eBay Fraud Scams exposed

This YouTube video illustrates how recent eBay changes “protecting bidder’s privacy” afftect you as a buyer when you decide to participate in bidding on eBay items. eBay touted that they are removing transparency from bidding process to protect you. I have a different opinion. eBay perfers to let shill bidding rampant on their site and now you cannot detect it because you have no way of knowing whom you bid against. When sellers shill their items, you as a buyer pay more and eBay makes more money. Simple.

Watch this YouTube eye opener!

And check out other videos by the same author.
Remember: S.A.F.E. = Stay Away From Ebay

For those who don’t know, Leo Leporte has over 2 million listeners on his podcast TWiT, and his weekend radio show (KFI-AM) in Los Angeles which is also podcasted.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leo_Laporte

You can listen to this MP3 broadcast snipped from Leo’s show (4.6 Megs)
where Leo Raporte and Dick DeBartolo account how they were scammed on eBay. They both used PayPal to pay for transaction and lost their money because in reality, PayPal protection was non existent. Listen to the podcast, it’s about 10 minutes long and will open your eyes and hopefully raise your caution when considering buying on eBay :

Click here to listen to the PodCast by Leo Raporte and Dick DeBartolo

After getting burned twice, this time for $2,200:

“eBay doesn’t seem to do very much to prevent [scammers] or discourage [scammers].”

“We’re not protected…[regarding Paypal]“.

“I will never buy anything on eBay ever again….and I going to go on my radio show on a regular basis and tell everybody that.”

Source: See show 588, about 1/2 way down the podcast.
http://twit.tv/dgw588 (Our recording starts at 7th minute of the original PodCast)

I had to bring that lipstick on a pig picture in again. eBay has just been exposed trying to hide / delete / censor the ugly fallout from it’s new feeback policy.

eBay is full of scammers. eBay has been full of scammers. eBay is a scammer paradise. eBay tries their damnest to deny this and hide the truth about scams on it’s own site, instead of working to eliminate those scams.

In the traditional spirit of trying to hide the scams and scam artists on eBay site, misleading unsuspecting users to that false feeling of eBay being safe, once again, eBay deleted evidence of the new eBay feedback policy changes being immediately adopted by eBay scammers to abuse eBay members.

While eBay focuses it’s efforts on covering up scams on eBay and PayPal sites EBAY shares dropped 2.33% in a single day down to $29.31 by close of market June 2, 2008.

If eBay censors YOU on eBay message Boards, I recommend you take a look at the Yahoo Message FORUM for eBAY stock, perhaps eBay censors can silence you on eBay forums, but you can still present your story to eBAY shareholders, so they are not kept in dark.
visit eBay FINANCE FORUM ON YAHOO We know eBay does not listen to it’s customers, BUT eBay does listen to it’s shareholders.

So what is this all about? Stay with me for a minute.

eBay feedback changes: eBay no longer allows eBay sellers to leave negative or neutral feedback for buyers. eBay sellers are screaming bloody murder because they know eBay is full of con artists or nutso buyers who will abuse this and try to extort financial gain from the sellers threatening unjustified negative feedback, leaving just plain crazy malicious eBay feedback, destroying business reputations on a whim.

Yesterday AuctionBytes brought published article on eBay’s new feedback policy being abused by scam artist to extort money from eBay sellers. A link to the eBay seller discussion forum is provided from the AuctionBytes article.

Sure enough, eBay deleted the whole discussion. If you try to reach the link pointed to by AuctionBytes Article Sopranos Meets eBay in Feedback Extortion Scheme
The other case involves a feedback extortion ring that looks like an eBay version of the Sopranos. An eBay seller posting on the eBay discussion boards published correspondence he said he received from the winner of one of his auctions. The buyer reportedly said he and four other eBay users “are in the business of selling Positive Feedbacks to eBay Sellers for $20 each, totaling $100 for 5 Positive Feedbacks. If you purchase the 5 Positive Feedbacks for $100, you not only get to sell your items, you also receive 5 Positive Feedbacks. As you well know, Feedback is EVERYTHING to an eBay seller on whether they are successful or not. I’m sure that you want to remain successful in your eBay business. Plus, along with the 5 Positive Feedbacks, we will also Guarantee Never to contact you again and we take you off of our list.”

This article links to:
http://forums.ebay.com/db2/thread.jspa?threadID=1000711130&tstart=0&mod=1212267983950 and if you click on that link…. YOU GUESSED IT! IT WAS DELETED BY EBAY
Instead of that eBay discussion, you will see a message:
This discussion thread has been removed for one of the following reasons:
-the initial post in the thread was in violation of our Board Usage Policy.
-the member that started the thread has requested that it be removed.
-the thread expired due to inactivity

eBay routinely censors “uncomfortable” truths from it’s forums. Thus we even have a specific section here, ebay censorship, dedicated to what never existed on eBay… or at least what eBay claims never existed or was removed by a glitch, mistake or an oooopsie!

Now let’s see, we know the member did not ask for their message board thread to be removed. So that’s out. Next: we could not find anything in the initial post to be against eBay Board Usage Policy - and the thread certainly did not expire due to inactivity… the comments kept pouring in, there were over 400 when eBay censor decided to pull the plug. So what was it?

