topic Re: Funny story in Selling

Funny story

the-collector-bull — Sat, 12 Feb 2022 09:42:25 GMT

Not looking for help right now, but just saw a post that reminded me of something funny that happened to me in the early days of eBay.

I was looking for a Dremel set that usually sold for about $400 and managed to find a man selling them from NSW for only $290, so snapped it up. After buying it, I had a bad feeling that it might be a scam account, as he only had 3 feedbacks but according to his listings, had sold over $30,000 of Dremel equipment in the last week.

I went to my PayPal account to look at my payment, and if you remember the PayPal system, it would show you the name of the seller you paid. The name of the seller I paid was "Harry Bigballs". I was pretty certain that wasn't a real name, so contacted PayPal and eBay and showed them the contact details for the seller and told them I thought it might be a fake name.

I then received emails form both eBay and PayPal telling me that I was making a serious allegation and could I provide proof that it was a fake name? I just replied to that with "you people are idiots. Speak to you again when I get my refund".

About 5 days later I received multiple emails with the subject header "ATTENTION" telling me that the Dremel I bought was from a fake account and I'd be receiving a refund. haha.

There was a story in the newspaper about it a few weeks after that, and apparently it was some 13-year-old girl who'd scammed over $60,000 from eBayers using her Dad's laptop. Too funny!

Re: Funny story

davewil1964 — Sat, 12 Feb 2022 10:01:51 GMT

Your point? As it relates to eBay now, rather than eBay then?

You seem to have issues with eBay - maybe stop using the platform.

Re: Funny story

gutterpunkz05 — Sat, 12 Feb 2022 13:56:15 GMT

It made the news, that is excellent as the story, funny or otherwise, should still be verifiable on the net. So do you want to provide the year and country/state, to enable a more precise search.

Re: Funny story

jellybirddesigns — Sat, 12 Feb 2022 13:56:39 GMT

It's just a funny story Dave.

Geez.

Re: Funny story

papermoon.lady — Sat, 12 Feb 2022 19:45:09 GMT

Well, you never know with surnames... It "could" have been true, 🙂

148 Funny Last Names Or Surnames From Across The World (momjunction.com)

Re: Funny story

springyzone — Sat, 12 Feb 2022 20:38:03 GMT

Well, it gave me a smile anyway. Never ceases to amaze me how stupid some scammers are, like fancy choosing a fake ID of Harry Bigballs, but then again I guess we can't expect too much from 13 year old girls.

Mind you, the sales of $30,000 in the past week combined with new account/unusually low price would have been enough flags for me to stop me buying.

Re: Funny story

the-collector-bull — Sun, 13 Feb 2022 06:22:55 GMT

What's wrong with you? Are you always so angry? You seem to have issues with people having a laugh - maybe stop using the forum. Good luck with your issues.

Re: Funny story

domino-710 — Sun, 13 Feb 2022 06:26:46 GMT

At 13 - I'd have gone for ' Harry Highpants '. 😂

Re: Funny story

the-collector-bull — Sun, 13 Feb 2022 06:34:24 GMT

It was in WA around 2008. Good luck trying to find the story on that. I just typed in girl scam western australia followed by 2007,2008 and 2009 and there are millions of results. In the early days anyone could open an account and start selling straight away. I found this one, which is similar. This kid did much better than the girl though. That's pretty amazing.

https://edition.cnn.com/2011/10/24/world/asia/australia-ebay-scam/index.html

Re: Funny story

the-collector-bull — Sun, 13 Feb 2022 06:36:34 GMT

haha. I think "Peanisbreath" might be my favourite.

Re: Funny story

davewil1964 — Sun, 13 Feb 2022 08:06:00 GMT

Only funny to the people who weren't scammed. And hardly relevant today

Re: Funny story

colic2bullsgirlore — Sun, 13 Feb 2022 17:49:19 GMT

@papermoon.lady wrote:
Well, you never know with surnames... It "could" have been true, 🙂
148 Funny Last Names Or Surnames From Across The World (momjunction.com)

.... ask..... Callum...... Callum Murray, NSW and Australian rep lawn bowler.... AKA squid. His legend parents obviously do not drink Dare iced coffee.

https://www.portnews.com.au/story/5522278/murray-and-lewis-poised-to-make-a-charge-at-bowls-

glory/

Re: Funny story

joztamps — Sun, 13 Feb 2022 23:51:19 GMT

For many years, the licensees of the Eltham pub were Joseph and Frances Blow.

Known to their friends as Joe and Fanny.

True story