A++++ eBayer! Quick pay! (Sucker!)

By Chris Karr in Miscellaneous on Aug 29, 2006 8:09PM

When the tubes of the Interwebs stretch all over this planet, it’s sometimes a bit odd to see some local ‘Net news.

The Chicago Sun Times is reporting on a local crook using those electronic tubes to engage in some old-fashioned theft and fraud:

Calling himself Christian Hamilton, he e-mailed McBride offering to buy her one-carat ring and the matching diamond encrusted wedding band.

He asked her to send the jewelry to his apartment in the 6100 block of North Kenmore in Chicago. He also sent her a link to an Internet "escrow service" that would turn over his money to her after he received his merchandise.

You guessed it: Christian Hamilton and the escrow service disappeared -- and so did her jewelry.

"I always thought I was street smart," McBride said. "I guess I'm not Internet smart."

The article goes on to describe how Chicago is one of the global hubs for eBay scams. Bag men collect the cash, which is then whisked away electronically to nice lawful places like Romania. The crooks target people from out of state so that the local police are less willing to investigate the crime.

Now, we’ve never been the victim of eBay fraud, but that’s because we don’t spend money there in large amounts. (Though we spend small amounts there all too frequently.) Reading through the stories in the article, we can’t help but wonder how anyone could bring themselves to purchase a car – sight-unseen – on the basis of a blurry image from an unknown seller. But that’s just us…

However, should you find yourself in a situation where you have been swindled on the site and eBay and the local police are being less than helpful, you can take a small amount of solace from reading the saga of the P-P-P-Powerbook. The bad guys don’t always win.

Image credit: Wizards of the Coast