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Ebay Seller Arrested After Merchandise


Cygnus

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eBay Seller Arrested After Merchandise Not Delivered

POSTED: 6:52 am EST January 28, 2005

 

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- A man is accused of selling almost $100,000 worth of Rolex watches and professional sports tickets on the Web site eBay, but never delivering the goods.

 

Gilbert Vartanian was arrested Thursday in the Sacramento suburb of Fremont on 12 counts of mail fraud.

 

Vartanian is accused of defrauding more than 10 victims of $93,324.52 between January 2001 and June 2004. He maintained at least three eBay accounts and more than a dozen user names, according to a federal grand jury indictment.

 

The victims believed they were buying Rolexes and tickets to the New York Knicks, Pittsburgh Steelers, New England Patriots, New York Giants, Green Bay Packers, Philadelphia 76ers and the New York Jets, and for boxing and auto racing events.

 

Vartanian told the buyer to send him money, but he would either not respond or send back an empty envelope or blank sheet of paper, prosecutors said.

 

The charges carry a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison. It was not immediately known if Vartanian had an attorney.

 

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That piece of sh*t! You know, Ebay used to be a great thing until all the crooks, cheats and wise-*sses started going there. Everything was purchased on the "honor" system & you trusted that person on the other end to deliver as promised. Now, I don't trust anyone & wil NOT send $$$, I always use a secure method of trading. mad.gif
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QUOTE (1-0-0-1-0-0-1 @ Jan 28 2005, 10:59 AM)
I'd be interested to see what his feedback rating was.

With multiple accounts I'm sure he did a lot of his own feedback. It's pretty easy if you know the game.

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QUOTE (neilpeart_gal @ Jan 28 2005, 11:11 AM)
QUOTE (Cygnus @ Jan 28 2005, 09:55 AM)
This reminds me, Did anly thing ever happen to the guy that scammed a few on Rush?  He wore a hockey jersey.

Knowing some of the people he defrauded....don't worry, he'll get his!!!

 

pokey.gif

What's this???? confused13.gif

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For the R30 Tour some guy sold front row center tickets on ebay for as much as $1000. and never delivered. He was well known by many, from previous tours, there was even pics. of him on Meet and greets. He sucks.
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QUOTE (Cygnus @ Jan 28 2005, 11:40 AM)
For the R30 Tour some guy sold front row center tickets on ebay for as much as $1000. and never delivered. He was well known by many, from previous tours, there was even pics. of him on Meet and greets. He sucks.

Yikes - How does he expect to show his face around without it being rearranged???

 

RR - this guy is a member here? Am I reading this correctly?

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QUOTE (paganoman @ Jan 28 2005, 11:48 AM)
QUOTE (Cygnus @ Jan 28 2005, 11:40 AM)
For the R30 Tour some guy sold front row center tickets on ebay for as much as $1000. and never delivered.  He was well known by many, from previous tours, there was even pics. of him on Meet and greets.  He sucks.

Yikes - How does he expect to show his face around without it being rearranged???

 

RR - this guy is a member here? Am I reading this correctly?

No, not a member here and no one has heard from him in many months that I know of...

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QUOTE (RushRevisited @ Jan 28 2005, 12:38 PM)
That reminds me, what ever happened to that guy in Michigan who defrauded all those people on the R30 tour with fake front row seats (board member)?

Thats what Pag was askin, Me too, I thought you would know

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QUOTE (neilpeart_gal @ Jan 28 2005, 12:04 PM)
Nah I think the guy has (wisely) retreated from the Rush online world...!

Yeah and good thing. We'd be takin' out the virtual hand... and smackin' him around with it. 1287.gif

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I've always been leery about doing business via Ebay. It's hard to trust people I don't know.

 

Apparently, Ebay, for the most part, has been alright for most of the time based on what I'm hearing from others. But Ebay will soon evaporate if things don't get any better there.

