My experience is similar to one filed by another victim, Jean from Naples, Florida, who reported here on usacomplaints.com. I was the sole bidder on an antique brass hanging lamp on EBay on December 1. I electronically transfered the money to Tina Martin at her e-mail address within an hour after the close of the auction.
The invoice that EBay e-mailed me right after the auction also had a mail-to address if I wished to send the payment via "snail mail". The payee listed for the snail mail address was Sherwood Boross. A phone number was also included: 607-698-5073.
I e-mailed Tina Martin Boross on Dec. 4th asking her if she had received the PayPal transfer and to please inform me of the date that the lamp would be shipped. She replied that she did receive the funds, and that the lamp would be sent out in "next week's shipment" (which would have been the week of Dec. 11th).
She later claimed in a Dec. 28th reply e-mail that her temporary suspension from EBay the day before was EBay's mistake, and that the lamp would go out in the "next shipment". She was reinstated as a registered EBay user late in Dec., but during the week of January 14th, she again became "no longer registered".
Her son answered the phone on the evening of January 21, and she could be heard in the background instructing him to say that she had "just stepped out", and to take a message. She never returned the call, and subsequent attempts to phone her only result in no one picking up the receiver.
PayPal requires a complaint to be filed within 45 days, so on the 43rd day I initiated a dispute process. Tina did not respond to the complaint within ten days as EBay sellers are required to do. PayPal ruled in my favor, but there was no money in her account. The auction page had indicated that there was "PayPal Buyer Protection" up to $200 for this auction item. But the fine print shows that the PayPal guarantee is meaningless if a Seller does not have any funds in his/her account when PayPal attempts to seek restitution.
On January 25 I wrote a letter to Sgt. Larry Lehman of the Canisteo, NY Police Department at 35 Main ST. I enclosed print-outs of the auction page, the Boross' invoice, the PayPal receipt of the money transfer, and the copies of the two e-mails that Tina sent to me promising shipment of the auction item. To date, there has been no reply.
As her invoice also detailed that $7.50 of the funds that I sent her would go to pay for USPS Parcel Post to ship the item, I filed a mail fraud complaint with the Postal Service.
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