List of scammers on ebay

[Mat 2]

I have decided to start compiling a list of fraudulent sellers on ebay for all to see, as I deal in all high value coins and notes I probably come accross more scammers than most people, so I am going to start sharing this:

The latest two people are as follows, luckily for me I have not lost anything as I always buy or win auctions but ask very tactful questions before I pay to catch them out.

lihaojiaoyi721 - this seller has some very nice coins foreign and british on sale occationally, after close examinations of the listing pictures, most of the features on his coins just do not match up, such as flawless looking coins from the 1700s, but then mint marks letters are too far apart, the bust hair is not as detailed as it should be etc etc..

My latest encounter: mwizard - he claims the two coins he is selling were his dads which he bought in auction in 2002.

He had an 1825 pattern £2 coin on auction which I lost at $5400, but then ebay removed the auction after it ended for an infrindgement, so I emailed the seller saying if for what ever reason the sale does not go through I would like to buy it but through ebay only, so he created a private listing for me: 160327609719

So after I used the buy it now option, this is the emails he replied with, you can pretty much guess the what my questions to him were:

Dear icedchetty,

I have restored MY(sorry) account.Wiining bidder was trying to pay me using hijacked paypal account. I reported this crook to eBay. So eBay ended this listing. However item George IV gold is still available for sale.

Or i can relist with buy it now and you can buy via Ebay.

Dear icedchetty,

of course,

How do I create a private listing ? i do with buy it now at $4000. okay ?

Dear icedchetty,

i have a new problem. i got a message from support.

Your account may have been accessed by a third party. In an effort to protect your account, we have put a temporary block on bidding, selling and the ability to send messages to other eBay members until we can safely restore your account to you. Please click here to go to our Account Security Live Chat service.

Dear icedchetty,

I have already removed restrictions on my account. Are you ready to finish the deal? I am doing the listing an category of "everything else , correct ?

i can do this now.

(WON ITEM USING BUY IT NOW)

Dear icedchetty,

Banking details as follows:

PNC Bank

4022 FIFTH AVENUE

PITTSBURGH, PA 15213

Checking Account: 1027313212

Routing Number: 043000096

Name on Account: Christopher Hilinski

swift code: PNCCUS33

Dear icedchetty,

Okay,

you make wire transfer (bank to bank wire), right ?

I would be grateful if you will email me the reference number of your wire. So I could call to my bank and ask them about your wire.

Thanks

Dear icedchetty,

After the cour process with one of my buyers I do not accept PayPal. I had a bad experience with PayPal, I was scammed for $7k and haven't found that scammer yet.

Dear icedchetty,

sorry dont send me paypal

Dear icedchetty,

Unfortunately my paypal acc locked now.

Dear icedchetty,

okay, you come flying

His address registered to ebay is:

Christopher Hilinski

El Dorado Hills, CA 95762 United States

Which is 2700 miles away from his bank address.......

So there we have it..... I encourage you to update these fraud lists as you go....

[VickySilver 830]

Is he saying he wants you to fly there for the coin?

A lot of detail and hassle, and more than suspicious. Bottom line with these fellows remains the same as always : "There is no Santa Claus in Numimatics".

I don't have too many to add as I have pretty much stuck to the same sellers. I do know of a fellow who bought some years ago an 1838 currency sovereign that turned out to be a milled edge proof, and bought at 1250 pounds! So a bargain to be had every now and then as well...

[Mat 2]

Very true, thats what I was hoping for here I guess as he claimed he knew nothing about coins and they were his dads etc..

The last question was I offered to come and fly over to the US to collect it and pay in cash... but this is now the email he has sent when I persisted:

Dear icedchetty,

I do not know what to do.

In addition, once I went to a meeting with a buyer and was robbed and need to go to the hospital because of physical injuries that caused me. Sorry that was a bad experience

I wont put you a status of unaid item strike. The deal is jsut cancelled. OK ?

He is getting more of a joke each time he replys! I swear he is nearly to the point of admitting its all a scam...

I have reported him to his bank of which he gave me the details of, ebay, the police authority in his registered postcode on ebay and paypal

Such a shame it would have been such a nice item to acquire if it was all legit...

[VickySilver 830]

As they said in the Forrest Gump movie: "Run, Forrest, Run". Scary and crazy, what was the point of listing the coin?

[Hussulo 6]

Mat the cert number checks out at PCGS.

According to their registry there are 2 coins graded PR63 non lower or higher.

