eBay

5150motorsport · ‎07-11-2023

Our business has been under daily attack, harassment and stalking from a seller/competitor which has been going on since Dec 2022. The seller who is located in Canada in Surrey, BC was convicted and arrested multiple times over the past few years for stealing apparently in upwards of $1.5mill USD using eBay and Craigslist mainly. This started after we noticed he was stealing all our listing and images from our website which we reported to eBay and Vero. He then stepped up his attacks by registering our company domain name in Canada with a .CA extension and sending us fake emails in the middle of the night saying "is this also your website?" which was being forwarded to his own site (what a genius). This was reported immediately on social media (Instagram) and one of the largest Porsche community forums (rennlist.com) since we have a lot of International customers and wanted to make sure they do not somehow end up on this crook's website and get scammed financially. He then proceeded to impersonate our company by contacting various companies/suppliers and posing as one of our owners to try to cause problems. His next moves were to use different eBay accounts to try to make purchase from our store which were blocked and reported to the eBay security team immediately so they can monitor all his actions. Then he tried to make more purchases using various people/accounts which were all identified by eBay and blocked. He also tried at the same time to place fraudulent orders on our website and all the logs, IP addresses, timestamps, syslog, firewall logs etc were forwarded to the FBI IC3 division. He has now setup a new store and spent every night from 10pm until 5am copying every single one of our store listings word for word. We have filed multiple reports with eBay and Vero but they are taking their sweet time to investigate this crook. We have provided all the documentation Porsche owners from various forums who were scammed by this guy have provided us as some of them lost $100k and others were scammed via eBay. Another interesting fact is that he gets so many negative feedbacks per week its not even funny but every single one disappears within minutes of being posted. We found out he is paying a service that will remove all negative feedback and provided all the information to eBay as well but again they are slow to investigate. The FBI IC3 has been pretty helpful so far surprisingly and they have even reached out to the RCMP in Canada where he lives to investigate this criminal. What else can we do to get eBay to help us with this serious matter as we are dealing with a life long criminal who was arrested twice and served prison time for the crimes he committed via eBay platform? This criminal by the way is doing this only to us no other seller so this is harassment/stalking against a specific competitor (us). Why is eBay protecting scum like this on their platform?

janet9988 · ‎07-11-2023

Again. are you a VERO member?

You can report the listing if you are a VERO member and the seller is "stealing all our listing and images from our website".

For some......It seems wisdom has been chasing you, but you have always been faster.

5150motorsport · ‎07-11-2023

Yes we are but as I mentioned we are closing this thread, this goes way beyond just copying listings. We are working with law enforcement and the RCMP in Canada that is the best way to proceed. eBay like many mentioned won't do anything they have all the reports, police report, screenshots, emails, court documents etc so we'll see if they decide to help I highly doubt it.

tcg_exchange_us · ‎07-11-2023

The ONLY thing you can do now is keep contacting RCMP. If the FBI took your case from IC3 and sent it to RCMP you are in a great position. This may not be a fast or prompt process but you need to stay on them at RCMP. Get your point of contact working your case and ask for an update. Most field offices are not required to provide victim updates, however most will if you are actively assisting them with information. eBay is my hobby, catching criminals is my career.

fairydust_factory · ‎07-11-2023

This is a lot of drama. I'd suggest the police so that you have reports.

But people are allowed to copy listings, sometimes photos unless they are copyrighted.

Good luck.

fashunu4eeuh · ‎07-11-2023

@5150motorsport wrote:

”…we noticed he was stealing all our listing and images from our website which we reported to eBay and Vero.”

It used to be against eBay policy for a fellow seller to copy another user’s photos and texts. But that changed with the expansion of eBay’s catalogue of listings. Now eBay encourages sellers to copy most anything they find in it.

There is still a blurb saying that sellers should use their own text and photos, but it is more a suggestion, than policy. (See link below for the Picture, Video, and Text policy as it stands now.)

https://www.ebay.com/help/policies/listing-policies/images-text-policy?id=4240

From eBay’s policy in its Help pages:

”You should take your own images and videos and write your own descriptions.

You may also use the images and product details from the eBay product catalog. This content is provided by eBay customers and third parties, and can be used by all sellers for additional product information…”

itsjustasprain · ‎07-11-2023

@5150motorsport - I know some other people have already addressed most of the points you mention but I have a few questions.

@5150motorsport wrote:
The seller who is located in Canada in Surrey, BC was convicted and arrested multiple times over the past few years for stealing apparently in upwards of $1.5mill USD using eBay and Craigslist mainly.

How did he get that much money out of Ebay and CL? What was his strategy? Ebay buyer protection is pretty comprehensive and they control the flow of funds through Managed Payments.

@5150motorsport wrote:
He then stepped up his attacks by registering our company domain name in Canada with a .CA extension and sending us fake emails in the middle of the night saying "is this also your website?" which was being forwarded to his own site (what a genius).

That is similar to what 3rd-world domain squatters would do: register our company domain under some fleabag country abbreviation and then offer to sell it to us -- thinking we would be horrified that someone else got our good company name. We usually ignored them. The real scam here seems to be in the content pretending to be you. I see the .ca domain of your name is answering but only with an empty 1-page shell and is no longer copying your graphics.

@5150motorsport wrote:
He has now setup a new store and spent every night from 10pm until 5am copying every single one of our store listings word for word. We have filed multiple reports with eBay and Vero but they are taking their sweet time to investigate this crook.

The problem here is twofold - Ebay no longer considers it a violation to copy listings by someone else and they have zero control over what some 3rd-party site is doing anyway. You need to go after the ISP that is hosting the scam site.

@5150motorsport wrote:
Another interesting fact is that he gets so many negative feedbacks per week its not even funny but every single one disappears within minutes of being posted. We found out he is paying a service that will remove all negative feedback and provided all the information to eBay as well but again they are slow to investigate.

Okay - this part would be under Ebay control. What is the 'service' that will remove all negative feedback? Who or where are they and how are they connected to Ebay?