At the moment there is no positive proof of a scam as far as I can see in his correspondence with "me", he has not been totally truthful in as much as he is allegedly abroad and he didn't say that in any earlier mention. He has been unco-operative but it doesn't prove anything in itself. Like most scammers he ignores direct questions and only half answers others. As mentioned I suspect he will either drop me or say it's sold or whatever to get out of the so called deal. Ebay have cancelled his account so they will fight their corner hard and the average man in the street isn't going to win against the resources of eBay, you can bet they have a lot of legal clout and of course they are conveniently registered, I think, in Luxembourg so many laws of certain countries do\may not apply. You would have to read their lengthy full terms and conditions to see what, if any, liability could be brought to bear on them, but the short answer is probably none Here's what Wikipedia states it is, interesting that it does not apply to Scotland and I wonder if that is one of the reasons that he chose to make it for sale there, although most probably it is because it is more remote and no one is going to trek all that way to see a bike. If they did no doubt they would find it's all non existent although if he has done his homework the address would be real and traceable. Aiding and abetting - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia I will keep posting to see this through but I reckon this is going to go under without a decent result. As always Caveat Emptor and realistically anyone with any common sense would feel this is seriously dodgy if they were a genuine buyer. Scammers only succeed with the weaker elements of our society. Sadly I have a lot of first hand knowledge of this from previous work in this field and have seen the effects of several lives destroyed by scammers and their under handed work.
Well as predicted I got dropped no word from the scammer for a few days, I have written again but I don't expect a reply. My next step will be to try and test him using a different identity to see if I can find out more about what exactly he is trying to do. It seems that it is some sort of Paypal pay after delivery scam. For those that don't know Paypal offers a two week period where you have an article sent, it arrives, and then you pay after a certain date directly from your bank account. I am guessing in this case a spoofed email comes from this scammer to cream off the cash in some way. If he surfaces again on eBay can someone post up and I will have another go.
Aren't the police interested in this sort of thing? Fraud Squad for example? After all it's an obvious fraud.
In the case above it's highly likely that "he" is up to something but ultimately nothing happened and no money changed hands or was extorted in any way. My main interest is really just finding out what this scam is all about. I have dealt with many scammers over the years and on the odd occasion have even had protracted dealings with them over many months in a bid to find out more about then and just to wind them up. The last one I dealt with at any length lasted for over six months and I had the scammer assume the persona of someone by the name of Hann Grenade!!! and be part of my criminal gang!! he never caught on and made attempt after attempt to get money by various means. It's a very long story that involved hundreds of emails and through it all I guided him through his attempts as a dodgy character myself who was supposed to be his ally in all this. He turned out to be a Nigerian with a wife and two children and one on the way living in a flat, he gave me the address at some point. He was an university graduate that thought scamming would be easy, he admitted in the end that it wasn't and that he actually wasn't very good at it. I think he gave up after being through the wringer with me over the months. I made him get up at 3.00am once just to email me at that specific time, he missed it by about 5 minutes and then went through hell for a while after that because it cost him a lot of non existent money.
Aren't Trading Standards interested in this sort of thing? The Fake Britain programme implies that they might be - though I'm willing to bet they are ludicrously understaffed.
Ebay will act but only if there is direct proof that a buyer has been scammed., ie not got their goods. they will remove auctions if they are obviously dodgy. (A watch Forum that I am a member of has a lot of success getting auctions for Rolex and Omega Watches taken down when they are for copies or obviously fake but) If a deliberate fraud is committed the Police will be interested but if the Perp is abroad somewhere there's not a lot they can do.
We found they have to have something concrete to ban with. Someone would have to have been properly ripped off in an auction. They won't ban on accusations as it could be used to get rid of a competitor or settle scores etc. Various members had 'spoof' Ebay accounts they would use to put stupid high bids on to someone obviously trying to scam or making stupid claims and ruin their auction. Ebay can't be experts in every product advertised, a lot of it comes down to subjective experience or expectations. What a seller might consider a 'fair' description might be seen as deceptive by a buyer. In the end you have to use your judgement, experience and take advice. A couple of Forums I am a member of have a dedicated sub section or pinned thread for calling out potential scams, false descriptions and 'dodgy' dealers. If you do all transactions through Ebay and Paypal you will usually be OK if you get ripped with goods 'not as described' and then make a complaint or claimback. What scammers try to get you to do is deal with them outside of Ebay or pay by methods other than Paypal
