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[Lynn Fuston]

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=37468 09619&ssPageName=ADME:B:SS:US:1


I believe the above auction to be fraudulent for several reasons.

-Seller has no transaction history
-Seller joined Ebay the day the auction started
-Seller wants Western Union payment only
-Seller is using MY picture to advertise the unit
-Seller has claimed in a email to a purchaser to be ME (Lynn Fuston)
-Seller has hotmail address
-Short (3-day) auction
-No reserve or starting bid listed on a $9000 piece of gear
-The serial number advertised does not exist

EveAnna Manley concurs that it appears to be totally fraudulent. I have contacted ebay about having it pulled.

[Peter Simonsen]

Ohh..Man..One has to be rather stupid to be selling a high profiled item using a rather known mans (within the audio industry) pic, and name...Either stupid or ball bigger than church bells..*tsk-tsk* I wote for the first

Kind regards

Peter

[George Massenburg]

Uh, someone probably should have asked...I'm told that the mastering version has only recently been released.

Would love to know what these guys are thinking...

George

[Tomas Danko]

Peter Simonsen wrote on Tue, 07 September 2004 17:12

Ohh..Man..One has to be rather stupid to be selling a high profiled item using a rather known mans (within the audio industry) pic, and name...Either stupid or ball bigger than church bells..*tsk-tsk* I wote for the first Kind regards Peter

Having balls bigger than church bells doesn't rule out stupidity, I wager.

/Danko

Ps.... Darn, does this mean I shouldn't do the deal on E-bay on that Sony desk by some guy who calls himself George somewhere in Metzlersburg or whatever it was? And I thought I had the deal of a lifetime. *sigh*

[trexrox]

Quote:

Comes with power supply, original shipping boxes, and manuel.

So, who is this Manuel guy and why do I want him in my control room?

[vanimal]

Manuel came from the legit auction this stoopid fraud guy copied his info from.

Here was the *legit* auction that closed yesterday:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=2 3793&item=3744902618&rd=1 And just cuz he can't spell don't mean he didn't have a real unit to sell.

Anyhoo, as also posted on GS: "BOGUS_Manley_DONT_BID" is me. If you see that userid show up on a Manley auction, uhm, well, you should heed my blatant advice. This is not the first time this crap has happened.

FYI, Brad retracted his Audio_Buster bid so that my userid would convey the intended message a little better. I even made a nice "About Me" page just in case there are still some seriously dense people still wanting a mastering SLAM! for eight hundred bucks...

For more info, please read:

MANLEY's eBay FRAUD INFO PAGE
http://www.manleylabs.com/containerpages/16x2FRAUD.html

And protect yerseff from:

[Erik]

Yo Vanimal,

Sign up for the VeRO program at eBay.  It basically lets you take down any auction simply by sending them an email; a few hours later it's gone.

http://pages.ebay.com/help/confidence/vero-rights-owner.html

Although it's not specifically designed to do what you do, you can sort of end-run it by playing the 'trademark infringement' card... something I know is one of your hobbies.

--Erik

[Lynn Fuston]

Erik wrote on Tue, 07 September 2004 18:32

Yo Vanimal, Sign up for the VeRO program at eBay.... Although it's not specifically designed to do what you do, you can sort of end-run it by playing the 'trademark infringement' card... something I know is one of your hobbies.

Ouch.

[vanimal]

Hi Erik,
I *am* a VeRo member and have been for awhile. (Just like you!)
What happened to the Ranger on-line tracker thing? That website is gone. I know you used to use it A LOT. And you are much better at software than I. Do you know where it went? I did print out the VeRo infringement report this morning from eBay's site and I faxed it to eBay, but alas after that, three other complaints sent in by various folks I know about, and 12 hours, the damn fraud auction is *still* up...

[Erik]

I haven't heard about the Ranger thing.  Don't know what that is or where it want.

I wrote a custom app that did searches against eBay and emailed me when it found anything suspicious.  But if you structure your search criteria carefully (read some of the more esoteric search options) you can use the automated search function on eBay and have them email you links nightly as well.

The way Vero worked for me was that I simply forwarded an email formletter with the auction number pasted in it. Without exception, the auction came down in an hour or two.  After the initial signup (which required a certified letter), I never had to FAX anything.