Again, it must be accidental, as the current eBay spokesperson put it describing previous eBay Discussion Board deletions:

…suggested that forum posts critical of eBay’s policies had been deleted. EBay denied that any forum deletions were intentional. If any posts were taken down “it was accidental,” the spokesman said. “We’re not afraid of hearing from our community and allowing them to post and discuss things and be angry on our boards”

Here is a page one of the DELETED EBAY DISCUSSION, certainly no rule breaking there, IT’S JUST YOUR USUAL COVER UP BY EBAY, TRYING TO HIDE SCAMS AND PROTECT SCAM ARTISTS ON IT’S SITE:

Discussion Post a reply | Print
Sellers, I just got the following email:
in**anaftw (9 ) View Listings | Report May-31-08 14:01 PDT
Listen very carefully. I am the winner of this item. I have 4 other eBay Users in place either bidding on or have won items from you plus myself totaling 5. We are prepared to leave you 5 Positive Feedbacks or 5 Negative Feedbacks depending on your actions. In a nutshell, we are in the business of selling Positive Feedbacks to eBay Sellers for $20 each, totaling $100 for 5 Positive Feedbacks. If you purchase the 5 Positive Feedbacks for $100, you not only get to sell your items, you also receive 5 Positive Feedbacks. As you well know, Feedback is EVERYTHING to an eBay seller on whether they are successful or not. I’m sure that you want to remain successful in your eBay business. Plus, along with the 5 Positive Feedbacks, we will also Guarantee Never to contact you again and we take you off of our list. You’ll even get a receipt for your purchase. Now, here’s the important part. If you refuse to purchase the 5 Positive Feedbacks, we will leave you 5 Negative Feedbacks for starters. We have 100’s & 100’s of eBay Users in place that we can use to leave feedbacks. In fact, we have enough to consistently leave you Negative Feedbacks for months resulting in you having to shut down your business. The absolute worst thing that you can do at this point is to try and contact eBay at any time about this or refuse to cooperate; we Will start leaving you Negative Feedbacks and shut your business down. Make no mistake, we’ve been doing this for years and have the power & resources to continually leave you Negative Feedbacks resulting in the closing of your business. Think about this, if you try to report us to eBay and they try and suspend our account or something like that, it will not stop us whatsoever. Remember, I said we have 100’s if not 1,000’s of eBay Users in place that we can use to leave you Negative Feedbacks over & over again until you are forced to shut your business down that you worked so hard to build up. Even if eBay were to keep suspending our user accounts, we have plenty more that we can use to keep leaving you Negative Feedbacks and there’s No way that eBay can keep up and stop us. They have tried & failed miserably. They also know about what we do. So the best and smartest thing that you can do is protect your business and just purchase the 5 Positive Feedbacks from us. That way, it’s done and over with and you can successfully continue to run your business without ever hearing from us again. We will give you up to 72 hours from now, to reply. The sooner, the better of course. Just send us an email stating that you want to purchase the 5 Positive Feedbacks from us and let us know your main email that you use so we can contact you. If we don’t hear from you by the end of the 72 hours, we will assume that you are refusing to cooperate and we will start leaving you Negative Feedbacks. So don’t do anything stupid. The smartest thing that you can do is take this seriously, we know what we’re doing. After we hear your reply to this email, we will contact you with further instructions.

The buyer is in fact the person who won my auction.

So… what would you do?
Previous 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 … 11 Next See last post
421 replies Date posted Reply #

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tr**arn (44 ) View Listings | Report May-31-08 14:03 PDT 1 of 421
Report the email and send it to Ebay for FB extortion.
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19**jenn (15 ) View Listings | Report May-31-08 14:03 PDT 2 of 421
Did this come through “my messages?” Yikes! I’d forward it to ebay.
Folks, hang onto your dashboards.
Here comes another speedbump!
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tr**arn (44 ) View Listings | Report May-31-08 14:03 PDT 3 of 421
What is the buyer’s ID so we can block them?
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in**anaftw (9 ) View Listings | Report May-31-08 14:04 PDT 4 of 421
A little more about me and the auction:
Sold for just over $100
I used featured plus (will I get that $9.95 back?)
I am a lowly bronze power seller with sales just under $2,000/month, so nothing that outstanding, but it’s a good chunk of my income.

The buyer has 3 feedback, all over 1 year old and from NARUs.
The name and email address that it came from match the name and email on the account that won the auction, so this doesn’t seem to be a hidden scam from someone who isn’t an ebay user.
I currently have 100% positive and a little over 500 total feedback in the past year.
I’ve been told to call PS support on Monday about this and have forwarded the email to ebay.
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ch**t49 (91 ) View Listings | Report May-31-08 14:06 PDT 5 of 421
so you have thier address? drive to thier house and burn it to the ground
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ci**girlhardware (378 ) View Listings | Report May-31-08 14:06 PDT 6 of 421
This sounds like it might be criminal.
http://www.ic3.gov/
from the site:
“The Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) is a partnership between the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the National White Collar Crime Center (NW3C), and the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA).”
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pl**sedtameetcha (12 ) View Listings | Report May-31-08 14:07 PDT 7 of 421
Scary.
LR
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lo**postid (0 ) View Listings | Report May-31-08 14:14 PDT 8 of 421
sounds like a “business protection” fee to me LOL.

