Score one for the good guys! Ebay scammer caught

ranorama

from the Morning Call: mcall.com

Federal officials say a woman who has lived in Lehigh and Northampton counties allegedly ran an eBay scam for two years, changing her sceen name when the auction site suspended her for suspected fraud.

In a federal filing released this week, the U.S Attorney for Pennsylvania charges Julie C. Miller with using aliases and post office boxes to bilk people out of $51,000 for rare coins, designer handbags, jewelry and sports tickets they say she never delivered.

According to court records, from November 2003 to January 2005, Miller created screen names on eBay to offer rare and expensive merchandise. When the auction service suspected fraud and froze an account, she created new ones, court records show.

When the items never arrived, Miller gave the buyers fake tracking IDs, told them the items had already shipped or promised refunds that never arrived.

If convicted, Miller faces up to 60 years in prison, three years probation and a $750,000 fine.

stevek

Good!

bri2327

1 down 672,451 to go

jomer

SHE'S GOT BALLS

BON SCOTT (ACDC)

Overrated

Hope she rots!

Boopotts

Meanwhile Ebay does absolutely nothing to stop this madness.

It's harder to get a freaking library card then to open an ebay seller's account.

poppie

<< <i>Meanwhile Ebay does absolutely nothing to stop this madness. >>

A least when word gets to the bad guy than you may get 60 years.....well, maybe! The reality is by sitting on there hands Ebay is inviting a competitor to surface and put them out of business !!!!

ndleo

Ebay will eventually to step up their fraud prevention either by the marketplace or by the feds. Some little old lady is going to get scammed our of her life savings and a politician will use it as a way to get into the papers.

I think ebay should have more ID verification methods or selling limits for new sellers.

nightcrawler

I personally think that ebay has made it easy for scammers,

Things like private user id, private feedback, bidders id kept private really piss me off.

These options can and will serve the scammers well, there's just no need for them unless you've got something to hide.

I feel as though them catching a crook, only means the crook wasn't properly using the options available.

GOODLIEU

EBAY really needs to make it uncomfortable for these thieves to operate on EBAY. They need to be more forthcoming when it comes to scammers that are caught so that the honest members know that their backs are covered. In all fairness to them it seems that they are trying a little harder to deal with the security issues that effect their site but they really have to do more. In my opinion if they don't they will as NDLEO stated, have a major nightmare when a individual or public agency is scammed and there is a public outcry that leads to Government intervention in EBAY workings. They will wish that they made the needed changes in security policies before that occurs.