My hunch is that the email was handled by an automated system, so you'll want to get that going instead of faxing things.

--Erik

[Peter Simonsen]

Quote:

Having balls bigger than church bells doesn't rule out stupidity, I wager. :)/Danko

Hmmm..Youre on to something there..!!!  

Kind regards

Peter

[David Schober]

EveAnna,

Any idea why your line gets all this attention?  I feel for you.  It's a real drag to have to chase this stuff down.

Odd thing is, this is kind of like offering to sell a Picasso. Sales of these kinds of items attracts attention.  It's not like the pro community is so large this kind of thing can get by unnoticed.  They'd do better running a scam pretending to sell low priced stuff.

[Level]

No different from any other line. Hi-end audio and exotic cars are being raped. Professional audio/Manley, gets attention. They (Manley) would like it no other way...but positive attention. Both of which is attention nevertheless.
Audio asylum has seen 50K in bad checks presented with less than 10 attempts.


http://www.audioasylum.com/scripts/d.pl?cgi-bin/html/scam.ht ml

[Touchwood Studios]

Just like I remember in school some idiot in the school yard always wants to wreck things for the other kids.

[Level]

Quote:

Just like I remember in school some idiot in the school yard always wants to wreck things for the other kids.

This happens in all classes, all situations. It is most unfortunant. It will never stop. Either theives or popularity contests. It is all the same. Injustace, bias and strife.

"Make someone hurt so you don't have to" seems to be a trend.


Little do they know, it hurts us all, period.

[RMoore]

Another thing that's amazing is the auction is still active on Ebay (as per 03:30 EST Sept 8th) - you'd think it'd be in Ebay's interest to pull it asap.

[robk]

Ryan Moore wrote on Wed, 08 September 2004 08:31

...you'd think it'd be in Ebay's interest to pull it asap.

Only thing in eBay's interest is the auction fees.

I've bought and sold a fair bit on UK eBay over the past couple of years - but it's gone downhill noticeably over recent months.  Many more scammers (most of them 'power sellers'), nowhere near as many buyers - very slow.  My local post office says their eBay shipping trade has dropped to a fraction of what it was.

Perhaps eBay will spot the trends and put its house in order?   ...not holding my breath!

Rob Kirkwood
www.visibleform.co.uk

[Peter Simonsen]

Ryan Moore wrote on Wed, 08 September 2004 08:31

Another thing that's amazing is the auction is still active on Ebay (as per 03:30 EST Sept 8th) - you'd think it'd be in Ebay's interest to pull it asap.

Its not only amazing i mean..Its a totally new Auction now.. The pic of Lynn is gone..and No bids as of now..

Kind regards

Peter

[vanimal]

Now it is a new one here http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=37472 08748
Not to worry, gallant bidder "BOGUS_Manley_DONT_BID" has come to the rescue... and sent by email TWO MORE LETTERS TO eBay/Vero, as per Erik's advice....

Erik, FYI, the Ranger-Vero thing was a free automated search thing that they steered me into to do the searches and file the complaints through when I signed up with Vero. That's all I knew from what when I wuz doing them. But now it's gone. So I dug up copies of those email forms (as they always were cc'd to me) and found the right (I hope) email addy at ebay to send those forms to. So that's what I did. TWICE. Cuz the Slammer-Scammer relisted his auction sans Lynn's purty face while I wuz typing out more letters.

It is 3am late. Must sleep. More anti-scam-war at 7....

[George Massenburg]

Tomas Danko wrote on Tue, 07 September 2004 15:35

[...] Danko Ps.... Darn, does this mean I shouldn't do the deal on E-bay on that Sony desk by some guy who calls himself George somewhere in Metzlersburg or whatever it was? And I thought I had the deal of a lifetime. *sigh*

Well uh, yes actually, the used price of the OXF-R has indeed dropped to US$899.00.  Sad but true...

George

[JGreenslade]

When I first started seeing bogus auctions on ebay they seemed to be "based" in the Far-East, however, just about every pro-audio scam I've seen of late claimed to be selling from London, why on earth is that?