I would love to get this email!
Have it tracked to the hometown, and have them arested for extortion.
Sure, the cops don’t care about feedback, but:
The absolute worst thing that you can do at this point is to try and contact eBay at any time about this or refuse to cooperate; we Will start leaving you Negative Feedbacks and shut your business down. Make no mistake, we’ve been doing this for years and have the power & resources to continually leave you Negative Feedbacks resulting in the closing of your business.
That is a personal threat! Notice they don’t specify what “business”, it could be an in home business or in town. This is a personal threat, and should be treated as such.
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na**ybusinraleigh (2967 ) View Listings | Report May-31-08 14:19 PDT 9 of 421
I would go to the media immediately, forget ebay, they’re slower than molasses in January in Alaska.
Print it out with full headers, a copy of the auction, a copy of the bidding history of that auction and all other pertinent paper trail and go to your local tv and newspapers with it.
I would also send it to the State AG’s office in the buyer’s state with a cover letter explaining factually (no emotion) how this came about.
Don’t let ebay bury this one.
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mo**erof3wonderfulkids (0 ) View Listings | Report May-31-08 14:19 PDT 10 of 421
Wow
He won your auction and instead of paying you for the widget he bought he wants YOU to pay him $100 to get 5 Positives? That means he is ready to bid on 4 more of your auctions?
BLOCK HIM.
Then report him to Ebay…and pull contact information. It’s probably not valid and that is one of the reasons you can get negs removed.
————————-
I’m offically on Strike-No listing and no buying until the Feedback Policy is Null and Void.
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pu**e*couture (Private ) View Listings | Report May-31-08 14:20 PDT 11 of 421
It was only a matter of time………..
And eBay claims it was “worried about SECOND CHANCE OFFERS”
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na**ybusinraleigh (2967 ) View Listings | Report May-31-08 14:21 PDT 12 of 421
purse, don’t raise my blood pressure SCO scams my behind!
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tu**eyjackson (324 ) View Listings | Report May-31-08 14:23 PDT 13 of 421
We’ll see if the system works. If eBay does what they say they’ll do, this nut is out of luck.
As to the fee credit for featured plus, yes, as long as this was not a multiple item listing and you successfully file the UID.
I wouldn’t mind turning into a vermilion goldfish.
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wi**ysgrandma (2341 ) View Listings | Report May-31-08 14:23 PDT 14 of 421
Check your e-mail
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pu**e*couture (Private ) View Listings | Report May-31-08 14:24 PDT 15 of 421
Seriously, I get chills……………..thinking about SCO “fraud” claims by eBay
I swear, I have bought AT LEAST 900-1,000 widgets *PER YEAR* on eBay, and have NEVER received a fraudulent SCO.
Can you say fraudulent FRAUD?
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na**ybusinraleigh (2967 ) View Listings | Report May-31-08 14:24 PDT 16 of 421
who are the other 4 referred to?
Come on, this is the system ebay created, let ebay handle this publicly and address how they will stop this nonsense now. Not one seller at a time.
It is extortion and it’s a chargeable offense.
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co**ie10 (11166 ) View Listings | Report May-31-08 14:25 PDT 17 of 421
I would go to the media immediately, forget ebay, they’re slower than molasses in January in Alaska.
That’s probably the dumbest thing you’ve said on this board.
OP - you HAVE to report it to Ebay. They are the only people who can shut down this looney.
By all means, send it to the media as well, but Ebay must be your first port of call.
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ww**88 (Private ) View Listings | Report May-31-08 14:25 PDT 18 of 421
You need to report this to eBay as extortion. Pull the buyer’s contact info (email and phone) and call him and email him. If the phone and/or email is bogus, report to eBay (if bogus any feedback he gives will be deleted). His contact info will have his address. Call the police department in his city and file a report.
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ai**rushayatollah (198 ) View Listings | Report May-31-08 14:26 PDT 19 of 421
They will block the one ID, then the seller will get negs and NPB’s out the wazoo.
I actually wouldn’t go through FeeBay because if they take any kind of action at all the police may not have to get involved.
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ho**luludance (32 ) View Listings | Report May-31-08 14:26 PDT 20 of 421
Post this on Trust and Safety.
Does Powerseller support function over the weekend?
I’d call Live Help.
File the extortion report.
I wouldn’t answer them at all.
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ai**rushayatollah (198 ) View Listings | Report May-31-08 14:26 PDT 21 of 421
Contact ISP though.
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na**ybusinraleigh (2967 ) View Listings | Report May-31-08 14:28 PDT 22 of 421
IF ebay had a track record of doing the right thing in a timely manner, I would use ebay.
Can anyone say they’ve got a good track record?
Go to the media, let the media know that the system ebay has set up is failing miserably.
Not only will this fool leave negative feedback, the seller will then have to go through all of ebay’s hoops to get it removed.
Who are the other 4? Are there 4 others? Talk about the perfect threat.
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co**ie10 (11166 ) View Listings | Report May-31-08 14:28 PDT 23 of 421
Shame you didn’t post with your real ID so that we could all see who this person is that won the auction.
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na**ybusinraleigh (2967 ) View Listings | Report May-31-08 14:29 PDT 24 of 421
cobbie, posting with a selling ID is a good way for people to mess with your auctions, don’t you think the OP has had enough of that already?
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pl**t1here2 (Private ) View Listings | Report May-31-08 14:29 PDT 25 of 421
Send me their address.
If they’re close enough, I’d like to have face to face, um, chat with them,
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ai**rushayatollah (198 ) View Listings | Report May-31-08 14:29 PDT 26 of 421
A cheerleader.
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ho**luludance (32 ) View Listings | Report May-31-08 14:30 PDT 27 of 421
Shame you didn’t post with your real ID so that we could all see who this person is that won the auction.
Oh, yes, and then some numnut here will bring the buyer to this thread and all hell breaks loose.
Nancy, I appreciate your sentiment about eBay, but eBay DOES shut down people like this. The advice given here has to be what’s best for the OP, not what will embarrass eBay the most.
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tr**arn (44 ) View Listings | Report May-31-08 14:31 PDT 28 of 421
This is one example of when a seller should post with their selling ID. Without it we can’t block or help report this scary buyer. What if this buyer is trying this scam on multiple sellers. The OP should warn them.
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lo**postid (0 ) View Listings | Report May-31-08 14:31 PDT 29 of 421
After we hear your reply to this email, we will contact you with further instructions.
That was a mistake on their part. Respond to it and see what the ‘further instructions’ are! Maybe it’ll be a better way to get info on this guy.
Try telling him you need his account info so you can transfer the $100 to him directly. And you don’t trust paypal for this transaction.
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lo**postid (0 ) View Listings | Report May-31-08 14:32 PDT 30 of 421
Join him in his game, but make sure he never actually gets any money from you
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pl**t1here2 (Private ) View Listings | Report May-31-08 14:33 PDT 31 of 421
Not sure if it was mentioned, but don’t worry about possible negs, Ebay most likely will do away with any you get from this.
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ca**mom3boys (924 ) View Listings | Report May-31-08 14:34 PDT 32 of 421
Please post the auction number.
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na**ybusinraleigh (2967 ) View Listings | Report May-31-08 14:34 PDT 33 of 421
Honolulu, if you think hiding this ‘in house’ with ebay is the solution, fine.
I don’t. This is out of control garbage and those who want to stay and sell are getting all kinds of ridiculous feedback (because a buyer can with impunity ) and then this kind of cr@p?
And since the policies have changed, get an eyefull and see what people are teaching others to do to sellers on ebay, just google it and you’ll be shocked.
The plans are being formulated and some will take it to the extreme we see here.
Unless someone is prosecuted or publicly shamed, it will not stop.
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tr**arn (44 ) View Listings | Report May-31-08 14:34 PDT 34 of 421
Lulu, I didn’t think about someone tattling to the buyer. There are some that would do just that.
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pl**t1here2 (Private ) View Listings | Report May-31-08 14:35 PDT 35 of 421
These people need to be jailed.
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na**ybusinraleigh (2967 ) View Listings | Report May-31-08 14:35 PDT 36 of 421
Furthermore, will ebay block this buyer from registering again? How?
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ai**rushayatollah (198 ) View Listings | Report May-31-08 14:35 PDT 37 of 421
Wall Street Journal.
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my**gbokali (256 ) View Listings | Report May-31-08 14:36 PDT 38 of 421
This is BS OP….report to ebay, call the police, scream it on the hilltops…I wouild tell everyone you can. YOU CANNOT LET THEM DO THIS TO YOU…..no matter what they say.
DO NOT GIVE IN….please. I wish I could help you personaly cause this is just down right wrong not to mention has to be against the law.
and its EBays fault. Sorry, just my opinion.
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mi**yteoil (Private ) View Listings | Report May-31-08 14:37 PDT 39 of 421
You really need to report this guy under multiple reporting functions through ebay. Maybe forward it to the higher ups at eBay also. They really should see what has been created with their new fb policy.
I also agree that it is a shame that we don’t know the id of this person.
Does he have a lot of fb?
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Page 1 of 11 Go to page
Previous 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 … 11

