Consumer News » EBay fraud

£80,000 eBay scammer guilty of multiple theft charges

Alan — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 06:05:10 +0000

It is not certain exactly how many charges of fraud were brought against Jamie Lane of Paignton in Exeter; at least seventeen of them were dismissed, but enough were upheld to send him to jail for two years. Lane, a 39-year-old man with what was described by his solicitor as “a dreadful history” finally pleaded guilty on 21 charges of theft, fraud and handling stolen goods.

Lane appeared at Exeter Crown Court last month, where the court was informed that most of an approximately £80,000 scam came from eBay transactions in which the accused sold property he had stolen, or accepted payment for property he never owned. He then ‘washed’ the money he received by purchasing and re-selling used cars.

In a long series of fraudulent transactions that took place between November 2007 and December 2010, Lane stole farm machinery in various locations around Devon and Cornwall, including tractors, trailers and chippers. He then sold them at auction to buyers who were unaware they were purchasing stolen goods.

The police were investigating the sales of those stolen goods when they uncovered another aspect of Lane’s chicanery; he was also advertising on eBay offering products that did not exist. He got around the usual payment security measures by persuading buyers to contact him directly. Lane’s ads said shipment of the product would take place upon payment, but no products were shipped.

Defence for Jamie Lane argued that the defendant had a terrible upbringing and a diagnosed case of Asberger’s, and simply could not help himself. They said he had a congenital history of lying that was a result of an unhappy childhood; presumably he learned to cope with it by lying and stealing.

The judge, John Neligan, decided that was not a good excuse. He said the defendant was guilty of harming a lot of people, and prosecutors said there were probably a lot more who hadn’t yet learned of the fraud, therefore had not come forward to claim restitution.

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Woman swindled hundreds of people on eBay

Alan — Fri, 08 Apr 2011 20:01:54 +0000

After a full investigation by Wandsworth trading standard officers, a woman that sold fake goods on eBay and swindled hundreds of people, has been given a suspended prison sentence. Thousands of pounds were taken from her online customers by duping them into believing that the items she, Kitty Lin-Wilson of Balham, sold were genuine when in reality they were counterfeits of poor quality.

Top end price for an array of goods that included make up brushes, purses, clothing and cosmetics were paid by her customers as they were advertised as genuine and from exclusive suppliers like Estee Lauder and Chanel. She claimed she could not remember all of her eBay and Paypal customers, while under questioning, saying there were too many to remember.

A six month jail sentence was handed down to Lin-Wilson on Thursday after she pleaded guilty to committing seven breaches of the Trade Marks Act at an earlier court hearing and at the same time admitted to a money laundering offence. Representatives from Estee Lauder contacted trading officers and an investigation was launched about her selling activities that Estee Lauder said was breaking trade mark laws.

Her home was raided after confirmation that the items she sold had been fake, and there were found hundreds of counterfeit items in the home. A financial investigation found out that from July 2007 to February 2009 over £76,000 was paid into Paypal accounts under her control. Further action of money confiscation will be taken against her under the Proceeds of Crime Act of 2002.

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Woman sold fake items on eBay

Alan — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 03:25:50 +0000

Following an investigation by Wandsworth trading standards officers, a woman that sold fake goods on eBay has been given a suspended prison sentence. In reality they were counterfeits of poor quality, but Kitty Lin-Wilson received thousands of pounds of my by making clients believe here products were genuine.

The phony good were cosmetics, brushes for make up, bags; clothing and purses all advertised as genuine from top line companies such as Estee Lauder and Chanel and her clients paid high end prices. She had so many clients that while being questioned by authorities she stated she had a hard time being able to remember them all.

Lin-Wilson received a six month sentence suspended for two years, on Thursday, from a Kingston Crown Court. She admitted to a money laundering offence as well as a guilty plea for seven breaches of the Trade Marks Act 1984.

The police along with trading standards officers raided the home of Lin-Wilson after they confirmed items she was selling on a number of eBay accounts were not genuine and in the raid found many counterfeit items.