A good way to tell if the coin does belong to him would be to get him to take a picture of it sitting on top of a current newspaper showing the date and one picture of him holding the slab. That being said I would be very suspicious of his banking details and the pictures could easily be lifted from another auction site.

other things to note:

He as only sold one item in 12 months (26th Jul 08) winning bidder was

jennaluna122 if you check jennaluna122's feedback there are none left by mwizard.

He now keeps the winning user ID private so you cannot contact any of the past or recent winners to ask them any specific questions.

All in all a bit fishy and far to much money to take a gamble on. That's the trouble with buying high end coins from other sellers and non recognised dealers on line if you get stung you stand to loose a lot of money.

[RLC35 288]

Huss, That's great advice. Without a history of positive feedbacks, or other personal associations...don't bid more than you can afford to LOSE!

[Hussulo 6]

Thanks to some I am probably pointing out the obvious, but this is a good thread.

I've had some bargains buying on ebay but I've also fell for the odd con before and bought items that turned out to be not as described or not what they appear to be and I'm sure I probably will do again. The key is to do a little research before hand if you can, examine what the sellers return options are in case you need to return it. After weighing all these then decide if its worth taking a gamble. I have to say thought $4000 I would not take a gamble and think you did the right thing Mat.

9 times out of 10 if a deal looks to good to be true it probably is or as VickySilver says "There is no Santa Claus in Numimatics". You should always trust your instinct and don't be scarred to ask a seller questions. If they don't reply or their reply sounds dodgy, move on.

Edited April 12, 2009 by Hussulo

[scott 144]

not seen any scammers, but yea feedback is always a good spot, anything around 98-100 is a good sign, i have got the odd bargain myself (got a russian 2 kopecks worth £10 for £1.74, off a guy who doesnt usualy sell coins, and asked about it on a site where people collect russians and they see it as genuine)

i try and avoid

hard to see pictures

people using one picture for many (ebay flodded with pennies atm with the same picture...)

paying too much for things i'm not 100% sure on (looks good etc etc)

if its cheap enough and you just want the example then sure, gamble away.

[Coppers 58]

Speaking of scammers....does anyone on the forum recall the the dealer or dealers from Gibraltar? I believe their ebay id was investcoins2000 or something similar. Does anyone know what became of them?

[ramit52 0]

On a slightly different issue on Ebay - since the introduction of no insertion fees for items less than 99p we now see a whole of load of rubbish coins being sold with little or no value. One particular seller is listing pennies of every date from the 20th century at 49p - numeroud entries of the same date (and not even bothering to show a proper photograph of the exact coin) and this is clogging up the searching of decent coins. Another seller is trying to sell a 1971 penny from circulation also for 49p with £1.50 postage.

Whilst I cannot imaganie any sane person bidding for these items the free insetion by Ebay has now seen the listing of pennies increase from 2500 avereage to more than 5000 - the difference being the multitude of these listings. Ebay make no money on these lisitngs (unless in the unlikely event they sell) so hopefully Ebay will listen to complaints and return to a listing fee.

[Red Riley 2]

anything around 98-100 is a good sign,

Frankly, I never bid on an item where the seller has less than 99.5! And I read all the negative comments.

[Mat 2]

Hello guys, thanks for the replys and there is some good advice there.... would you believe this guy is STILL persisting with me, the more he replys with the more if a joke he is making out of him self, I asked him for the photos as you suggest of the slabbed coin taken in his hands and next to his face:

Dear icedchetty,

Sorry, can't send any more pics because I don't have a digital camera at the moment.

Then it all came out even more when he then sent this:

Dear icedchetty,

I consulted with my father and he said, only if you make a wire transfer deposit of 50% then I will send you this coin.

In another case I have to break the deal.

Here is not your fault. You are probably a good guy. Sorry.

So his farther is still alive!! in which case why on earth would his son be selling off his coin which he would have paid $0000000s for....

So its now gone from $5400 to $4000 to now $2000 that he is willing to accept, if we are still communicating with eachother in a week I will offer him $1, see if he accepts.

I think we should now focus on the other coin he has on there: 160327773764 again this proof is worth a few thousand. How can we prevent some poor buyer getting scammed, if any one has a spare dormant ebay account they can win it with......

[Hussulo 6]

"Run, Forrest, Run"

[Mat 2]

Another one to add to the ebay list.....

User ID:

ldxhwzg

Item number:

330321704142

Would have sold for about £400 in this condition, I won it for $109 USD.

W

[Mat 2]

opps didnt finish the post....

Instead of staying clear of these chineese sellers, I just go for it and win it, then ask outright: "Before I make payment, can you confirm the coin is not a counterfeit, because if I find it is when I recieve it I will file a charge back on my credit card and automatically get a refund without even using paypal to despute it, and you will lose the money and the coin."