and a screenshot of page 1 of 11 of the Censored / Deleted eBay forum from the Google Cache

How much do you wanna bet eBay will request Google to delete the cache???

About a month ago media news reported arrest of Romanian coder, eBay hacker Vladuz, whose real name is Vlad Constantin Duiculescu, a young ( 20 year old ) high school graduate from Bucharest, who illegally accessed the e-Bay database from 2005 to 2007 and caused $2m in damage to the online sales site.

Just last month, Vladuz was arrested in a joint operation by the Romanian anti-organised crime unit and the Home Intelligence Service.

He told the judge that he hacked the e-Bay servers because he wanted to be famous and had abandoned school because he had nothing to learn there. It would be nice to get the transcript of what else Vladuz he told the judge since eBay denies any hacking to eBay servers ever occured. Remember, eBay labeled this incident as “- Some messages were published on a community board on the eBay.de (Germany) web site by a person who gained access to a small number of employee email accounts.” and here eBay spokespersong proclaiming “He did find access to a small amount of customer service rep e-mail accounts. He used those to go on discussion forums, as a pink — when an employee posts, it’s highlighted in pink. He did that in an attempt basically to say, ‘Ha ha, look what I did.”

It’s fantastic to hear this hacker kid was arrested, hopefully they will lock him up for a while. It would be interesting to see how eBay claims their security was not breached at all while the hacker braggs about accessing eBay system and servers. It’s the cover up odor that bothers me on this. eBay misleads it’s customers into a false sense of safety and security.

Some Follow up Vladuz : eBay Hackers from Romania bits:

• Here is a link to the article from Southeast European Times from 5/22/2008 giving some additional information on Romanian hackers posing increasing international threat

• Here is a Google Translateed article about partnership between Romanian Authorities and Ebay which stemmed from the investigation of the Vladuz case

So when shopping on eBay, be extra vigilant! As of today the same scammer, phisher and hacker we’ve been tracking for YEARS is still alive and well, hijacking eBay sellers, uploading fake scam eBay auctions and scamming HUNDREDS of unsuspecting eBay buyers into thinking eBay is safe place to shop. Seller feedback does not mean anything when seller has been hijacked!

OK, enough with words, let’s lay down some proof. Here are auctions this scammer is running on MANY HIJACKED SELLER ACCOUNTS ON EBAY. These are just auctions he is running this minute. He is not a very smart hacker, if we can find him for years without any special tools. Obviously, he is smart enough to be evading eBay security army that consists of 2,000 security professionals backed by 5 Billion dollars in cash.

The phisher is currently using this line:
NOTICE: Please do not bid if you don’t have the money. I will cancel all bids if you do not contact me first. I have had bad experience with non-paying bidders and I do not want that to repeat. If you are interested and want to know more about this auction then please email me at:
Mitica233@aol.com

