Am I fighting a losing battle?

screamer

I've been scammed on ebay and I've discovered a pattern emerging which means others are going to be scammed in the same way but the guy has that many different accounts I can barely keep track.

Basically I bought an item for £27, it arrived and it was fake. While waiting for seller to reply I looked for a genuine item and came across at least 8 other accounts, all set up within 3 days of each other (7 months ago, with no action since) all selling the same item, all for roughly the same price, all the same description, the similarities between the auction I won and the other auctions that keep cropping up in regards to wording and descriptions are just too close to call a coincidence. So far, in a little over a week, I've found approximately 70 auctions which I suspect are dodgy.

Should I just mind my own business or should I continue on my crusade to rid ebay of this parasite? The item I'm talking about usually sells for about £50 and it is VERY popular! Since I started watching he's changed the initial search description of the item slightly but I'm afraid the fact that he has now resorted to stealing other peoples pictures is a giveaway so the man isn't even very good at hiding what he's up to anymore.

If he'd have just given me my refund I'd have left it at that, seeing as though he's messing me about I'm going to play him at his own game (and hopefully stop others from being scammed too!)

porto_bello

If it's a fake, you are protected. If you paid via paypal, you have full protection.

Just report it as a fake to eBay and follow their instructions to obtain a full refund.

screamer

LOL, I've done that, I'm trying to stop him from scamming others. His Modus Operandi is getting a bit obvious now though so spotting his dodgy auctions is almost getting too easy. I've just discovered he's branching out on products and have found another 4 of his auctions where he's stolen the pictures and words from other listings so for today at least I've stopped him in his tracks, I'll be back on it tomorrow!

TKPeters

You can only report each of the listings, although the quickest way to warn others is via Feedback

BillyB

Like Porto Bello siad, report the item you received as fake, also google 'reporting counterfeit items ebay' - you can report up to 10 counterfeit items. Will stop someone else ending up with them hopefully.

Mandles

Yes, I say report it . Save other buyers from these people.

screamer

OK, cool, just rifled through ebay and found another 5 auctions. Unfortunately only 3 I can prove are dodgy so I've reported them. The 2 remaining dodgy auctions I can't prove are fake even though I reported the man yesterday for stealing a listing and photos. Am hoping he hasn't sold it and ebay removed it. Why would ebay only remove the offending item though and not look at his history?

I reported my dodgy seller as soon as the package landed on my doorstep, he actually thinks that I'm going to swallow his excuse of "not knowing it was fake" when he'd posted a supposedly £60 item in an envelope with a first class stamp on it and no additional packaging or even recorded delivery. I can escalate my claim after 12.10 today apparently.

techspec

I used to report loads until i realised Ebay were part of the scam

angelcake

get onto ebay chat and explain the whole lot for them to investigate, either that or call them! Am sick of ebay scammers, I don't know how they get away with it!!