31 replies to this topic

[Thorsten Günther]

I have purchased this lot

eBay Auction -- Item Number: 110743008007

in September, and as the seller didn't want to ship internationally, I gave him an address in Utah of a friend of skr (who regularly travels there).

Today, a photograph of the exact same lot showed up from a zero feedback seller in Utah:

eBay Auction -- Item Number: 200673143268


This is either theft of my property going on or the guy sells something he doesn't even have.

[Dino]

Looks like he didnt feel comfortable dealing with you so he set up a new account to sell it again....

[orpheuswaking]

I think what he's saying is that the person it was shipped to is reselling it... The original auction was from CA, this in is in Utah where the items were shipped to...

Seems very odd!

[Schizophretard]

I have that on my watch list. I was going to bid on it but I'm not now since it is yours.

[Thorsten Günther]

I just asked the seller this question:

"there is a most strange coincidence that this auction of yours uses a photograph that is exactly the same as that of item 110743008007, which I purchased and have the seller ship it to Mr. Kevin Scott at Evans & Sutherland, Salt Lake City. A friend of mine regularly travels there and/or has his Atari stuff forward to Germany by Mr. Scott.

Could you please explain this coincidnce?

Best regards,"

[Frostbite Bailey]

Good luck getting an answer with that question. I would be interested to see a response. Looks like someone is trying to F*** you over big time!

[orpheuswaking]

I messaged him too, no reply as yet

[Thorsten Günther]

Does this (either fraud or larceny/theft, using eBay) qualify as an internet crime and is http://www.ic3.gov/ the right place to report it?

[boxpressed]

Do you think the seller is the friend of skr or someone who stole the parcel from the friend's house?

[Thorsten Günther]

boxpressed, on Wed Nov 9, 2011 1:03 PM, said:

Do you think the seller is the friend of skr or someone who stole the parcel from the friend's house?

I think it's probably someone who stole the package from Mr. Scott. skr has repeatedly bought Atari stuff and have Mr. Scott store it for him until his next trip to Salt Lake City or forward it to Germany. And he knows him in person, as I know skr.

Thorsten

[orpheuswaking]

Has anyone tried to contact Mr. Scott to see if he has the package?

[Thorsten Günther]

orpheuswaking, on Wed Nov 9, 2011 1:25 PM, said:

Has anyone tried to contact Mr. Scott to see if he has the package?

As I don't have his e-mail address, I contacted skr. Unfortunately, he doesn't seem to have the time to care about this issue, as he currently is in Birmingham.

[bennybingo]

It sounds like a scam to me. If he took your money and the goods haven't arrived...that's called theft. The fact that the same items (same picture and everything) are back up on eBay....very suspicious!!!

[Schizophretard]

The thief would have had to known about the auction to copy the same picture. It seems like a stupid way to do it.

[Dino]

orpheuswaking, on Tue Nov 8, 2011 5:56 PM, said:

I think what he's saying is that the person it was shipped to is reselling it... The original auction was from CA, this in is in Utah where the items were shipped to...

Seems very odd!

I hear the argument, but I believe its the original seller relisting. He probably didnt want to set up the address in CA for the second listing as that would be suspicious, so Utah was a good a place as any, and would create doubt about whether the package was ever recieved but TG's contact in the first place. By the time TG gets to the bottom of it the auction is more than likely to be over...

[raskar42]

Thorsten Günther, on Wed Nov 9, 2011 1:37 PM, said:

orpheuswaking, on Wed Nov 9, 2011 1:25 PM, said:

Has anyone tried to contact Mr. Scott to see if he has the package?

As I don't have his e-mail address, I contacted skr. Unfortunately, he doesn't seem to have the time to care about this issue, as he currently is in Birmingham.

Birminghamwill do that to anyone. it's where people go to stop caring.

This is a very strange situation, surely there must be some way to get in contact with the party who accepted the package.if you know his name and address, you should be able to find a phone number for him. Was the package shipped with any kind of tracking or confirmation? did the the guy who accepted the package not give you any contact information? that's odd.

I know if i was holding a package for a friend, or a friend of a friend, i would feel responsible for it until it was delivered to the proper owner. The few times i did proxy bidding for other AAers, i tried to make sure they knew where their stuff was at all times. it's just courtesy.

[JohnnyBlaze]

Did you try reporting the auction? I would.

[Thorsten Günther]

JohnnyBlaze, on Wed Nov 9, 2011 11:13 PM, said:

Did you try reporting the auction? I would.

Yes, in the meantime I reported the incident to eBay, but as one cannot even enter reasons as to why one considers this listing to be fraudulent, I sincerely doubt anyone at eBay will react. Some minutes ago, I thus filed a report to the ICCC.

And the original seller provided me with a tracking number and the package was received in Utah, so I have no reason to mistrust him.

Other than the name of Mr. Scott, I only have the address of E&S, that's where the package was shipped to.

Thorsten

[Dino]

Thorsten Günther, on Thu Nov 10, 2011 1:36 AM, said:

And the original seller provided me with a tracking number and the package was received in Utah, so I have no reason to mistrust him.