• eBay seller Seller: jsti**on54 Feedback:100 % Positive Member: since Aug-20-03 in United States hijacked, with fake auction on DW Drum Collector Series Drums drum set This Fake eBay auction has 14 Bidders, [[ read as 14 victims of this scammer, who believe they are safe on eBay dealing with 100% feedback seller, those eBay victim buyers are being mislead by eBay inti thinking they are safe on eBay]]
• The same scammer hijacked another 100% Feedback eBay seller Seller: fool4**nkin Feedback: 100 % Positive Member: since May-21-04 in United States and is currently running scam fake eBay auction or Roland Electronic Drum Sets -TD20S-BK - V-Pro TD20 Kit which has 19 Bids now - Read 19 VICTIMS and on the same hijacked eBay seller account, he is also running Fake Scam eBay auction for Sean Ryon 16 Ranch Cutting Saddle with additional 11 BIDS / Victims. The strategy is simple, hacker collects bids from unsuspecting sellers and as soon as the scam auction price reaches higher value (here is a screenshot of that same auction few minutes later), he cancels all the bids- screenshot here so he can attract more victims to this super bargain listing.
• And that’s not all, there are many more hijacked by him, like this 100% Feedback eBay seller karenzita1 Feedback: 100 % Positive Member: since Oct-05-05 in United States where the eBay scammer uploaded Fake auction on eBay for Roland Fantom X8 with Case and this auction has 15 BIDS ..ehm.. read Victims who think eBay is safe place to shop.
• Yep, there is more, this scammer has also hijacked Seller: kigh**oy
  Feedback: 100 % Positive Member: since Apr-23-99 in United States and uploaded Scam Auction for Canon XL2 BRAND NEW and currently has only 1 Bidder Victim.

• Another Hijacked eBay Seller: angi**61 Feedback: 100 % Positive
  Member: since Nov-17-02 in United States where this scammer uploaded Fake eBay auction for John Deere 425 Lawn & Garden Tractor

• Another 100% eBay Seller: ferns**ction Feedback: 100 % Positive
  Member: since May-02-00 in United States hijacked with a SCAM Fake auction on eBay for Precor EFX576i Elliptical Crosstrainer

• Another 100% Feedback eBat Seller Hijacked dymun**l2k5 Feedback: 100 % Positive
  Member: since Apr-03-05 in United States with a Scam eBay Auction for Bose Lifestyle series 4 Surround System :: Note in that Screenshot: PAYPAL ACCOUNT REQUIRED TO BID! The scammer will try to hijack bidder paypal accounts and most likely is able to Accept PayPal payments. PayPal is becoming a favorite payment method of those scammers

At the moment there are other hackers we could find quickly, using disposable email addresses luring unsuspecting buyers. Some of the hackers have Hijacked PayPal accounts so the Western Union eBay payment is no longer a sole payment way you can get scammed with. Hijacked PayPal accounts have become an important tool for eBay phishers / scammers.

This scammer is currently using disposable email address rb.biz99@gmail.com

and hijacked eBay Seller: da**ta$2 ( 433) Changed User ID (less than 30 days) Feedback: 100 % Positive Member: since Jun-13-01 in United States and uploaded Fake Scam eBay auction for PRECOR 576i ELLIPTICAL CROSSTRAINER (EXPERIENCE SERIES) : note this auction ends in 8 Minutes! so much for eBay Trust and Safety Team of 2000 security professionals removing FAKE auctions quickly.

Yet another Scam Disposable email address proclaiming this on another hijacked eBay Seller Account:

BEFORE YOU BID,CONTACT ME FOR THE BUY NOW PRICE,BECAUSE IT IS VERY LOW!!!
Please email me ONLY at: davidbarr011@gmail.com ! If you really want it !

Here he has hijacked eBay Seller: neurosoc**lite Feedback: 100 % Positive
Member: since Sep-10-03 in United States and is successfully running a fake eBay Scam auction for **NEW** 17′ APPLE MACBOOK PRO 2.4 GHZ 4GB RAM 160 GB HD with 22 bids [[ victims to false security feeling on eBay ]] This auction has been running since yesterday and certainly collected plenty victims who will get burned on eBay again.

And last but not least, you can take a look at this 100 % feedback seller marked by a hijacker whose current tag line is :
My Request is to CONTACT me directly to my email address
My personal EMAIL adres is : deangalbin@gmail.com

The poor Hijacked ebay Seller Seller: ri**3 Feedback: 100 % Positive
Member: since Jan-03-00 in United States even noticed his account is hijacked on on this fake auction for BRAND NEW XBOX 360 Elite Console+2 Controllers & Game the hijacked seller posted 3 days ago! :
On May-21-08 at 06:17:35 PDT, seller added the following information:
THIS IS NOT MY ITEM!! Please do not bid!!

Although eBay would like you to believe it is safe to shop there, the evidence suggests otherwise.

It was speculated when eBay purchased over 25% share in Craigslist that eBay is on a fishing (not phishing) expedition to observe craigslist’s success and then copy it. It is a known fact that beyond it’s founder’s innovative idea to create an online auction, eBay’s executive team has not invented anything since. eBay’s management is great at spending it’s cash on mostly miss (Skype) sometimes hit (PayPal) acquisitions. Less then a month ago we have commented on a eBay vs. Craigslist lawsuit which set the stage for Craigslist initiating their own proceedings against eBay. The full document is available here and it provides some interesting insights into what allegedly goes on behind the scenes. Read the document, it provides a peak into the world of corporate espionage, false advertising, deception and other corporate shinnanagans you won’t find in official company press releases.

eBay is certainly not a stranger to being accused of unfair play and facing substantial fines and penalties for it’s mistakes. Here is a abbreviated history of some legal processes she has faced or is currently litigating:

August 11, 2003 SHARE PRICE 25.46
eBay Accounts for Lawsuit Loss: The auction giant shaves $30M from Q2 results after a patent verdict against it was upheld last week but says it will appeal. February 28, 2008 Case MercExhange vs. eBay settled, As a part of the settlement, eBay purchased all three patents from MercExhange involved in the lawsuit, and related technology and inventions, as well as a license to another search-related patent portfolio that was not asserted in the lawsuit

July 30, 2004 SHARE PRICE 39.16
PayPal Sends Users Notice of Class-Action Lawsuit Settlement: PayPal and plaintiffs reached a settlement in the class-action lawsuit stemming from 2002, when two PayPal users filed class action lawsuits against the online payment service owned by eBay. Some of the accusations by the plantiffs were that, as of early 2002, PayPal was understaffed, hid its customer service phone numbers to save money, had rude and unhelpful phone staff, did not answer customer service email, and “without notice or warning, erroneously and unnecessarily” limited or closed accounts and then made it difficult to restore the accounts.

