AuctionCut

My purpose is to do some damage to the individual who scammed me.

His eBay name is APEXSPORTING.


I am totally new to this online transactions thing, so this person found a good opportunity to earn some easy $500.

Long story short:

He posted a listing of an iPhone 4 for $500 on eBay, which he removed after a few minutes. I was unlucky enough to contact him and ask him about the phone. His trap worked.

After a few emails, he persuaded me to send the money to an "eBay escrow agent" through Western Union who will release them to him once I got the iPhone 4. I even got a fake email from "eBay" which confirmed the transaction, having links to live chat with an "eBay assistant".

After I send the money, he was so greedy that he claimed that "accidentally" sent me 3 iPhones , and that I could have them all for an additional $500. There I started getting suspicious and I declined.

A couple of weeks later, after senting him a ton of emails and diging up on eBay's page on how to recognize a scam (which btw had also took a quick look at before I sent the money, but I didnt found any clue to prevent me from being scammed) I realized that I wont be receiving any iPhones.

I realize that my ignorance led me to being scammed, but I believe eBay has part of the responsibility because:

a) Seller is a 99.7% on 700+ transactions, which means he uses his reputation to scam his victims.

b) His listing for the iPhone4 was listed on the eBay to lure ppl to contact him about it

c) Ebay should do a better job informing new members on how to avoid frauds like this.

d) If he does this regularly and did not got kicked out from eBay, then I assume the site turns a blind eye on behaviours like this in order to maintain its profits from an old seller.

I informed eBay about the issue and they told me that they will look at my situation and act accordingly. The seller is still active and from what I understand, they arent willing to do much since he technically scammed me outside of eBay.

My first experience with online transactions was a bad one, and if its so easily to fall into traps, I think I will avoid it in the future to try buying anything online again, or at least buy from online shops I can trust.

Cheers