ebay fraudster alert

[pab]

Beware of this guy- 'freedamon'. He may have just defrauded me out of a Canon 20mm lens that I sold him. He seems to have defrauded a couple of other people in the last two days. I'm trying to find out if I have any protection. Does anyone have experience of trying to recover funds from fraudulant transactions?

 

[colyn]

I what way did he defraud you?

 

[pab]

using unauthorised funds to pay through Paypal. Location of buyer is USA, money paid from an Italian account and delivery address is business partner in Lithuania. I only fell for it because of his excellent feedback (until yesterday). I suspect he may have buitlt up good feedback through a number of small transactions, waited until the record of the items involved had expired and then decided to pounce.

Shame, since until now I have only encountered honest and friendly ebayers.

 

[colyn]

using unauthorised funds to pay through Paypal. Location of buyer is USA, money paid from an Italian account and delivery address is business partner in Lithuania. I only fell for it because of his excellent feedback (until yesterday). I suspect he may have buitlt up good feedback through a number of small transactions, waited until the record of the items involved had expired and then decided to pounce.

Shame, since until now I have only encountered honest and friendly ebayers.

Did you get paid?

Since you did not ship to the paypal address you may not be able to get compensation..

Never ship to a different address than the one sent by paypal....

 

[pab]

yes I got paid, but paypal has now put a hold on the funds, pending investigation of the buyer. I've learnt a lesson here!

 

[colyn]

yes I got paid, but paypal has now put a hold on the funds, pending investigation of the buyer. I've learnt a lesson here!

If paypal finds againest you you should notify the Attorney Generals office in his state.

 

[jpbob100]

Obviously someone has hi-jacked freedamon's account. It had been dormant since May(something the hijackers look for). I fear you're screwed.😡

 

[pab]

yep. On further investigation I fear that that is what it looks like. How do you hijack someone's account so easily though?

 

[oscroft]

How do you hijack someone's account so easily though?

By guessing their password - a lot of people choose really stupid passwords. Or you can harvest lots of user names and program a computer to try a brute force guesswork approach.

 

[colyn]

yes I got paid, but paypal has now put a hold on the funds, pending investigation of the buyer. I've learnt a lesson here!

Simple... You send them an email that looks like it came from ebay or paypal asking you to click on a link and update your information such as passwords, username, and other info.