I must start out by saying how amazed I was to find out what happened to me has happened to thousands of people on a regular basis! It wasn't until I did the research on this, to find that Ebay does not have enough protection for it's millions of consumers who use their site everyday.
It is not enough that they post "warning" signs on their website, because these criminals are finding more and more ways, to not only outsmart the consumers but the Ebay company as well. These criminals are even coming up with better web pages and addresses thatn Ebay themselves!
Let me describe my scenario, and after reading it if you are one of the thousands of people who believe that Ebay should take some responsibility in this kind of fraudulent activity being tolerated on their website, please notify me via email if you would be interested in starting a class-action against this company in hopes of getting enough victims together that a lawyer would feel confident taking this on, and so that we get revenge on them for allowing these criminals to make "easy" money off us consumers who work "hard" for ours!
This just happened to me on July 19th. I was searching the Ebay site, I was using my husband's screen name, this was my first time attempting to purchase something, and now I must say it was the last! My husband had only purchased 2 other items previously, so he had an idea on how it worked. We made a couple bids on a 60" TV that we were wanting, and were outbid.
The next morning, I received a "Second Chance Offer" in my ebay messages and at my email address. I thought it to be legite, considering it came from an ebay members address and had an ebay logo, and this is the most important part, had the exact item #, and amount that I bid on. So, I thought, for sure no one else would kow this info, without ebay filtering this out.
The instructions were written very precise, to wire the funds Western Union to where the seller was, his address said "verified and confirmed" in London, England. So I did what I thought I was supposed to, and took a cash advance out on my credit card, and wired the money so that I could get my item.
Well, needless to say after he said the tracking # would come from ebay in24-48 hours, I waited, still responding back and forth the "seller", it took Ebay's fraud dept, 2 days to write me back, and turns out this wasn't a legitamate sale, it was fraud.
I tried to contact the "seller" back, he no longer had a valid email address, I contacted Western Union, he already picked the money up, and they couldn't refund it because it was already picked up, I called my credit card company, they couldn't help because it was me who authorized the transaction, so this wasn't considered fraud. I emailed ebay, the fraud dept. Advised me on how to better protect myself "next time", and said there is nothing they will do because this happened "outside" of ebay. I was furious at this point.
I contacted the local police, they couldn't help because the transaction was outside the U.S. I contacted the AOl account the "seller" had been using, they would not give me any info about the person, unless the polcie issued a summons for all the records etc. Their own fraud dept. Would not do anything because they said he wasn't misusing the email account, ok... WHAT?
So, that brought me to the next and final thing that I thought would get me some restitution, our local FBI office. Yeah, right... Because this happened out of our country, the laws about handling government issues are not valid in the UK, so therefore they can't pursue it.
At this point, I didn't care what came out of my mouth, so I say to the agent "You mean to tell me, as much as Mr. Bush and Mr. Blair have tea together that we can support each other in war, but not protecting tax paying citizens in their right to consumer protection?"
I must say, I think I stunned this gentleman, and all he could say was that it was a difference in government policies that protects people... I stopped him right there and said I'm not trying to sound as if I know more about these kind of issues than you, but how do you know that this kind of thing is not funding these terrorists in these countries, and especially if your not willing to look into these situations, because this is simply easy money to criminals and who knows what the money is being used for.
So after, contacting IFCC, MSNBC, and every other company with the alphabet as it's name, I have came to one conclusion... The only one who is going to help us get our money back, or revenge, is US! While I am out over $1,000 and all of my trust in the consumers rights laws, Ebay sits back and still gets our business as well as the "criminals", so who should take the loss, wouldn't it be the ones making a profit off of our loss?
I know there are more stories of fraud worse than mine, I have read hundreds, it's time for us to do something about it. The more exposure we give this, the more pressure we put on the company to take responsibility. Notify everyone from your local police dept. To your local new channels, don't stop there, make it a national story because it has surely become an epidemic!
Thank you for listening to my story, and if your reading this, that means it probably has happened to you, so let's do something about it.
Tamara
Virginia Beach, Virginia
U.S.A.
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