The classic Ebay scam.
I have just been scammed on Ebay with Ebays blessing to the tune of £410. As many of you know, Ebay say that every seller must offer Paypal as a means of payment. This is not true. This only applies to small sellers like myself, who had an item removed within 24 hours because I did not offer Paypal. If you are selling a lot of high priced items, you can get away with it because Ebay do not want to lose the business. The consequence of this is that the fraudulent seller, rkellysounds (says he is in Suffolk but his or her bank account is in Lewisham, that should have rung a warning bell!!) in this instance, specifies that you have to pay by bank transfer. You then pay but the item never arrives and there is nothing you can do about it. I paid for the item, a laptop at 10pm in the evening and less than one hour later I find out that rkellysounds had been suspended and all his or her auction items removed, so I am not the only one who will suffer. I immediately tried to stop payment but couldn’t, so I phoned my bank, HSBC Harlow Branch at 8am the following morning. I asked them to reverse the payment, as it was a scam but they refused and said it was a matter for the police and even refused to let me speak to the fraud department. Bear in mind that I have banked with HSBC since 1983 and nearly a million pounds has gone through my account. I then went back onto the ebay website, only to see that the seller has been re-instated with no explanations, even though he or she was clearly breaching ebays policy and they would have known this. I informed ebay that he or she was breaching their rules and received a computer reply (as is the norm) saying they would investigate. Bear in mind that I wasn’t investigated, I just had my item removed against my will within 24 hours of listing it. I then found out through the internet that the scammers bank account was in Lewisham and the details are as follows:
Bank: HSBC
Account Holder: A Aridja
Sort Code: 40-04-15
Account No: 31816888
I then phoned Suffolk police and Essex police, who were not a lot of help, understandably, since Ebay and HSBC hadn’t informed them and had no intention of doing so. I have to make a statement when I go back to the UK at Xmas. It is a very clever scam and Ebay were informed through several emails that it was taking place and yet rkellysounds is still a member. All he or she has to do now is clear out his or her bank account, probably holding several thousands of pounds of buyers money and disappear. My sincere thanks go to HSBC and Ebay, whose only concern is to protect the criminal and not the victim. This seems perfectly normal and acceptable in the UK these days. Beware of dealing with Ebay and certainly DO NOT, UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES buy from rkellysounds and I seriously recommend you don’t bank with HSBC because this scam is going to catch on, trust me. I might even give it a go myself!!! Just open an ebay account, (there are very easy ways of giving false addresses and phone numbers, just get these books, they are amazing http://www.auctionstealth.com/ and http://getbackon.com/), sell or buy 30 or 40 really cheap items to get a good feedback score and Bob’s your Uncle. Don’t forget, specify in your item listing that you won’t take Paypal and that buyers will have to make a bank transfer. Just decide which high-priced non-existent items you are going to sell and wait for the money to roll in. Once you’ve got few thousand, just withdraw it all and take an extended holiday. Don’t panic about getting the money out quickly, HSBC , Ebay and the police will give you plenty of time before they decide whether or not to investigate you. What-ho….life in the good old UK eh? Come on, what do you expect when a lying, disgraced homosexual is made a Lord and his ex-boss, another lying slag sails off into the sunset with his hideous bag of a wife, a few million quid better off.
28th August and still no laptop and UNBELIEVABLY, not only is he still a registered Ebay user, in spite of 13 emails informing them he is a criminal but ebay have allowed him to hide his feedback, so nobody can read that he is a common thief and his feedback has dropped from 100% to 97 in less than 4 days, as scammed buyers are finding out their items will never arrive.
