[78-L] Phantom eBay winner

[Benno Häupl]

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There's more behind this story than appears at first sight. The fake bidder has been in 
operation for about two years now. I have about 15 fake IDs of his. 

When I had Calypso 78s up for auction, I thought that the fake bidder would not be that 
stupid to disclose his identity (to eBay) by showing who he is.  I was wrong. 

He was still able to bid (because he had his PayPal account linked to his new/fake eBay ID - 
so at least eBay knows who he is. Like several others, I reported the whole case to 
eBay Trust & Safety, but they say that PayPal is another company and they cannot get 
information about users from them !!! In other words, they are able to identify him and kick 
him off forever, but they won't do it. 

So. I think it is important to follow the official eBay procedure. Therefore I retrieve his 
personal information after the auction end and call the phone number in London. It always 
proves to be fake. Next step is to report him to eBay for false contact information. That will 
get him kicked off (but he will register a new fake ID soon).   

The procedure is to send him an invoice, wait 4 days, file for an unpaid item, and if more 
people follow this routine, his ID is NARU'd quickly (NARU = not a registered user). Then 
you get your FVF (final value fees) back from eBay and can sell to the next highest bidder. 
By the way, personally, I do sell to the next highest bidder at the price they WOULD HAVE 
PAID if the fake bidder had not come along. 

Also, I used to stay up late (European time) when my items ended in the evening (EST to 
PST), and waited for the first fake winning bid to come in. Then I know his ID. With another 
browser that I had open at the blocked bidders page, I blocked him instantly from bidding 
on more of my items which I had set to end 2 minutes apart. 

Benno
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