Drug Addicted eBay Seller Sentenced to 3 Years in Prison for Scamming Buyers

[mandy]

One woman from Texas saved her Christmas money for three years to buy diamond stud earrings.

Another man, a former U.S. Marine from Michigan who lost part of his brain and lived on a small pension, thought he was buying a rare coin.

They and dozens of others paid hundreds, sometimes thousands, of dollars for merchandise advertised on eBay - but received nothing.

On Wednesday, a Lehigh Valley, Pa., woman was sentenced in Philadelphia to three years in prison for scamming 75 people nationwide on the popular Internet auction site...

full article: http://www.charlotte.com/mld/charlotte/n...792001.htm

[Anita]

eBay did NOTHING during the ENTIRE time this person was scamming?! 

Julie C. Miller, 34, who had addresses in New Tripoli, Hellertown and Breinigsville, also was sentenced to three years' supervised release by U.S. District Judge Stuart Dalzell. Miller collected nearly $70,000 between November 2003 and January 2005 from people who never received their merchandise.

[landofsmiles]

Clark Howard (popular talk radio consumer advocate) says NEVER to pay more on ebay than you're willing to risk because ebay's and paypal's guarantees are practically worthless and fraud runs rampant.

[thentavius]

Great advertising for ebay.

[FiberGuy]

Clark Howard (popular talk radio consumer advocate) says NEVER to pay more on ebay than you're willing to risk because ebay's and paypal's guarantees are practically worthless and fraud runs rampant.

But wait! But wait!  I thought PayPal AND ebay had such glorious buyer protection! 

Ebay's claim of .1% fraud (or whatever the percentage is) is absurd.  While their percentage may be true regarding the number of transactions, what they don't tell you is that fraudulent auctions tend to be higher dollar items...  I'd love to see the dollar figures.