The users details are as follows:
Ebay User ID: rkellysounds
Name: Renita Kelly
Address: Ipswich, Suffolk (Data protection applies to criminals on ebay as well as victims, hence no street name)
Mobile No. 07960535353 (False, another breach of rules)
Registered User since: 18th June 2009
I will give £100 to anybody who can give me the whereabouts of this scum, who resides either in Ipswich or Lewisham, so please direct everybody you know to this site. Remember, you are helping every ebay user not just me and it is also letting everybody know just how important you are to ebay as a customer. Basically, you're not and there are now dozens of websites set up about ebay and their very dodgy practices and customer service. Sooner or later we are going to see them in the European Court for their lack of 'Duty Of Care' and maybe even be held responsible for criminals using their site, in much the same way that www.piratebay.org is being prosecuted for allowing people to exchange files through their site. This is how they treat good honest sellers http://repairfaq.cis.upenn.edu/Misc/ebayhorror1.htm
1st September. I have just spoken to Anne, in the Ebay marketing department for nearly 20 minutes and the upshot is ‘Tough Shit’ we are not responsible. She said that rkellysounds was asked to produce certain legal documents on 18th August, which he did and he was immediately re-instated. I would love to know what documents! Have you or do you know anybody who has been asked to produce legal documents to Ebay and where would they be supplied to at such short notice and in what format? It appears, however, that although he breached Ebay policy then and is still breaching Ebay policy with regards to giving false contact information and also refusing to offer Paypal, he is still a bona fide member!!! They suggested in another one of their ridiculous computer generated emails that it was probaly a mistake on his part and most of these 'LITTLE' problems could be sorted out with a friendly phone call! What planet are these people on? It defies all logical belief doesn’t it? If they had acted on just a couple of my dozen emails and suspended him until he could prove who and where he was and insisted he offer Paypal like the rest of us are forced to, the 3 members who were scammed after me would never have been caught as well. If you are one of these members, please get in touch with me, so we can decide on a legal course of action. Ebay are continuing to allow this scumbag to hide his feedback, thereby preventing the other scammed members getting together. This whole situation is sickening and Ebay should be ashamed, not that they will be because they only have one criteria, ‘Make money out of the members but absolve ourselves of responsibility when things go wrong’. I don’t see how the 2 can go together. If you have ever watched Hustle on BBC1, This is a classic case of playing the long game. It is incredibly easy to scam on Ebay because rather than concentrate on system policies to prevent this sort of thing happening, they prefer to introduce system policies that help the scammer. If you have been scammed on Ebay because of their pathetic security systems, please get in touch. I am in the process of setting up a website dedicated to the inadequacies of Ebay and will publish everything you send me.
Just had a 3rd email from Ebay, giving me the same contact info for rkellysounds that was in the first 2 emails and which they know is false. They don't seem to have worked out yet that if somebody is a scammer, they are not likely to give genuine contact info. What's the betting that the contact address on file is Buckingham Palace or Battersea Dogs Home? Hello, Ebay, anybody there with a brain?
Seller is rkellysounds based in Ipswich, Suffolk and the bank account is in the name of A Aridja at HSBC in Lewisham, East London. Anybody been to Lewisham lately?
Just had an email from the morons at Ebay who say they have noticed that I have had contact with rkellysounds recently and advise me not to have any contact!!!! Are these cretins at Ebay for real? It also appears that rkellysounds is no longer a registered user. It's only taken Ebay 15 days to work out that he was a scammer, after having received 13 emails from me. It defies alll credible belief doesn't it. I have also had an email from another Ebay member who read my website page and was also scammed by the same person for a laptop. Needless to say, he also found Ebay as much as a chocolate fireguard. Come on Martin Lewis, you should be taking this up and so should the newspapers. Oh, I almost forgot, Ebay also mentioned yet again how they must protect the scammers identity, so nobody can take legal against him. I don't know who are the worst scum, Ebay or rkellysounds. Maybe rkellysounds has written a big thank you to Ebay and sent the staff a bouquet for all their assistance to make his scam possible.
This story does have a happy ending. A gentleman by the name of Calum Risbridger saw my article here and he was also a victim. He got in touch with the police, Ebay and HSBC. All 3 of these organisations made it very easy for this scammer to operate and deserve no credit However, due to Calums dogged determination, Ebay have refunded him to the tune of £350. I then got onto Ebay who promptly refunded my £400, clearly an admission of some sort that they were partly responsible for the ease with which this person operated.
The advice from Calum and myself would probably be the same now, 'Do not buy any item other than by Paypal', even though there are many legitimate sellers who don't like to accept this method, me for one. Unfortunately, until Ebay and the banking system get their act together, these people will flourish. If you know of any other scams, particularly ones that have taken place on Ebay, please let me know. The police should also do more about tracking these scum down instead of hounding motorists and old people who have fallen out with yobbish neighbours.
On another note regarding Ebay, do not assume that you are getting bargains. Ebay has long since ceased to be a site wher the likes of you and me can flog our unwanted used items and gifts and has now become a cheap way for online retailers to shift their goods. I have done a bit of research over the last few months and the huge majority of new items for sale can be purchased cheaper elsewhere, so check out prices elsewhere first. Another rip-off are the P&P charges for some sellers. I saved nearly £30 on a laptop, not getting it from Ebay and an Ebay trader by the name of scentsations is flogging perfumes and aftershaves that are commonly available and cheaper elsewhere, especially by the time you have added his P&P.
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