 

They just interviewed a local guy who tried purchasing some oven, but was ripped off by someone on the other end of the deal. That rip off artist was able to use Ebay's logo and other things to make the deal look legitimate.

 

I will never do business through Ebay. Much too risky!

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I found the news report that I was referring to in my last post. Here's his story:

 

QUOTE
JOHNSTON COUNTY, N.C. -- You have got to have a certain amount of trust when you buy something online. eBay has a number of safeguards, but that does not stop unscrupulous people from using information on the Web site to take advantage of users. A Four Oaks man found that out the hard way.


eBay lists millions of items every day, but it can also be a place where scam artists find victims. Unfortunately, Bruce Krontz found out the hard way.


Bruce Krontz wanted a professional pizza oven. He had not shopped on eBay before, but thought it was worth a try. He ended up finding the oven he wanted.

"This thing was perfect. It was stainless steel," he said. "Boy, I'm thinking, 'This is alright.'"

Krontz's final bid was $2,700. He lost at the last minute by just $1, but then Krontz got an e-mail he thought was from the seller. It said the winner could not buy the oven, so now Krontz had a "second chance." It said Krontz would get an e-mail from eBay. Later, an e-mail did arrive.

"It said eBay. It had their logo and everything on it. That's who I sent it back to ask. They wrote me back and said everything is on the up and up," Krontz said.

Soon after, Krontz wired the $2,700 to the "seller" in Chicago.

"As soon as he got the money, there was no communication," he said.

Krontz called Five on Your Side, who found that the e-mails Krontz received were not from eBay. The scammer made it look like they were, even using the eBay logo. It appears the scammer got Krontz information from the bid list.

Now, Krontz is out $2,700. He wants to get the word out so that others will not be taken, and though he knows it is not likely, he would like the scammer caught.

"I want to find this guy and have him put in jail before he does it to someone else," Krontz said.

One of the frustrations Krontz had was in trying to contact the "real" eBay by phone. The company does not offer customer service by phone. A spokesman said with more than 135 million users, eBay believes its e-mail system is the "most efficient" way to handle requests.

The bottom line is no matter what you do online, be skeptical. Go to the actual Web site to verify information and never wire strangers money.

Reporter: Monica Laliberte
Five On Your Side Producer: Lori Lair
Photographer: Greg Clark
OnLine Producer: Kamal Wallace
Copyright 2005 by WRAL.com. All rights reserved.
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You do have to watch ebay, generally look at their seller rating though. Let's say you do see two autographed gutiars by all 3 members of Rush. One seller has it up for $250, and has 14 positive feedbacks, been registered 3 months. The other one is $550 and has a positive feedback rating of 5,000 and has been doing business under that screen name since 2001. I will pay the $550 any day before the $250 from the other guy.

 

I actually had really good luck via ebay for the R30 tour tickets, one being front row center for Cleveland...

 

You just have to have your guard up and look at that feedback rating.

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I've only bought on eBay once - R30 tickets for Toronto. I was pretty nervous about it. (2 tix @ $200 each = a lot of money to risk online!) Thankfully, my seller was great - I asked lots of questions before I bid, and he even followed up after the sale was complete.

 

But, I did get really nervous the day of the concert. Since they were electronic tix, he could have sold them to many people and just printed out the tix multiple times. Therefore, I made sure I was one of the FIRST people into Molson that day (accidentally went in through the bar, which worked out well!) Thankfully, I never had any problems.

 

(And the 10th row tix he advertised were actually 5th row side, on the aisle just off-stage from Ged's keyboards. When they let us rush the stage, I ended up right on the security fence!! Yeah!!)

 

 

cool.gif

 

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It's too bad that crooks give a lot of honest people a bad name. I've never bought over E-Bay, but I did sell a hard drive to a college student a couple years back. This was several weeks before Christmas. I covered the shipping because he sounded like he really needed the drive. Well, what do you know, I end up getting a Christmas card from the guy with a check to cover the shipping. Pretty cool experience. smile.gif
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