How a 15yr old swindled eBay users....

[SilverThief]

Interesting read.

Confessions of a scam artist

 

[Rallispec]

wow..
:Q
good read

 

[gplanet]

only $5k and they wrote a story on it? hah...novice.

 

[Cuda1447]

Ambitious kid, if nothing else.

 

[fataIerror]

Indeed, very good read.

 

[PsychoAndy]

Ok, see now I have a problem with the media. They're running stories about how a 15 year old ripped morons off.

What about the buyers that rip sellers off with fake money orders and stolen credit cards.....of course we dont see stories like these.

YES, ALWAYS BEWARE OF THE SELLER! THEY ARE THE ONLY ONES THAT CAN RIP YOU OFF!

-PAB

 

[Rallispec]

Originally posted by: gplanet
only $5k and they wrote a story on it? hah...novice.

yeah, i was ripping people off for that much when i was 10.

 

[gplanet]

they keep mentioning how intelligent he is but what moron spends all his money right away on a laptop?

 

[PsychoAndy]

Originally posted by: gplanet
they keep mentioning how intelligent he is but what moron spends all his money right away on a laptop?

Impulse buying RUNS this economy. Its not just the 15 year olds.

-PAB

 

[boi]

They call that a scam artist?!?

 

[dahunan]

Very good advice he gives on how to protect yourself.

Avoid auctions that list a picture taken directly off a manufacturer?s Web site. The picture should be ?homemade,? as a means for the seller to prove they really are holding the item they claim to be selling.
If you are bidding on a computer, look at several other auctions for that model, and notice if the same ?homemade? picture is used by different sellers. That?s a sign that something?s wrong.
Avoid sellers who list ?a ton of auctions all at once.? More than 10 or 20 auctions is usually a bad sign, Hue says. Even if sellers have a high rating, a very credible seller?s account may have been recently ?hijacked.?
Avoid sellers who don?t know much about their products or who list items with very short descriptions.
Inspect delivered merchandise carefully. To cheat his victims, Hue simply used bleach to erase the ?25 Mhz? label on the 1989 laptops he sold, and that was enough to fool most of his victims.

Ever seen the seller with ZERO feedback have 70 auctions going at once and they are all buy it now at ridiculous prices - and the idiots trust and fall for it.

Or the seller who has 20 feedback but his total purchases only add up to about $40 - $50 for all 20 auctions?

 

[Jugernot]

I read this article yesterday at work. I can't beleive people thought a 25MHz computer was a 200MHz model.

 

[PsychoAndy]

Originally posted by: dahunan
Very good advice he gives on how to protect yourself.

Avoid auctions that list a picture taken directly off a manufacturer?s Web site. The picture should be ?homemade,? as a means for the seller to prove they really are holding the item they claim to be selling.
If you are bidding on a computer, look at several other auctions for that model, and notice if the same ?homemade? picture is used by different sellers. That?s a sign that something?s wrong.
Avoid sellers who list ?a ton of auctions all at once.? More than 10 or 20 auctions is usually a bad sign, Hue says. Even if sellers have a high rating, a very credible seller?s account may have been recently ?hijacked.?
Avoid sellers who don?t know much about their products or who list items with very short descriptions.
Inspect delivered merchandise carefully. To cheat his victims, Hue simply used bleach to erase the ?25 Mhz? label on the 1989 laptops he sold, and that was enough to fool most of his victims.

Ever seen the seller with ZERO feedback have 70 auctions going at once and they are all buy it now at ridiculous prices - and the idiots trust and fall for it.

Or the seller who has 20 feedback but his total purchases only add up to about $40 - $50 for all 20 auctions?

From a sellers perspective, I can refute several of those.

#1 The "homemade" pics. Pic theft is fvcking RAMPANT. I've gotten backlash because someone ripped off my entire listing, description and all and used it to defraud other users. I'm not keen on posting my own pics anymore because jackasses steal my work for their personal gain.

#2 How hard is it to steal another sellers account? Tell me about this. I have a 10 digit alphanumeric password. Instead of guessing with standard 26 letters, theres 36.

