Money loss on ebay.co.uk

[taurus65]

Hello to all.
I decided to share with everyone my painful experience of winning an auction at ebay.co.uk at a price of 1863 GBP on November 26th 2008.Maybe some people will find this helpful(including me).
The seller's ebay id is "deancauvinltd0131".He was selling on auction a Krell FPB 600 power amplifier without reserve price.Although i notice that he was a zero positive feedback member(this was his first sell) i decided to mail him to ensure that he was willing to ship to Greece where i live.He said ok and i bid on the item and after auction ended i was the winner.I had to pay him 1863 GBP and wait for the item(a very low price for the amp indeed).
After this i took a message from him saying that i would receive an invoice from eBay with details.
A few minutes later i received from "ebay United Kingdom Customer Support" the following message

MOD EDIT - email snipped as it includes several hotlinked images and it's difficult to read with the formatting - please feel free to repost in a readable format without hotlinks


to be continued........

[Miss Chief]

Although the post is a complete mess thansk to the fonts it says payment should be sent by moneygram. Stay well clear IMO!

[_dark_blu]

Originally Posted by Skytech

Stay well clear IMO!

Exactly. The only payment method eBay recommend or encourage is PayPal. Please don't say you're posting here because you have sent payment by MoneyGram (though I can't think of any other reason for your thread title).

[taurus65]

........continuing.(Sorry for the fonts i just used copy and paste function)
After receiving the above mail i still was suspicious.So i replied directly asking the reason why they suggest pay via MoneyGram although in the site they suggest pay only through paypal.Their respond is this (this too appeared to be from "eBay United Kingdom Customer Support")
Dear eBay Member: efiatrou1


The following is a notice from eBay's Trust & Safety Department (KMM95007177V56129L0KM) regarding:
Item Title: Krell FPB 600c

Item #: 170280481421

The seller Mr. Dean Cauvin is refusing the PayPal payment so we decided to help him. The seller requested payment through MoneyGram money order due to the fact that he is unable to use this Paypal account at this moment and we offered to cover all the risks for you and the seller. To make the payment via MoneyGram it's very easy. First you will need to find an office of MoneyGram service and from there with the seller details (name and address) and your details you will make the transfer in 10 minutes. After the transfer it's done please email the seller the details about the transaction.

It is our responsability to tell you that this seller is verified by our services and when dealing with this seller you are protected by eBay services such as insurance, feedback and dispute resolution,and you may buy and sell with confidence in all transactions with this eBay member.


Our goal is to ensure that your eBay experience is safe so that you can buy confidently.


Sincerely,
Customer Support (Trust and Safety Department)

Copyright © 1995-2008 eBay Inc. All Rights Reserved. Designated trademarks and brands are the property of their respective owners. Use of this Web site constitutes acceptance of the eBay User Agreement and Privacy Policy.



MOD EDIT - please repost without hotlinks and format tags so the email is readable
I hope i did it removing all those logos and links


to be continued....................

[Naaktgeboren]

That email is not genuine.

Ebay, offering to help their members was the giveaway

[Sad099]

I cant even be bothered to read this - it too much like hard work with all those fonts / formatting etc
Hurts my eyes trying to work out what to read!

[LFC_SL]

taurus65, it would only take a minute or two to edit out the font tags...

The seller Mr. Dean Cauvin is refusing the PayPal payment so we decided to help him. The seller requested payment through MoneyGram money order due to the fact that he is unable to use this Paypal account at this moment and we offered to cover all the risks for you and the seller

eBay seem to be contradicting themselves here. Either he is unable to use paypal, or is refusing to use paypal. There is a distinction

I would ask for clarification on that point, and also on eBay's claim they will fully cover the risks, bearing in mind the risks are decidedly on a buyer in such circumstances, rather than a seller

[taurus65]

.............continue.
After receiving this second- eager to explain -mail i confess that my suspecions were starting to dissappear.Then i asked the seller for items serial number which i forwarded to krellonline trying to find out more of the item.Unfortumately they never answered me.
At last and because of my rather false view of honesty i paid him via MoneyGram the amount of 2.401 euros i sent him the details and after taking the money he vanished.
On 5th of December i was sure that he was vanished with my money and i started to check his ebay registered info.


to be continued..........

[unique]

Originally Posted by taurus65

Hello to all.
I decided to share with everyone my painful experience of winning an auction at ebay.co.uk at a price of 1863 GBP on November 26th 2008.Maybe some people will find this helpful(including me).
The seller's ebay id is "deancauvinltd0131".He was selling on auction a Krell FPB 600 power amplifier without reserve price.Although i notice that he was a zero positive feedback member(this was his first sell) i decided to mail him to ensure that he was willing to ship to Greece where i live.He said ok and i bid on the item and after auction ended i was the winner.I had to pay him 1863 GBP and wait for the item(a very low price for the amp indeed).
After this i took a message from him saying that i would receive an invoice from eBay with details.
A few minutes later i received from "ebay United Kingdom Customer Support" the following message

MOD EDIT - email snipped as it includes several hotlinked images and it's difficult to read with the formatting - please feel free to repost in a readable format without hotlinks


to be continued........

mod comment -

i've edited your original posts as the emails you've cut and pasted contain several hotlinked images, and hotlinking to images isn't allowed on this site. as there were so many, and the remaining text looked a mess with the incorrect formatting, i've removed it for now as it's not easy for members or mods to read

you're welcome to repost the text of the email in plain text without formatting or hotlinked images (you can host images here or flicker or photobucker etc if you wish) as long as it's easily readable

[IronGiant]

Ebay would never ever do this...

Quote:
The seller Mr. Dean Cauvin is refusing the PayPal payment so we decided to help him. The seller requested payment through MoneyGram money order due to the fact that he is unable to use this Paypal account at this moment and we offered to cover all the risks for you and the seller


You have been scammed, I'm afraid and ebay will not help you as they never sent those emails, they will have come from your seller.

Dave

[taurus65]

.......continue.
So.i asked from ebay the seller's info.When i phoned to the registered phone number ,i heard the message ''this number is inactive".Then, with the help of another ebay member(thanks again L) which happened to be a United Kingdom citizen we found out that his supposed Limited Company operating within U.K isn't listed at the official files(as it should be).These facts made me angry against ebay.From my point of view ebay should carry out some basic checks relating to people opening accounts - especially when their first sale is for such an expensive item.Saying this i don't want to get rid of my share to this stealing.I only say that this way perhaps it could be avoided.



.........to be continued

[Paul_HDLover]

OMG is this for real?

Mod comment: I believe it may well be.

[whatsupdoc]

"especially when their first sale is for such an expensive item"

Since he is likely to only get away with this once, and knows it, he has priced his scam accordingly.

[alexs2]

The high-end hifi sections of ebay are unfortunately rife with this sort of thing,and whilst it is no consolation at all to the OP,it should be clear that someone offering a high-end high value item at

1.Low price.
2.No reserve.
3.Payment by wire/moneygram etc
4.No feedback or feedback for low value items(another common scammer trick)

Should be avoided at all costs.

Even checking the serial nos.can be problematic as many of these guys poach previously used ads and items to get valid pics and numbers.

Not long ago there was a group of these crooks operating and huge lists of items like this would appear on poached accounts.

The simplest rule is if it looks too good to be true,it very likely is.

[Paul_HDLover]

Apologies for my previous post which was unhelpful. This has to hurt a lot given the money involved, further compounded by the time of year it is.

Unfortunately the crooks will remain so long as people have faith in those that they shouldnt i.e. without feedback, or history.