eBay management joins ranks of Scammers

Geez, eBay management! How low can you go? Is business really that bad that you have to resort to bidding on

NEW YORK (AP) -- EBay Inc. will pay about $316,500 to Louis Vuitton Malletier for legal costs and damages and stop using Internet search terms the luxury goods maker protested, following a ruling Thursday by the Paris District Court.

The online auction site was found liable for harming the reputation of Louis Vuitton trademarks, the company name and domain name -- all held by LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton. EBay spokeswoman Alina Piacentino said the company will appeal the decision.

Ebay had been buying keywords such as "Viton," "Vitton" and "Wuiton" so that online shoppers using these misspellings into a search engine, along with anyone using the brand's correct spelling, would be directed to links promoting eBay, a Louis Vuitton spokeswoman said.

The court, which called eBay's actions "parasitic," ordered the company to stop using the keywords. The court said the practice harmed Louis Vuitton's brand.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/EBay-found-liable-in-Louis-apf-746403597.html?x=0&.v=4

( "Viton," "Vitton" and "Wuiton" are not just misspelling, those are search terms people use to seek fakes and counterfeits of Louis Vuitton's brand.)

Romanian crime ring scammed $5,000,000 on eBay :: IC3.GOV Internet Crime Complaint Center 2006 Report

According to this report prepared by National White Collar Crime Center and FBI

• Internet auction fraud was by far the most reported offense, comprising
  44.9% of referred complaints.
• Nondelivered merchandise and/or payment accounted for 19.0% of complaints.
• Check fraud made up 4.9% of complaints.
• Credit/debit card fraud, computer fraud, confidence fraud, and financial institutions fraud round out the top seven categories of complaints referred to law enforcement during the year.
  

You can read the complete PDF version of this report here.


The Romanian Organized Crime appears to be the most active group perpetrating this type of a crime. The following is an excerpt from the report, describing apprehension of a Romanian Crime Gang with some interesting numbers:

More than twenty suspects have been indicted as the result of an ongoing, multi-agency investigation into a Romanian crime ring. Representatives from the Chicago Field Office of the Federal Bureau Investigation (FBI), the Chicago Office of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and the Chicago Police 15 Department announced the charges together on December 12th, 2006. Altogether, the defendants and others allegedly illegally obtained more then $5 million dollars from victims in a variety of schemes. The majority of victims believed they were purchasing an item from the EBay auction site. After unsuccessfully bidding on items, they were told they were receiving a second chance offer from the seller. Victims then wired money one of the defendants who posed as the seller or the seller’s agent. Investigators believe the fraudulent solicitations originated from, and a substantial portion of the proceeds were transmitted to, unidentified co-schemers located outside the United States, most believed to be in Romania.

Most of the money was collected at Western Union locations in Chicago, where many of the alleged perpetrators lived. Other victims were sent an email from the crime ring informing them that their EBay accounts would be terminated if they didn’t reply back with their password and other account information. They would then use this information to take over the victim’s account and use it to rip off other EBay users. EBay sellers were victimized as well. The thieves would bid on an item but would not pay through PayPal. Instead, they would persuade the seller to put the money into a fake escrow account. The seller would ship the product and the escrow account would vanish.

Eight defendants were arrested in the Chicago area the day of the announcement, five were already in custody, one is expected to surrender later, and six are fugitives at this time. Each of the defendants is charged with one count of wire fraud. If convicted, they each face a maximum penalty of twenty years in prison and a $250,000 fine. The Court would also order restitution and determine the appropriate sentence
to be imposed.

eBay Scammers are getting more sophisticated

Ebay claims that the percentage of fraudulent auctions is about 1/100 of one percent. They have been publishing this number for at least 5 years now. However my own research shows that in high ticket high price categories on specific items the ratio is more like 9 fraudulent auctions to maybe 2 real ones ...

So I set out to get some equipment for the shop, head over to eBay to see I can find real items or just fraud and scam... when it comes to high ticket items, you will find more fake auctions than real ones.

