There's a Thief About.

I saw an advert in a magazine called Macromart, well known and well read
weekly. The item was an A3 printer, the private advert looked good, not to
expensive but not to cheap, it stated preferred payment PayPal, I ran the
email address through Ebay and it told me he had a feedback of thirty odd
with 97.7% positive feedback.

I paid after a couple of emails from him, I sent the money through PayPal to
the email address he had given in Macromart. That was the last I heard from
him, I started a dispute with PayPal and have got nowhere, infact they
insisted on waiting ten days to see if he replied to their emails and
nothing, of course he had cleared out his PayPal account in that time.they
then asked him to return the money, what a joke, any one know of a thief
retuning freely the money he has stolen.

I am asking this group if anyone may have come across this Thief, he is
using multi addresses one is the other we have found
as Because of data protection both Macromart and
PayPal refuse to pass any details to me, seems a thief has the same
protection as an honest person. he now has my postal details and I have
nothing about him. He could be anywhere in the world or the person living
next door.

The Police have been informed and I have a crime number but at this time
they have not found him. I have no complusion in broadcasting his email
addresses, I do however hope someone may know a little more than what I have
been able to obtain. I apologise in advance if anyone thinks this is off
topic, I think otherwise. Thank you.

Interesting, Usually EBay/Paypal will automatically give you contact info
when a transaction is involved. I've had to call sellers
about delays & other problems and have always been able to obtain the
contact info. The safest way to do things through PayPal is to use your
credit card, thus getting an additional level of protection.


"Shooter" wrote in message
...
I saw an advert in a magazine called Macromart, well known and well read
weekly. The item was an A3 printer, the private advert looked good, not to
expensive but not to cheap, it stated preferred payment PayPal, I ran the
email address through Ebay and it told me he had a feedback of thirty odd
with 97.7% positive feedback.

I paid after a couple of emails from him, I sent the money through PayPal
to
the email address he had given in Macromart. That was the last I heard
from
him, I started a dispute with PayPal and have got nowhere, infact they
insisted on waiting ten days to see if he replied to their emails and
nothing, of course he had cleared out his PayPal account in that time.they
then asked him to return the money, what a joke, any one know of a thief
retuning freely the money he has stolen.

I am asking this group if anyone may have come across this Thief, he is
using multi addresses one is the other we have found
as Because of data protection both Macromart
and
PayPal refuse to pass any details to me, seems a thief has the same
protection as an honest person. he now has my postal details and I have
nothing about him. He could be anywhere in the world or the person living
next door.

The Police have been informed and I have a crime number but at this time
they have not found him. I have no complusion in broadcasting his email
addresses, I do however hope someone may know a little more than what I
have
been able to obtain. I apologise in advance if anyone thinks this is off
topic, I think otherwise. Thank you.

Shooter wrote:
I saw an advert in a magazine called Macromart, well known and well read
weekly. The item was an A3 printer, the private advert looked good, not to
expensive but not to cheap, it stated preferred payment PayPal, I ran the
email address through Ebay and it told me he had a feedback of thirty odd
with 97.7% positive feedback.

I paid after a couple of emails from him, I sent the money through PayPal to
the email address he had given in Macromart. That was the last I heard from
him, I started a dispute with PayPal and have got nowhere, infact they
insisted on waiting ten days to see if he replied to their emails and
nothing, of course he had cleared out his PayPal account in that time.they
then asked him to return the money, what a joke, any one know of a thief
retuning freely the money he has stolen.

I am asking this group if anyone may have come across this Thief, he is
using multi addresses one is the other we have found
as Because of data protection both Macromart and
PayPal refuse to pass any details to me, seems a thief has the same
protection as an honest person. he now has my postal details and I have
nothing about him. He could be anywhere in the world or the person living
next door.

The Police have been informed and I have a crime number but at this time
they have not found him. I have no complusion in broadcasting his email
addresses, I do however hope someone may know a little more than what I have
been able to obtain. I apologise in advance if anyone thinks this is off
topic, I think otherwise. Thank you.



Paypal should eventually refund your money themselves if they don't hear
from the guy, as part of their Payer Protection Plan, or whatever they
call it. However, like any insurance company, they will first seek
payment from the liable party. Give them some time. And Chuck is right.
For larger purchases, use your credit card via Paypal. That would make
Paypal all the more interested in resolving your dispute, as they are
the ones who would be on the hook if you file a dispute with your card
company, not the "thief."

