OT: BEWARE of [email protected] on ebay!

[doneedlove]

hi,

I posted a laptop for sale on Ebay and this individual sent me an email told me that he would sent out the payment using paypal. He told me to ship overnite to his grandson as a birthday present on last Friday. I said okay, then he pay me using paypal. He didn't want to have the signature sign by anyone except to leave the package outside the door so his grandson have it as a surprise when he arrived home from school. I told him okay too. He paid me using paypal, and i shipped overnite using Airborne Express without getting any signature. Then 2 days ago he called up his credit card, and paypal reversed my transaction. I emailed him back asking him to pay me for the reversed amount that paypal took from my account. He said okay, he'll do it the next day that's today. I emailed him back today and he told me that he was about to paypal me but his grandson said he never received my laptop. Now today (4 days later) he's claiming that his grand son never received the package?. What the heck? What should i do? I already sent paypal the tracking number, but don't know what paypal going to do with the money. Any idea would help? I told him that i would take him to court if he won't pay me back the money.
This is the person's claim to be grandson:

Jimmy Chung/ Mervyn Franks
8 lake vista ave
daly city, ca, 94015


650-757-6388 / 650-757-8188


I don't know the person i talked (Mervyn Franks) to but he/she told me to ship to the above address.


paypal: [email protected]
email: [email protected]
aim: swissupply

ebay: [email protected]

he changed his username in couple of week ago.


Doneedlove

[dRu168]

have you tried posting in Paypalsucks.com? Most the members there have been screwed so I'm sure they could come up with some suggestions..supposedly if you send proof u shipped the product, Paypal should give u back your money....but Paypal is iffy.

[brainsmile]

try http://paypalwarning.com/ as well

[Eyedea]

Not sure how to help you get your money back but I know whenever I sell anything on eBay I use PayPal.

I don't ship until I get the payment, and when I get the payment I immediately transfer the money into my checking account. I also include Signatur Confirmation into the shipping cost.

For next time.....

[thresher]

I sold an item via paypal and three (3!!!) months later the "charges"-read payment-, were reversed and I lost my money forever. Paypal is NOT a bank, people, and YOU ARE NEVER safe from their tactics. The person who bought my merchandise used a stolen credit card and the person who owned the card didn't even notice for two months. Then she called her credit card company and had paypal yank my funds from my bank. I was so lucky I didn't bounce any checks. After months of emails, I never retrieved any funds from the prick that stole my stereo equipment, and paypal would never release my funds even though I did nothing wrong. All I did was sell something on ebay and use paypal's services. Never again. UPS tried their best to help retrieve my merchandise and I would advise going through the carrier for help. They are your best bet at this point. Paypal will get you nowhere. Billpoint, on the other hand, has been a much safer transaction process, but it's always caveat emptor, unfortunately.
Thresher

[sbp]

Unfortunately since this transaction was done outside of ebay, even feedback can't be left against the individual.

ebay just wants to collect their fee and are useless against thieves.

paypal :rolleyes:

http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.cfm?catid=38&threadid=896051
Sorry doneedlove, but everything that could have been wrong, was done wrong. Hopefully it'll turn out well.

[modena]

I would go to the guys house....a similar thing happened to me and lucky the guy lived like an hour away. He owed me $300 for a camera...paypal screwed it up...and he wouldnt send again. Needless to say, when I should up with a few friends, he quickly paid.

[doneedlove]

That person lived like 7 hrs away from me. Damm i could do that too if he lived 1 or 2 hrs away not 7 hrs.

Doneedlove

[faither]

How long ago did you sell this item? I don't see any record of searching you by seller or epson by buyer. Epson looks to have changed his user id inside the last 30 days. I know hindsight is 20/20 vision but you made a number of mistakes/misjudgements considering the item you describe. Please be more careful with those items you're currently selling.

[doneedlove]

I sold this about 2 weeks ago. He emailed me outside of Ebay that he wanted to buy it now. So I closed the auction early to get the item to him. He changed his nick for some reason i don't know.

