Bogus/scary 2nd chance offers on eBay BEWARE

[itjclarke]

Crazy story Blinky. I've gotta think the weird seller story is just a second separate strange, semi believable tale.. But not related to the Czech thing. I admit, it's late and I got pretty ADD trying to read through his story. Anyway, back to the Czech thing, that's interesting. I didn't get that far with him because I was pretty sure my offer was fake from the start.

It's weird to me that he's able to so adeptly get secret bidder info (our identities, our personal email addresses, coupled with our bid amounts.. The fact he's able to do this is also my main worry) and to construct a reasonably believable eBay email with mostly working links, but seems so very clumsy in the execution of the payment step. He's going to have trouble if that's how the only way he can receive payment.. Maybe that works in 2001?? I'm not an IT guy at all, but if he can somehow work PayPal payment into this scam, he'll have a much better chance to succeed.

[Leon]

I have a little bit of experience with understanding how to go about getting justice for these types of crimes. I am no lawyer and this is only my semi-experienced opinion. From what I have read I don't know think this rises to an FBI level. If someone is out money then they should first go to their local police dept. and file a report. Those authorities have a duty to help their local citizens. I have asked all of these questions, in this thread, to many law enforcement agencies over the years. Is attempted fraud a crime? I think so. But it's not the type of crime that will draw heavy law enforcement. It's when someone has been defrauded, and the more the worse it is, when they get more involved. And to get the FBI involved it usually needs to be more widespread and more damages than 4-5 figures.

[itjclarke]

Yeah, I agree wholeheartedly... If there were drugs/guns/etc, it would garner more attention. As is, there's a guy trying to dupe a bunch of dudes that buy old card board. Probably not at the top of the FBI most wanted list. I do really hope someone gets this guy before he figures out how to make money on this though.