June 22, 2004 SHARE PRICE 43.60
Tiffany Sues eBay over Fakes : Tiffany said 73% of items purchased on eBay in a study it conducted were counterfeit

April 29, 2005 SHARE PRICE 31.71
Tentative Settlement Reached in eBay Stock ‘Spinning’ Lawsuit : the settlement calls for the payment to eBay of $3 million by Meg Whitman, Pierre Omidyar, Jeffrey Skoll and Robert Kagle, who are officers/directors/controlling stockholders of eBay, and a payment to eBay of $395,000 by Goldman Sachs Group, eBay’s investment banking firm.

In June 6 2006 SHARE PRICE 31.59
Net2Phone, Inc. filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey (No. 06-2469) alleging that eBay Inc., Skype Technologies S.A., and Skype Inc. infringed five patents owned by Net2Phone relating to point-to-point Internet protocol. The suit seeks an injunction against continuing infringement, unspecified damages, including treble damages for willful infringement, and interest, costs, and fees

August 7 2006 SHARE PRICE 24.12
Louis Vuitton Malletier and Christian Dior Couture filed two lawsuits in the Paris Court of Commerce against eBay Inc. and eBay International AG. Among other things, the complaint alleges that we violated French tort law by negligently broadcasting listings posted by third parties offering counterfeit items bearing plaintiffs’ trademarks, and by purchasing certain advertising keywords. The plaintiffs seek approximately EUR 37 million in damages.

September 6 2006, SHARE PRICE 27.53
Parfums Christian Dior, Kenzo Parfums, Parfums Givenchy, and Guerlain Société also filed a lawsuit in the Paris Court of Commerce against eBay Inc. and eBay International AG. The complaint alleges that we have interfered with the selective distribution network the plaintiffs established in France and the European Union by allowing third parties to post listings offering genuine perfumes and cosmetics for sale on our websites. The plaintiffs in this suit seek approximately EUR 9 million in damages and injunctive relief

April 26th, 2007 SHARE PRICE 34.22
eBay, PayPal face court action Class action alleges unfair monopoly: eBay warned shareholders yesterday that it is facing a possible class action suit in the state of California and is likely to be hit by more patent cases. The suit alleges that eBay and PayPal acted “to improperly ‘monopolise’ the forms of payment that sellers can use on eBay”.

August 2007 SHARE PRICE 33.54
class-action lawsuit in which attorney John Fabry stated, “eBay has been deceiving millions of consumers over the years by claiming their auctions start when submitted, when in reality they do not begin for at least several hours, and up to 24 hours. However, the clock starts running on your selected auction time even though eBay hasn’t posted it yet

Jan. 10, 2008 SHARE PRICE 30.36
Lawsuit Filed against eBay Over Coin Listing Policy: The American Numismatic Association (ANA) and the Professional Numismatists Guild (PNG) are suing eBay for defamation and unfair and deceptive trade practices

May 13, 2008 SHARE PRICE 31.41
Craigslist has filed a countersuit against eBay, alleging that the auction site used its minority stake in Craigslist to engage in unfair and unlawful anticompetitive behavior, false advertising, trademark infringement, and other misdeeds.

Update: 5-15-2008 Craigslist illustrates on their blog how eBay uses deceptive advertising on Yahoo providing a screenshot of advertisements eBay ran up even on the morning of 5-14-2008. Interestingly enough, if you try to search on Yahoo for www.craigslist.org or craigslist.org those deceptive ads no longer appear.

A new video how to scam eBay pulse was just recently published on gurucreation.com. It shows blow by blow action how some eBay members gamed the eBay pulse by using a bot software to create thousands of fake eBay user ID’s and placing watches on their items ( they all sell those get-rich-quick on eBay ebooks )

This blogger watcheditem.com shows step by step how the pulse scam works.

One interesting thing: Kekoa64 - one of the eBay sellers being credited by using this fraudulent sofware, claims in his Press Release, that eBay has purchased his blog, website etc… for an undisclosed amount so it can teach other eBay sellers how to be successfull on eBay. Here is a quote from that press release:

Friday, April 4, 2008
Kekoa64.com bought out by eBay Inc.
HONOLULU, HI (PR Newswire) - EBAY INC. based in San Jose, Calif., has acquired Kekoa64.com and eBay user id Kekoa64. “Kekoa64 - Internet Entrepreneur, eBay PowerSeller” (http://www.kekoa64.com).

Starting May 1st, eBay, and its affiliates, will use the site as a promotional tool. “We are excited at the amazing opportunity to work with Kekoa” says Dennis Breckford, Senior VP of Marketing at eBay, “we look forward to seeing how his ideas can take us to the next level”.

The company plans on a complete redesign of the site and blog. eBay also plans to keep his existing product line, as well as develop new products with him. Kekoa will remain the creative force behind the products and promotions, however, eBay will incorporate their own products in to the marketing mix.

“When eBay first contacted me about the opportunity, I thought it was a hoax, one of those phishing emails” says Kekoa Chung, 24, Kailua, HI. “The funny thing is, I was actually suspended (from eBay) at the time, and I thought it was a bit ironic that they wanted to buy me out. When I learned that it was infact true, I called Dennis and jumped on the idea.”

eBay Inc. plans on acquiring more PowerSellers like Kekoa to promote it’s website to more targeted niches. “This is the first of many more acquisitions to come” says Breckford.

Breckford will not discuss the amount Kekoa64.com was purchased for, but says that he will “not have to work another day in his life”.