Being based in London myself I'm wondering if this fellow would like to meet up in person for the transaction? I could really use a SLAM for

[tom eaton]

Ignorance knows no bounds...a few weeks ago a gentleman tried to sell me MY OWN CONSOLE using photos from a broker's website of the console I had recently purchased.  It was sitting in my control room while he was e-mailing me its particulars.

Oh well.

-tom

[Lynn Fuston]

TER wrote on Wed, 08 September 2004 08:25

a few weeks ago a gentleman tried to sell me MY OWN CONSOLE using photos from a broker's website of the console I had recently purchased.  It was sitting in my control room while he was e-mailing me its particulars.

Now that IS rich!

[Lynn Fuston]

George Massenburg wrote on Wed, 08 September 2004 06:02

Tomas Danko wrote on Tue, 07 September 2004 15:35 [...] Danko Ps.... Darn, does this mean I shouldn't do the deal on E-bay on that Sony desk by some guy who calls himself George somewhere in Metzlersburg or whatever it was? And I thought I had the deal of a lifetime. *sigh* Well uh, yes actually, the used price of the OXF-R has indeed dropped to US$899.00.  Sad but true... George

George,

Do you get 5 free Sony DVDs with that, as a buyer's incentive?

[George Massenburg]

Lynn Fuston wrote on Wed, 08 September 2004 09:49

George Massenburg wrote on Wed, 08 September 2004 06:02 Tomas Danko wrote on Tue, 07 September 2004 15:35 [...] Danko Ps.... Darn, does this mean I shouldn't do the deal on E-bay on that Sony desk by some guy who calls himself George somewhere in Metzlersburg or whatever it was? And I thought I had the deal of a lifetime. *sigh* Well uh, yes actually, the used price of the OXF-R has indeed dropped to US$899.00.  Sad but true... George, Do you get 5 free Sony DVDs with that, as a buyer's incentive?

From Sony?  Which Sony?  There are still more "divisions" than you can count.  From Sony, Japan you get the latest corporate line, which is to commit to exactly nothing - nothing except vacant promises, neglected products and shallow marketing campaigns.

I don't know maybe I'm a little sensitive...

George

[Tomas Danko]

George Massenburg wrote on Wed, 08 September 2004 12:02

Tomas Danko wrote on Tue, 07 September 2004 15:35 [...] Danko Ps.... Darn, does this mean I shouldn't do the deal on E-bay on that Sony desk by some guy who calls himself George somewhere in Metzlersburg or whatever it was? And I thought I had the deal of a lifetime. *sigh* Well uh, yes actually, the used price of the OXF-R has indeed dropped to US$899.00.  Sad but true... George

I hear you, Mr. Massenburg. Some companies cannot spell the word "commitment" properly. Talking about the blowout deal of the century...

Wanna trade with my Allen & Heath Saber? No? It can't go 192 kHz either.

Regards,

Danko

[Eric Rudd]

What cracks me up is that Ebay charges a fee, and if you make your payment through Paypal, they get a fee. Since they're both the same company, you're getting it from both ends. Might as well buy a car from a dealer with dealer financing.

Eric

[Level]

EveAnna, you need to re-bid. Looks like that clown took your bid off.

[vanimal]

I bid again... and then he retracted my bid with Explanation: "this is the scammer"...and so I bid again... and then he retracted my bid again with Explanation: "because is scammer !!!!!", and so I bid again... and retracted my own bids and then bid again and so now that auction has some nice bid retraction history even if he retracts me again... someone gotta be "real dum" to now try to go win that auction!

Many of us have sent more and more complaints to ebay to no avail.... they could care less.

Vero complaints sent have received NO action either.

I have done all I can to try to protect people on this now. I can warrant my gear. I will not be able to honour warranty on non-existing equipment nor stupidity/ignorance/wishful thinking....

[Level]

On scams like this, I have seen people bid $5,000,000 and then someone else (planned) bid "a few million more" so it "shows up" as a high bid. This certainly gets ebays attention. Since we all KNOW this piece does not exsist, I don't think ebay will hold you to anything and they may just charge the seller the huge fee (percentage) for the sale!

Interesting saga. I hope Scotland yard finds this person and shackles them up for a few years of stale chips.