#3 Just because a new user has a lot of equipment for sale dosent mean they're fraudulent. I had a VERY hard time unloading surplus a year ago because of all the restrictions and double standards challenging sellers.

A new user bids on $14,000 worth of stuff on 50 different auctions. Does that mean everything is supicious.

Sure. Why? Ebays self serving policies protect him and not the sellers.

-PAB

 

[toant103]

Originally posted by: gplanet
only $5k and they wrote a story on it? hah...novice.

hahaha

 

[BeauJangles]

Very interesting read, thanks!

 

[SWirth86]

He even said that he fantasized of dying in a war.

Now that is cool. And patriotic.

?I was thinking if I do get killed, I would be at rest,? he said. ?At least I?d be able to get over the whole fact that I did something extremely stupid and wouldn?t have to worry about it ever again.?

What the hell is this kid thinking?

 

[MadRat]

We raise meglomaniacs in America like this kid by the thousands. Oh, poor fella, getting busted and his life ruined for a measely $5000. Boo hoo...

 

[olouie]

Originally posted by: SWirth86


What the hell is this kid thinking?

 

[Smolek]

Originally posted by: SWirth86
He even said that he fantasized of dying in a war.

Now that is cool. And patriotic.

?I was thinking if I do get killed, I would be at rest,? he said. ?At least I?d be able to get over the whole fact that I did something extremely stupid and wouldn?t have to worry about it ever again.?

What the hell is this kid thinking?

who knows

 

[vegetation]

That's because running a story on how a seller loses not only their merchandise, shipping fees, complete ebay fees (some fraud not reported until post 60 days), along with ebay and law enforcement unwilling to help them, and to top it off gets slapped with negative feedback from the scammer would sound like fiction. Yet it happens everyday.

Originally posted by: PsychoAndy
Ok, see now I have a problem with the media. They're running stories about how a 15 year old ripped morons off.

What about the buyers that rip sellers off with fake money orders and stolen credit cards.....of course we dont see stories like these.

YES, ALWAYS BEWARE OF THE SELLER! THEY ARE THE ONLY ONES THAT CAN RIP YOU OFF!

-PAB

 

[Darein]

Too bad legal action wasn't taken against him, really make him sorry for what he did.

 

[gplanet]

he should learn you lessen your guilt by ripping off lots of people for small dollar amounts. i mean, if i could steal 1 dollar from each bank account in the country, i wouldn't feel guilty. no one would notice but i'd be rich

 

[MrBond]

I still want to know what person thought a 25mhz laptop was 200mhz. That wouldn't hardly run windows 95. Don't they notice when they see the laptop post lower?

I bet there's a ton of this going on in the desktop market too with overclocking. You can get a $55 xp1600+, overclock it to 1800 speeds (for free) and sell it as that in a complete system. The average consumer would NEVER know because they're not going to pull the chip out of their computer to check actual speeds.

 

[ElFenix]

Originally posted by: PsychoAndy

From a sellers perspective, I can refute several of those.

#1 The "homemade" pics. Pic theft is fvcking RAMPANT. I've gotten backlash because someone ripped off my entire listing, description and all and used it to defraud other users. I'm not keen on posting my own pics anymore because jackasses steal my work for their personal gain.

#2 How hard is it to steal another sellers account? Tell me about this. I have a 10 digit alphanumeric password. Instead of guessing with standard 26 letters, theres 36.

#3 Just because a new user has a lot of equipment for sale dosent mean they're fraudulent. I had a VERY hard time unloading surplus a year ago because of all the restrictions and double standards challenging sellers.

A new user bids on $14,000 worth of stuff on 50 different auctions. Does that mean everything is supicious.

Sure. Why? Ebays self serving policies protect him and not the sellers.

-PAB

you should email the author and demand he write a story about you

 

[dc]

He had to go to his parents to borrow the refund money. He told them everything.
?I thought my parents stopped loving me, the way they yelled at me,? he said.

bahahahaha.