Also discovered was more than £76,000 of deposits into varying Paypal accounts between July 2007 and February 2009, all account she controlled. There is also additional legal action that will be taken against her, including seeking a money confiscation order making sure profits made by here from criminal activities will not remain with her.

She passed off inferior goods and made large sums of money by conning hundreds of people into paying for replicas of fake goods said the council’s spokesman Cllr. Sarah McDermott adding that they were getting just poor quality fakes.

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Man tries to sell same lawn mower twice on eBay

Alan — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 09:11:24 +0000

Christopher Llewelyn Kerrell, a 27-year-old Dolau man, is guilty of having tried to twice sell a lawn mower on eBay. He agreed to the offence before court Wednesday in Llandrindod Wells.

He changed his story about the incident, after having denied his guilt for nearly three weeks. He only stood to gain £705 by selling the mower to a second party, after having already sold it in promise to a first party.

According to Kevin Challinor, Prosecutor, the first man, posting the complaint, owns an agricultural business and bought the mower through eBay from Kerrell. He first contacted Kerrell via email and they agreed on a price. The complainant was to mail a cheque, which was actually drawn on within 9 days from the beginning of the transaction. Kerrell had requested the cheque be made out to his wife.

According to the agreement, the complainant was due to pick up the mower in three months. However, the man found that Kerrell had closed his eBay account. After a bit of research he found the exact same mower for sale under a different account, OK Contracting.

The mower had already been sold again to another buyer, in Powys. The complainant warned that if contact was not received from OK Contracting within a 24-hour window, the authorities would be involved. The account was immediately closed.

Kerrell in fact does have prior offences of fraud, regarding bounced cheques six years ago. The defence was that Kerrell was not performing a professional crime, but taking advantage of an opportunity, since he was out of work. His references are excellent and will certainly find employment within the month. He is basically just “growing up”.

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EBay seller of fake art jailed

Alan — Sat, 30 Oct 2010 02:27:39 +0000

A conman produced and sold work he accredited to artist Tracey Emin on eBay. The one time art student, Jonathan Rayfern, reportedly produced around 11 art pieces that he accredited to Emin and sold to a gallery owner and at least one other person.

The conman had studied beside Emin for two weeks while a student attending Westminster University. He is said to possess his own assortment of Emin’s work, for which he paid £16,000 while attending school.

He claimed to have sold the art forgeries in order to pay off a loan shark. He had borrowed money from the unscrupulous lender in order to fund one of his own art projects. He no doubt picked Emin’s work to copy because of having studied under her for a very brief period.

Ironically, he claims to be a fan of the artist.

Emin was reported to have been very upset over finding that there were fakes of her work on the market. A gallery owner familiar with Emin reportedly discovered the fake art. She came across the forgeries and called the Metropolitan Police.

The work was sold to Alan Elkin, a gallery owner himself, from Warwick. It included sketches and drawings on fabric.

Emin described the forgeries as crude and was distraught to know that people were conned into thinking that they were buying originals of hers.

Emin is reportedly processing the incident in Australia. She is concerned with damage to her reputation and the integrity of her collection, along with feeling hurt and disappointed.

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Rumanian eBay information thief arrested

Alan — Wed, 06 Oct 2010 02:44:18 +0000

Authorities in the investigation of organized crime in Rumania have arrested Liviu Mihail Concioiu on suspicion of a major phishing attack on eBay and other entities. The investigation, which has been going on since May 2009, was conducted in collaboration with U.S. Embassy agents in Bucharest, as well as internal eBay security staffers.

According to the reports, Concioiu used more than one phishing attack on eBay’s files to access confidential information about both employees and customers. Basically, the scammer sent phishing emails to more than 3,000 people and succeeded in getting passwords to the financial data banks of some of eBay’s ‘high end’ customers. They also broke into and disrupted eBay’s auction marketplace, and the total cost of the attacks has been estimated at more than $3 million, or £1.9 million

In another phishing scam, Concioiu and as yet unnamed accomplices managed to withdraw more than $400,000 from bank teller machines in Italy by creating fake bank cards with data stolen from user accounts.

