posted on December 14, 2002 10:33:26 PM new
Is this auction interference or just plain illegal.
I just finished running ten auctions and got an email forwarded to me from a winning bidder with the following message:
"....all xxxs for sale in this auction are stolen property. Xxxxx Co. District Attorney; Zzzzzz City law enforcement; and e-Bay are presently investigating with civil and criminal charges pending."
Where do I send an email at eBay so I don't get auto email and find a real person who will take care of this problem ASAP. This person's claim to these items is he bought a building from my family members around 1987, didn't make the payments and held over without making rent payments on top of that. The eviction process took about two years or more. Needless to say my family lost thousands of dollars. The xxxs that I sold were abandoned in the building when I arrived to clean and work on it. I have had possession of the xxxs since about 1990. Also, wouldn't it be up to eBay to contact me about these allegations if they were reported.
I would like comments on what illegalities might exist in his sending these messages to my bidders through eBay and over the internet and what can be done about it. Thanks for your help and comments.
posted on December 14, 2002 11:46:16 PM new
Many or most of the people that send these emails do not use their main ebay account but use throw away or old ebay accounts instead.
posted on December 14, 2002 11:54:22 PM new
It is auction interference. Go to Safe Harbor and report it immediately.
Send an email to your winning buyers, saying you understand they are receiving unsolicited email, request they forward their copies to you, with full headers, so that eBay may investigate. Do not get involved in explanations with the buyers or provide any stories, just ask nicely for the unsolicited email they received, with full headers, so that you can file a report with Safe Harbor to investigate the spammer.
Again, do not give your buyers any stories or explanations. Buyers do not like to be drawn into a fracas. If all a buyer has to do is forward to you an odd looking email, the buyer will do that. A buyer does not want a 15-year history of your relationship to the weirdo.
However, out of curiousity, how in heck would someone find your auctions on eBay and identify them as items they once owned? Serial numbers?
posted on December 15, 2002 12:32:32 AM new
If you have had possession of the building since 1990 how can they say they were stolen. This is eleven years later. What a coincidence that they found your auctions. Were the items rare that they could identify them?
Did they bid and win all of the auctions? or have they emailed your other buyers? Well I hope you can straighten this out. I don't understand how he can lay claim to something that isn't his. Well I guess at one time they were and he defaulted. Have you resold the building? Sorry for all the questions but I find this rather interesting. Maybe this is like claiming an identity. Who knows but please keep us posted and Good Luck.....
posted on December 15, 2002 06:26:06 AM new
When I ran the first auction two years ago a person emailed and said he had been a member of the club that was represented by the items. He said it was too bad I didn't know who owned the items in the first place as he would probably know the person. I then emailed and and told him who that person was and the town he lived in. Turns out they had been good friends. I suppose I was a bit naive in doing so, but I had come by them legally out of what had been a bad situation. I also thought I was putting two old friends in touch.
The people who bid on these items are a fairly small group of fairly serious collectors. One of the ten items sold for $200 another for $130 and a third for $60. As a group I got a little over $500 for the ten items and have realized about $1100. overall.
Tooltimes: Thanks for the address.
Hotcupoftea: Thanks for the advice on collecting the email. I have thought about posting a jpeg of a letter from the realtor who was handling the rental of the building in each separate auction. I suspect eBay would not be happy with that. The letter details bad checks and credit reports.
[ edited by getalife on Dec 15, 2002 06:34 AM ]
posted on December 15, 2002 08:49:13 AM new
Your auctions are DOA if you don't reassure your buyers. That doesn't mean giving them the 15-year history, but assuring them that eBay, et.al., are not investigating. You should verify that the DA does not have an open investigation, etc. Otherwise, if I were the buyer, I'd hesitate.
posted on December 15, 2002 09:09:09 AM new
A while ago there was a great thread here at the EO forum at AW about abandoned storage locker sales. One post that I will never forget was about a person that had bought a locker full of defaulted storage items and went to a flea market to sell the stuff. As Fate would have it, the seller next to the poster was the former owner of the items and didn't even know that she had defaulted on the storage locker fees and went hysterical when she saw his stuff for sale. She ran for the flea market security but luckily the poster had the necessary recipents in their vehicle to show the security officier who then had to explain the reality of the situation to the former owner.
posted on December 15, 2002 01:40:37 PM new
Auction interference or illegal?
Both
You may want to have a lawyer send this person a cease and desist as they are illegally using the internet to damage your business. The value of those bids if unpaid you can sue this guy for in damages in civil court as well as pressing criminal charges for. A judge will tell him to quit or face jail time for harrassment. The judge will also tell him how he failed in paying rent on the building and how you legally own all that property to dispose of as you wish.
If you don't want to get into a long detailed history note to the bidders simply say
"Sometimes on Ebay competing sellers use underhanded tactics to reduce competition and steal customers and they use a 2nd account to disrupt other sellers businesses. I need a copy of that email with all headers to report to Ebay so that they may investigate the matter."
People think just because you can't see their face on a computer monitor screen they can run amuck harrassing and creating damages. You aren't as anonomous as you think. You can be found and libel for damage you create.
posted on December 15, 2002 04:48:37 PM new
Lawyers are the biggest prostitutes on the planet and it is best to avoid employing them at any and all costs. A slight bias on my part.
posted on December 15, 2002 05:40:55 PM new
Which reminds me of a joke: What does a
lawyer have in common with a sperm? They
both have a one in a billion chance of
becoming a human being. :^)
Abandoned property is abandoned property.
You are under no legal obligation to store
said property. Tell them if they want it
back they can pay you back storage fees.
---
"Cannot say. Saying, I would know. Do not
know, so cannot say". -- Zathras (Babylon 5)