TJ

I don't use paypal, but I was under the impression they offered some
type of escrow service. They may charge extra for that, but it is
probably worthwhile if a lot of money is involved in dealing with an
unknown quantity. I believe ebay offers an automatic insurance package
up to something like $200 on a purchase over a certain amount, which may
make ebay a safer method to make a purchase.

With the current cost of phone calls being so low, it may be worthwhile
to require a phone number and an actual conversation by phone before
agreeing to a purchase, and also asking for some specifics. I believe
in a balanced transaction where both sides take similar risks. If the
deal just seems too good to be true, it might be, so be more cautious in
those circumstances.

And lastly, anyone can be conned. Some cons are professionals, and all
of us make some assumptions of honesty in others. Sadly, there are
always those who will abuse this trust, making the rest of us have to
become less and less trusting. The violation is more than about loss of
money or merchandise, it is loss of trust, which is a more devastating
loss. Try to learn from the loss, pursue the thief, but forgive
yourself for allowing yourself to take the higher road and trusting
someone. In the end, we are a better world because trust exists, even if
we occasionally get taken advantage of.

Art

Shooter wrote:
I saw an advert in a magazine called Macromart, well known and well read
weekly. The item was an A3 printer, the private advert looked good, not to
expensive but not to cheap, it stated preferred payment PayPal, I ran the
email address through Ebay and it told me he had a feedback of thirty odd
with 97.7% positive feedback.

I paid after a couple of emails from him, I sent the money through PayPal to
the email address he had given in Macromart. That was the last I heard from
him, I started a dispute with PayPal and have got nowhere, infact they
insisted on waiting ten days to see if he replied to their emails and
nothing, of course he had cleared out his PayPal account in that time.they
then asked him to return the money, what a joke, any one know of a thief
retuning freely the money he has stolen.

I am asking this group if anyone may have come across this Thief, he is
using multi addresses one is the other we have found
as Because of data protection both Macromart and
PayPal refuse to pass any details to me, seems a thief has the same
protection as an honest person. he now has my postal details and I have
nothing about him. He could be anywhere in the world or the person living
next door.

The Police have been informed and I have a crime number but at this time
they have not found him. I have no complusion in broadcasting his email
addresses, I do however hope someone may know a little more than what I have
been able to obtain. I apologise in advance if anyone thinks this is off
topic, I think otherwise. Thank you.

"Shooter" wrote:

... I ran the email address through Ebay and it told me he had
a feedback of thirty odd with 97.7% positive feedback.

Which is horrible, by the way. Plus, you need to compare timestamps
on given/received feedback and see if the seller "hostages" FB,
in which case knock off another couple of %. Hostaging FB is now
ending on eBay.

But I take it that you did not execute the buy through eBay, but
off-Ebay using PayPal.

Not doing it through eBay means you can't pull Contact Information,
which would include a phone number (often bogus with scammers,
but then you call before you send the money).

You are evidently in the UK, where credit card rules may vary, but
in the US, had you flushed your PayPal account, and funded the
buy through PayPal using a credit card, you'd still have recourse
to charge-back.

Lessons:
1. Learn how to interpret eBay feedback scores. Check toolhaus.org
too.
2. Never make a significant buy from a seller you cannot locate or
contact.
3. Always execute a significant buy with cc-funded PayPal.

--
Regards, Bob Niland
http://www.access-one.com/rjn email4rjn AT yahoo DOT com
NOT speaking for any employer, client or Internet Service Provider.

Thanks for the replies, no one feels worse that I do at this time at been
taken in, I am most careful in all my transactions. Paypal offer no
protection in sending money unless the purchase is made with Ebay. Their
Status in Send Money fails to work. When you email them they start a dispute
which is their way of dragging their feet. You then make a claim and have to
wait another 10 days on top of the posible 20days the dispute takes to give
the thief time to reply to an email they send, that's really a joke, a thief
returning money to the person he has robbed.

Now comes the rub, the money I sent to the fraudster through PayPal went
into his Paypal account and because of the time they took he was spending it
on Ebay, I had to sit and watch his feed back increase from the day he
received the money until PayPal after sixteen days took what was left from
his account, the amount of £5.45, over £200 had gone.

How do I know this, well it is unlikely a fraudster would have the money
forwarded to a bank, to much of a trail back to him so he used Paypal as a
bank and withdrew what is required to pay his Ebay commitment, as I say
leaving just over a fiver in the account.

