{"id":23093,"date":"2011-01-04T10:34:40","date_gmt":"2011-01-04T18:34:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bassic-sax.info\/blog\/?p=23093"},"modified":"2024-05-16T11:42:27","modified_gmt":"2024-05-16T18:42:27","slug":"the-saga-of-fake-bass-saxophone-listings-on-ebay-part-ii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bassic-sax.info\/blog\/2011\/the-saga-of-fake-bass-saxophone-listings-on-ebay-part-ii\/","title":{"rendered":"The Saga Of Fake Bass Saxophone Listings on eBay: Part II"},"content":{"rendered":"

In Part I of this story<\/a>, I outlined my frustration of eBay’s handling of a seller who was repeatedly listing bass saxophones that he did not have in his possession. Despite repeated fraud reports by multiple eBay members, the same fake listing reappeared on the auction site time and time again.<\/p>\n

On December 30, I received an email from a man in Sao Paulo, Brazil. To protect his privacy, I’ll call him John. John had long had a dream to be a bass sax owner\u2014specifically he desired to own an Jinbao-made IW 661.<\/p>\n

To properly put this into context, you have to understand that English is not John’s first language. He relies on a translation program to correspond with people. John had also never purchased an item through eBay before, and didn’t realize that fraud was a possibility.<\/p>\n

John had seen these ads by goodmanner010 for months, and had become tempted by the low prices. According to John, many of the players in Brazil are amateur players, and have very little first hand knowledge about bass saxophones.  <\/p>\n

When John contacted the seller (goodmanner010), he was assured that the saxophone was being sent directly from the factory, and that was why the price was significantly lower. goodmanner010 also said that he was IW’s representative in China.<\/p>\n

A deal was struck through eBay, and John paid goodmanner010 a deposit of $1,200 through PayPal. John was sent a tracking number, and when his bass sax arrived, he was to send the remainder of the money.<\/p>\n

For 7 days John tracked the package that was supposed to contain his bass sax. When it arrived, he drove 500 miles to pick it up. Inside the box he found a lovely<\/em> set of cheap earrings, but no bass sax.<\/p>\n

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John immediately notified eBay and PayPal. eBay terminated goodmanner010’s\u2014and alternate persona pickapricot’s<\/a>\u2014account. John is now awaiting the outcome of the PayPal investigation. They have given goodmanner010 up to 10 days to respond to their inquiry.<\/p>\n

This is how John describes his feelings about what happened to him:<\/p>\n

the worst part is not so much $ $ $ lost, the worst part is feeling like a fool for having believed this thief!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

John is a very positive person though, and looks at what has happened to him in a positive light.<\/p>\n

Because of what has happened he has been in contact with Laksar Reese from International Woodwind. John will be purchasing his dream IW-661 directly through Reese, and knows that he will really be getting a horn when that big package arrives.<\/p>\n

John also pointed to a Brazilian saying that loosely translated means, from some evil comes good<\/em>. John’s connection with Laksar is one example of this good, and he points to my telling of his story as another.<\/p>\n

Through John’s and my connection, his hope is that others will find out how convincing some of these con artists can be. This is especially true if one or both parties are corresponding in a language other than their main one. Through false representation of who they are, and selling the buyer basically an empty box, con artists like this lay in wait on eBay looking for their next mark.<\/p>\n

Before you say this won’t or can’t happen to you, think about this for a minute: If a buyer lived overseas, and supposedly had a sax that you really coveted, for what seemed like a really good price, but didn’t write in English, would you use a translation program to correspond with them? If they were convincing enough, would you not perhaps be tempted to take a chance and purchase the horn?<\/p>\n

Sure we can all armchair quarterback and say, “Yeah, but there were enough other warning flags in these auctions coming from China”, you have to remember that not everybody, in every country, has access to the the same information that we do. The victim here did nothing wrong. The only one who did something wrong is the seller, who has been removed from eBay now. This person committed a fraudulent act by taking money, and not sending the item that they took the money for.<\/p>\n

The big losers here are the people who use eBay and PayPal. PayPal will hopefully be paying John out, and although I’m not sure exactly how this works, I’m pretty sure that they would be going after eBay for some of it back. In the end, this type of fraud filters down to everyday users of these services, since they will pay for fraud lose payouts through an increase in user fees.<\/p>\n

It sucks doesn’t it? So the next time you see a fraudulent listing on eBay, take the time and report it. Maybe if eBay gets inundated with 15 or more reports about a possible fraudulent listing, they’ll act on it sooner\u2014or be likely to act on it at all.<\/p>\n

Oh, and BTW, what’s this? Another fake bass saxophone listing<\/a>? Check out this guy’s other supposed listings. I wonder if the seller formerly known as goodmanner010 is back in business already? <\/p>\n

I reported this auction 2 days ago and it’s still running. John reported it as well. If you’re an eBay member, please do so too.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In Part I of this story, I outlined my frustration of eBay’s handling of a seller who was repeatedly listing bass saxophones that he did not …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[18],"tags":[619,660,435,633,644],"class_list":["post-23093","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-musings","tag-bass-saxophone","tag-ebay","tag-fraudulent-listings","tag-musings","tag-photos"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t