Inspo Scammed

Sag

Yet another sucker, last week on ebay:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=7230472503&sspagename= ADME:B:SCO:UK:1
I noticed this on the 28th march with 3hrs to go, put in a bid on the off chance. A few hours later I recieved a second chance offer, the winner had dropped out. Did I still want it for 2350.00. A little bit nervous but I thought sod it, checked the seller, TOPCATTRACIE; 58 sales all feed back good, 30 miles up the road, hell yes I'd chance it. Address:
Ron Collins
4 Seven Sisters Close
Kings Lynn
Norfolk PE30 5RT
The seller (scum bag) wanted payment via Western Union, which I new sweet FA about. After a few phone calls dicovered it's cash only, bit more nervous but do you back out ?. I was prepard to go pick it up, they said no need it would couriered to my door, was I also interested in a Kirby Morgan Superlite 27. I paid on the 31st, you can guess the rest. Recieved a mail from ebay on the 1st April (ho ho, only read on the 3rd), the account of topcattracie / ron collins / ATA90216@AIM.com / scum bag, has been suspended, I was advised not to trade with them. Tried to contact via ATA90216@AIM.com, hey presto, the mails are sent back, this address no longer exist's. I'm sure if (and when) I turn up at the address above with a couple of likely lads, either it dosen't exist or their not known. So it looks like I'm going to be OC for a while longer, if any one knows or has had dealt with any of the above I'd be interested to hear from you.

Philip Greenwood

Bad Luck;

Get ahold of a senior member of the local police fraud investigation squad. Nag him, pester him (in a friendly way), to investigate and do his job. Catch this SOB.

Catching this guy will not be easy, but untill someone does he'll be back. Either on e-bay or another forum. Preying upon people who work and want to enjoy the results of their work.

Phil
Canada

schford

Report it to the police, bug them and keep bugging them.

From a technical point of view you can find this guy if you get a tech savvy Police rep on side

AOL will have records of which IP address accessed the mail box from which the mail was sent arranging payment etc

EBAY will also have the IP address that the seller logged on from to place and conduct this auction.

From the IP address you can get the ISP he used

The ISP will have stored which physical address that IP was being used by at the time.

Then the police can go pay them a visit.

It will need an official police request or maybe even a court order to get AOL / ISP / EBAY to realease the information but it is there, they have it you can find this guy.

__________________
Bailout and Kit Management account for Murphy's Law

The only bad question is one you did not ask and later wish you had.

Use of RBW is subject to the Rebreather World Terms & Conditions of Use

ROB DAVIE

As someone who is a police officer, and has been involved in one of these investigations, I am afraid that the news is not good.

You will have to have a police investigator on your side, and you will have to have a court order. E-Bay, AOL, and probably the ISP will not cooperate willingly in most cases.

E-Bay is especially un-cooperative. Sorry, but that is the truth. I personally would not deal with the swine for anything worth more than five bucks (2.50 sterling), but that is just my experience.

Good luck to you, and I am sorry that this has happened to you.

Rob Davie
RBW Admin

__________________
"CC Rebreathers will become a viable part of tech diving WHEN PIGS FLY!!"--GI3

kllr1876

just to let everyone know, i think hes back

http://cgi.ebay.ca/Buddy-Inspiration...QQcmdZViewItem


the pics are the same, still in britain, the price has dropped though.

If this post is from the guy who bought it and set up this forum sorry.

Sag

Nothing to do with me, got nothing to sell. The link did'nt work, comes up wrong number. I'm keeping a weather eye open in case the same pictures re-appear, haven't spotted anything yet. Going through the dispute process with eBay, ho, ho.

narcd

Rob -

I'm a detective in a Chicago suburb and have had nothing but cooperation from eBay and AOL in my most recent eBay fraud case. With proper legal process (grand jury subpoenas in my case), they forwarded me all the records on the eBay account. Same with AOL. The Western Union records were the most important. The bad guy(s) have to cash the money orders somewhere and that info is maintained by WU. The eBay ID was stolen, as was the AOL account, in my case. But the money orders left a very nice trail that the Michigan Attorney General's Office is looking into.

These cases can be worked if your local police department is willing to get involved. If they are not, look for police technilogy investigators through the High Technology Crime Investigators Association (www.htcia.org) or similar organization that can help point you in the right direction. Good luck.

Tony

dozer

hi fella sorry to hear about you misfortune can i make a couple of long shot suggestions...


number one go to the local cylinder testers in the area seeing as it is local to you, as i have noticed they are using a custom VIP sticker with a telephone number on it(which unfortunately cannot be read even if blowen up) but it may be unique enough to tell who serviced the cylinders and they may try to help with an invoice address if you explain your situation,

secondly there is a few sealed parts in the picture including 3 cells o rings and solenoid i think, so these were possibly purchased at the same time so check with the local dive store that sells rebreather parts and possibly with AP if they have an order with those parts in one consignment and maybe these could be tools to track the git down

longshots i know but for that kinda money id look into it!!!

SiB

Simple

1) I've seen this type of scam all to often for high end cars and bikes. if you find somehting that should cost $20K-$100K for $2K no reserve, it is DEFINATLY a scam. Never bid unless you will be able to deliver payment in person when you plan to pick up the item. If they refuse to let you do that even though it makes since, back out. They are playing you.

2) The same type of scam can be pulled using a resonable price. They will demand a 10% deposit within 3 days (not that doing so means it is a scam). They never intend to collect the entire ammount. If they collect one deposit of $3K, they've succeeded. You should always be willing to go get big items or use a real escrow service.

3) The ebay acount was probably stolen (already suggested). It is good to check the sellers other auction and recent past auctions if possible. If the person normally sells knitting supplies and shadow box figures and is now suddenly selling a MK15.5, don't bother bidding. It is a scam using a stolen account.

4) The images were probably found on the web somewhere by the scammer. They just steal images and create an auction. They don't own a rebreather so looking for clues in the picture is of little help. I've had this happen to me for MY CAR. I found an auction for my car on ebay by someone (a scammer) using another stolen account (not mine). They had started an auction and just linked my images off my site. They were even using my bandwidth. A good trick to detect this sort of thing is to see where the images are hosted (right click on them in FireFox and select properties, look at the URL it lists). If they are hosted on http://some.server.com/.../.../../image.jpg just try going to http://some.server.com in the browser and see what is there. In my case, you will get my car site and you can then email me to make sure I am selling my car through in independent source.

5) Similar to #4, the scammer probably doesn't have a rebreather and probably know nothing about them in general other than they are in demand for big $$$$. Ask hard, technical questions about what you are buying. I've done this on car parts and caught more than one person trying to play me. They should be able to demonstrate some knowledge of using the rebreather (care, dive procedures, where did they last go diving and with whom) or they would be dead. It is also a good idea to make sure they are a part of the community (who trained them?). If they don't even know which agency they are from, walk away.

peterbj7

Unfortunately eBay is just perfect for getting rid of stolen gear, or as an avenue for scamming people. I've been taken for a lot via eBay (by one person) and I found eBay to be most UNcooperative. They know what goes on, but if they were really effective in clamping down (as they could be) they'd lose a lot of revenue. I steer very clear of it these days - just use it as a way of tracking down dealers in what I want to buy. I never buy VIA eBay. The late and much lamented Rob Davie had sound reasons and experiences for his post above.