And would you believe he replied with:

"In that case it prob is a fake."

If I paid for all the coins I won this week I would be £3.5k down!

Here is a good tip: Remove all your debit cards linked to your paypal account, and just fund paypal via credit card, make sure your paypal is empty when you make a payment so the transaction is 100% funded by your credit card otherwise it will be partially funded by your account balance. Then if somthing goes wrong and you lose your paypal case when you file a dispute, you can then simply file a charge back on your credit card as you are covered by the credit consumer protection act, and automatically covered by the sale of goods act 1991 which includes items which are broken, replica, did not arrive, or if the company goes bust, (or the seller becomes a "no longer a registered user" in the case of ebay).

If you dont read many posts, take note of the above advice it really is worth doing and can protect you greatly in the event paypal lets you down! If you do the transaction as the right time, you can make it so you dispute the item befor your credit card bill is due, so you can freeze that transaction in the event of a dipute and never end up dipping into your own pocket to pay for it as you wont have settled your credit card bill.

Mat

[Gary D 76]

Re credit card advice, I do exactly that and on the one occassion I needed it by being tucked up by a seller I got £150 back from paypal but the creditcard company wasn't interested.

opps didnt finish the post....

Instead of staying clear of these chineese sellers, I just go for it and win it, then ask outright: "Before I make payment, can you confirm the coin is not a counterfeit, because if I find it is when I recieve it I will file a charge back on my credit card and automatically get a refund without even using paypal to despute it, and you will lose the money and the coin."

And would you believe he replied with:

"In that case it prob is a fake."

If I paid for all the coins I won this week I would be £3.5k down!

Here is a good tip: Remove all your debit cards linked to your paypal account, and just fund paypal via credit card, make sure your paypal is empty when you make a payment so the transaction is 100% funded by your credit card otherwise it will be partially funded by your account balance. Then if somthing goes wrong and you lose your paypal case when you file a dispute, you can then simply file a charge back on your credit card as you are covered by the credit consumer protection act, and automatically covered by the sale of goods act 1991 which includes items which are broken, replica, did not arrive, or if the company goes bust, (or the seller becomes a "no longer a registered user" in the case of ebay).

If you dont read many posts, take note of the above advice it really is worth doing and can protect you greatly in the event paypal lets you down! If you do the transaction as the right time, you can make it so you dispute the item befor your credit card bill is due, so you can freeze that transaction in the event of a dipute and never end up dipping into your own pocket to pay for it as you wont have settled your credit card bill.

Mat

[Mat 2]

RE: As long as you have got the seller to confirm the item is not a counterfeit via email or on the listing the consumer act will cover you. If the listing just simply states what the coin is, without sayng the words "genuine" or somthing in that effect then its a little harder from the credit card issuer point of view, best example I can give...A branded footware called Ugg Boots were being sold on the internet. The title and description stated Ugg boots for sale, hundreds were sold which turned out to be fake ugg boots. Buyers could not get a refund through their credit cards as the sellers did not state branded... used the trade mark... or anything like that, simply called them ugg boots which is yes very unfair and missleading, but not against the law in the way they did it.

Re credit card advice, I do exactly that and on the one occassion I needed it by being tucked up by a seller I got £150 back from paypal but the creditcard company wasn't interested.

opps didnt finish the post....

Instead of staying clear of these chineese sellers, I just go for it and win it, then ask outright: "Before I make payment, can you confirm the coin is not a counterfeit, because if I find it is when I recieve it I will file a charge back on my credit card and automatically get a refund without even using paypal to despute it, and you will lose the money and the coin."

And would you believe he replied with:

"In that case it prob is a fake."

If I paid for all the coins I won this week I would be £3.5k down!

Here is a good tip: Remove all your debit cards linked to your paypal account, and just fund paypal via credit card, make sure your paypal is empty when you make a payment so the transaction is 100% funded by your credit card otherwise it will be partially funded by your account balance. Then if somthing goes wrong and you lose your paypal case when you file a dispute, you can then simply file a charge back on your credit card as you are covered by the credit consumer protection act, and automatically covered by the sale of goods act 1991 which includes items which are broken, replica, did not arrive, or if the company goes bust, (or the seller becomes a "no longer a registered user" in the case of ebay).

If you dont read many posts, take note of the above advice it really is worth doing and can protect you greatly in the event paypal lets you down! If you do the transaction as the right time, you can make it so you dispute the item befor your credit card bill is due, so you can freeze that transaction in the event of a dipute and never end up dipping into your own pocket to pay for it as you wont have settled your credit card bill.

Mat