DWest
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posted on October 6, 2000 07:20:51 AM new
I sell laserdiscs on ebay and I occassionally buy the same using a different ID because I don't want to be put into the position of bidding against any of my customers. My buyer ID has a positive 3 feedback rating. The other day I bid on a rare collector's laserdisc that is currently at several hundred dollars. Last night I received an e-mail from someone that is offering to sell me a bootleg VHS copy of the movie for $15.
I searched for his e-mail address on ebay but the search said he was not a registered user.
I don't know how frequently he contacts people, but it makes me mad to think that he is siphoning customers from the ebay auctions by offering cheap bootleg copies to the bidders -- and to make it worse -- while the auctions are ongoing.
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DoctorBeetle
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posted on October 6, 2000 07:36:30 AM new
Forward his e-mail (with headers included) to Safe Harbor and use the words "Auction Interference" in the e-mail title.
They can do a better job than you of matching his e-mail address to their registered user database.
Dr. Beetle
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raham
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posted on October 6, 2000 07:52:53 AM new
Safe Harbor will probably reply that the user is not registered with eBay. Have you considered reporting the spam to his ISP and to Spamcop?
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DWest
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posted on October 6, 2000 08:40:44 AM new
I forwarded his e-mail to safeharbor. No telling how long it will take for a reply.
His isp is "hoa-online.com". How would I address the email to complain to his isp?
Tell me more about spamcop. Is it a government organization?
Thanks for your help.
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valerie47
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posted on October 6, 2000 09:09:31 AM new
Go to http://www.spamcop.net sign in, and send them the email with all headers (they tell you how to do that if you aren't sure how). I have been reporting all my spam emails to Spamcop and have received several notices saying they have shut down the spammer's email accounts. It really works!
____________________________________
The only place you'll find success before work is in the dictionary.
[ edited by valerie47 on Oct 6, 2000 09:09 AM ]
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networker67
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posted on October 6, 2000 09:33:42 AM new
DWest - It looks like your Spam came from the senders own mailservers via paid internet space. That means the sender is either the Web master or closely affiliated to the web master. That makes it more difficult hopefully it was a one time thing.
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DWest
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posted on October 6, 2000 09:35:27 AM new
Thanks Valerie, I will do that. Is Spamcop's authority limited to shutting down the account? Do they have broader authority that would authorize them to investigate fraud, or take action against repeat offenders?
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DWest
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posted on October 6, 2000 09:44:02 AM new
Networker,
Thanks for the info -- I was wondering about that. I'm sure that you are right about him being the webmaster. Tell me if I understand this correctly, if I had tried to report him to his ISP, I would have only reported him to himself, correct?
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pickersangel
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posted on October 6, 2000 10:48:05 AM new
If you're REALLY upset about this, how about reporting him to the FBI? I'd think that selling bootlegs of copyrighted material via the Internet would be a federal offense, and I'm sure that the FBI wouldn't have any difficulty finding him, if he's the webmaster of his own domain. 
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DWest
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posted on October 6, 2000 12:58:22 PM new
Pickersangel,
Why would you even doubt that I'm mad about it? This guy does not even know that I'm a seller. If he did, he would not have contacted me. Now I'm suspicious that he, or someone like him, may have contacted the bidders on my auctions to offer the same type of deal. I cannot imagine any seller not being mad under the same circumstances.
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yankee98champs
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posted on October 6, 2000 01:20:32 PM new
Even if the spammer is the webmaster, they're buying bandwidth from SOMEBODY. Reviewing the headers will reveal the upstream provider.
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danilynn71
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posted on October 6, 2000 02:27:23 PM new
I don't think Pickersangel meant you any disrespect. I think what he/she meant is If you are VERY mad... Like, if this is an issue that disturbs you greatly, you can...
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TomB100
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posted on October 6, 2000 11:10:35 PM new
A couple of days ago I had someone send me email saying he saw me bidding on a particular item on Ebay. Then he said I could go to his site and buy the item for much less. What was stupid was I was the seller for the item and I have never bid on it on Ebay.
I sent it to Safe Harbor and had a reply in just a few hours saying they had warned the user against any further occurences.
How well it will work, who knows.
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mzalez
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posted on October 6, 2000 11:17:36 PM new
I get those emails, too, trying to direct me to bid on some other auction or site. What a pain in the behind.
Keep us updated with what happens!
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DWest
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posted on October 6, 2000 11:24:44 PM new
I reported this to Safeharbor earlier today. So far all they have done is send me a canned response by e-mail telling me that it will take them several days to investigate this matter. They also advised me that they only investigate certain things and my problem may not fall within those categories.
I also reported it to the Internet Fraud Complaint Center. I probably won't hear back from anyone until next week.
The guy who contacted me said that he accepts PayPal. Maybe I should check to see if he is a verified user!
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Libra63
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posted on October 6, 2000 11:38:12 PM new
The FBI is interested in anything that is bootlegged but mainly music or movie items. While I was at a Flea market there was a raid on a Video, CD & Cassette tape booth by the FBI and they shut them down and moved them out in about 1 hour. I imagine the fine is rather large. They come in in their dark blue jackets with FBI in big white letters on their back and they actually do the moving. Quite interesting.
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DWest
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posted on October 6, 2000 11:52:42 PM new
Libra63,
I don't know whether this guy is running a big operation, but if charges are brought against him I hope he pleads guilty. It would be difficult to get witnesses to testify if they are scattered all over the country.
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abacaxi
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posted on October 7, 2000 04:43:26 AM new
DWest -
Notify the holder of the copyright (normally the legal department at the movie studio or record company), sending them the email and let them know they can lure the guy out by ofering a copy of the Laser disk and waiting for him to offer his copies.
