Ebay con artist, HELP!?

Question

I posted this a few days ago http://uk.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090304143024AAK2fQr

so the latest is that the police took some details from me about the item, all the emails in the dispute, recorded delivery receipt etc. and said that they will fax paypal/ebay about this and will contact the police in cambridge (buyers location).

When I checked the auction page where it shows the winning bidder (squirrkllest) it says "no longer a registered ebay user".

The police told me to email her saying "Ive recieved the package back from you but ive not recieved the PS3 back i just got the 3 games back so does that mean you still want the PS3 for £140 as you have still got it. I believe paypal has give you the full £170 back i'll wait to hear from you."

I just got a responce just now and ive phoned the number the police and left them a message about this. heres what she said:
"I do not have the ps3. I sent you all your items back on monday including the ps3!! The tracking service says you received all the items.If I only sent the games back it wouldn't have cost me 15 pound to send back to you would it?I need the full £190 back so I can buy another ps3 for my son who is very upset that I had to send back his console and the one game he could play. How did you get my email address when I have been trying to contact you for days, previous to sending the items back, to try to negotiate a partial refund"

I knew she would deny everything and I even weighed the rock she sent to compare the recorded delivery recipts but it weighs around same a PS3 weighs.

She seems to be very clever at playing dumb and covering all bases but why is her ebay account all of a sudden no longer registered?? Ive been buying/selling for years with near 450 feedback compared to her 27 feedback and registered 07-Dec-08.

any other things I could do because its sounding like a her word against mine??

Additional Details

yeh thanks for the answers im keeping them up to date with anything I get, I just dont want her to worm herself out if it somehow as I cannot really prove it

Answer 1

Best Answer - Chosen by Voters

I had a similar problem with ebay and someone claiming that they'd sent back a camcorder when all I received was a rock in the post.

Keep up your contact with the police and whatever you do don't tell her the police are involved. I hope you handed the rock over to the police too as in my case it was the ladies fingerprints on the rock that where the piece of evidence the police used against her in the fraud case. (She claimed she'd sent te camcorder back and I'd pick the rock my garden, but her fingerprints proved she'd touched it).


You just have to remain patient in this, I know it's important and probably distressing for you but in the Police's eyes it's fairly low priority but they will resolve it.

Answer 2

i would go to her address and sort it out. you will get NOWHERE with the police. they see this hundres of times a week. you orig posted that she paid by cheque so im confused as to why she opened a PAYPAL dispute if she paid by cheque??

by the way paypal are crap

Answer 3

Fingerprint the rock.

Answer 4

O mate. keep your contact with the police, update them with this e-mail. tell them what's going to happen, what are they going to do about it etc. Contact ebay as well as PayPal. Tell them your story. Make sure you keep all your documents. Thats all I can say really. Thats some ****ed up *****. Contact EBAY and say your item wasn't returned as it was suppose to. Get her back, don't let this go!. Keep the stone for finger prints and evidence. I'm sure if your order is over a certain amount or value they protect it against lost and stolen...etc.

Answer 5

I used the Police for a similar thing from a seller in Torquay some years ago. The police visited the sellers home and found a large number of false receipts. The lady in question eventually went too court and was fined quite heavily.
My advise to you is pursue this to the end and hopefully the seller will be brought to justice

Answer 6

Something similar happened to a mac owner in the US.

If memory serves me right, he got fellow mac users, got the feds involved (locals were not interested) and found the address. Once he had all the foot work done, they set up a bogus sale and the con bit on the bait. Then dressed like a FedEx, the law delivered and busted the guy.

Moral...do not give up. However rather than making this an obsession, make it into an adventure. Of course, if it is good enough, the movie rights might be worth something. Fifteen minutes at the least.

Best wishes..