Scammed by "Richard Gray" on Ebay for $10k (Avalon batch 3)

[bobbywvz]

While I have been creepily sifting through Bitcointalk for some time, this is my first post!

Unfortunately it's a depressing one :/

Few months ago I almost won an auction on Ebay for Avalon batch 3 preorder.  Contacted the seller (graysellers601) to see if he had anymore, responded and notified me he did.  Talked over phone/email, gave me passport, screenshot of Avalon order, had extensive knowledge of mining etc. (also had over 200+ 100% positive feedbacks on Ebay).  After all this I found him to be legitimate and decided to go ahead with the purchase...

Offered me a 10% discount to go outside of Ebay (huge newb mistake) and went for it.  "Purchased" the preorder for 10k.  Paid him 5k with btc and 5k with dwolla (also huge mistake trusting and paying in full).  Talked about bitcoin periodically in following weeks.  Then when Batch 3 started to ship I contacted him, no reply...  Contacted him every couple days, no reply... So on and so forth

Went completely dark, phone numbers he gave got disconnected, no replies whatsoever.  Gave him an out to send 100 btc to a btc address by a certain date or I would contact authorities, no replies and no btc.  Have since filed ic3 complaint with fbi, contacted ebay and dwolla.  Nothing so far 

If anyone has any ideas on how to retrieve money or routes to take please speak up! If anyone was also scammed by him I would love to team up with you to track this scumbag down.

Cheers,
Bobs

[Dash77]

Sorry to hear you were scammed.

Since you decided to deal outside of the eBay platform, I doubt eBay will be able to offer you any kind of help. It seems like him trying to lure you outside of eBay showed his intent of scamming you in the first place.

I wish you the best of luck in getting your funds back. Be more aware of scams like this I'm the future.

[bobbywvz]

Definitely hard way to learn it, but will never deal outside a trusted third party again.

You (or someone else) happen to know the Max $ amount of ebay buyer protection you get if you DO deal inside ebay?

[dansync]

My first ever post!

I am so very sorry to hear that as well. I am a BTC newbie but have plenty of experience with eBay. Scamming is common enough within the eBay platform itself - let alone among those who invite you to go outside eBay. Incidentally, eBay fees are relatively low - 7.9% capped at $100 (correct me if I'm wrong) - so offering a 10% discount already seems a bit suspect, as it is a far, far bigger discount than eBay's fees. ($1000 vs $100 in your case).

Positive feedback on eBay is good - but it is actually very easy to amass positive feedback if you are dedicated enough - simply buy and sell a bunch of small items before moving onto bigger ones. Always check on feedback - but also always pay via a traceable method on eBay. PayPal is best, but even a bank transfer at least gives you something to fall back on as it is likely to lead to the scammer's identity.

[bobbywvz]

Congrats on first post!

Thank you for the information, that makes complete sense.  Do you happen to know what amount Ebay reimburses someone up to?  Like in my case if I went through Ebay and got scammed like I did would they just refund all 10k?

[monbux]

That's sad..  Your biggest mistake was not using an escrow of any sort, you should have just bought on ebay or something, not a private deal.  If you have enough information about him, use it to your benefit

[iamnightelf]

Congrats on first post!

Thank you for the information, that makes complete sense.  Do you happen to know what amount Ebay reimburses someone up to?  Like in my case if I went through Ebay and got scammed like I did would they just refund all 10k?

http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/buyer-protection.html

[Dash77]

Congrats on first post!

Thank you for the information, that makes complete sense.  Do you happen to know what amount Ebay reimburses someone up to?  Like in my case if I went through Ebay and got scammed like I did would they just refund all 10k?

Try these links:

eBay Buyer Protection - http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/buyer-protection.html
PayPal eBay Buyer Protection - http://pages.ebay.com/help/buy/paypal-buyer-protection.html

[PenguinWriter]

Wow, I am really not sure words can adequately express how horrible that is. Despite all of that, it's really good of you to come here and let people know so they can avoid the same issues. And like others said, always use some form of security (escrow, protection through paypal/ebay etc.)

[bobbywvz]

Thank you for the support, yeah it's definitely no beuno.  Thought having multiple emails, phone numbers, passports, ebay profile would be easy to track down for officials if it came to this but looking to not be as easy.  Hopefully FBI, better business bureau, dwolla etc find him but I definitely won't stop looking!

[i3lome]

FBI will help you if both you and the seller live in the states. It will  probably take you a year to get you money back, I hope you get you 5,000 in BTC back also. Ive witnessed a scam like this for a car on ebay. My buddy did the same thing, was sold outside of ebay so it made the process a lot more difficult. Once the FBI contacts the scammer they will try to convince him to volunteer the money back. If not you get to do a civil suite, with the FBI backing you, youll probably have to spend more money to get most of yours back.. Good luck, hope it works out

[bbit]

This is terriable!