Watch out for scammers on E-bay!

[Oversize]

I nearly got done over the last few days!! I advertised a high value (Victoria specific) item for sale on Ebay and received just one bid before the auction finished. Alarm bells were already ringing when I realised the buyer was apparently from Spain. The buyer made contact via Ebay and gave me an email address to make further contact (ring). The buyer stated the item was a gift for his daughter in Russia (ring, ring). His name was Mark Smith (big bloody ring). He then stated he was new to Ebay (even though his history showed he'd joined a few years ago, purchased a few low value items with good feedback) and he was unfamiliar with how to pay (even though I explained the process and one of his e-mails contained text on how to join Paypal - who are Ebay's preferred payment method)!

I gave the buyer my Paypal account ID (which was my email address, which he had anyway) after I learned that you can indeed pay someone through Paypal with just their email address.

The buyer then stated that an agent was to pick up the item, but they were going to charge him $900 and due to incapacity the buyer was unable to pay direct. The buyer said that he'd pay me an extra $1000 on top of the purchase price and asked if I could pay the agent via EFT (Western Union) to Peter Johnson at the address below... I wouldn't receive payment until the agent had his money (ring, damn ring, ring). I then received 2 emails apparently from Paypal and one from the buyer, stating payment had been made (ring). I checked my accounts and it hadn't (OMG the ringing)!

I then got one from Ebay stating the buyer was a scammer and the bid had been withdrawn. I forwarded all the e-mails to spoof@ebay.com and spoof@paypal.com, plus the ACCC via www.scamwatch.gov.au. Lucky I was onto it from the start and I never gave them critical details, paid money, or sent the item. Judging by the buyers Ebay feedback only yesterday (before his account was removed) and the Google results below I'm not the only one. Sadly I'm sure some people would be sucked into handing over a large sum of money.... It was quite an elaborate scam and with a little refining it'd be very hard to pick. The mongrels Ebay user name was raulmm26. And boy I'd love to find him for a little 'chat'....


http://www.google.com.au/webhp?sour...=7e4ff99727deda82&ion=1&biw=1680&bih=923&bs=1

 

[WiSeGuYY]

LOL @ MARK'S little chat . lucky you spot it from the start ,i'm sure this criminal set few up , i hate that people (some) use technology in a way that make others stop benifit due to this acts. SAD but i still remember GODFATHER experience when he sell an item and didn't get paid , makes me MAD .

watch it MARK , the world full of them.

REGARDS

TAREK

 

[Styria]

Mark, what I am not clear on is the email from Paypal - did THEY actually send you an email stating that the money had been paid into your account, or was the purported PayPal email a fake, and sent by the "prospective" buyer ?

Say if you had been done over (so to speak), would you have had recourse to help from PayPal, or would they have automatically re-imbursed you ? From reading your post, your ears should, or would have , pricked up when the intended purchaser asked you pay the $900.00 to an agent of his.

Tarek, I knew the guy personally - he is still a member of TK !

Thanks for the information, Mark - I am an absolute novice at this and invariably I have asked a "trusted friend" to carry out transactions on my behalf. Regards Styria

 

[WiSeGuYY]

Dear GODFATHER , I know you did mention that before , and refuse to mention his name for some reason ( taking the risk of repeating his act which was not honest) but you promised not let that happen, you said you never get the item back nor get paid -that is internet crime in my book.

REGARDS

TAREK

 

[Styria]

Tarek, I have moved on from there. I found ways of contacting the man without him knowing who was ringing him - I caught him out twice with him answering the phone, and the second time he just hung up. He lives on the Central Coast now, and I tend to think that it will catch up with him eventually. Regards Styria

 

[Oversize]

I really don't know why this person would stay a member as you'd think the embarrasment would be enough to have them disappear back into the shadows.... Obviously they have a completely different view to me! Just recently I was discussing the fact that there's people out there that see the world form a foreign perspective to the average joe and it's sad, but very true.

Styria no it wasn't Paypal that sent an e-mail telling me the money had been received, it was the scammer. When I logged into Paypal and later my bank accounts, there was no actual deposit.

I've contacted Ebay to explain how this scammer could've registered on Ebay and subsequently made fake bids on numerous items...

Even today I got another e-mail from the scammer threatening to report me to the police if I don't complete the transaction! I even got a fake one from the WA police! I'm very tempted to reply with a satisfying fark off e-mail, but I'm worried he'll reply with a nasty trojan or computer virus... I'd love to leave some scathing feedback on Ebay, but his account has been removed by the Ebay administrators.

The really disappointing thing is that I thought I'd made a sale and now I'm back to square one (but far wiser)... At least I'm not poorer!

 

[Styria]

Well, I think you handled it correctly. I've only ever been involved with PayPal transactions on two occasions, and each and every time I had their full co-operation and all the information that I needed. Thanks for warning us, though, especially for someone like myself that's a real novice. Regards Styria

 

[Tony66_au]

these eBay identities are likely to be stolen/Hacked ID's anyway so there is no link back to the scam artist at all.

And as this sort of scam is popular with all sorts of criminals their tracks are well covered so knowing the seller name is of no real use.

eBay have rightly disabled the account and thats the end of it for raulmm26 but id bet a nut that the scammer already has 5 or 10 other stolen logins on the go at this very moment.

Phishing and other fraud is impossible to stop and it will only die out when it is no longer profitable.

Nice job Mark

 

[Tony66_au]

BTW Googled the name and all was well until early April at which time the scams set in so its a hijacked ID.

 

[WiSeGuYY]

MARK , TONY & GODFATHER , i would report to the police to trace this idiot who dare to threaten MARK , i'm sure TONY was right when he said that this guy must have more than one account.it is nightmare for people who make internet transactions.

REGARDS

TAREK

 

[Oversize]

How sad for the original owner of the account!

What do you guys think about a short n sweet reply to this ahole?? I'm still getting e-mails and he already know's my e-mail address is a real one... What's the risk??? Is it likely I'll get bombarded with spam/virus's? Looking for a little satisfaction and payback....

 

[Tony66_au]

Walk away Mark, add his addy to the spam list or PM Me the details and I will have a sniff.

They are usually very desperate, often in West Afrika somewhere and they actually pay for the hacked identities themselves with their small cut of the proceeds.

So losing an Identity, and a fresh one will have hurt them financially as well as adding a LOT of stress to their lives as they have no doubt made guarantees to their handler which is why you are getting more urgent emails in the hope that they can pull off even a small victory.

The price for failure is often more than a lost cut.

I have a whitepaper here somewhere on how this all works and it aint pretty. (Not that I give a rats to be honest

 

[WiSeGuYY]

Hey MARK , contrary to TONY ( SO SORRY for the distrbance) please report this case and show them that crime can't be profitable , we can't lay back waiting for next attack and when n from where . i remember my credit card was stolen one day and charged from ITALY & CHINA when i was not visited thos countries at least for the last 2 years, i report it when i saw the monthly statement , it took 6 month but i got the money back and i think it is gangs from all over the world.( i mean not necessery from AFRICA)please fight back crime.

REGARDs

TAREK

 

[Tony66_au]

Tarek there are 2 issues with this kind of crime, The first is that it was an attempted fraud and the second is that Australian Law and police are not equipped to deal with international cyber fraud.

This was merely an attempt to de-fraud and they didn't actually want what Mark was selling. They wanted identity information, bank accounts etc.

IF the Australian Federal Police (Our version of the FBI) chased every phishing attempt reported they would very quickly bog down and even if they did identify the source there is no guarantee that there will be co operation in the country of origin.