| I have looked at the eBay forums on Paul Wong and others. eBay seems to the littered with the debris of those that have been ripped off having relied on the so call secure system of trading on eBay. |
In June 2005 I placed bids for two 1892 ponds, the single and double shafted ZAR ponds - valuable items.
I was outbid and lost interest in the auction on eBay.
A few days after the auction closed I received what looked like an official "second chance" from eBay to purchase these coins and responded to the email.
A few days later an official looking eBay email came through with the orginator being displayed as aw-confirm@ebay.co.uk which gave me purchase options and another email under the same email confirming that the "seller" had deposited GBP5,000 with eBay to guarantee any sales through Western Union.
I have been buying and selling through eBay for several years and was never aware of the dangers of paying money through Western Union - especially after receiving these allegedly bona-fide emails from eBay before making a payment of nearly GBP700 (Au$1820).
The eBay emails weren't bona-fide - they were from some cheapscate conman in London who had watched my earlier bid and trapped me into making a payment on two coins which I saw as "bargains" resulting from the fraudulent comment that the winner in that auction "could not fulfill his financial commitments".
Now you would think that eBay would have jumped to my aid and been concerned that someone was deceiving their buying clients into parting with thousand of dollars to a conman who was using their name to achieve this. One would think that they would want to track this person down to protect their buyers. They could not have been less interested.
eBay in UK simply responded that the email sent to me were "spam" and totally ignored the subject of the fraud. (I have their emails to prove this). As an Internet expert who has never been caught before one would think that eBay might have an interest in the scam, but apparently not. Legally it was a "scam" because the emails had not originated from eBay so, "not our problem"....
eBay in Australia, where I reside, have a phone number which is an answering machine telling you where to look on-line and making the point that no phone calls are taken. I sent them a fax and they did not bother responding - so watch out there is this very smart conman trawling eBay who caught me for about US$1500 who is still out there and eBay are not moving to stop him.
It is only the police here in Queensland who are acting on my complaint and the fraud is now in the hands of Interpol.
Be warned - don't depend on eBay if you get defrauded by emails under their name.
For an
insight into how prevalent fraud is through the Internet take this
link.
eBay
in UK Bullshit their way out of their inaction after one of their buyers
catches a serial eBayer fraudster
Comprehensive
research by a major coin dealer highlights the dangers of eBay - being used
to dump inferior coins
and this link