eBay Fraud Alert

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I've enjoyed sharing my collection, knowing that those who appreciate Chinese porcelain as much as I also enjoy the various pieces I've put up for view. I was happy to give tips on how to identify genuine pieces. But all the knowledge in the world could not protect anyone from the type of fraud I encountered.
I was searching on eBay when a thumbnail of an item caught my eye as having authentic properties. When I viewed the auction fully I was quite surprised to see someone selling a piece from my collection. They downloaded several images and put it up for sale. It looked like they had done this with many other pieces from other sites as well. The sad part about this is just two months earlier I alerted eBay with a complaint about what I believed was suspicious activity in the way of shill bidding, giving them two names to investigate. They wrote back the standard form letter "No suspicious activity was found." To me it was so obvious, but they didn't seem to be interested. Now, with this latest discovery, I saw the same two names I alerted them to earlier as being involved with the person now offering the piece from my collection.
As usual, the seller was from China, running a Private auction. The details on his feedback were also private (not viewable). He was offering 600 items and accepted PayPal. He was selling my bowl valued at about $6,000.00 for 9 bucks. Shipping was 65 bucks. This seems the norm on many fakes coming out of China. Quite often a nice piece for 99 cents with shipping sometimes over 100 dollars.
You might think PayPal purchases are covered and are protected from fraud like this. Not unless the PayPal Buyer Protection Icon is present at the top of the auction site listing.

If the seller doesn't have this in their listing, they (PayPal) are not liable. I contacted both eBay and PayPal immediately and gave them very detailed info to investigate with. PayPal immediately responded and thanked me, saying they are opening up an investigation and would keep me informed.
When eBay did not respond within the first day, I sent two more complaints. By the third day the auction had ended and still eBay had not responded. I called the 1-800-322-9266 number (available from the Internet) and they seemed more interested as to how I got their number. In fact, that was their first question. I was then told to send an email to them with detailed information regarding the fraud. I immediately sent them a very detailed description with names, item numbers, dates, and some of my own thoughts as to the nature of the fraud. It was easy, as I saved all previous info which they already had, but had not acknowledged. Almost a week passed and they still had not responded. They had my home number, and my work number. The seller was still selling.
I nibbled at the auction with "Ask the Seller a Question" though the auction had ended luckily with no bidders. I was still offered my bowl. I asked the seller to lift the small sticker on the bottom and tell me if there is a mark. He writes back "Yes, it is mark." I removed the sticker a long time ago. I told the seller I was having problems with PayPal and I would send an International Money Order. His reply was "Money Order too slow, use BidPay or Western Union."
So this, sadly, gave birth to a new page to my site. Until eBay gets it together and begins protecting the members in good standing (that have made them quite wealthy), I will publish the names of those crooks and thieves that they are protecting. Here is one seller to watch out for:
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Username: great-wall-antique
Previous Username: bulliongather
Email: bulliongather@hotmail.com
Name given (possibly alias): Wu Guofu
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Sept 23rd, 2004 - I noticed today that the above user is listed on eBay as "Not a Registered User". Still no reply from eBay, but at least they have temporarily stopped the user.
Sept 24th, 2004 - eBay contacted me saying they have thoroughly investigated the user and would take appropriate action. They said there was no action to be taken on the other names I gave. There will be no further entries on this user so keep your eyes open.
Sample Text from the auction discussed above.
Update Sept 29th, 2004 - Update - Another user from China attempted selling 3 more pieces of my collection. I tried for 5 days to get eBay involved. No response whatsoever. Only got an email to rate my previous complaint handling. I called Vero and could only leave a detailed message. No response. I nibbled at the bait and the seller gave me a valid PayPal username to use to make payment since the auctions didn't offer PayPal. I went to PayPal and found that the username in which the auction was listed was suspended from using PayPal, though they were registered. The different username I was given to use was valid with PayPal. I notified PayPal with no response. Here is the latest crook and thief to watch out for on eBay.
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Username: luoyangtaoduantique
Previous Username: (new to eBay) Joined 1 week after seaskydragon888 was suspended.
Email: luoyangtaoduantique@yahoo.com.cn
Name given (possibly alias): Wang Yujuan

Nov 10th, 2004 - Just now notified by eBay that proper action was taken against the user. I checked and the user is now listed as "Not a Registered User". There will be no further entries on this user so keep your eyes open.
You can file a complaint with the IC3 (Internet Crime Complaint Center) by clicking on the following link
http://www.ic3.gov/
One tip though, create a text document before-hand with all the detailed information about the fraud. Then visit the IC3 website. As you are filling out the form, just cut and paste the detailed info from your text document and it goes rather smoothly. Otherwise the session can time out if you take too long, and you'll have to start over.
When you submit it, you are assigned and given the Complaint Number and a password to access your complaint for any updates.

Update March 17th, 2007 I just made a quick run on eBay and see that things have really gotten out of control. The fraud taking place is almost unbelievable. What was happening several years ago has multiplied ten-fold and there seems to be no end in sight. I just looked at only one seller from China running private auctions. Specifically what I mentioned to watch out for. In the past week alone they have sold over 20 items which tells me they are getting quite wealthy using eBay for their fraud scheme, and of course eBay turns a blind eye (as they always have). Just one example is a supposedly Ming dynasty bowl selling for 1 cent with one lucky bidder so far, shipping is almost $100.00 and the item is brand new. If it were authentic, it would bring about $300,000.00 USD. Actually shipping from China would be about 15 dollars and the bowl is worth about 2 dollars. At 20 items per week, they rake in about 2000 bucks, or 8000 per month. They probably have 5 or 6 other usernames and are making hundreds of thousands per year selling brand new pieces.

