Apparent Ebay Fraud

I know we are not supposed to talk about "bad sellers" but I thought the forum would be interested in what certainly appears to be a massive fraudulent sale. I will not name the seller unless a GORT allows it. I hope no Forum members got caught up in this. It involves hundreds of sales and $$$. I'm curious to add it up now.
Here's the story.

A good friend (who owns a local record store) and I noticed a seller posted several hundred records as well as a number of guitars early this month. The sales ended around Feb 11-12. At first we got real excited because the seller listed loads of extremely rare records . I even submitted some low bids (but was quickly outbid). It wasn't long before we decided that the whole sale looked very fishy. The seller was new. Just joined Ebay in Sept 2016 with first sales in November. The seller had a 100% feedback based on a little over 200 sales. The thing is all the records sold were standard stuff, no rarities. Nothing going for more than about $30. Great set-up!!

All of a sudden the seller lists loads of records many of which again are extremely rare . The descriptions merely noted "used record in good condition". Expensive guitars (ie; Gibson, Martin) with no descriptions. The photos of the records appear in some cases to be lifted off Discogs. Some of the records were sold in lots of 3-5 records. Some of the lots contained rarities, for example the very first Bee Gee album issued in Australia! Many of the records received bids in accordance with their value. Many did not...as if bidders realized this must be too good to be true.

The first negative feedback came in today..."said shipped but not one reply to at least 20 emails for tracking #" I know it's only one feedback, but I'm sure the dam is gonna break. Some of you may have noticed these sales, most are likely unaware. I thought it would be useful to bring awareness since we otherwise may never hear of it although I'm sure many of the injured parties will somehow make it know. My friend thinks that Ebay will likely shut the seller's account down after a few more negative feedbacks . I guess that ultimately Ebay would have to take the loss on this in accordance with their guarantees.

Beware!! If it seems too good to be true, it probably isn't!

 

Why don't you send a link to one of the auctions so we can take a look. You don't have to mention the seller name here.

eBay is the land of scams. My current "favorite" is the shyster who lists tons of stuff with autographs on it. He doesn't mention the autograph (although the autograph is clear as day) and says he doesn't know the history of the item. He gets bids as if the autographs are genuine. Pathetic.

And then there are the scammers who are selling reel-to-reel dubs clearly not made from the original master, with no provenance, and suggesting that they are valuable--and getting bids.

 

Here are two.

Trees , On The Shore , Vinyl Lp Record | eBay

Billy Nicholls , Would You Believe , Vinyl Lp Record | eBay

 

Did see those yeah. I put in bids on two rare Hank Mobley records, one of which was the legendary Blue Note 1568. I was outbid by a mile on that one and cancelled my bid on the other because it didn't seem worth the risk at the price it went for, even with Paypal protection. Am looking at the other auctions now it's amazing how much money some people'll plonk down with such minimal information to go on, especially on those guitars. Definitely reeks, this one.

 

"Used albums in VG condition. Thanks, and have a blessed day."

I don't care how rare an album might be. Crappy photos + a generic description like the one above (for every single listing?) are tell-tale signs of a lame-ass seller. Can't say that I feel sorry for any of the buyers either.

 

Interesting...just checked bid history for the sellers completed auctions and the first 10 or so were won by the same buyer: c***s( 841)
Didn't check all completed auctions but it looks like this one buyer spent over $2500 on the sellers LP's...almost within 24 hours!

 

Couldn't resist looking at a few more completed auctions...same buyer won these also...doesn't make sense.

 

Same buyer won at least 8 out of 10 guitar auctions..spending close to 20 grand on guitars from same seller...weird!

 

The pics of the "albums" were taken right off the seller's monitor.

 

Obviously, the buyer was a shill bidder. Anyways, one has to wonder, what kind of idiot would drop over a grand on a guitar (or hundreds of dollars on an LP) when the description and photos are so completely lacking in detail? If he did in fact own these items, wouldn't you also be extremely worried about how they would be packaged for shipment?

Besides, who even buys LPs in VG condition, sight unseen, let alone from a doofus Ebay seller like this one?

