By JC REINDL , Special to The Bristol Press 10/14/2003

PLAINVILLE -- A Plainville resident narrowly escaped losing $4,000 last week by an allegedly fraudulent auction seller claiming to offer a fantastic deal on a snowmobile through the Internet.

Justin Mals reported to police last week that after unsuccessfully trying to send a wire transfer to an individual claiming to offer his $8,000 snowmobile for $4,000, the eBay internet auction service tagged the auction as fraudulent, police reports said.

Mals told police that the individual claiming to sell the snowmobile insisted he pay for it through the Western Union money wire service, according to police reports. Justin Mals’ father, Gerald Mals, said the Western Union employee handling the transfer refused to send the money because the circumstances around the transaction seemed highly suspect as fraud.

"My hat’s off to Western Union," Gerald Mals said.

Before his son realized the auction was not legitimate, Gerald Mals said his son contacted the seller once the wire transfer was refused, and ask if he and his father could drive to the seller’s supposed New York residence to pick up the snowmobile and pay for it in cash. Gerald Mals said the seller refused.

Soon afterward, Gerald Mals said his son logged onto eBay and discovered that users were warning him to not send money because it was a fraudulent auction, and the auction’s owner likely had no intention of sending the snowmobile, if it even existed.

Further investigation by police and eBay officials found that the individual who listed the auction had allegedly stolen the password from someone else’s account, according to police reports.

Plainville police officer and Internet specialist David Posadas said it is not surprising Justin Mals was asked to send the money via wire transfer, because wire transfers are easy ways criminals can receive money from scams since an individual only needs a claim number and some sort of identification to pick the money up.

"Most of the [Internet] frauds that are done are made with Western Union," Posadas said.

Western Union spokesperson Danielle Jimenez said it is a company policy to train their agents to be on the lookout for the latest fraud schemes. She said the company can decide to not to go through with a money transfer if agents feel there is a scam at work.

Posadas said Justin Mals provided police with the e-mail correspondences between him and the individual who listed the auction, and that the fraud department at eBay is investigating the case.

"It was a good lesson, let me put it that way; a real good lesson," said Gerald Mals.

The eBay Web site advises users to be weary of transactions where the buyer only accepts cash or wire-transfer money. The company recommends those buying items for more than $500 mediate the transaction with an escrow service, which will hold the buyer’s payment until the buyer has received, inspected and approved the auction item.

Jimenez said that while Western Union tries its best to prevent consumer fraud, it is up to individuals to look after themselves.

"We encourage consumers to be smart consumers, and if a deal seems too good to be true, it probably is," Jimenez said.

Thanks for posting that, Matt.
I'm going to pin this for a while.

makes you wonder who sent him the emails... could be some of us

My wife sent one of those emails! I know because the guy wrote back, and that was the name that was signed. Wish I had kept the email so you guys could see it. He was a first time buyer on EBay.
After having my sister get ripped off, the wife is always trying to keep it from happening to someone else.
:beerchug:

I emailed a first-time buyer to beware, but never got a response. Oh well, I don't care. I just hope I'm making a difference warning these people.

Here is an Email that the guy sent to me!


Title of item: 2001 Polaris XC700sp snowmobile
Seller: bacosta1980
Starts: Oct-22-03 13:09:11 PDT
Ends: Oct-25-03 13:09:11 PDT
Price: Starts at $250.00
To view the item, go to: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...item=2438959026






Hello ,

I am glad that you are interested in my bike and that you wanna buy it.
I must tell you that i have in my possesion the clean title of the bike and all the papers that you will need to register the bike in your country.

First of all i want to make you known the terms and conditions of this auction.
The bike will be shipped from France and i will pay for all the shipping, handeling taxes and the custom fees too.

The bike will be shipped via FedEx France, the best shipping service in France and you will receive the bike in 3 days...maybe 4 days tops.
They will deliver the bike at your shipping address.
YOU WILL NOT PAY any additional taxes, only the price of it, only the buy it now price.

I prefere the payment to be done through money order service and as soon as i will check the deposit i will deliver the bike to FedEx.
I also accept 50% from the total price prior to shipping and after you recive the bike and inspect it, test drive it,...you will send me the rest of the other half of the payment.

