I was ripped off too!!!

[thisple]

I too have been ripped off. I posted a laptop on eBay. The user contacted me and said he was from spain. Ws-Trade was the escrow site he recommended. I did my research, I didn't find anything bad... about the site.

Needless to say, I am out $2000. Burn me once, shame on me. I will not be burned again...

[peg]

I used to think that if I didn't find anything bad... That that was about the same as finding info that was good.

WRONG!!! Found out after being out $1534.00 for a laptop. Mine too went to spain.

Live and learn I guess. But I can tell you this.... It will NOT happen again!

Paul

[PC PRODUCTLINE]

I was leary about shipping anything without money in hand. So, I did some investigating. After two weeks of the buyer in spain telling me he sent his money thru escrow at ws-trade.com my advice to him was to get a refund and use payapl or another source to do the transaction. He said he could not. I then e-mailed a letter to the FBI. They infomed me that there are complaints against ws-trade.com and they are looking into it. It sure is funny that the site of ws-trade.com has been down for maintanance and buyer does not return my e-mails after I said I was going to check with the FBI on this.

[thisple]

I got the laptop back!

The person I sent the laptop to never went to customs to pick it up. I called custums, and they sent it back. The laptop is still in perfect condition. Thank goodness for my ability to speak spanish. It saved me $2000.

By the way, if anyone wants an Inspiron 8500 fully loaded with upgraded display and all the fixens like the geforce ti 4200 64 MB video card, just let me know. I can be reached at thisple2@hotmail.com

Many thanks, and thanks for listening.

[nguyentuan64]

I can't believe how many crooks there are on ebay now. I almost paid this guy $1800 for a laptop. He wanted me to pay via escrow-online.us. But I got suspicious when the money was supposed to be sent to the UK because the representative is "impartial" This is the email I got from the escrow company:
<<Dear user,
Thank you very much for choosing our company as a 3rd party in this
transaction.
We currently support wire transfer and western union but we advice you to
use western union. It is fast and reliable and this way the transaction
will be completed in a very short time. Here are the details for the western
union transfer (receiver details):

Name: Tomas Madeira,
Address: 4 Dover House, Cormont Road
City: London
Zip: SE5 9Re
Country: United Kingdom

Mr. Tomas Madeira is our official receiver for outside US transactions and
he has been assigned for this trade due to the fact that he will be
impartial.

When the payment is completed you have to email the MTCN no. and sender
information to support@escrow-online.us.

As soon as we receive the payment it will be secured into a non-interest
bearing trust account for security reasons. The seller will be notified
to ship the product(s). As soon as you received the product(s), the payment
will be released to the seller.

Thank You for choosing our services!
--------------------------------------------
http://www.escrow-online.us
http://escrow-online.us
Informations - info@escrow-online.us
____________________________________________________________

I made another deal with this guy from Miami. His email is "ro phi":<mph434@yahoo.com> His name is:
Anthony Starek
146 Camden Dr
Miami, FL 33125
USA
I was suspicious since he wanted money wired through WesterUnion only and declined an escrow transaction with the reputable escrow.com He told me he is in the states and he has very good feedbacks on eBay which did check out. I actually sent him money via WesternUnion, but the lady there told me to be careful. Since my brother is an attorney and lives in Miami, I told him that I would have my brother bring a cashier's check and pick up the laptop. He then gave me this bum excuse:

<<If you don`t feel comfortable to send me , don`t do it. but i don` t agree local meetings since i`m very busy
Best Wishes!>>
___________________________________________________________

Next I negotiated with this guy from Romania. He said he can have eBay Safety Board certify both of us and that his PayPal was temporarily not working. He wanted money sent via WesternUnion. I received the following email from eBay:

<<Safety Board an eBay protects auction item #3440860050
At the request of oxyblonde Safety Board an eBay is recording the transaction for item:

Toshiba Satellite P25-S607

Both the seller oxyblonde and the buyer nguyentuan64 are protected and in case of fraud, Safety Board an eBay will cover up to 90% from the trade amount.
After verifications we confirm the seller's contact information. Also, we have verified the buyer's informations. This is needed in case something goes wrong. We will take full measures against persons that will brake the eBay's rules.

Please continue with this deal as you are both fully insured against fraud. If something goes wrong, please email us and we will take the needed measures. We will recover the funds. However, in case this isn't possible we will pay back 90% from the specified amount.

IMPORTANT
**Please do not respond to this email as your reply will not be received.

Best Regards,
Safety Board an eBay Company

This eBay notice was sent to you based on request from seller. To not be a part of SquareTrade program, click here.
As outlined in our User Agreement, eBay will periodically send you information about site changes and enhancements.
Visit our Privacy Policy and User Agreement if you have any questions.
Copyright 2003 eBay Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Designated trademarks and brands are the property of their respective owners. eBay and the eBay logo are trademarks of eBay Inc.>>

I got suspicious when I saw grammatical and spelling errors ("brake" instead of "break" and "informations", as well as the statement not to reply to the email. I contacted eBay and received this response.

<<Thank you for contacting eBay's Trust and Safety Department about email solicitations that are falsely made to appear to have come from eBay. These emails, commonly referred to as "spoof" messages, are sent in an attempt to collect sensitive personal information from recipients who
reply to the message or click on a link to a Web page requesting this
information.

The email you reported did not originate from, nor is it endorsed by,
eBay. We are very concerned about this problem and are working
diligently to address the situation. We are currently investigating the
source of this email to take further action. You may rest assured that
your account standing has not changed and that your listings have not
been affected.>>

I didn't tell the crook that his English is bad. I hope the nest potential victim can spot the mistakes too. I wonder what actions EBay will take!