—————————————————————

Update 4-27-2008
Hey, I just read the rest of the page and see the kekoa64.com blog press release is fake: there is a P.S.
under the picture
“Stay tuned to see what will happens next….
P.S. I didn’t have the time to get you guys on the first, so Aperow Fulls! :)”

Update 5-20-2008
It appears that all three eBay pulse scammers have been NARU’d by eBay:

• kekoa64
• mysterygiant
• jjfjq

AuctionBytes reported this new incentive eBay is giving to unhappy Buyers. eBay made another brilliant decision: if a buyer complains or gives low ratings to a seller, give ‘em a discount coupon. While the intentions of eBay management may be good, the fallout danger of abuse by dishonest buyers is worth considering. If an unscrupulous buyer knows that eBay will send them a coupon worth of $100 or $200 or more just because they gave a seller negative rating or low DSR ratings, some buyers may abuse this and give undeserved ratings to sellers in hopes of obtaining such coupon.

Check out the original article on AuctionBytes eBay Gives Buyers an Incentive to Complain

And, oh, btw.. did you notice that the first link in the AuctionBytes article linking the original post on eBay forums was already deleted by eBay censors? We get the famous The specified topic [2000539507] was not found. Perhaps another ACCIDENT BY EBAY CENSORS.

eBay censorship reminds me of China Censoring Tibet News

feel free to download and use this image just right click on it and save to your computer

As highlighted in the past post here, eBay spokesman said regarding censored eBay forum posts on the subject eBay padding their listings: A comment on a Tuesday Appscout post suggested that forum posts critical of eBay’s policies had been deleted.EBay denied that any forum deletions were intentional. If any posts were taken down “it was accidental,” the spokesman said. “We’re not afraid of hearing from our community and allowing them to post and discuss things and be angry on our boards” Ebay must be having another case of accidentitis on their forums as more and more critical posts are dissappearing.

This post from one of eBays largest powersellers titled

I have sold 300,000 eBay items but am quitting completely!

is now deleted by eBay censors: here is a link to the original post:

http://forums.ebay.com/db2/thread.jspa?threadID=2000529608&tstart=0&mod=1204856790666

if you click on it, you will get : The specified topic [2000529608] was not found.

My guess would be eBay is totally paranoid about seller exodus and when one of the largest power sellers calls it quits and announces it on eBay’s own Seller Discussion Forum, someone is shaking in their booties, thinking this might encourage other sellers to move away. So deleting the post and pretending it never happened is the eBay way! I am sure this incident will never make it to the mainstream media and if it does, it will be declared another accident/test/glitch.

Again, Google is our friend and we have screenshots of the censored out post that eBay deleted by accident, check out what eBay did not want you to see.

screenshot of I have sold 300,000 eBay items but am quitting completely! deleted thread by eBay censors

PC Magazine published their article on the eBay inflating listings on their site: eBay padding listings on their site

It’s a good summary of what was happening over the past weekend. The most interesting part of that article however is they way eBay spokespersons explained this test/bug/glitch/accident/incompetence. Here is a short digest of that:

EBay on Tuesday admitted that a “bug” in its system had accidentally placed listings from eBay-owned shopping.com onto eBay.com late Friday night.

The bug was related to the gallery feature that allows users to place a small photo of their item on the initial search returns page, a spokesman said. EBay traditionally charged 35 cents to include a gallery photo, but as part of the policy changes that went into effect February 20, they are now free of charge.

However, “the code actually rolled out three hours late, so there were a certain number of listings … that didn’t get gallery free, so we were going back and fixing that” on Friday, the spokesman said. “What happened was, when we wrote the code to implement that fix in the database table, there was a string that was left on there that populated and sent shopping.com listings onto ebay.com that it shouldn’t have.”

Approximately 5,000 listings were pulled from shopping.com, but they have since been removed, according to eBay.

Sellers pointed to the listings snafu as evidence that eBay was inflating its numbers to make up for losses sustained during the boycott. When the bug first emerged on Friday, the spokesman told a reporter that it was actually a planned test.

“But it wasn’t a test. It ended up being a bug,” he said. “So I ate a little bit of crow on that.”

….

A comment on a Tuesday Appscout post suggested that forum posts critical of eBay’s policies had been deleted.

EBay denied that any forum deletions were intentional. If any posts were taken down “it was accidental,” the spokesman said. “We’re not afraid of hearing from our community and allowing them to post and discuss things and be angry on our boards”

AuctionBytes further reported Lieberman said fewer than 35,000 listings were affected by the glitch.

However, he had no explanation for the fact that when AuctionBytes looked at one Shopping.com selling account on Saturday morning, it indicated the seller had over 80,000 listings on eBay.com. One seller claimed on Saturday that he had captured screenshots that showed there were many more Shopping.com listings on eBay.

Lieberman said eBay has always been conservative without a hint of financial scandal in its life. eBay reports the number of registered users and number of listings to the SEC on a quarterly basis. Of the accusations of listing count manipulation, Lieberman said, “To think that we’d do that now is outrageous.”

It appears that

eBay lied about the cause of the mystery listings, first t was a test, then it was a bug….

eBay lied about how many listings were affected in this incident: first if was 5,000 now it is 35,000 while there are screenshots showing hundreds of thousands of listings.

eBay lied about censoring MANY forum posts calling this an accident…. how do you delete multiple threads on this subject by accident? As this eBay user indicated here: Boy ebay sure has a lot of “glitches” and “If any posts were taken down “it was accidental,”. Rbay sure has a lot of “accidents” lately. “We’re not afraid of hearing from our community and allowing them to post and discuss things and be angry on our boards.” Another lie from ebay, the comment below was posted my me on there forum it was pulled, so I re-posed it, Censored out idiot, and John Donhole, I more then made sure it did not violate any of ebay’s “polices” and they still pulled it a second time. Screw you ebay, I started taking my business to Amazon back in July of 2006 when you pulled your stunt with the ebay stores, you did not learn then and I know you will not learn not, put all the spins on things you want, lets see you fix the “bad Press” that you have gotten, let’s see how soon you get my $88.00 plus per month business back, stock holders are you reading this.