Spear phishing, as this type of targeted cyber crime has come to be known, is certainly not unusual, but eBay spokesmen said that the arrest constitutes a major victory against fraud and theft on the Internet. They said that the company is working closely with law enforcement agencies worldwide to protect their customers and to uncover and prosecute phishers and other thieves who threaten the user community.

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Over zealous prosecutors in EBay fraud debacle

Alan — Fri, 24 Sep 2010 02:19:41 +0000

A Carlisle judge is asking for a formal investigation to see how an innocent woman was placed in front of the court on a fraud charge even though the prosecution had clear evidence that the woman was not guilty.

Louise Gabrys, age 30, showed up in court for her trial at which point the Crown Court lawyers realized that in the documents was proof that she was not guilty of the charges.

Gabrys was a former resident of Carlisle and currently resides in Middlesex. She appeared in court on charges of failing to send items listed for sale on eBay that were paid for. She stated all items were posted and it was not in her control that they did not arrive.

Within the evidence held by the prosecutors were four parcel receipts that proved she did in fact place them into the post at the Carlisle post office. One customer even marked on the eBay website that she was both a fast shipper and great seller.

Antony Longworth, the prosecuting counsel, stated that the case was the result of the fact that many items had been listed as missing on the website and that she must not have sent them properly.

However, given the fact that she has evidence that at least four of the items had been posted it was assumed that she also posted the other packages that were listed as missing. Instead, the prosecutor offered no evidence that she was guilty and she was formally released with a not guilty verdict.

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Ebay trader fined for shill bidding

Alan — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 00:54:23 +0000

An eBay trader has been fined around £5000 and received a community service order for bidding on his own items in an attempt to boost their final selling prices. The processes, referred to as shill bidding, which is a fairly common practice, but now that people are catching and those behind the illegal practice are getting caught.

Paul Barrett was the first person within the UK to be prosecuted for fixing online auction prices after he admitted that he used dual eBay accounts to bid against his own items.

He was caught after a complaint was issued against his mini-bus hire firm leading to an investigation from the North Yorkshire Trading Standards. The complaint was that he sold and advertised a vehicle on eBay with lower mileage than it had originally.

Officers discovered that Barrett was selling goods on the auction site under the name ‘shanconpaul’ and then using the name ‘paulthebusman’ to bid on them. He would also use the second account to post positive feedback for the account as well.

He was found guilty of breaching both the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 and the Business Protection from Misleading Marketing Regulations 2008.

Barrett plead guilty but stated that he did not know that bidding against his own auctions was a criminal offense.

The Office of Fair Trading 2007 report stated that shill bidding is one of the most popular types of problems that occur with online auction site bidders. In fact, 14% of those polled in a survey stated that they thought they had been victims of shill bidding.

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British rugby star jailed for EBay fraud

Alan — Sat, 29 May 2010 08:36:23 +0000

British rugby star Gareth Raynor has pled guilty on charges of fraud and counterfeiting, and has been sentenced to a total of 15 months in jail by Judge Roger Thorne QC of the Hull Crown Court.

The jail term, which began this month, will probably end Raynor’s career in rugby, but Judge Thorne said that he really had no choice. Raynor was also under suspended sentence for a July 2008 assault on a doorman, and was told in no uncertain terms that any further misbehaviour would mean a jail sentence.

The scam that led to Raynor’s sentencing apparently began long before the arrest for assault in 2008. It involved the importing of second-hand reconditioned ink cartridges from China to Raynor’s home in Brough, near Hull.

The used cartridges were then re-packaged to look like new products from companies such as HP and Canon. Under the name ‘Genuine Ink’, Raynor was selling these fake cartridges on the Internet auction site eBay to the tune of about £36,500 in illegal profits.

In August of 2008, trading standards officers with East Riding Yorkshire Council raided the Brough residence and found a large quantity of the fake cartridges in the house and garage. Investigators also found that Raynor had been counterfeiting computer games such as Nintendo and Gameboy.

Raynor’s attorney told the Court that his client was deeply remorseful, and both former coach Brian Noble and the former chaplain of Hull FC offered character references. The judge was not swayed, and handed down the sentence for both assault and fraud.

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