montechristo
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posted on October 6, 2000 03:00:31 PM
Please advise me.
I was the high bidder on a $1700 item that I really wanted. My proxy bid was $2801.
With less than 15 minutes to go in the auction, I get the following e-mail.
Sir or Madam,
I regret to inform you that ebay item xxxxxx has been reported as stolen. It was taken from my home on xx/xx/xx and I have filed a police report and alerted ebay. I wanted to warn you about this because buying stolen goods is a serious crime. . . .
Once my shock died down, I immediately retracted my bid, stating that the item was reported to me as being as stolen.
The item went down to the prior bid of $1,100, and someone sniped it 30 seconds before the auction ended for $1,400.
About an hour after the auction ended I got a really nasty response from the seller, chiding me for retracting with such a "lame" excuse. He swears the item is not stolen.
I think I've been conned. Is there any way to reinstate my bid?
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capotasto
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posted on October 6, 2000 03:02:07 PM
SUCKER!
Well I guess I'll add... buying stolen goods is not a crime unless you KNOW they are stolen. You should have let your bid ride, then maybe asked the seller about the email AFTER you won the item.
And I guess I'll add... SUCKER!
[ edited by capotasto on Oct 6, 2000 03:04 PM ]
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montechristo
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posted on October 6, 2000 03:04:41 PM
Gee, that was helpful.
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cheeses
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posted on October 6, 2000 03:06:58 PM
capotasto:
Is that true?
I thought that possession of stolen goods is a crime, even if you don not know the goods were stolen.
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Zazzie
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posted on October 6, 2000 03:08:22 PM
Send the seller a copy of the email with headers--if it matches the winning bidders---they can contact EBAY and tell the winning bidder the auction win is cancelled and tell them that the auction was interferred.
Even if they don't match---EBAY should allow for cancelling the win because of the interference.
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capotasto
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posted on October 6, 2000 03:12:02 PM
Cheeses:
Yes.
"Guilty knowledge" is a neccessary part of the crime.
Edited to add: The crime usually reads "knew or should have known..."
But spam email shouldn't impute knowledge.
[ edited by capotasto on Oct 6, 2000 03:13 PM ]
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furkidmom
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posted on October 6, 2000 03:14:40 PM
Capotasto> I think you need a moderator slap in the head...
montechristo> Well a call to Ebay pronto to explain the situation, and also to the person who put the item up for bid might be in order, if it is something you simply cannot live without you got foxed by someone who set the snare and then watched you walk into it. (or is this a troll?) Sheesh I hate to be so mistrusting, but I could not imagine myself retracting a bid on such a e-mail without some investigation first. Then I would check the ips of the winner and the email sender. Ebay might just nullify the auction, (who knows,) under the circumstances, as auction interferrence. (although I would not hold my breath) I would send the seller a copy of the email, and tell them that you are willing to uphold the original bid under these conditions, but then I don't know if they would be able to sell it to you unless fraud was proven on the part of the winner, if they were one and the same person who sent you the email. We have some really great Detectives here and if this is on the up and up, they will have great answers for you.
edited because I keep on missing letters in my words.
[ edited by furkidmom on Oct 6, 2000 03:19 PM ]
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nowwhat
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posted on October 6, 2000 03:15:59 PM
I think the fact that you received that e-mail 15 minutes before the auction ended is enough to suspect a con job. I agree with Zazzie. The seller should not have to sell to the high bidder in a case like this and eBay should definitely be notified.
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bhearsch
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posted on October 6, 2000 03:35:45 PM
I would like to add one thing here. If the item turns out to have been stolen, the Police will confiscate it from the party that has the item in their possession whether that party knew it was stolen or not. It will not be easy to get your money back if this happens so I think I would want to investigate a bit further before I continued to bid.
There have been reports of stolen goods being fenced on eBay - here is a recent one: http://costumejewels.about.com/hobbies/costumejewels/library/weekly/aa093000a.htm
However, I do think this situation sounds a bit more like a scam by one of the other interested parties and Safeharbor should be notified.
Blanche
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mzalez
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posted on October 6, 2000 08:34:04 PM
Sounds like a case of auction interference. Sorry that happened to you.
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EyeOfNute
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posted on October 6, 2000 08:46:24 PM
Sounds like a world class sniper to me.
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abacaxi
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posted on October 6, 2000 09:08:25 PM
What a GREAT way to get rid of the competition, or just mess with an auction.
If the emailer knew it was stolen, he should have called THE COPS, not emailed the high bidder  Even the speediest shipping seller couldn't have shipped it out before the cops got there.
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nokternl
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posted on October 6, 2000 09:39:45 PM
Sorry. Nevermind.
