Fw: [Heathkit] stupid ebay scammer

Sat, 3 Jan 2004 23:34:02 -0600

Duane has one thing correct. Let's get back to business.

A personal thanks Bob, for setting the record in the correct basic
direction regarding the auction place.  I have a very close blood
relative employed by the place in California.  Most all of the goblins
one sees and hears about them are worth about the same as a few other
"sensitive" topics, exactly what one pays for them.  For those who
doubt, check the stock listings.  There aren't that many suckers out
there to provide the successes now being experienced in the financial
marketplace.

There are better topics which don't bring out the worst in folks and
stay much closer to reality.  So let's get them glowin'.

Cheers from Minnesota

Gerry

Collecting & Restoring since 1959
Gerald Steffens P.E.
Oronoco, MN

-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected]
[mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of bob
Sent: Saturday, January 03, 2004 5:44 PM
To: Duane Fischer, W8DBF
Cc: Jim Isbell; DataPro; [email protected]
Subject: Re: Fw: [Heathkit] stupid ebay scammer

Ebay is in the state of California and operates fully within the laws of

the state and federal governments. It is a big business, bigger than 
AT&T or any store chain. It is doing some 6 million transactions per day

and no one can keep track of them all. To have a clerk type available 
for each transaction (5 minutes to post, 10 minutes when sold) would 
require a staff of around a million people and would cost a couple 
orders of magnitude more than they are now charging. 

If 0.1% (one in a thousand or about the same chance of you getting hit 
by lightning) of their transactions go bad and require intervention by a

person, that is also around 10,000 employees just to handle the 
complaints. I seem to remember that they have around 4,000 employees 
total including the marketing, ITs and other computer folk. I believe 
their PayPal bank just passed B of A in total personal accounts/volume, 
making it the largest in the country.

It seems very natural for such an entity to rely upon it's customers to 
be responsible and caring and take care of most things themselves. It is

not the federal government, that has taken on the role of providing full

nurturing to folk that seem to be victims of life, but a SERVICE 
allowing common folk to get rid of or add to the mess in the garage.

WBob
Duane Fischer, W8DBF wrote:

>FYI: there was a break in into the information user data storage base
some
>months back and many credit card numbers were stolen. The electronic
auction did
>not make this public and they did not advise users of said theft
either. 		
>	
>Keep in mind: you are dealing with a computer system, not human beings
here!
>There are a handful of people employed to anser e-mail. Nobody can call
into the
>electronic auction and reach a human being and they will not call you
if you
>request it by e-mail! Although I have no solid proof, I have been told
the
>actual location is beyond the USA territorial waters and is not subject
to our
>laws and regulations. However, the e-mail is being handled out of
California.	
>	
>This is a flaky operation, terrible security, horrible management and
all sorts
>of credit card and ID theft and so forth. If you participate, you take
your
>chances! 	
>	
>Discussing it here accomplishes nothing, so let's try to avoid getting
this
>going guys and get back to the list topic, ok? Send your valid gripes
and
>complaints to the proper authorities and le tus hope for some
affirmative
>actions and positive improvements. 	
>	
>Duane W8DBF	
>
>	
>
>----------
>From: Jim Isbell <[email protected]>
>To: DataPro <[email protected]>
>Cc: [email protected]
>Subject: Re: Fw: [Heathkit] stupid ebay scammer
>Date: Saturday, January 03, 2004 5:00 PM
>
>I also had my E Bay ID stollen.  It was a week before E Bay would do 
>anything about it. Then they tried to shift the blame to me saying my 
>password was not complicated enough to deter theft.  I am sure the 
>complexity of my password had nothing to do with the hijacking. 
> Meanwhile a reciever I was selling languished for several days and the

>final bid was withdrawn and I still have the reciever after thinking it

>was sold for $250.   I found the same stonewalling you found on E Bay. 
> They feel they are the only game in town so can treat the customer
like 
>S**T.  Similar attitude to the Cellphone co.  and the Cable co.  All
who 
>figure one customer is readily replaced by a new customer and the 
>expense of customer satisfaction department is less effective than the 
>same amount of money spent on advertising to get NEW customers and let 
>the old ones go.
>
>DataPro wrote:
>
>  
>
>>About 6 months ago, I had my access stolen on eBay and then saw
obvious
>>fraudulent postings valued at thousands of dollars under my ID.  It
took me
>>several days to get eBay to do anything about it.  Their phone number
is
>>unlisted, and they don't accept any email.  I logged into the FBI "web
>>fraud" web page and found it so busy, and difficult to use that after
3
>>hours of trying to post a complaint, I was forced to give up.  I also
>>contacted a special phone number that is run by the FBI for web fraud.
I
>>left four messages over a period of four days.
>>
>>To this date, no one has ever called me back regarding the issue.  I
>>(luckily) was able to retrieve my ID from eBay.
>>
>>The bottom line is; No one out there is really serious about cracking
down
>>on these types of crimes.  Until something really bad happens (god
forbid) I
>>doubt that any law enforcement agency has either the time or ambition
to do
>>much about these.  Unfortunately we are left with indirectly footing
the
>>expense of paying for these crimes.
>>
>>Good Luck....
>>
>>Don
>>
>>    
>>
>

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