Monday, November 26, 2007

eBay urged to tackle MP3 fraud

Hundreds of eBay customers have signed a petition calling on the auction site to take action over alleged fraudulent activity involving MP3 players.

According to the online petition, fake MP3 and MP4 players are being sold on eBay that claim to offer higher storage capacity than they actually have.

The petition states: "MP3\MP4 players are being sold to unsuspecting buyers worldwide.These players are being listed as having 2GB\4GB and 8GB (Gigabyte) of storage capacity but in reality they have much smaller memory modules that have been manipulated (hacked) so that they read as larger than their true capacity."

source

Friday, November 23, 2007

Tiffany aims at eBay in counterfeit fight

NEW YORK (Dow Jones/AP) -- Tiffany & Co.'s top executive said Tuesday that pursuing litigation against eBay Inc. was more effective and economical at stopping counterfeit sales of its products than targeting individual sellers on the online auction site.

At a hearing in federal court in Manhattan, Michael J. Kowalski, the jewelry retailer's chairman and chief executive, said it has been very difficult to pursue individual sellers who list knockoffs on eBay, with little economic return. He described the counterfeit sellers as "phantasms," who have adopted new identities and returned to selling on the Web site.

news article

Wednesday, November 21, 2007

Mail thief who sold items on eBay gets 4 months in jail

A former leasing company executive who stole thousands of items from the mail, including a Tom Brady rookie card, and sold them on eBay has been sentenced Tuesday to 120 days in the Kane County Jail. Mark Hoggay, 51, of Geneva Township, who pleaded guilty to felony theft, was also sentenced to 4 years' probation.

Hoggay worked as vice president of human resources for a Bolingbrook leasing company that contracted with the Postal Service to store extra bins and lockers during periods of heavy mailing, said Assistant State's Atty. Justin Fitzsimmons. Hoggay, who had access to the secure room, picked items he liked and took them home in duffels, prosecutors said.

Chicago Tribune

Sunday, November 18, 2007

Ebay Trojan morphs to snare motor victims

A sophisticated Trojan menacing eBay Motors users continues to circulate, according to researchers from Symantec, who say the malware has morphed three times in the last week in an attempt to evade detection.

Trojan.Bayrob is in constant contact with a fleet of control servers so it can be updated in real time - all the better to trick victims into making pricey fraudulent purchases. It regularly downloads fake pages that masquerade as authentic eBay content and program updates, according to an entry on the Symantec Security Response Blog.


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Tuesday, November 13, 2007

Tiffany Accuses eBay of Failing to Stop Counterfeit Jewelry Sales

NEW YORK

A lawyer for Tiffany & Co. accused eBay Inc. on Tuesday of allowing the sale of tens of thousands of pieces of counterfeit Tiffany jewelry on its Web site; an eBay lawyer responded that Tiffany wasn't doing its share to protect customers.

The arguments in U.S. District Court in Manhattan came at the start of a trial to decide whether eBay can be blamed for the sales of silver Tiffany knockoffs on its Internet site since 2003.

source

Thursday, November 08, 2007

Man sells $1M of fake Cisco computers on eBay

By BILL RANKIN The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

A Cumming man who sold more than $1 million worth of counterfeit computer products on eBay pleaded guilty Thursday before a federal judge in Atlanta.


From 2003 until early this year, Todd Richard, 33, sold fake Cisco computer components by using several eBay account names and business addresses, federal prosecutors said. Richard was charged last month with trafficking counterfeit Cisco trademarks.

source

Tuesday, November 06, 2007

Teen Robbed During eBay Transaction

A Detroit teen was robbed at gunpoint when he met the person who sold him an item on eBay on Saturday afternoon, according to Southfield police.

The 17-year-old Aric Adams was the winning bidder for a pair of $1,100 Cartier sunglasses. The person who placed the item on eBay told him to meet at the entrance of an apartment complex at Providence and 9 Mile roads. When he arrived, the seller called from a restricted phone number and told him to wait there, according to police.

"I hear footsteps coming up to me, so I turn around and I get hit with a gun on the side of my neck. I fall on the ground and then two men were just kicking me on the floor. The other person, who had the gun on my face, he was looking for the money in my pockets. As soon as they got the money, they ran off," said Adams.

source article

Monday, November 05, 2007

Man gets two-year term for eBay scam

A former Sacramento man has been sentenced to two years in prison after bilking eBay consumers out of more than $93,000.

Gilbert Vartanian, 37, was sentenced Monday in federal court following his Aug. 7 conviction of committing fraud on eBay, according to a news release by the office of U.S. Attorney McGregor Scott.

Vartanian was found guilty on nine counts of mail fraud for selling, but never delivering, professional basketball and football tickets and Rolex watches.

source article