[ edited by nokternl on Oct 6, 2000 09:48 PM ]
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Crystalline_Sliver
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posted on October 6, 2000 09:47:27 PM
...I have filed a police report and alerted ebay.
Hopefully, you can ask someone at eBay if this item was reported as stolen. Per eBay's TOS, they will fully cooperate with any Law Enforcement who wishes to "question" something on eBay.
But, simply a report from the owner won't draw any interest from eBay, unless someone on a goverment addy that can be traced to a Law Enforcement Server filed a report to eBay.
The only way eBay will act is only if a Law Enforcement official filed a report to eBay, and provided the needed info to place probably cause.
Otherwise, who's to say a fellow down the street found the same item hidden in Grandpa's cellar?
:\\\"Crystalline Sliver cannot be the target of spells or abilities.
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Capriole
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posted on October 6, 2000 10:21:19 PM
What a hoot!
I won't sound so heartless as Capotasto, but sounds like you were duped, royally.
Did you keep the email?
Get full headers send it to Safeharbor and the Seller.
Sounds like you were duped into bid shielding.
I think once you get the seller on your side, they won't want to deal with the crust who pulled this one off.
Man, talk about stones.
And if you are Jerry12...shame on me for feeding the Troll Booth.
Capriole
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mzalez
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posted on October 6, 2000 10:23:41 PM
Maybe you can get the seller to redo the auction??? Can this be done under the circumstances?
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nokternl
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posted on October 7, 2000 06:58:28 AM
montechristo - Ok, I'm going to go ahead and post what I deleted further up this thread (plus a little extra text for clarification).
I may be wrong but it sounds to me as though you are saying that someone came in with 30 seconds left in the auction and placed the winning bid of $1400. Your statement could be interpreted differently but the way you have it worded leads me to believe this is what happened. And if this is the case, then it seems that something is wrong. If your bid was at $1700 before you retracted, then it seems that the next highest bidder had a proxy bid of slightly less than $1700. How would the sniper come in and get the item for $1400 if the other persons proxy bid was slightly less than $1700?
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bobbysoxer
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posted on October 7, 2000 07:09:15 AM
What you can do is to look up the email addy. Sometimes the person is not bright enough not to use an addy that is registered with eBay. You "just" might discover something interesting.
not bobbysoxer on eBay
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CleverGirl
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posted on October 7, 2000 08:37:14 AM
Whether the item was stolen or not, what happened with the email to you is called bid interference. There was NOTHING stopping the emailer (IF the item was indeed stolen) from waiting another 15 minutes to notify you, and go through proper channels. Between you (ANDlaw enforcement AND SafeHarbor), you could have caught either the thief or perhaps their fence -- IF the item was stolen.
If you haven't already, report this immediately to SafeHarbor, along with *the rest of the story.* I'd also contact the Seller and ask them to get involved and see if they can't get ebay to let them cancel this auction, investigate the whole thing, and let him relist it.
Is there any apparent connection between the purported *owner* and the sniper?
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zeenza
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posted on October 7, 2000 08:51:08 AM
Being a part of the Ebay experience has sure taught me the fine art of puttin on the CON. People never cease to amaze me...
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vinjunk
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posted on October 7, 2000 09:00:05 AM
Just wanted to mention that in my local paper there is an article about some ceiling lamps from grand central station in NYC that had been stolen during the restoration work a few years ago. Seems they turned up in an auction on ebay and considering that they estimated the value in the tens of thousands, this item being discussed might be one of the items. It seems that a local man worked on the restoration and they found several lighting fixtures in his garage. I am located approx. 50 miles north of NYC.
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kerryann
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posted on October 7, 2000 09:14:25 AM
If I was selling an item and saw that a bidder retracted and used: Item reported stolen as the reason, I'd hardly send them a "nasty" e-mail calling their excuse "lame".
I'd be so incredibly shocked-- if the item was legit-- I'd want all the info from that buyer to find out who was messing with my auction.
Not Kerryann on eBay
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HJW
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posted on October 7, 2000 09:41:20 AM
furkidmom,
Your reply to capptasto is the best that I
have read in 6 months!
Helen
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lalatte
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posted on October 7, 2000 07:46:24 PM
zeenza.......i hear ya!!!
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mseal1
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posted on October 8, 2000 03:42:06 AM
cheeses - Possession of stolen goods IS a crime, whether you knew they were stolen or not at the time you took possession. If the police believe that you had no reason to believe the item(s)were stolen, they won't press charges.
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heavnsqt
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posted on October 8, 2000 04:10:20 PM
because of the amount of the item I would report this to the FBI either it was stolen or let the FBI get the hacker who thinks he is soooooo smart sigh
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