[email protected] Ebay 2nd Chance

This guy has been scamming so many people off eBay. He had me wire a large sum of money (I'm too embarassed to admit) for a piece of original vintage art that never arrived. The more I looked into this guy, the worse it became. He is a well known scammer taking everyone's money!! He/she uses the email [email protected]

There are several other posts on the internet that warn about this person. Unfortunately I discovered this too late:
http://www.net54baseball.com/archive/in ... 66482.html
http://www.network54.com/Forum/207593/t ... am+on+ebay
http://money.msn.com/saving-money-tips/ ... 98d83edde7

I had been watching an auction on eBay for a piece of original vintage art. The seller had great feedback ratings,100% positive. This was a perfectly legitimate auction, from a seller with an excellent reputation. After the auction ended, these scammers are somehow able to troll ended eBay auctions and sending non-winning bidders (like me) a fake "Second Chance" offer to buy the item. All the while trying leading me into thinking that they are the original seller who's feedback you checked out during the auction.

Although I bid on the drawing but lost the auction, after the auction ended, I got a "Second Chance" email offering to sell me the item at my last bid amount. In the excitement of being offered this original piece of art, I didn't notice anything strange as everything appears to come directly from EBAY. So someone - not the real seller - sent me a fake "Second Chance" offer after the auction closed.

"The seller ([email protected]) is making this Second Chance Offer because the high bidder was either unable to complete the transaction or the seller has a duplicate item for sale. The selling of this item through Second Chance Offer is in compliance with eBay policy; you will be able to exchange Feedback with the seller and will be eligible for all eBay services associated with a transaction, such as fraud protection."
The sender of this "Second Chance" uses an actual eBay account to send this spoofed offer through the eBay message system so I thought it was legit. It's not immediately obvious that the person you're talking to is not the seller from the auction. This fake "Second Chance" email has a link to the auction that you bid in, it all looks official.

Then I received these instructions:

"The eBay Buyer Protection program provides protection up to $ 5,000.00 on this item if is not received or not as described in the listing. It includes protection against all losses associated with fraud.
eBay Buyer Protection covers the full purchase price and original shipping costs if the item is not received or different from what was described in the listing. Your order has been verified by eBay for compliance.
You are automatically enrolled in the program at no charge because you are completing the purchase of an eligible item on the eBay site. eBay requires the payment to be done through Bank Transfer to a non-interest bearing trust account. eBay reduces the potential risk of fraud by acting as a trusted third party that collects, holds and disburses funds. It protects the Seller by verifying funds, and protects the Buyer by allowing inspection of the merchandise before payment. Buy with Confidence! eBay requires the payment to be done through Bank Transfer to eBay, Inc bank account. If something goes wrong with your order, you will be fully reimbursed.

eBay Bank Account
IBAN: GB20 BARC 2098 2113 6499 38
SWIFT/BIC: BARCGB22
Beneficiary: P.P.P Inc. Financial Center
Bank Name: Barclays Bank PLC
Bank Address: 2/4 Alderman's Hill, London N13 4PH, UK
Beneficiary Address: 38 Canada Square, London E14 5AH, UK

Bank Account Noted (BW)

Please follow our instructions to complete the transaction safely:
Ask your bank to use the IBAN (International Bank Account Number) when sending the payment otherwise your transfer may take up to 7-10 days to clear. Use as Payment Reference on your bank transfer only: "YOUR ITEM NUMBER". Please do not write anything else because we will not be able to confirm your payment. Confirm the Bank Transfer with a scanned copy of the receipt/statement from your bank. You can reply directly to this email with the receipt from your bank or by fax at : 917-503-9746. Once payment is confirmed seller is asked to provide tracking information. If buyer collects the item, confirmation is needed with the result of the inspection. Note: This invoice is valid for 3 business days. If you are not able to pay within 3 business days contact the seller and ask to re-register the transaction with eBay."

