example of what happened to me with INSTYLER was I got caught, I told them that My wife got this as a Chrtismas Gift from a friend, but already had one so, I tried to sell it, Because it was the first one I ever listed, Instyler asked Ebay to remove my suspension, and they did. I went on to sell all 12 of the ones I had, and Never sold another. It all depends on your situation and how good you can explain it is.

A Post by JGirl above says that the VERO member in her case had an "Agent" actually buy the item on Ebay. I personally think that that is a lot Bull, because that means that this VERO Member spends a lot of money buying a lot of these on Ebay, and I can't see it, one way to check is to go through all of the items you sold and check the shipping address of your customers with the location of the company who sent the letter, to see at least if you may have shipped one to the Same area (Like within 50 Miles).

On the other hand, the VERO member may actually have an Item that you sold, again I doubt it. If they do have the item then it becomes a numbers game, they will want to know how many you sold, in what time period, ect,ect,. Ebay WILL give the VERO Member all the information, That is one of the Promises Ebay makes to Companies when they become VERO Members.

Then depending on the amount the VERO Member will decide if it is worth it to file a case against you. Remember it is Expensive to start these Cases so again I think that it is HIGHLY unlikley that they will.

By NOT awnsering the Letter you will have no idea of what the VERO Member's true intension is. As long as in your awnser you give them NOTHING, other than an apology for selling an item that you did not know you could sell and a Promise that you will not do it again, you will be fine!

If you awnser the letter be PREPARED to recieve a Response that will be JUST AS HARSH as the original letter, Maybe the EXACT Same letter, but most likley in their second letter will demand the EXACT same things that they wanted in the first letter, Except, they will reduce or eliminate the Money Demand, and that they will "Settle" for everythin else that they asked for, Be Warned***THIS IS A TRAP***Once you sign their document and give them the Informaation they WILL file a case against you, Because YOU just gave them the proof they need to convict you. Again your response MUST BE THE SAME---NOTHING--Simply add that they should file the case and have you server with the court order to appear, and that you will NOT respond to anything else from them. In other words "Call their Bluff"

You will NEVER get "Served" which by the way, By LAW being served with a Notice to appear in court MUST by done in PERSON not E-mail, and if you do get served rest assured it only means that they did have an actual item that you sold and would have done it anyway NO MATTER how you responded to the E-Mails.

[riversnew]

Originally Posted by slapped

It Depends on the Case. a Post by JGirl above says that the VERO member in her case had an "Agent" actually buy the item on Ebay. I personally think that that is a lot Bull, because that means that this VERO Member spends a lot of money buying a lot of these on Ebay,.

Checkout this buyer!

eBay Feedback Profile for tolotzin

[JGirl]

Thanks for all of the help! I have not responded to ANY emails & did not accept their certified letter. I went through my records & there is no address that appears to be to a VERO member. Another thing......the name of my ebay store & PayPal account were under my LLC company name. I don't think this will go anywhere, especially if I am not served. My husband is listed as the owner under the LLC. I seriously don't think they are going to pursue this now that I have gathered so much info on it. Would cost them too much. I REALLY appreciate everyone's help!

eBay simply should NOT allow certain items to be sold period! They know that sellers will get in trouble for selling these items, yet they allow folks to continue to list them! I had listings taken down before for authentic items just because of VERO complaints. I will never sell on Flea Bay again just because they are ready to throw you under the bus on anything! That website needs to GO! I'm done! Sure, I made quite a bit of money off of it for a while, but I have moved on & started my own biz & helped my husband expand his! Making what I made on eBay now & can sleep better at night!!! Thanks again everyone!!!!

[slapped]

Riversnew do you think that buyer is an "Agent" is that why you pointed him out? Look at all the money he has spent since 2006. I spot checked a bunch of Low feedback guys that he bought from 2 months ago, and the ones I checked (About 6) are all still on Ebay, and one of the guys I checked I Know for a fact is selling Blinkers I could tell from the picture on the listing.
I think that he just might have a store and resells them, They are Alot cheaper on Ebay than from a distributor.

[First Edition]

Originally Posted by riversnew

Checkout this buyer!

eBay Feedback Profile for tolotzin

Definitely trying to catch those copying software....

