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Users club together to get Ebay fraudster pinched

Wiki-nicked down under
Wednesday, 9 July 2008, 17:43

AN AUSSIE EBAY FRAUDSTER has been tracked down and arrested thanks to a wiki set up by his victims which provided enough information for Police to charge him.

Chun Fai Tsang, a 26 year-old Sydney dweller on a temporary visa who also used the alias Timothy Tsang, was hunted down online by a group of his victims led by Melbourne IT worker Neil Moreton.

Tsang was accused of defrauding around 90 people out of about 150,000 Aussie dollars in goods – mainly laptops and gift cards - ordered on the Internet auction site.

The fraudster would let people bid for and order products advertised on his account, let them pay for the items by depositing money directly into his bank account, and then deregister his account. Ironically, Ebay had Mr Tsanf listed as having a successful selling history, his victims said.

Most of the victims were allegedly defrauded in May after depositing money directly into Mr Tsang's bank account.

Peeved at having lost $350 on a gift voucher that never arrived, Moreton embarked on an obsessive Googling campaign, after the only information Ebay could offer on the fraudster was his username (Hybrid.No.Paypal), a fake name (Y.Wang) and an equally fake address and mobile number.

Using Google, Facebook, Linkedin, Yahoo, and every other search resource he could think of, Moreton set up a Wiki where other victims pooled resources and shared information. Soon they had managed to compile quite a dossier, including his mobile phone number, his addresses, his history of studies and even a physical description of Tsang and his car from a victim who met him.

The information was passed on to New South Wales’ Gladesville police force who were amazed at the evidence the 29 complainants had amassed and promptly arrested Tsang.

"Just out of a lack of being able to do anything, I just made this Wiki and put it around and people responded," Moreton said, adding – rather redundantly - "I Google quite a lot".

What with all this investigating going on, we here at the INQ might wonder why Ebay itself couldn’t be bothered to look into the matter. Could it be that the Internet auction giant was trying to prove a point about its Paypal being 'safer' than bank transfers, by letting the fraud unfurl right under its hooter?

We couldn't possibly suggest such a thing, but feel free to set up a wiki on the subject. µ

L’Inq
News.com.au

See Also
Ebay drops Aussie Paypal monopoly

Ebay feels the pressure from ACCC

Ebay accuses consumer rights group of undermining consumer rights

Ebay's Paypal-only policy spanked by Aussie Consumer Commission

Not using Paypal is akin to buying heroin on the street

Aussies flock off to Ebay rivals over Paypal bias

Ebay forces Aussie buyers to use Paypal

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Comments
exactly why I stay away from ebay

These sort of scams are exactly the reason why I stay away from ebay.

I've seen so many people get ripped off and both ebay and papyal don't even bother to bat an eyelid.

posted by : zoomee, 09 July 2008 Complain about this comment
Ebay dislike all mention of fraud

It usually appears that their only interest is avoiding all mention of fraud... 

Some months ago a Saab Trader was told one of his cars was being "sold" by someone else on eBay. Indeed it was - they'd even copied his text & pictures from his website. He had to register just to complain to eBay but they (mostly) ignored him. I also contacted eBay and complained about the item/car. (He was a respected trader and the photos & reg-number proved his ownership of the car). 

I also posted about the apparent scam on the ebay forums. This got an immediate response - it was deleted and I got a warning. I posted about the deletion and got a second deletion and warning. These were the ONLY substantive responses from Ebay - the item was allowed to run to completion over days. We captured the pages incase Ebay deleted it later and thus claimed it never happened.

posted by : Kevin, 09 July 2008 Complain about this comment
It's sad, but true.

I too have been a victim of Ebay fraud but over here in wonderful ol'America. And I went through all the retarded computer generated Customer support responses, the little "Resolve" wizards, you name it. It took about 10 emails and wizards to actually get in touch with a human at Ebay. Who then arrogantly told me to do exactly, the things I had already done.

Ebay is a gamble. They have no power to protect you., regardless of the premise they may have. Buy relatively cheap items, that can be shipped quickly, 

Trust me on this, it's better to be safe, and pay a few dollars extra at the local store, then being sorry, and losing your money to a fraudster.

posted by : cruiseoveride, 09 July 2008 Complain about this comment
Aussie police more useful than brits

I have had a bad ebay experience running over the past few months. Paid for item, never arrived, ebay shut down the users account so I had no info at all as ebay provided absolutely no info or service at all helping us get our item or money back.

I then notice two people left negative feedback all this relating to items sold in december 4 months before my dealings with the ebay. I contacted the members, so did a few other users and slowly we collected some info.

Police and trading standards are not interested claiming it's a civil matter. It however looks like this guy has been selling £400 tv's which never turned up (luckily i only brought a router). I got my money back (£35) but people owed a lot more are still waiting several months down the line.

In his small claims defence he states he was trading as a business, money has been being paid into his personal accounts and the info he provides in his defence does not match up. With this we are now chasing up the tax man about this ebay scammer hoping they will teach this fellow a lesson.

I have built a forum at http://tringo.thebikersbar.com where we have gatherd a wealth of info useful to police, trading standards etc etc, so far they are not interested. This guy todate has happily pocketed money and seems to be getting away with it while telling blatant lies on his small claims defence.

posted by : Adam, 09 July 2008 Complain about this comment
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