I will provide you 15 days money back guarantee. That means that within 15 working days if you decide that you don't want to keep the bike for whichever reason, you'll ship it back to me and you'll get the full amount back.
Please let me know if you are interested to close the deal whith me and if you agree I will send to you the details for payment and delivery.

If you agree with these terms i will be more than glad to complete the transaction with you.

I will wait for yor reply.

Regards ,

There's an F7 Nightfire being given away for like $4,100 on Ebay now...the seller claims he has two...sounds rotten to me. :frech32:

They should at least get their story straight. Like above he is selling a sled and calls it a bike. Here is a letter from a guy I wrote who was selling his ZR 800.


ello there ,

I live in Italy more exactly in Roma , I received my snowboard as a gift
last week for my birthday from my uncle , who lives in US. If you are
really interested to buy my snowboard I`ll sell it now for 2600 USD with
shipping included.Please email me and I give you all necesarry details to
close the deal.
I`ll wait your mail with your decision.
Thank you!

>From: swingingsteel@aol.com
>To: mattews00352@msn.com
>Subject: Question for seller -- Item #2444664586
>Date: Sun, 23 Nov 2003 07:02:54 PST

I have asked if they will take escrow and it is always no. I am hoping one of them will, so I can find out who and where they are.

the guy who is pressuring me right now to buy his 2004 rx warrior for 2900 us $ from the ebay wharehouse is insane. he wants a western union transfer or he will have me kicked off ebay. if any body want to email him its FutingSport@aol.comutingsport@aol.com

HE CAN'T KICK YOU OFF OF EBAY , THE WORST THAT CAN HAPPEN
IS YOU WILL GET A WARNING FOR BEING A NON PAYING BIDDER , 3
STRIKES AND YER OUT, HE MIGHT LEAVE YOU SOME NASTY FEEDBACK.
DON'T WORRY ABOUT IT.

you are correct sir i am not worried . my snowmobiling brother from fl. told me about this site and the fact that smart peaple where figuring it out and doing something about it.

I was checking out a 2004 Sabrecat starting at $2700. It had only 73 miles, according to the ad. I emailed the person if I could just pick it up, since I checked his other items and found out he was about 50 miles from where I live. When I went back to "Items watching", it was posted,"Invalid". I get back on the auction site again, and now it's listed half way across the country!! Now I check my email, and this chucklehead wants me to wire money to the Netherlands. Born yesterday, but was up all night

I really don't want to be mean or rude but how could anyone be that gullable (ok, I'll say it STUPID). It blows my mind that anyone would take on that type of transaction sight unseen.

Danny

I have had a few interstate transactions, sight unseen (except pix), and have had no problems. You can usually tell the scammers, with their poor grammar/spelling, and unusual requests. I always have a phone conversation or two as well, which scammers dont like. Always err to the cautious side...if it doesn't feel right, don't do it! And for sure be wary of deals out of the country, and snowmobiles for sale from Texas or Nigeria!!

You really need to be vigilant with on-line deals. Be sure to contact the buyer and get all of his info before you bid. Ask for several references and check his feedback (On eBay) and make sure the person you are dealing with is the real person with the feedback. I sell high end cars and powersports on eBay and these type of scumbags can really make people wary of doing on-line deals. Fact of the matter is though, e Bay needs to figure out a way to foil these dirtballs. It's getting to be a big problem. Even so, when I started selling cars eBay sold 30,000 cars a year now the number is in the 350,000 area. The key is communication and REAL positive feedback.

Agreed. I bought one of my T-cats off ebay last fall. But before I clicked the mouse to commit to the bid I had fully checked the sellers feedback, received many extra close up photos of the sled, spoken to him on the phone three times and basically just got a good feel for the situation. You just need to exercise common sense and be careful. But to be honest, even after all that, I probably would not have done the deal if he had not been willing to waive sending a deposit. I told him if I was willing to drive from southern MI to northern WI to pick up the sled, and pay in cash, then he should be willing to waive the deposit. He agreed and I added a nice sled to my stable at a very good price. The bottom line is that anything worth having is worth waiting for....on BOTH sides of the deal.