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peckerhead

Stolen Parachute- Ebay scam

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I sold a Triathlon 160 a few weeks ago on Ebay. It was in perfect new condition. The winning bid was $1175. After the auction ended the winning bidder contacted me and asked if I could ship it as a gift to his cousin in the Phillipines. I told him if he would pay all shipping costs I would do it but I would not ship until it was paid for and the funds were in my account. The buyer had a 100% positive feedback score with over 130 trasnsactions.

He made immediate payment with Paypal the total with shipping was $1308. As soon as the funds were in my account I felt it was safe to go ahead and ship the package Right?

Wrong!

Three days later after the canopy had been shipped Paypal removed the money from my account. It turns out this scumbag hacked into someone elses ebay account and placed the bid without the account owners knowledge. He also used thier Paypal account to make the payment. The funds were returned to the rightful account owner and the listing was permanently removed from Ebay....

No problem I am covered with Paypals seller protection right?

Wrong!

Paypal will not give me a refund because I shipped it to an unconfirmed address. Ebay instructed me to report it to law enforcement as an internet crime. So now this scumbag has my canopy and I get nothing.
The canopy has been reported as stolen property and the internet crime control center is investigating.

I really don't expect to get the money or my canopy back but I would like to see this guy caught and prosecuted. It was delivered to Pasay. I am offering a reward for the canopy or information leading to the arrest of this thief. If you are in the area you can send me a private message and I can give you the details.

It just makes me sick that a fellow skydiver would rip me off like this. If you accept Paypal payments for anything DO NOT ship to an unconfirmed address. I learned the hard way.







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Sorry that happened. I lost 870 USD to some pig in France that was selling a container. He insisted on Western Union and never shipped the item. I will now never buy internationally or sell for that matter.

When I do in the US, I make sure I am covered and the deal will be done right.

Does home owner insurance cover such a thing? I had a car stolen once with gear in it. the car insurance didn't cover it but the home owners insurance did.

Gunnery Sergeant of Marines
"I would like it if I were challenged mentally at my job and not feel like I'm mentally challenged." - Co-worker

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So sorry to hear about that... but that is what the confirmed address is for. Plus I won't ship until I transfer the money out and into my account (cash in hand basically). Just one more step to protect yourself.

I hope some sort of resolution comes man. Good luck

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Plus I won't ship until I transfer the money out and into my account (cash in hand basically). Just one more step to protect yourself.

That's what I thought too......

Actually I did transfer the money to my bank account before shipping but when paypal reversed the transaction it left a negative balance on my PP account. I had to pay it back so it did me no good.[:/]


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You paid PayPal back? They would have had to get a court order to get ME to pay them back. It was their system that got hacked, so it should have been THEIR problem to track down the criminal. They have the money/resources to absorb a loss of $1000 and track down the criminal, I don't.

Zipp0

--------------------------
Chuck Norris doesn't do push-ups, he pushes the Earth down.

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So which address did you ship it too... Between knowing the address and any delivery conformation available - it should be pretty easy to get the guy on the other end??? Or, for the sake of my learning - what kind of addresses on the other end are not traceable to who lives/works/receives packages at that address????

I had my credit card number stolen once... The duffus shipped the stuff to his house in my name. It was easy, when his address was also in our payroll system, to know who was the thief...

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Lesson #1 about doing business on e-bay.....DON'T DO BUSINESS ON E-BAY. I have heard so many horror stories about this operation....it's too easy to be cheated. If you must use it, get the money first in hand, then ship the item. Never do business outside the country, especially! It's too hard to track anything down for restitution, but I guess I don't have to tell you that.

Another thing that bothers me - - - when did we start to believe that skydivers are all one big, happy family and we would never do anything to a fellow jumper? It's all good in theory and I wish it were so, but this story is a perfect example of why it isn't so. We have the same percentage of scum-bags as the general population.

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Lesson #1 about doing business on e-bay.....DON'T DO BUSINESS ON E-BAY. I have heard so many horror stories about this operation....it's too easy to be cheated. If you must use it, get the money first in hand, then ship the item. Never do business outside the country, especially! It's too hard to track anything down for restitution, but I guess I don't have to tell you that.

Another thing that bothers me - - - when did we start to believe that skydivers are all one big, happy family and we would never do anything to a fellow jumper? It's all good in theory and I wish it were so, but this story is a perfect example of why it isn't so. We have the same percentage of scum-bags as the general population.



oh the narrow-mindedness..

be smart

paypal + confirmed address=good
asking to get paid by paypal and ship to a address other than what's in there = not good
asking to ship to a different country other than whats listed in paypal=VERY BAD, borderline careless

take wiretransfers outside of the standard coutnries. If they cannot wire, then perhaps there's a reason for that.