PS, I don't know the legal ramifications of bidding millions of dollars on something. Certainly, ebay can't hold you to an item that does not exsist. The fake serial number is the key.

[vanimal]

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&i tem=3747021588

Might wanna watch this new GML2020 auction too. User registered yesterday. In "london" of course.

"i can assure you that i am not out to scam you."

"Once a card payment has been received the item will be posted by via first class mail,with delivery costs covered at my end."

Cool! Free shipping by first class mail! And no power supply! But you get a manual!

I sent a request for him to post a serial number. Let's see...

[Erik]

Actually eBay really does care about this stuff, they're just in a bad situation.  If eBay gets the rep of a place where you get ripped off, they won't have ANY auction fees.

Right now eBay has the rep of a place where a lot of clueless idiots and shopaholics bid on anything resembling a great deal.  So the scammers have moved in.  Ebb and flow.

The playground analogy above is better: one jerk can ruin it for all the other kids.  So eBay does go after the jerks.  But having shut down 1,000+ auctions where people proudly advertise [k]'d software (complete with filenames with [k] in them), there sure are a LOT of jerks out there.

Vanimal: I've put in a call to my connections at eBay legal and when they call me back I'll PM you the direct info.  You need to get this guy's contact info and make a stink.  He'll probably pop up in forums and start swearing how Mackie sounds better than Manley, but it'll be a source of amusement for years for you.  I know it was that way with a few of these jerks I busted.

Ever wonder who swears by Vintage Warmer and UAD?  Turkeys who's ass I nailed on eBay.

--Erik

[Peter Simonsen]

Yeah London town is a "hot spot" right now.. I mean this week a Manley slam scam...last week from London.. A "6 brand new Eventide DSP-8000" scam...Is the GML this weeks next London scam..???

I have asked the seller a few questions as well

Kind regards

Peter

[vanimal]

Hey Erik, Thanks dude for your help and attention to all on this.

This is all we know about our Slammer-Scammer from emails:

Sent from: JASON TRITT [mailto:jason281971@hotmail.com]
"hello,
Send me your full name and address for shipping and today i send the package
via Ups Express.I max 36 hours you can to pick up the package only if you
pay Euro 1800 via Western Union-money transfer.I close my auction for this
price Euro 1800.Yes, i am in picture.I am very hurry ,because i want to buy
a car and i need a money.My address is:
JASON TRITT
56 ST ALBANS
E166HQ, LONDON, UK"

So he was claiming to be Lynn Fuston, and there is his claimed address. And isn't it amazing that a LONDON ZIP CODE would have these results on yahoo and google?:
"We didn't find any Web pages matching the following criteria:
Containing this query term: E166HQ"

That's really something.

His london ZIP CODE does not exist.

And here is the info from the automated eBay contact member info address:
User ID: seller_one28
Name: jason tritt
Company:
City: london
State: London
Country: United Kingdom
Phone: 7335523658
Registered Since: Monday, Sep 06, 2004 02:25:42 PST

I don't know what anyone can do with that bogus info.... but since this guy barely speaks english and hardly knows how to use eBay I doubt he'll show up on these forums at all. I fear not.

Anyway, Erik, thanks for your help and if you are gonna email me, please do so from my website by going here to this web page:
http://www.manleylabs.com/email99.html and clicking on my super encoded spam-busting email addy link, and don't change the subject line and my killer-spam-bot won't bounce the message. That's the best way. Many thanks.

[Eric Rudd]

vanimal wrote on Wed, 08 September 2004 19:22

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&i tem=3747021588 Might wanna watch this new GML2020 auction too. User registered yesterday. In "london" of course. "i can assure you that i am not out to scam you." "Once a card payment has been received the item will be posted by via first class mail,with delivery costs covered at my end." Cool! Free shipping by first class mail! And no power supply! But you get a manual! I sent a request for him to post a serial number. Let's see...

This must not be a legit unit. The seller uses the phrase "high resolution" to describe the quality of this device. As we learned in an earlier thread, that term doesn't apply to real audio.  

Eric Rudd

[JGreenslade]

Quote:

JASON TRITT 56 ST ALBANS E166HQ, LONDON, UK"

St Albans is outside London in Hertfordshire. E16 would be Tower Hamlets, 25 miles from St Albans...