So this is how Paypal look upon Fraud, they don't call it theft, they say
it's "Non Delivery Of Item" thus allowing them to play silly buggers while
the fraudster spends the money sent to him. I think PayPal have a nasty
smell about them and should advertise Fraud Is Fun. Ebay have the same could
not care less attitude, having tried to find out about him, if you type his
email address in find all you get is the feedback and percentage and a
message saying, "Because you have not had dealings with this person in the
last 60 days we are unable to give you further details". The meaning of this
is that everybody in the world who log on to Ebay will never know if they
have looked at an auction this frauster is running, Now how safe is that.

If anyone comes across this person be aware that you will loose your money
so please let me know any details you may find.



"Shooter" wrote in message
...
I saw an advert in a magazine called Macromart, well known and well read
weekly. The item was an A3 printer, the private advert looked good, not to
expensive but not to cheap, it stated preferred payment PayPal, I ran the
email address through Ebay and it told me he had a feedback of thirty odd
with 97.7% positive feedback.

I paid after a couple of emails from him, I sent the money through PayPal
to the email address he had given in Macromart. That was the last I heard
from him, I started a dispute with PayPal and have got nowhere, infact
they insisted on waiting ten days to see if he replied to their emails and
nothing, of course he had cleared out his PayPal account in that time.they
then asked him to return the money, what a joke, any one know of a thief
retuning freely the money he has stolen.

I am asking this group if anyone may have come across this Thief, he is
using multi addresses one is the other we have found
as Because of data protection both Macromart
and PayPal refuse to pass any details to me, seems a thief has the same
protection as an honest person. he now has my postal details and I have
nothing about him. He could be anywhere in the world or the person living
next door.

The Police have been informed and I have a crime number but at this time
they have not found him. I have no complusion in broadcasting his email
addresses, I do however hope someone may know a little more than what I
have been able to obtain. I apologise in advance if anyone thinks this is
off topic, I think otherwise. Thank you.

"Shooter" wrote:

..."Because you have not had dealings with this person in the
last 60 days we are unable to give you further details". ...

Another eBay tip - normally, the rational way to buy on
auction-style listings is to place one bid late in the auction
(perhaps 20 seconds before end time), for your max price
plus an odd penny amount to prevail in Bid Increment games.

But there are reasons to bid early, in some instances,
although only if the current or start price is low. If you
place an early low-ball sure-to-lose placeholder bid, you
now have "a dealing" with the seller, and can pull CI
(Contact Information). Place your real bid late.

Other reasons to bid early a
- to lock-in a listing error in your favor,
- detect any unintended bidder blocks, or to
- stomp a BIN (a tactic that is apt to vanish soon).

--
Regards, Bob Niland
http://www.access-one.com/rjn email4rjn AT yahoo DOT com
NOT speaking for any employer, client or Internet Service Provider.

I told everybody that I do not use Ebay or Paypal.  I buy legitimate Canon ink from mostly Costco.

Shooter wrote:

Thanks for the replies, no one feels worse that I do at this time at been taken in, I am most careful in all my transactions. Paypal offer no protection in sending money unless the purchase is made with Ebay. Their Status in Send Money fails to work. When you email them they start a dispute which is their way of dragging their feet. You then make a claim and have to wait another 10 days on top of the posible 20days the dispute takes to give the thief time to reply to an email they send, that's really a joke, a thief returning money to the person he has robbed. Now comes the rub, the money I sent to the fraudster through PayPal went into his Paypal account and because of the time they took he was spending it on Ebay, I had to sit and watch his feed back increase from the day he received the money until PayPal after sixteen days took what was left from his account, the amount of £5.45, over £200 had gone. How do I know this, well it is unlikely a fraudster would have the money forwarded to a bank, to much of a trail back to him so he used Paypal as a bank and withdrew what is required to pay his Ebay commitment, as I say leaving just over a fiver in the account. So this is how Paypal look upon Fraud, they don't call it theft, they say it's "Non Delivery Of Item" thus allowing them to play silly buggers while the fraudster spends the money sent to him. I think PayPal have a nasty smell about them and should advertise Fraud Is Fun. Ebay have the same could not care less attitude, having tried to find out about him, if you type his email address in find all you get is the feedback and percentage and a message saying, "Because you have not had dealings with this person in the last 60 days we are unable to give you further details". The meaning of this is that everybody in the world who log on to Ebay will never know if they have looked at an auction this frauster is running, Now how safe is that. If anyone comes across this person be aware that you will loose your money so please let me know any details you may find. "Shooter" wrote in message ...