“Somewhere in this world a village is missing it’s idiot, if they look for him they can find him on ebay, he’s the guy running the company John Donhole”

eBay lied about when the listing glitch happened. According to eBay this was a glitch/test/bug that surfaced on the weekend of March 1st and 2nd: so why are listings on this screenshot dated 2/22/2008 ?

It appears that there are plenty of Videos documenting the usual eBay PR lies.

 Update 3/17/2008 This Event Horizon Blog Has an eccellent compilation of  The eBay SDC_PROD Affair

Source: Gmarket: The Better eBay 2/28/2008
At least one company means what it says in South Korea. I mention that only because I called out Gmarket rival eBay (Nasdaq: EBAY) last month for claiming that it’s gaining ground on Gmarket.

“We’re pleased about our performance in Korea, where we believe we’ve significantly narrowed the gap with our main competitor over the last three or four quarters,” eBay CFO Bob Swan noted during January’s conference call.

He pointed to the company’s 33% improvement in gross merchandise value (GMV) in South Korea during the quarter. However, Gmarket’s GMV climbed by 42% during the period. Even a mathematically mediocre kindergartner can tell you that the numbers imply a widening — not narrowing — gap

In this article, the author refers to his article from two weeks earlier ( Can We Take eBay Seriously ) :

http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2008/01/28/can-ebay-be-taken-seriously.aspx

From eBay’s company history:
“eBay was conceived initially as a result of a conversation between Pierre Omidyar and his wife, an avid PEZ collector (she currently covets a collection of more than 400 dispensers). She commented to Pierre how great it would be if she were able to collect PEZ dispensers and interact with other collectors over the Internet.”

and here is from CNN:

Speaking of eBay, its founder, Pierre Omidyar, dated a PEZ collector who used the site in its earliest incarnation to buy and sell rare dispensers.

“Pam Omidyar, the fiancée and now wife of the gentleman who started eBay, was a PEZ collector, and she still is,” said Kevin Pursglove, a spokesperson for eBay.

But then again, you can see articles like this:
Friday, July 19, 2002
The Times: eBay’s creation myth exposed

How did eBay make a boring tech firm look sexy? By inventing its own ‘creation myth’. David Rowan reports

It was the warm, smalltown story of a corporate giant’s humble beginnings that enticed Business Week, The Wall Street Journal, even the fact-obsessed New Yorker. When Pam Wesley wanted to boost her collection of Pez sweet dispensers, her fiance, Pierre Omidyar, built a website for her to trade them. That website grew to be the huge online auction house eBay, one of the internet gold rush’s few success stories - even though, in the words of the company’s PR chief, Mary Lou Song, it began simply “as kind of a love token”.

It was a touching tale, recounted in endless profiles on both sides of the Atlantic, with only one flaw: it was a lie. As Song admits in a new book by Adam Cohen, The Perfect Store: Inside eBay, she invented the story five years ago to generate publicity for an otherwise dull tech company. “No one wants to hear about a 30-year-old genius who wanted to create a perfect market,” Song confesses. So she constructed what corporate PRs call a “creation myth”, and hoodwinked some of the world’s most respected reporters. Some of her victims are furious.

“If they lied to me, and then to the New Yorker’s diligent fact-checkers, then I’m angry,” fumes James Gleick, who profiled eBay in the magazine three years ago and then in his book What Just Happened. “I am embarrassed. My readers are meant to be able to rely on me.”

Equally indignant is Susan Moran, who covered the company for the online magazine Salon. “I feel misled, duped, embarrassed, stupid and angry,” she says. “As a journalist I’m usually on guard against lies or smoother mistruths. But somehow I felt differently about Pierre. Now he’s just another US CEO to doubt.”

The issue raises questions about how far corporate publicists mislead journalists to generate favourable press. There is nothing new in a company’s PRs exaggerating its humble origins, according to David Brain, the joint CEO of the communications agency Weber Shandwick, but an outright lie carries huge risks. “These myths of inception are a powerful way of communicating some truth about a company’s DNA, and are usually told once the company has grown big,” he explains. “You’ll hear that Richard Branson started the Virgin record empire from a phone box at university, or Hewlett-Packard began in a garage. There’s probably an element of truth there, but we’d never advise a client to fib. Once you know you’ve been lied to, the whole reason for trusting that brand has been negated.”

Jon Aarons, the president of the Institute of Public Relations, insists that for this reason, such lies are rare. But he believes that journalists often conspire with PRs in “an unholy alliance” to enliven their stories: “The media are just as guilty for not checking out these myths.”

That is certainly eBay’s defence this week. “I honestly believe we did not intend to mislead anyone,” claims an eBay spokesman, Kevin Pursglove, rather unconvincingly. He admits that “Pez’s role in eBay’s creation may have taken on a life of its own”, but blames journalists for ignoring more mundane angles.

“Reporters didn’t show much interest in marketplaces, or battered keyboards or Star Wars artefacts for sale,” he says - until they heard the Pez story. “Inevitably, the finished story would mention the Pez angle but leave out virtually all the other factors.”

Tech companies, often those hardest to sell to journalists as “sexy”, are those most commonly linked with creation myths. Apple Computers and Hewlett-Packard even ran commercials celebrating their garage origins. When three management consultants launched an online betting site, Flutter.com, three years ago, it was widely reported that it stemmed from their own betting competitions during a Super Bowl party. “That wasn’t the case,” says a source close to the team, “but it didn’t stop them winning the column inches.”