ebay fraud

[mad1]

msnbc

"Police in South Salt Lake, Utah, are working with eBay to determine just how many people were victimized by what authorities say was one of the biggest frauds in the auction site’s history. Police arrested 31-year-old Russell Dana Smith last weekend after hundreds of auction winners complained that they sent $1,000 or more to a company named Liquidation Universe for laptop computers they never received. Police say the firm appears to have raked in $1 million from about 1,000 victims in just a few weeks."

[Droppyale]

wow!

amazing...

[osprey4]

Two frauds going on, the seller and a company called Square Trade that verifies the legitimacy of the seller.

Participating sellers pay a fee to SquareTrade, which then verifies the seller’s identity and provides a special, Good-Houskeeping type logo place on the auction listing.

Consumers say they were lured into buyers computers from eBay seller Liquidation Universe because they believed SquareTrade offered them $1,000 in fraud protection.

But the logo, consumers say, was deceptive. It included the words “$1,000 protection.” Many consumers believed they would be reimbursed up to $1,000 if they ran into trouble with their auction. But actually, buyers have since learned, SquareTrade’s protection was capped at $1,000 per seller, not per buyer — leaving a tiny pool of cash to be spread among victims.