But to say that eBay is not to be done business on - that's plain STUPID. I have bought over 10K of gear on eBay - and used both paypal and money orders. Of course, I have had my share of people selling what they didn't have - but that was pretty easy to tell when they couldn't produce extra pictures I asked them for.

Going back- since the person is going to skydive (supposedly) - insist on shipping to their DZO, who you can spend a few $$$ to talk on the phone and verify the DZ is in fact the operation.

stay safe and open minded ...

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I absolutely agree. I have made over 200 transactions on Ebay and have never had a problem before both buying and selling. I have also sold canopies to foriegn countries and was paid with paypal without incident.

This was total stupidity on my part and I mainly wanted to post this to keep others from making the same mistake.

In my defense I had no way of knowing the buyers account had been taken over and his positive feedback score gave me a false sense of security. I also did not know that the funds could be reversed once I had already been paid.




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I sold a Triathlon 160 a few weeks ago on Ebay. It was in perfect new condition.

I really don't expect to get the money or my canopy back but I would like to see this guy caught and prosecuted. It was delivered to Pasay. I am offering a reward for the canopy or information leading to the arrest of this thief. If you are in the area you can send me a private message and I can give you the details.



Sorry to hear about your troubles. I do business on EBay, but it is possible to be scammed.

One question... Do you have serial number and color pattern for us? Would help in spotting it. (OK, maybe a long shot, but who knows.)

(If you don't, check with your rigger and/or where you bought it. I keep full inventory of all gear that I service including descriptions and serial numbers.)

Good Luck,
Jim
Always remember that some clouds are harder than others...

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That really sucks.

Have you talked to the shipping company to see if they will stop the delivery and return to sender if it has not yet been delivered.



It was delivered before I caught on to what was happening. If Ebay would have notified me a few days sooner I could have stopped delivery.

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Sorry to hear about your troubles. I do business on EBay, but it is possible to be scammed.

One question... Do you have serial number and color pattern for us? Would help in spotting it. (OK, maybe a long shot, but who knows.)

(If you don't, check with your rigger and/or where you bought it. I keep full inventory of all gear that I service including descriptions and serial numbers.)

Good Luck,
Jim



PM sent.

I have all the details and a full description including serial number. I have reported it to the stolen gear list here and on the USPA website. I also sent emails to DZ's in the Phillipines. The crook has probably already removed the data tag. But, you bring up an excellent point. If you ever buy new or used gear you should always check the serial number against the stolen gear list. If the seller will not provide a serial number DON"T BUY IT!

I am also a rigger so anytime I get an unfamiliar rig I always check to see it it might be stolen. I urge all riggers to take the time and do the same. This is how most stolen equipment is recovered, when it is serviced or when it is bought and sold.

At this point I feel like a total idiot. If this thread can prevent one more person from making the same mistake then it was well worth posting even if I never do recover my loss. It used to be "buyer beware" but in todays electro-commerce world it has become "seller beware" as well.







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I recently got scammed on E-bay by someone. luckily I was one step ahead of the guy and didn't loose any money.

The guy was claiming to be selling a comlete system - Mirage G3, Sabre, cypress2 etc etc. The guy had complete specs of everything and pictures too. I won the auction for 800 quid (UK pounds) and was thrilled with the bargain!!

But there were a few things that made me wait before paying. i checked the address on google maps, and found his street address didn't exist,, he claimed to live in London but his postcode was liverpool.
In the person's feedback, there was one recent transaction where the seller had been given negative feedback, and the reply to it was 'my account got hacked!'
The guy INSISTED on A western union transfer which i refused to do, and offered to go all the way to London and pay him in cash.
His English was bad, from the sounds of it he was Nigerian, my dad works in Nigeria and deals with this kind of s**t on a day to day basis.
Also simple questions to do with skydiving he could not answer, like what company makes Sabres, and he could not name his local DZ or give his BPA number etc. On the BPA site you can cross check BPA numbers with names and dates of birth.

After a couple of days of the auction ending e-bay sent me a notification saying that this was a scam and the listing was removed, never heard from the guy again.

i suppose i was lucky the scammer was an idiot and didn't even have the skill to scam someone successfully. From now on, any transaction involving large amounts of money i will probably arrange to meet up for payment, but I suppose that's easier to do in a small place like the UK.
This is the only problem I've ever had on e-bay and it could have been a lot worse, but it is a lesson learnt, i am a lot more careful now.
One more thing, 'if it's too good to be true, it probably is'. Who would part with a rig as nice as that for such little money!

