Riaan
Some of you may recall, when we discussed buying gear from overseas, how I got ripped off with a DVR card I bought from a guy on EBay. It was one of those "too good to be true deals" and I should have known better. He advertised a GeoVision DVR card for $130 US where all other stores sold them for over $400 US. But he also stated that it was a 24 hour special only, to get rid of old stock.
Needless to say, the card never arrived and the guy stopped replying to my e-mails. Tracking by our post office and the USPS website indicated that the package never left the US.
So I did some cyber detective work, and within half an hour had his real name, his address, a high school photograph and some relatives' of his names. I then e-mailed the cops in his hometown and explained the whole situation to them. To my surprise, they replied and undertook to look into it.
All of a sudden the bloke began mailing me again, stating that "their records now also indicates that the DVR card was not delivered". This was after the cops paid him a visit. To cut a long story short, I got my refund from him this week... 8)
Bottom line: the world is now a small place, if someone ripped you off it's worth a try getting your money back.
AlanRatcliffe
This is good to hear. There have been concerns about online fraud in the US, and this shows that they are taking it seriously enough to follow up on even the smaller stuff. Excellent!
Renesongs
SO it would seem that it is safer to buy from an overseas seller than a local one because.. well lets not get political ☹
Martyr
SO it would seem that it is safer to buy from an overseas seller than a local one because.. well lets not get political
i know EXACTLY what you going to say and i totally agree...similar incident happened to my uncle(except it was local,off www.bidorbuy.co.za) and lets just say he had to sort it out himself as no one with the proper authority would... >☹
Manfred-Klose
Riaan
How did you track down the guy and his famliy members, and the US cops?
Went searching on facebook, google warra warra....?
Riaan
Manfred
What made it all possible was that the guy has an uncommon name. EBay has a function where it tells you in whose name a shop is registered. The guy changed the name of his EBay shop, but luckily also had a webpage, the name of which he also changed. I used a whois website to check out the website, and the same name as supplied by Ebay came up in all cases. My impression is that he frequently changes his shop name on EBay.
From there on it was easy - Google'd him, and up came his high school pic from the yearbook. The US has all their telephone directories online, so I got his address. Even a Google map showing his exact home location. There are also lots of US sites where you can do online background checks on someone. The free info includes address, family members, etc. and the paid service (which I didn't use) apparently contains a scary amount of info: past convictions, etc. A real Big Brother scenario...
It was quite a fun project, actually!
FatBoy
Good to hear you got the bugger! I haven't been ripped of yet (touch wood) but hat's off to you for using the ol brain there, good job sir. I'm sure the satisfaction is worth more than the $160!
andrewjbryson
Excellent work Riaan!
Some good detective work there.
I would have loved to see the dude's face when he realized he has been bust and is going to have to contact you again and refund you.
And you are correct. We live in the information age where knowledge is power, and if something sucks , you sue them ?
Or track em down and make em pay.
I think everyone should be aware of the channels to follow in the unlikely event of being ripped off online.
inflames
I bought a Peavey 6505+ head off ebay. Payed the guy $600 in total with shipping.
Needles to say, I never received it! I think I should contact ebay as well!
Good on you Riaan!
singemonkey
Awesome work! It's really exciting to see how the information age can be good for the person on the street. Amazingly so many people in 1st world countries, with democratically elected governments, are so worried about losing their anonymity because of the fear of government surveillance. Meanwhile, for us living in a country where the government can't tell if you already started treatment in one of it's facilities when you appear at another, or that the guy they're busting for a parking violation is wanted for multiple murders, it seems like the way to go.
That guy was a member of a global village without even knowing it. Just like in a real village, if he rips someone off, he won't be hard to find.
andrewjbryson
Lean, I was actually thinking of your incident, while reading Riaan's thread.
I think you can still do something about it.
Do you have his Ebay name or any info on him?
did he close his Ebay account?
If you can locate his state/ town, then sending an email to the authorities could be a good start.
inflames
Andrew, I do have his ebay account name.
He did however close his account 2 months after selling me the amp.
So ebay should still be able to trace him.
Let me get cracking on it!
Reinhard
Great work Riaan! How did you pay the guy?
I think the safest way is using PayPal, you get refunded your money if the product does not arrive. Also, there is a trail that can be followed from when the deal is done.
giggsy
Good to hear that you didnt just sit back and accept it... got me thinking about those pickups I won on ebay two months ago!
inflames
Did the whole report to ebay thing and guess what:
I got scammed ☹
I bought it off ebay.co.za, that site don't exist! So be careful!
I'm not getting my $600 back either ☹
Who wants to buy me a drink to make the pain go away?
AlanRatcliffe
ebay.co.za belongs to global.ebay.com and has done since 1998 AFAICT, so it is is part of ebay... What exactly do they say?
inflames
Yes Alan, ebay.co.za do belong to them. When you connect to ebay.co.za you get redirected to ebay.com
The page I landed on was indeed ebay.co.za I have no idea how they could hi jack a DNS name.
Each item thats for sale gets a unique number in the ebay system. The number of the item I bought does not exist in their system.
So next step would be to contact the authorities and give them the sellers details.