Do you have any suggestions what to do or who to turn to when something like this happens? Ebay said it happened OUTSIDE of Ebay so there is no protection. I contacted my bank immediately but the funds had already been transferred into this account. This is a huge amount of money to me. I cannot let this guy get away with this crime!!

The whole thing makes me sick to think there are people out there in the world who do this sort of thing. I make a meager income so this was a lifetime purchase for me. I feel sick all day long and have trouble sleeping knowing this a*hole has my hard-earned money

If anyone can help please do!! Why is eBay being so passive about this?

Denny

Welcome to Scamwarners DennySF.

To be honest I don't think anyone wants the scale of the fraud problem to become common knowledge, and this isn't me being a doom monger with a conspiracy theory. I could give you a list of articles. It's not an accident that the 'money mule' accounts are in the UK, usually with one bank in particular, in fact so much so, it's ridiculous.

These aren't 'money mules' in the normal sense of the term, and those setting them up are apparently known as 'arrows' by their compatriots. The situation is outrageous and the USA dealt with the problem they had a couple of years ago arresting over 100 'arrows' which seems to have driven them to the more lax regulatory and legal regime that exists in the UK. As a UK citizen it doesn't give me any pleasure to say this.

I did some more research last night and it's utterly foolish to give safe haven to these bank accounts because they'll burn anyone they can, including the banks and there are some even funkier terms for the ploys they perform, and they're very good at what they do. I have every sympathy for the victims of these criminals but I won't have any sympathy when the banks are burned by these people, because shutting them down would be child's play and they treat the banks with utter contempt.

I regret that there is very little chance of you getting your money back, and I would blame the hopelessly lax UK banking and regulatory system. It's not how I recall banks operated before I retired.

Has anyone been able to successfully get their moneys back from these crooks??

I refuse to believe I am SOL but I am being optimistic for the time being.

I came across this forum too late. Last week we wired $3k to this individual an rest is history. Exact same story as everyone in this forum. "second chance" notice, on a hurry and, did not catch the scam
Until a week after the money was transffered. What a shame we can't catch this guy and he is working the system.
I refuse to think that authorities can request gmail and the bnl more information about this gem.

I KNOW THE FULL NAME AND ADDRESS OF THE SCAMER !!!

I KNOW THE FULL NAME AND ADDRESS OF THE SCAMER !!!

You are saying this guy gave you his real name and address while committing a crime?

Welcome to Scamwarners manbune,

Scammers never tell the truth. They always lie. Scammers use fake names, stolen pictures, make fake facebook accounts, use voip phone numbers, hide their IP address and use free email providers.

They will do anything to make you feel as if they are real to steal your money.

Sadly I have been caught by this as well. Large amount of money for high end guitar - this time to Hungarian bank.

What fooled me was the real ebay ID and the real email address. How is he getting those?

Also - I used the fake chat line help service, which I have to say was incredibly helpful and very good English.

The chat URL was http://gets-data9121.mine.nu/ which can only see now because it has been taken down. I have asked for information on the domain mine.nu bit I am sure that will be fake too.

I am staggered by the scale of this fraud. He seems to use andy in all of the ones I have read on this forum. Mine was Andy Wings <[email protected]> but there also emails from engineer <[email protected]> to so Engineer and Andy seem to be common threads.

This is organised fraud and they have found UK banks to be a pushover in accepting fake ID's. We've seen well over 100 fake UK accounts in the past year and that's probably the tip of the iceberg. They're offering to buy ebay accounts for cash, so that answers how they can infiltrate that system. I have a screen print copy of one their ads on Gumtree and you can easily Google to find websites set up to deal in ebay accounts.

The authorities and these companies seriously need to wake up to the consequences if they are unable to tackle this type of fraud, and so far their response has been to shrug their shoulders and blink helplessly. Companies that don't protect their customers don't have a business, and having customers lose money is the worst form of advertising.