Doneedlove

[thresher]

Man, I am sorry, buddy. It sounds for all the world like this guy knew exactly how to scam you. I wouldn't be surprised if he tried this on a few people at the same time. Try the troll boards and the courrier's antitheft division. They actually went back to the address and tried to retrieve my merchandise for me. Maybe it's time for that road trip after all? :( I feel for ya, amigo. The guy that got me was all the way in NY and did almost the same thing and I was in Texas so I couldn't do a thing about it. Good luck. Boy, this sure brings up old feelings. Yuck!
Thresh

[aznaphrodite]

Well, I can't be much help but I sell a lot on eBay and use PayPal all the time so I really feel for you.

I was able to find a phone number and name for you...

Aldie Chung
8 Lake Vista Ave
Daly City, CA 94015-1012
(650)757-8188

This is from SwitchBoard.com. You can call and threaten to go after them with police, collectors, etc.

Good luck!

[ken]

just sue him in small claims court. He and you are both californian.

[modena]

I was actually thinking about calling this guy and telling him off!

[doneedlove]

I called but seems like no one pick up the phone. Maybe i'll try again tonite.

Doneedlove

[thresher]

*67 his a$$. That way he doesn't know who is calling. or hey? CALL COLLECT! :P

[doneedlove]

Originally posted by thresher
*67 his a$$. That way he doesn't know who is calling. or hey? CALL COLLECT! :P

i called asked for Jimmy some asian lady said that no one by that name and hung up on me. Damm. what should i do now? Can't reach the real person.

Doneedlove

[VileOFFender]

dude could have jsut looked in teh phone book for a last name and made up a first name. maybe that's his plan...send to an unknown location (probably near his house) and always ask to have the package left at the door so he can stroll by and pick up whatever comes....

Who knows how many times he has done something like this...

I feel for you. No matter how much (or how little) you lost, i would take the 7 hour frive just for the principle involved. Even if he doesn't live there maybe the people know who the a$$ is.

[VileOFFender]

since this guy is using an aol account, have you seen if this guy lurks around on aim. if he does you can probably find some clever way to find out who he really is...then break out the woop a$$.

[doneedlove]

Originally posted by VileOFFender
since this guy is using an aol account, have you seen if this guy lurks around on aim. if he does you can probably find some clever way to find out who he really is...then break out the woop a$$.

Never would able to catch him on AOL maybe he never login using AIM. Hum.. i dont'want to drive 7 hrs there and not sure if that's his address. He could use someone else's addres to have the package ship and he came by snatch it up. Well, i'll talk to my local police and see what else can they do for me. I'm some what busy and didnt' have time to meet up with my local PD.

Doneedlove

[doneedlove]

he used [email protected] for his paypal acct. So you guys also be careful not to get scam by this individual paypal account.

Doneedlove

[SonyGuy]

You could try looking at the headers on the e-mail he sent you. If you look at them you might be able to get an ip address. If you can get an ip address than you can find out what isp it is by tracking the ip address to it. You can call the isp and maybe they will give you the dudes number. Maybe someone will come along on here(G|A) and tell me yeah right SonyGuy... but it's possible that you could do it this way. However, the ISP may be reluctant to give you the phone number, or if you say like hey this dude f***** me over on a laptop deal then they could turn the number over to the cops, DA, or someone like that. Anyone else care to comment?

[sbp]

Originally posted by doneedlove elsewhere (http://www.pcabusers.net/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=143839#post143839)
btw, paypal canceled the reverse status so i'm happy now, not to bother dealing with authority. Thanks guys.

[doneedlove]

man.. this is suck.. start it again all over because this person just complaint again with his credit card and paypal on the pending progress of reverse my account again.. now i'll have to deal with paypal.. this is really suck.. don't know why this guys keep on doing this to me.

Doneedlove

[chadlnc]

Swissupply is online right now.

[cheapie]

i just im'ed him and told him not to f&ck with our buddy over the laptop. hehe

edit: i just checked and he doesn't have his settings set so that you can't see how long he's been online. from some of the things i've read about ip address security, this means it's possible to find his ip address. how? dunno.