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I also did not know that the funds could be reversed once I had already been paid.


I didn't know that either.
But the whole point of paypal (safe online transactions) seems to be undermined by your story.
They DO take a percentage, don't they?

"Whoever in discussion adduces authority uses not intellect but memory." - Leonardo da Vinci
A thousand words...

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Paypal sucks. Sorry for your loss. I only use it for very small transactions, and only do skydiving equipment with my dz as escrow agent/inspector.

I posted about my experiences here, nice to see that the same people that shilled for it then still do. :|

You can have it good, fast, or cheap: pick two.

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I do not trust E-bay and PayPal...just for the reasons you show here.

I have only done 2 transactions. Both were skydiving related. One I could call the DZ and speak directly with the seller and the other, the seller (after calling the DZ and verifying) sent the equipment to my DZ for rigger inspection prior to payment.

I would suggest that it should be the standard operating procedure for skydiving-related transactions be handled exactly like my second transaction was.
My reality and yours are quite different.
I think we're all Bozos on this bus.
Falcon5232, SCS8170, SCSA353, POPS9398, DS239

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I didn't know that either.
But the whole point of paypal (safe online transactions) seems to be undermined by your story.
They DO take a percentage, don't they?



The Ebay and paypal fees have been refunded. It turns out you are only protected if you ship the item to a confirmed address in the US, Canada, or the UK. If you ship to any other country you do not have protection. I also just found out that a stolen credit card was used to make the purchase through paypal.

If you are selling to anyone outside of those countries DO NOT take paypal.






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It's not always so complicated. I sold my old canopy in two days last week using the classifieds, gave the seller a phone number which he chose not to use, offered him the notion of shipping to a rigger in IL, shipped it out on Tuesday, and today received pics of him running across a field with it as a kite. He paypalled at the beginning.

The larger the transaction, the more diligence may be necessary, but it doesn't always have to be difficult. Most of the people here with extensive posting histories can be found very easily, by many people.

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Unfortunately I had several other transactions going on at the time that I could not complete unless I brought the balance to zero. [:/]






Man were those big transactions. I'm surprised it was worth it to for 1300 bucks. There is a site called www.paypalsucks.com I believe where they talk about a million stories like this and if you would have left it at negative balance you would have been fine. Paypal bugs you but in the end does nothing to actually hurt your credit or anything and just writes it all off. Well sorry to hear about it. Totally sucks.

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I doubt this was a skydiver. Not because of some brotherly bollocks but simply because this is a known scam mechanism and they simply do not give two shits about the auction goods, what they are, where they go, or what happens to them.

They wanted the paypal money and that's it. As far as your canopy was concerned they wouldn't have given a damn where it went.

On the flip side this fact does at least increase the chances of you finding the thing... even if it is only a little.

Number 1 rule with e-bay/paypal.... it's not: "don't use ebay/paypal;" it's: "depart from their rules at your own risk".

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They wanted the paypal money and that's it.


The way I read it is that they didn't get any money, except when they already sold the canopy again...

Correct me if I'm wrong but:

1. The scammer bids on ebay on GOODS
2. He wins the bid and pays the goods through paypal, using a hacked account and somebody elses credit card --> paypal sends money to seller, seller sends goods.
3. The third party, who's account has been hacked, contacts paypal, the credit card company etcetera since money is leaving his account and goes, through paypal to the SELLER.
4. Paypal wakes up, "reverses the transaction" and tells the SELLER to send the money back (i.e. makes his paypal account negative, since he already transferred the money to his bank-account)

Now at this point I would have told paypal that I already did send the goods and "good luck with recovering your loss / please balance my account forthwith ..." since it is not MY responsibility if somebody elses computer is so poorly protected that his paypal account and credit cards are hacked...

The point is however, that the scammer didn't get any money... just the parachute.

Peckerhead should keep searching ebay, if it isn't a skydiver the parachute will turn up there sooner or later... (Can you set alarms so that ebay gives an email alert when particular items are offered for sale? Like 'reply to watched thread' or 'reply to your post'? That would be cool and would help against scams...)

Out of curiousity (not aimed at anyone in particular):
When buying equipment online from an unknown source, all of you ALWAYS check serial numbers and description against DZ.com's stolen gear database?

(Oops... )

"Whoever in discussion adduces authority uses not intellect but memory." - Leonardo da Vinci
A thousand words...

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