If you're a total novice when it comes to buying on Ebay, then I'd be willing to cut you some slack if you were taken by this fool. Otherwise, you deserve a smack right upside the head.

 

That was my first thought...that the buyer was a shill bidder that over stepped and bid to high. Unless of course that was the seller's plan...then he could contact the second highest bidder with a second chance offer!

 

I was following a bunch of these. I thought the LP lots looked really odd, particularly one for 4 Rolling Stones records, one of which was the out-of-print Stereo Box Set. Nobody in their right mind would include this in a lot and not even mention it in the listing. Just weird.

 

I find interesting to see this side of electronic piracy. I often wonder if collectors become so excited by listings of rare records that they lose their common sense and drop their shields.

 

I would think it is possible the seller's account has been hacked, and the listings are bogus, but the 1 negative feedback didn't give adequate time for arrival of 10 albums by Media Mail if the listings aren't fraudulent so I don't think we know yet. As far as any chance the seller went to the trouble to list and fulfill well over 200 small sales to set up this scam, I would say not a chance.

 

But if the account is hacked, is it possible to change PayPal accounts to receive payments by the pirates and not the e-bay account holder?

 

It almost looked like an auction by someone with no idea of the item's value. Like an inheritance perhaps. I'd be curious to know if it was indeed a scam.

 

This was the big one.

Billy Nicholls , Would You Believe , Vinyl Lp Record | eBay

I could see building your reputation on some inexpensive records before listing the valuable stuff. We'll see if the negatives start pouring in.

 

I used to work in Branch Banking Operations and frequently was involved in investigating bank fraud. Would the seller go through the trouble of completing over 200 small sales to set this up?? Absolutely! For a killing that might approach $100,000, well worth it. Perpetrators would often set up accounts and conduct normal transactions for months before going in for the big hit. This is a BIG hit!

 

That is what hacked means, he has control of the eBay account and whether or not the hacker will change to a new PayPal account or also has the PayPal account hacked and access to it would only be a guess. For it all to work, having hacked the associated email address is also beneficial.

 

I have been using eBay and PayPal for 18 years and I have never seen a single example where I know a seller has closed enough small transactions to get over 200 positive feedback, probably a minimum of 400 transactions these days and likely much more without a single negative feedback, to set up one of these scams. I close a lot of small transactions myself and the work to pull that off, and getting every item to the post office timely, is a lot of work. I have identified dozens of scams and not ever seen that happen, even once, I have reported dozens of scams to eBay. The first thing I do when I see an obvious scam is send a message to the seller, often the seller doesn't know the account has been hacked and the hacker has no access to the email account.

Certainly the account could have changed hands by the original holder selling or transferring to a crook but the original holder plodding through all of that tedious work to set up a scam like this, I will believe it when I see it.

 

Anyone here remember the Nautiliso eBay scam from 7 or 8 years ago?

 

No, do tell...

 

I just looked at the seller's feedback, he left over 700 positive feedback for buyers meaning over 700 transactions handled in about 5 months successfully, or at least without any negative feedback received. Will PayPal even allow withdrawal of the proceeds from the recent bigger sales without proof of successful delivery? I sure don't think so for a short term seller and it doesn't appear he has used the money on purchases on eBay, no recent feedback as buyer. He may have used the funds for purchases from retailers outside of eBay or has a PayPal debit card for cash withdrawals at banks, either would surprise me if PayPal allowed it.

As far as the seller receiving feedback on only 35% of sales for small transactions, although lower than I would expect, it is not really surprising. I also think the recent high dollar sales are fraudulent and won't ever be delivered, I just don't think it is the same individual.

 

Some guy listed a metric ton of collectable jazz records - Mobley 1568, Jackie McLean on Ad Lib, Cool Struttin'; you name it, he had it, or so it seemed. He raked in thousands of dollars but the records never came. The whole thing was covered extensively by Al Perlman on www.jazzcollector.com, you can read his coverage by typing in 'nautiloso' in the search bar.

 

Probably another case of money laundering.