They are the only people with the legal right to do anything about the bootlegging.
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DWest
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posted on October 7, 2000 10:44:46 AM new
Abacaxi,
I followed your advice and I sent an e-mail to Disney.com and explained the situation. I've asked them to contact me if it is something they wish to pursue and I will forward the e-mail to them.
The movie was produced by them but the version I was bidding on is a Japanese import. I imagine Disney would still hold the copyright.
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wordmaker
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posted on October 7, 2000 10:48:19 AM new
What does your having 2 ID's have to do with this problem?
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DWest
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posted on October 7, 2000 11:11:27 AM new
I sell laserdiscs under my main ebay user ID. Occassionally I buy laserdiscs under a second ID that I rarely use. The guy that asked me to buy the bootleg tapes thinks that I'm a newbie buyer. He does not realize that I'm also a seller that is now angry because I think that there is a possibility that he may be approaching my bidders with the same sleazy offer during my ongoing auctions.
If he had known that I'm also a seller I don't think he would have sent me the e-mail. OTOH, I would have been wondering why my bids are not going as high as they should. Right now I'm selling the "not so hot" items I just want to unload. In November I will be listing laserdiscs that have been on moratorium for awhile. Hopefully I will get top dollar for them because they are not available on DVD and no plans have been made to release them on DVD.
I'm glad I decided to use the second ID to bid because I would have never known otherwise.
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radh
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posted on October 7, 2000 12:21:56 PM new
Bottom feeders like this are the reason that some sellers only use private auctions. However, many bidders don't like private auctions, as they feel the risk of shill bidding occuring is greatly enhanced.
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DWest
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posted on October 7, 2000 03:27:03 PM new
I received a response from safeharbor. It seems that they are not too concerned.
The guy that contacted me was not identified as a registered user so ebay is not going to pursue it any further. The following is a copy of Ebay's response:
"The email you received was sent from an email address that is not in our
database of registered eBay users.
"The sender may have obtained your email address from another source, or
the sender is registered at eBay under another email address which we
can not identify.
"You may want to send a report of the SPAM to the ISP of the sender. SPAM is usually considered as an abuse of the terms of ISP's. Often a report sent to the ISP will resolve this kind of problem. To do this, look at the senders email address and substitute the word postmaster in place of
the name in front of the @ symbol. For example, if the SPAM was sent from [email protected], you would send your report to [email protected].
"If you decide to report this to the ISP, please forward them the entire email, including full headers, along with a short note indicating the email was unsolicited. Your input will help stop further instances of this SPAM."
All I can do now is wait for a response from Disney and the Internet Fraud Complaint Center.
Ebay's response is a little disheartening. It gives me the impression that they think I was complaining about unsolicited e-mail rather than bootleg copies of movies. It seems that Ebay does not want to confront the problem.
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radh
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posted on October 7, 2000 05:06:27 PM new
Didcha ask that bottom feeder to send you their NAME and the REMITTANCE address, ~~ tell 'em before ya buy anything ya wanna know whether it's a US or an international transaction.
LoloL...
And then when you get the name & addie, write to support - give them the name and address, and tell them you need the email address of that eBay user to ""finish a transaction"".
And then ya can forward the data - the name & address, the registered Userid and email addie to safeharbor.
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radh
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posted on October 7, 2000 05:12:14 PM new
wordmaker: when sellers bid with their sellerid, it is VERY easy to identify that they are an eBay seller, by reading their feedback.
A bottom feeder does NOT wanna make any offers to any sellers, lol, as sellers tend to get furious, as they know how much time work money energy goes into selling on eBay.
So, bottom feeders tend to ONLY send offers to bidder-only userids, and especially to low-feedback userids, as they look like newbies.
Frequently, however, that individual with a big (0) in feedback is actually a long term user who's gotten an extra multiple i.d.
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radh
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posted on October 7, 2000 05:16:03 PM new
Some sellers are so repulsed by the entire bottom feeder scenario, that they NEVER start their auctions LOW, but rather at a bid very close to the actual value of the item.
This way they end up with few bidders, but see, they haven't made a LIST OF INTERESTED PARTIES for the bottom feeder community.
I have been wondering of late, if the dozens upon dozens of reports I hear about dozens of NON-Paying Bidders actually represents an organized orchestrated ring of Bottom Feeders who somehow have automated the entire process, ya know?
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lalatte
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posted on October 7, 2000 05:16:33 PM new
Safe Harbor...what a joke! i recently had an incident come up in ebay in which i contacted Safe Harbor and i think they get paid to sit around and eat cheetos all day. I contacted the Better Business Bureau and The Federal Trade Commission ... all ONLINE! and actually had action taken from them!! Meanwhile, Safe Harbor folks are still licking the yellow cheese off their fingers in order to not get it on their keyboard. actually..it is more of an orange color then yellow...ever since Crayola got rid of "burnt sienna" i have had a hard time with colors.
[ edited by lalatte on Oct 7, 2000 05:33 PM ]
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DWest
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posted on October 13, 2000 06:48:00 PM new
UPDATE
Two days ago someone e-mailed me from the Internet Fraud Complaint Center. They wanted clarification on two things. They asked if I had lost any money and if so, how much. I had the impression that they were only interested if I had been defrauded and wanted assistance in recouping my money. I told them that my complaint was about bootleg tapes, not non-fulfillment of an order.
Disney finally contacted me today. The following is a copy of their e-mail:
"Thank you for the information you sent regarding Disney's title XXXXXXXX. We are interested in this type of activity and would like to request that you please send us a copy of the email you received. Once again, thank you. We appreciate your interest and concern."
I sent them the e-mail with full headers. If anything further develops I will give another update.
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