In the old days of eBay, before the Private auction scam, you could see and contact unsuspecting bidders. The Private auction was just a work-around for the sellers. But eBay has now made it almost impossible to contact any bidder unless you are somehow connected to them via a previous transaction, so even if it's not a private auction, the bidders are protected from tip-offs.

There seems to be an unlimited supply of suckers.

Gosh.... only a penny for a bowl worth thousands.

(Below is a quick gathering of info I did on March 30th, 2007).

I just ran a quick little check on eBay to gather some info. I didn't have to look to hard. Even with a filtered search, the very first item that came up was an overly obvious fake. I decided to do a quick analysis on the seller. From Shanghai, China, Private Auction, 116 items for sale. In the past 2 days they have sold 4 items probably netting them about 800 dollars. In the last hour they have listed 16 new items, all fake. All items going for 99 cents, and the shipping average ranges from 119 dollars to 269 dollars. Most are casually referred to as Ming Dy or Qing Dy, to lazy even to write Dynasty. A pair of 99 cent 'Ming Dy' earrings weighing less than an ounce with shipping of 99 dollars. Unbelievable. With a feedback rating of 92%, it amazes me they still get buyers. Even some of the positive ratings should have been negative. Below is copied directly from the sellers ratings.
$299. shipping for .99 item. Total ripoff! Will NOT pay. Reported to eBay.	I'm sure eBay is concerned.
Promised shipping discount but didn't give one after buying 2 items.	A double sucker punch.
Item received not item advertised in auction. Another CHINESE RIPOFF. BEWARE!	What a surprise.
total ripoff, everything made yesterday, plus huge shipping cost, in disguise.	No disguise, open your eyes.
total ripoff, everything made yesterday, plus huge shipping cost, in disguise.	Possibly made the day before.
Costly lesson. Bad packing; broken item; impossible communication, no recourse.	Total disaster here.
ABSOLUTLY NO CHANCE	Absolutely correct.
did not purchase postage too high	Then why did you buy?
Ming style only - but a nice copy. Arrived well-packed.	'Style' - the magic word.
Nice item, safe sending, thanks. Sorry, not so old as mentioned!	What a surprise.
I have no idea why the 3 ratings above are ?

Update March 3rd, 2008- I see it's been a while since updating my eBay fraud section. It doesn't mean the fraud has disappeared. I'm sad to say that it's quite the contrary. But despite the obvious, I've noticed some new tricks now being used. Since the fakes are of better quality, it's the wording and presentation that sells the fake. I just now cut and pasted the item description below. It followed a very official looking Certificate of Authenticity that accompanied the item. Look closely at the wording.

Yep ........ you found it (hopefully). Those innocent question marks in the Age description. It actually says:

Qing Dynasty (maybe) emperor Period (maybe) 1723-1735 (maybe)

In this case, you could substitute each maybe with a definite not. If this were authentic, it would fetch well over a million US dollars today since an identical plate sold at Sotheby's in 1991 for about half a million. Gosh..... you can get it for only 23 dollars and 15 dollars shipping. Actually, it's a beautiful plate and is easily worth that amount for beauty alone, it already has 12 bidders. But why would they offer it as authentic from the period for such a low price? Because it is bait. They have another plate next to it looking even more authentic with the same worthless certificate of authenticity listed for $1,000 dollars and it already has a bidder. Here's where eBay contributes to the fraud.

For years now dishonest sellers chose the Private Auction method as a tool to prevent unsuspecting bidders from being tipped off. But after many years of use, this practice now is more of a caution to potential buyers. This is having impact on the revenue generated from the fraud. This of course impacts Ebay's revenue as well. Well eBay has now given the dishonest seller a new advantage. They automatically conceal the bidder's identity even if it's not a private auction. Now the dishonest seller appears to be honest by not having to run a private auction.

A few weeks back, before eBay began this new practice of hiding bidders identities, I noticed the early bidder's identity on a newly listed item. When the auction ended, the bidders identity was of course concealed. Well guess what, the bidder got it for just over $15,000 dollars, beating out about 10 other bidders. Since I already knew his identity, I checked his previous transactions. He was fairly new to eBay and was not an experienced bidder. He had previously bought some inexpensive Chinese porcelain items for in the 20 to 30 dollar range, then he got some Sotheby's catalogs for about 15 dollars. A few weeks passed, in which time he probably received the catalogs and educated himself. His next purchase was this guaranteed authentic vase that could have been right out of the catalog. I've seen quite a few of them on eBay. Even though I had the bidder's identity, there was no way to contact him (after the fact) to prevent another loss. Ebay prevents contacting bidders that you have not had previous transactions with. I think eBay netted about $490 dollars on this transaction. Isn't it nice how eBay is protecting everyone?

As for the vase and plate that I've mentioned here, I am sure you could find them at either Sotheby's or Christies. The plate would be filled with candy and the vase with fake flowers, probably in the reception lobby.

As for the very authentic looking, possibly leather-bound, Certificate of Authentic Antique Authenticity issued from the hard to find CHAINA (rather odd spelling) ANTIQUE IDENTIFICATION CENTRE, I'd question them both. Here's the scary part, the seller is from the U.S. and has over 1000 transactions with a 99.5 % positive feedback rating.

Remember what P.T. Barnum said.

There's one born every minute.

Good luck,

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