OK, let's take a look and search eBay for brother pr-600 one of the machines I am researching, and the results are as expected ( cached eBay results snapshot here ) wow! the results are pretty scary considering eBay claims that only 100th of 1 percent of their auctions are fraudulent ... I wander what the ratio is on hi ticket items...

• 9 fraudulent auctions - see cached version links : first , second , third , fourth <--- do not click on anything in this fourth cached auction as it has phishing attempt right on that cached page !!! , etc... you get the message : same common stuff : bidders identity kept private so those eBayers aware of this scam cannot contact the poor newbies who fell for this scam, good feedback accounts are the sellers, those poor account owners fell prey to phishing scams and they eBay logins and passwords were hijacked, in the auction body the seller promisses great deal, free shipping, buy it now at too good to be true price, many more available and you must absolutely positively email them before bidding so they can tell you how the only payment method they accept is western union or fake escrow service... ( SADLY ) all these are pretty obvious to a seasoned eBayer but as you see there is an ample supply of newbies who willingly bid and hand over their cash to these scammers.
  

• 2 maybe real auctions in the 7K price range....

So let's head over to the new search and see what we can find searching eBay for: brother pr600 ( see cached results here ) - wow that looks promising ! we may have one item that looks like a good deal, and it ends in only 9 hours, so lets take a look at auction details : cached version here - at first look this one appears OK, 25 bids, bidders' ID's are not kept private, the seller is not soliciting email contact outside eBay ... but .... but there is still something weird about this auction:

1. If the seller is in Michigan, why are the bids in EURO and not in Dollars?
What about that comment in red letters right in the auction

NOTE: If you will buy it at "buy it now" option, the shipping will be free .!!!

(.... ok maybe they HAD buy now button.)


1. Geez ...but ... but .... I've seen those pictures before, can I find the same pics in recently sold items on eBay? Let's try that.

OK we are now going to ADVANCED SEARCH - for the same item brother pr600 but check the little option under the search box that says completed listings only and let's see the results: ( cached snapshot here ) good - 2 results

completed auction cached here : and it is NOT a pretty sight, same pictures, same exact description, same red text statement as the current auction that looks like such a good deal.

Well there you have it ... when it comes to eBay, do not spend what you cannot afford to loose. If you want to play and buy $20 items, that's fine and probably safe(er) because those are not worth to Scammers to bother with, but if you are looking to spend from $75 upward to hundreds or even thousands.... stay away from eBay because chances are you are bidding on fake item.

eBay has been facing the scammers for SEVERAL YEARS now and it appears that very little is accomplished in combatting this type of fraud by eBay. Just Google for ebay fraud and you will find articles dating back 3 - 4 years citing same scams, the only difference is that those same scammers who are at it years later got better at it, more sophisticated, experienced, bolder... So until eBay decides to scrap the ostridge approach to this issue, I will be avoiding purchasing of higher priced items from eBay and continue to do business the traditional way - brick and mortar or legit online merchants.

Hijacked eBay Accounts and Auction Scams

Hundreds of eBay accounts get hijacked daily, some even directly on eBay site.

I have been tracking the problem for past year and the situation has not improved yet... Although I hoped that numerous notifications on hijacked eBay accounts and fake auctions via proper channels to eBay security dept would make a difference, there seems to be unlimited supply of unsuspecting eBay members who hand over their account info to the hijacker.

It is perhaps because eBay phishing scams are getting more and more sophisticated. The other day I was browsing eBay - searching auctions and clicking on one of the auction results links to see the auctions detail served me a really authentic eBay login screen directly on eBay website. Here is that eBay Auction phishing page defanged off the dangerous stuff, I promptly furled it to have a nice copy of it for later disection.

That was the last straw for me... frankly I don't know what eBay security dept does but it does not seem to be enough.

So I coded this little website to assist in real time tracking of hijacked eBay accounts and fraud auctions. It is at www.companyexposed.com and it displays a teeny tiny sample of currently hijacked eBay accounts and scam auctions trying to defraud unsuspecting eBay newbies to hand over their funds via Western Union for too good to be true eBay deal.