I saw an advert in a magazine called Macromart, well known and well read weekly. The item was an A3 printer, the private advert looked good, not to expensive but not to cheap, it stated preferred payment PayPal, I ran the email address through Ebay and it told me he had a feedback of thirty odd with 97.7% positive feedback. I paid after a couple of emails from him, I sent the money through PayPal to the email address he had given in Macromart. That was the last I heard from him, I started a dispute with PayPal and have got nowhere, infact they insisted on waiting ten days to see if he replied to their emails and nothing, of course he had cleared out his PayPal account in that time.they then asked him to return the money, what a joke, any one know of a thief retuning freely the money he has stolen. I am asking this group if anyone may have come across this Thief, he is using multi addresses one is the other we have found as Because of data protection both Macromart and PayPal refuse to pass any details to me, seems a thief has the same protection as an honest person. he now has my postal details and I have nothing about him. He could be anywhere in the world or the person living next door. The Police have been informed and I have a crime number but at this time they have not found him. I have no complusion in broadcasting his email addresses, I do however hope someone may know a little more than what I have been able to obtain. I apologise in advance if anyone thinks this is off topic, I think otherwise. Thank you.

TJ wrote:
Shooter wrote:
I saw an advert in a magazine called Macromart, well known and well
read weekly. The item was an A3 printer, the private advert looked
good, not to expensive but not to cheap, it stated preferred payment
PayPal, I ran the email address through Ebay and it told me he had a
feedback of thirty odd with 97.7% positive feedback.

I paid after a couple of emails from him, I sent the money through
PayPal to the email address he had given in Macromart. That was the
last I heard from him, I started a dispute with PayPal and have got
nowhere, infact they insisted on waiting ten days to see if he replied
to their emails and nothing, of course he had cleared out his PayPal
account in that time.they then asked him to return the money, what a
joke, any one know of a thief retuning freely the money he has stolen.

I am asking this group if anyone may have come across this Thief, he
is using multi addresses one is the other we
have found as Because of data protection
both Macromart and PayPal refuse to pass any details to me, seems a
thief has the same protection as an honest person. he now has my
postal details and I have nothing about him. He could be anywhere in
the world or the person living next door.

The Police have been informed and I have a crime number but at this
time they have not found him. I have no complusion in broadcasting his
email addresses, I do however hope someone may know a little more than
what I have been able to obtain. I apologise in advance if anyone
thinks this is off topic, I think otherwise. Thank you.



Paypal should eventually refund your money themselves if they don't hear
from the guy, as part of their Payer Protection Plan, or whatever they
call it. However, like any insurance company, they will first seek
payment from the liable party. Give them some time. And Chuck is right.
For larger purchases, use your credit card via Paypal. That would make
Paypal all the more interested in resolving your dispute, as they are
the ones who would be on the hook if you file a dispute with your card
company, not the "thief."

When an ebay seller refused to ship an item I bought, Paypal refunded my
money within 30 days of my original complaint to them. I tried
resolving it myself first and when they read the paper trail I had
established they acted fairly fast when they didn't get a response fropm
the seller either. The OP should ask Paypal to resolve the matter, IMO.

Michael Johnson wrote:
TJ wrote:

Paypal should eventually refund your money themselves if they don't
hear from the guy, as part of their Payer Protection Plan, or whatever
they call it. However, like any insurance company, they will first
seek payment from the liable party. Give them some time. And Chuck is
right. For larger purchases, use your credit card via Paypal. That
would make Paypal all the more interested in resolving your dispute,
as they are the ones who would be on the hook if you file a dispute
with your card company, not the "thief."

When an ebay seller refused to ship an item I bought, Paypal refunded my
money within 30 days of my original complaint to them. I tried
resolving it myself first and when they read the paper trail I had
established they acted fairly fast when they didn't get a response fropm
the seller either. The OP should ask Paypal to resolve the matter, IMO.

I had a similar incident with an Ebay sale, and Paypal refunded my money
even quicker than they did yours. The OP's incident, however, involved
an off-Ebay sale, even though it was an Ebay seller. According to the
OP, that makes a difference to Paypal. I've had only the one dispute, so
I can't deny his assertion from personal experience.

TJ