Ebay is a shoplifters paradise....

chillipepper_3

It most definitely is. The scumbags that shoplift would have previously got pittance for their spoils but since ebay has flourished they are now reaping in some serious amounts of cash.
Take for example a few sellers out there selling high value denim jeans that retail approx £150 per pair. Stolen and sold on ebay they are fetching easily 50%+ of their retail value. I suspect this is happening all the time on ebay with many goods.
Although a while back, I received such a pair with an ink filled shop security tag still attached (the sellers mistake). I contacted the seller who said they would remove the item if i sent them back. I instantly knew I was dealing with a shoplifter or someone who was fencing the goods so a return seemed a very risky move to make (as they had received payment). I eventually removed the offending item carefully with some tin snips, but at a risk of spoiling the product.
Quite obviously they were stolen and I paid a reasonable price for them too. Thinking back I probably did the wrong thing, infact i know I did, but knowing of two people with similar experiences I wanted to raise the Question........What would you do?

One problem is that many such sellers remove the tags so the buyers are never aware.

Would you contact the police, risk losing your money, risk losing the item, and have to deal with inconvenience of it all?

Due to the efficiency of Ebay sales I suspect there are a lot of criminal sellers on ebay, selling a wide range of goods. It does make you think as to the origin of some goods on ebay!!!!!

N9eav

We recently had a burglary in our town where £5000 of Bench and Criminal clothing was knicked. (last weeeknd).

So watch out .

Amba_Gambla

maybe if ebay policed their listings every now and then (HA, yeah right!) then it'd be harder for the crims.....

N9eav

How are you going to police it? Even if the shop owner came to the cop shop and said I saw my stolen jeans on E-bay, not a lot can be done. The internet in general is a !!!!!! to police.

Amba_Gambla

you could look out for patterns, I'm sure there would be some way of doing it thru software - if someone starts selling 3 pairs of designer BNWT jeans every week or two, then maybe it's worth investigating...

granted, it won't be much use against the small-timers, but the ones who go and regularly shoplift could be tracked via their transactions.....

N9eav

[size=+3]Data Protection Act 1998[/size] That's why it's so hard. To get the information on the seller and his address, takes even the Police weeks and lots of forms. It protects you and me and our personal information, but it also protects the criminals' information and details. Lots of forms are needed to obtain the information needed, which can often take several weeks.

angelcake

I read in a paper the other day that a salesperson from Dixons used his staff discount to get 3 new xboxes to sell on ebay at a profit! Dixon bosses bid and win the xboxes and catches him out! he gets penalised for this! I don't really see what the problem is, he paid for the goods. In a way I suppose its not fair but he could have bought them as presents and fallen out with the people :rolleyes: or something!! at least he paid!

People are getting away with stealing and reaping benefits from it! thats the people who should be penalised!

chillipepper_3

N9eav wrote:

We recently had a burglary in our town where £5000 of Bench and Criminal clothing was knicked. (last weeeknd).

So watch out .

I never thought about burgarly.

So we have a scumbag who breaks into No.9, steals the apple mac laptop, the jewellery, the camera, the flatscreen tv, etc, etc, etc.

Rather than shift these items at a fraction of their values any criminal with an ounce of brains (and there are some very clever ones!) would fence the products as second hand items on ebay and make a fortune.

((Now where did i put that balaclava and glove set??? (!)))

I can't see any way the police could prevent this and it does make sense. if the general public accept ebay with open arms, the local shops even trade via this route to boost sales, the charities set up their own selling ID's, then why wouldn't the criminal do the same.


It's a complete scaremongering thread but one that surely makes you think twice where the your next buy is coming from.

angelcake

it does make you think!! .....quite scarey to think someone is missing the item you are enjoying!!!

chillipepper_3

angelcake wrote:

I read in a paper the other day that a salesperson from Dixons used his staff discount to get 3 new xboxes to sell on ebay at a profit! Dixon bosses bid and win the xboxes and catches him out! he gets penalised for this! I don't really see what the problem is, he paid for the goods. In a way I suppose its not fair but he could have bought them as presents and fallen out with the people :rolleyes: or something!! at least he paid!

People are getting away with stealing and reaping benefits from it! thats the people who should be penalised!

In general contracts you're not allowed to use the staff discount for your own or others financial gain, other than the initial savings of course. Goods purchased should be for the intention of your own useage. The legal standing in these circumstances are broad but it's likely he broke his contract.
There was the similar case with a JJB Sports manager who had taken all those stupid charity armband things and made a few thousand/hundred (?) pounds on ebay.

nsrjo1

For a long time I have said that I believe a significant number of clothes sellers on eBay are selling shoplifted clothes.

Obviously I'm not saying everyone that sells clothes uses this method for sourcing stock. Clearly there are a lot of genuine businesses on there doing it who are registered as business users and that's fine.

However, next time you are looking at some "brand new" and "brand new without tags" clothes on eBay take a look at the user ID and see if they are a private individual or not. If they are then take a close look at how many clothes they've been selling recently.

If it's just one or two things then fine. We all buy things, get them home, snip off the tags and then bury them in the back of the wardrobe as a bad buy and we all get the jumper from hell as a birthday present from Aunt Mabel every now and then. Ebay is a great place to get rid of them.

BUT, if the user is regularly selling designer named brands at a fraction of the full shop price and the same items are cropping up in large quantities (ie they have 10 pairs of the same jeans, t-shirts etc) then you just have to stop and wonder how/where they've got them all.

EBay makes it so easy for them to get rid of the stolen items for a much better price than they would ever get flogging them down the pub, or whatever they used to do with them. While buyers continue to buy from such sellers without thinking twice about why the bargain they are bidding on is such a bargain they will continue to do it.

Is it eBay's problem to sort out? Yes and no. They will argue they "are only a venue" and they "can't police every user and auction", but we all know there is significantly more they could do to make the site safer if they chose to do so. At the moment however they chose to hide behind their name and do nothing.

On the other hand if buyers did more research into the seller before bidding on items and made a deliberate decision not to buy from private individuals who consistently sold more "brand new" and "brand new without tags" items than it was logical for one person to legally have access to then there wouldn't be a market for stolen and shoplifted clothes on eBay to start with.