Thorsten

You didnt mention that originally How very bizzare! I cannot understand why the reseller wouldnt take a new pic or how he ever found the original listing. Sellers rarely ever provide details of their ebay handles or transaction id on packages they send. This is very strange indeed. I thought you were having the package sent to a friend of yours

[Thorsten Günther]

Dino, on Thu Nov 10, 2011 5:29 PM, said:

You didnt mention that originally How very bizzare! I cannot understand why the reseller wouldnt take a new pic or how he ever found the original listing. Sellers rarely ever provide details of their ebay handles or transaction id on packages they send. This is very strange indeed. I thought you were having the package sent to a friend of yours

To be more precise, Mr. Scott is a friend of a friend. He contacted me, offered me to take a photograph of the package contents and obviously is a very kind and helpful person. Yet to my utter embarrassment, he feels I accused him of fraud, not "mtspaceevolvd" - apparently I didn't make it clear enough that I - for obvious reasons - suspect "mtspaceevolvd" and do not know who that person is and if he/she even possesses the goods he/she is offering (as Mr. Scott apparently hasn't been robbed during the last months, if noone intercepted the package, it is very unlikely he/she does) - and I thought I had made that clear enough (but as English is not my native language, I am certainly not able to assess that fully).

I hereby publicly apologize to him for any possible misinterpretation of my previous postings.

[tep392]

Thorsten Günther, on Fri Nov 11, 2011 9:54 AM, said:

Dino, on Thu Nov 10, 2011 5:29 PM, said:

You didnt mention that originally How very bizzare! I cannot understand why the reseller wouldnt take a new pic or how he ever found the original listing. Sellers rarely ever provide details of their ebay handles or transaction id on packages they send. This is very strange indeed. I thought you were having the package sent to a friend of yours

To be more precise, Mr. Scott is a friend of a friend. He contacted me, offered me to take a photograph of the package contents and obviously is a very kind and helpful person. Yet to my utter embarrassment, he feels I accused him of fraud, not "mtspaceevolvd" - apparently I didn't make it clear enough that I - for obvious reasons - suspect "mtspaceevolvd" and do not know who that person is and if he/she even possesses the goods he/she is offering (as Mr. Scott apparently hasn't been robbed during the last months, if noone intercepted the package, it is very unlikely he/she does) - and I thought I had made that clear enough (but as English is not my native language, I am certainly not able to assess that fully).

I hereby publicly apologize to him for any possible misinterpretation of my previous postings.

Your statement seems pretty clear to me, so if Mr. Scott is reading this and is a reasonable person, he should understand.

I have to say thought that I think it's easy to assume something odd happened considering the circumstances. Scammers create fraudulant auctions all the time. But what are the odds that some random scammer would steal that auction description and choose Utah as his fraudulent address, which just happens to be the address of the 3rd party that the real auction shipped to? I think most people would conclude that someone with inside information created that second auction.

[Thorsten Günther]

tep392, on Fri Nov 11, 2011 11:59 AM, said:

I have to say thought that I think it's easy to assume something odd happened considering the circumstances. Scammers create fraudulant auctions all the time. But what are the odds that some random scammer would steal that auction description and choose Utah as his fraudulent address, which just happens to be the address of the 3rd party that the real auction shipped to? I think most people would conclude that someone with inside information created that second auction.

The scammer resides (or claims to reside) in the same state where that lot was shipped to, not in the same city - a 1:47 probability from my outside view, as picking one of the contigous 48 states seems a natural choice for a US resident scammer (there may be reasons why scammers prefers a state over others for this kind of fraud, but as I am an ocean away, I wouldn't know it).

In the meantime, Mr. Scott was so kind and confirmed the contents of the package are as described in the first auction are still safely in his custody, and took quite a load off my chest with that confirmation.

So, if anyone truly thinks that "mtspaceevolvd" actually has a lot that is composed of exactly the same items as the one I purchased two months ago, he may of course place a bid...

Now, seriously: you'll most likely get either nothing or a package full of junk (so PayPal won't accept any claim of you that you didn't receive the item) from the current auction. If only there was a way to warn bidders outside of AtariAge...

Thorsten

Edited by Thorsten Günther, Fri Nov 11, 2011 1:25 PM.

[oldjd]

I think that there are quite a few members here,who are involved with other boards,that could spread the word
The magic of the internet at work,so to speak

[VertigoProcess]

Someone bid on it... poor guy... this is where the hiding of ebayer's names fails...

[Marius1976]

I can remember very well that in the past someone in the Netherlands was selling a so called brand-new, never opened, never used, still new smelling Atari 800XL. He used brilliant pictures to prove. So I went bidding... and I won... I paid an awful lot of money for it (somewhere around 180 Euro); I really wanted to have it.

Sigh... when it arrived, it was NOT a brand-new Atari, and it was for sure another thing than the pictures showed.

The jerk had used pictures from the Atarimuseum website.

I decided not to go after it. I felt stupid that I did not looked a bit further.

Afterwards I think I should have go after this. It's a crime FOR SURE!

Stupid Ebay scammers!