posted on June 4, 2001 03:59:25 PM newGot an interesting email message today (sent through eBay's message service):
Hello fellow ebayer,
I need your help. I see that ****** recently purchased an item from you, Item:******. Over a year ago, this individual ripped me off for almost $700 (took my money and never sent the item). I filed complaints with the ******* Attorney Generals office and several other organizations but they said he wouldn't reply to their letters and that they couldn't find him. It would be a great help if you would check your records and tell me where you sent this item. Justice maybe slow, but we all want it.
posted on June 4, 2001 04:02:00 PM new
I sure would.
One day it may be you asking for help from a fellow seller.
Maybe only give the city and state, if you feel a little leary.
posted on June 4, 2001 04:06:59 PM new
Couldn't this guy just pull his contact info or ask Ebay for it? Or you could give it to the attorney general's office. I would not give one of my clients addy's to someone..even more so, if I didn't know if the story was true. How hard could it have been for the attorney general to find someone who must be using the same Ebay ID, for this guy to have recongnized him?
posted on June 4, 2001 04:09:12 PM new
Check the guy requesting the info's ebay feedback for the fun of it. Check his registation date. See if this jives with his story.
He could be a tracker for a collection agency or the such using you to do his leg work.
If the registration dates and his story line up I would otherwise I would not.
posted on June 5, 2001 11:29:40 AM new
In the video industry there is the Bork Law. You cannot give out customer information to anyone, including law enforcement authorities, without either written consent from the customer or a warrant from the court. Giving that information out in a video store could cost the person who gave the information out up to $100,000.
Tread very lightly on this one .... and I would seriously think about using the delete key on my keyboard.
posted on June 5, 2001 02:42:24 PM new
Think I'd prefer not to get caught in the middle of a dispute, particularly if I had a pending/just completed transaction with one of the parties. Not good form IMHO
posted on June 5, 2001 04:33:12 PM new
I've gotten a few of these letters over the years and I have never responded.The person asking for the information could be a stalker or some other crazy person.My partner had a stalker that called and wrote letters daily for years,he met her in a park while he was walking our dog.She must have written down the plate number on his car,at that time anyone could get your name and address from DMV.(Oregon is years behind most of the country as far as laws go) You never know what will send one of these people off,a simple conversation in the park or a friendly e-mail could trigger their mental illness.It's not their fault,that's why they call it an illness.Plese don't send anyone your customers information,you never know what the real reason that they want it.
posted on June 5, 2001 09:07:03 PM new
just an idea......
Give him the name and address of your local law enforcement agency, maybe a detective's name or something.
Provide them with the information he requested. If he's for real, and a crime has been committed, maybe the local cops in your area can help him out...
posted on June 5, 2001 09:11:31 PM new
Before replying to this guy, consider the following--
He had routes to the information that would have identified himself to his quarry. (e.g. pull contact information himself).
He had routes to the information that wouldn't have identified himself to his quarry, but would have let his quarry know someone was looking. (e.g. set up fake account and pull contact information himself).
He chose a third route--to send email to third parties his quarry does business containing libel about his quarry. This has been done in such a way that either the third party will provide contact info or not, will either believe the libel or not, BUT IS UNLIKELY TO TELL THE QUARRY ABOUT THE LIBELOUS EMAIL.
What do I conclude about this? This guy is a coward who likes to hurt his quarry, but doesn't want to take accountability for his actions. So, he has chosen a sneaky, anonymous route that makes it unlikely he will get caught and called to task. Why do I say this? Because my stalker did the exact type of thing to me for a very, very long time without me knowing what was going on.
One should not be considering whether to help "justice" by sending this anonymous coward information. In the US, the right to hear and respond to one's accusers is intrinsic to "justice." This email is in opposition to justice. The only question one should consider is whether to forward the guy's email to safeharbor or to his quarry.
Think of it from his quarries perspective--if someone was sending this email to everyone YOU did business with, what would you want the recipient to do?
posted on June 5, 2001 11:08:57 PM new
Tell him that if he really has gone the legal route, to supoena you, and then you would provide the information that way. I doubt you would hear from him.
posted on June 5, 2001 11:33:32 PM new
As part of the job I do, I am informed about a lot of stalking incidents (by both men and women) that make the hair on the back of my neck stand up. Most of these incidents---make that ALL of them, so far---involve the perpetrator lying to others in order to gain information about the persons they are stalking. People who stalk make up extremely elaborate pretexts in order to obtain the data they need about their 'target'. I have no idea if this is one of those situations, but the information you provide COULD be used to hurt or even kill someone. I wouldn't provide it----$700.00 is a lot of money to lose, yes, but it's not worth risking a person's life and that's what you could be doing.
posted on June 5, 2001 11:39:08 PM new
I ended up deleting his email....
Why? First, I went to the so-called rip-off artist's feedback page and saw that the bidder (the guy who wrote me) had never left a negative feedback on the seller.
Now if someone had supposedly ripped you off for over $700, wouldn't you leave a negative?
Further, I checked the bidder's feedback and found a number of negatives, reflecting a deadbeat bidder. A few of the negatives from sellers had been responded to in a very odd manner by the bidder. My conclusion was that the bidder (again, the guy who wrote me asking for the address) was not wired up correctly, if you know what I mean. One of the seller's feedbacks even said something to this effect.