The seller is using a "London" address because it suits him to, I don't reckon he is likely to even be in the UK. If he's using Western Union he could be anywhere right?

The only way to nail him would be to set a trap in collaboration with WU, i.e. they flag his security code so when he goes to collect they inform the police, what do you think the chances of WU playing ball would be?

Scotland Yard only get involved with fraud over

[Tomas Danko]

Hiya,

Besides a hilarious story to read, here's another one resembling what you guys are talking about

http://pages.sbcglobal.net/dumbmrblah/Scamming%20the%20Scamm er.htm

This one was also in the UK. They even rigged up a camera to check out the guy supposed to pick up the stuff. Only, this time they tried to scam people the other way around by having gear sent over and then skipping the payment. Anyway, lots of tangential tidbits here.

Cheers,

Danko

Ps. Loved your chinese robey thingie with that dragon on your back at NAMM 2003, EveAnna. *grin*

[Touchwood Studios]

Last year when I was in Switzerland there was a guy selling a ProControl in London. It was a good price $4500.00 USD. So I happened to be going in to London at the time the ebay sale was up and I asked him for his phone number and address for local payment and shipping. That flushed him out - he refused.
If your in dought about anything just ask for a phone nember and local payment and shipping.
I have sold a few big ticket items on ebay and have no problem giving out my phone number to the winning biddder.

[Level]

EveAnna, It seems you are having to waste time and resources to keep up with this thing. Unless you have time and just want to sit around watching it and have a few beers, the quickest way to get ebays attention is to bid a few million on it and come back and bid against yourself with another name. So many people now know it is a scam...I cannot possibly see how you would be held accountable to follow through...and he would owe Ebay off his credit card, money large.

Frankly, I am surprised this has been allowed to go on this long. It is frightning.

The auction certainly needs to be taken down.

[vanimal]

Update: Bombguy's insider contact paid off. Just got a real live telephone call from eBay VeRo people. Auction is getting yanked reallllllllllll soon now. Good job Erik!!!

         

[Level]

Good news! About damn time.

[vanimal]

Victory!
Invalid Item
The item you requested (3747208748) is invalid, still pending, or no longer in our database. Please check the number and try again. If this message persists, the item has either not started and is not yet available for viewing, or has expired and is no longer available.

[vanimal]

Also, on the GML 2020 auction, I received a reply from http://www.kore-studios.com/

"Sorry guys, i have accepted an offer for the unit and am now withdrawing it from ebay. Thanks for your interest. george."

His name is George! But anyhoo. It seems to be legit. I guess.

[Peter Simonsen]

Hmmm EveAnna,

He might have "lost the offer he got" as the GML 2020 is still on. I tried to ask the guy a few questions..didn´t recive a reply yet..still waiting too much work maybe ??

Kind regards

Peter

[vanimal]

It's gone now...

[lincolnhwyguitarman]

Level wrote on Wed, 08 September 2004 18:52

On scams like this, I have seen people bid $5,000,000 and then someone else (planned) bid "a few million more" so it "shows up" as a high bid. This certainly gets ebays attention. Since we all KNOW this piece does not exsist, I don't think ebay will hold you to anything and they may just charge the seller the huge fee (percentage) for the sale! Interesting saga. I hope Scotland yard finds this person and shackles them up for a few years of stale chips. PS, I don't know the legal ramifications of bidding millions of dollars on something. Certainly, ebay can't hold you to an item that does not exsist. The fake serial number is the key.

The guys over at alt.guitar have been doing that for years on bogus 'vintage' guitars.

[chud]

I won a manley slam on ebay last week which turned out to be a scam. I reported it to ebay, but they didnt seem interested in the fact that it was a criminal offence. It was in the UK. so be warned they may advertise it again

[compasspnt]

Sorry to hear that Rich.

What were the particulars (seller name, feedback, paypal, etc.)?

Do pursue this with vigour, and let us know how this turns out.

Everyone else, be very careful.

[chud]

Thanks.. Luckily I managed to find out about them , before I sent the money . The sellers name is amg.550 They have registered
with paypal. Ebay havnt done anything about them.