[unfortuantemistake]

Originally Posted by First Edition

Definitely trying to catch those copying software....

ROFL!

Tolotzin is good guy, he supplies costco there software.

He doesn't work for Microsoft, and he does business out of his house beleive it or not.

He works for Monarca International Trading, and his name is Mike.

[First Edition]

He supplies Costco software by buying could be pirated copies on ebay?

Yeah, okay......

[riversnew]

Monarca is also a government contractor. Microsoft claims that 50% of software sold on ebay is ⊗⊗⊗⊗. So I don't care how good this guy is, he must be also buying a fair percentage of ⊗⊗⊗⊗ for his clients including US government? He steers away from obvious ⊗⊗⊗⊗, OEM and academic software and targets higher priced stuff selling but below full retail price.

So maybe he is not a buyer for Microsoft?

I check new listings on ebay and all I see is ⊗⊗⊗⊗.

[recessionproof]

Original Posting:

I got one way back for $7500 and called them that was a big mistake- got a few for $500 never called and they sent another lettr and never heard from them again .. i asked my cousin who is a attorney what to do and he said just stop selling and than stuck out his middle finger as far as the damages .. it is up to them to prove damages .....Bottom line dont call or make contact but quit selling whatever it is ..and ignore it , it is federal suit and the cost on there part is usually 10k or more to file the paperwork fly back and forth etc ...its a scare tactic that works and they just want you to take the midnight train to georgia and go away.

Reply:

I got two ltrs re my sale of Your Baby Can and P90x on ebay. After I didn't respond , I got a certified letter. Didn't sign receipt. Couple weeks later, got an investigator knocking at my door in a last effort to settle, of course with a higher $ since they had to pay for the investigator etc. If these guys want you, they'll get you and they'll add that to the bill. So ultimately, you pay for the delay. Your cousin is right, stop selling, but he's not a good cousin if he tells you to ignore a notice from a law firm. Think about it, if he was sending the letter and he was going to get a payday for holding unauthorized sellers or counterfeiters liable, would he give up so easily? Bad advice, even worse relative.

[recessionproof]

All you folks that think ignoring the ltr will help you, you are gambling big time. I got the same letter. They followed up and pursued me. Though my number of sales were low, they still went after me. You gotta think, with the recession, many attys will do this on a contingency basis and all it takes is for the company to hire a small firm or sole practicioner to serve you. The longer the delay and the more cost it takes to go after you, the more they tack on to what they will ask the court for. Best thing is to just negotiate a settlement if you can. If not, pay it and move on. Do you really want to be in my position and instead of paying the $800 or $900 initially OR end up paying over $1500 with all the cost they tacked on pursuing me. They were good, they knew everything about the # of sales I had, my address, even contacted some of my buyers that complained I sold them counterfeits. Now I only sell stuff I bought personally from a store. Most of the stuff on ebay and cheap looking websites are from China and are ⊗⊗⊗⊗. Sell ⊗⊗⊗⊗ at your own risk. I did, even though I didn't know it.

[5MPdew]

Originally Posted by recessionproof

All you folks that think ignoring the ltr will help you, you are gambling big time. I got the same letter. They followed up and pursued me. Though my number of sales were low, they still went after me. You gotta think, with the recession, many attys will do this on a contingency basis and all it takes is for the company to hire a small firm or sole practicioner to serve you. The longer the delay and the more cost it takes to go after you, the more they tack on to what they will ask the court for. Best thing is to just negotiate a settlement if you can. If not, pay it and move on. Do you really want to be in my position and instead of paying the $800 or $900 initially OR end up paying over $1500 with all the cost they tacked on pursuing me. They were good, they knew everything about the # of sales I had, my address, even contacted some of my buyers that complained I sold them counterfeits. Now I only sell stuff I bought personally from a store. Most of the stuff on ebay and cheap looking websites are from China and are ⊗⊗⊗⊗. Sell ⊗⊗⊗⊗ at your own risk. I did, even though I didn't know it.

what kind of questions did the invesigator ask? how many dvds did you sell? did you sell the lawyers one on accident?