Gentlemen I have been the victim of an ebay fraud. This a long story I will summarize. A small time sellers account was hacked by an individual who created a fradulant email address, changed the payment instructions and apparantly cut and pasted an auction. I was the winner, the coin was never received, however my personal check was cashed by this individual. I am gathering information and I am going to the local FBI district office tomorrow. What I ask of you is to see if you have the following coin in your possesion, or have ever owned it. It is not currently listed in the pcgs registry, since I was able to temporarly add this number to my inventoryas a test. The coin is a 1909 S VDB Pcgs MS64RD and the certification number is 90058452 Thank you very much, any leads are appreciated.
Sorry to hear of your misfortune ambro. While I cant get your money back for you there is one possible way to at least catch the seller. If he listed the coin once and got your money, he's eventually going to list it again to rip off someone else. I'd suggest keeping track of all Ebay sellers who have currently listed PCGS 09-S VDBs for sale. If he does, that certification number is bound to appear again, maybe, unless he changes it somehow. I'll keep a watch on the auctions also and let you know if I come across it. You may want to keep an eye on other Coin Auction sites also. Good Luck!!!
Sorry about your trouble. I will keep my eye open for it. However, it seems likely that if the guy is even slightly smart, he would crack the coin out of the slab and have it re-slabbed before putting up for sale again.
Sounds like the guy never had the coin but just a picture. He got away with it once so he may be stupid enough to try it again. If anyone spots it at auction I would suggest an immediate PM to ambro so he can notify the feds.
wow. that sucks. i hope you nail him to the wall. its scum like this that give all coin nuts bad names. his arm would be payment enough for me! I have a 65 red PCGS, I love it and would die (kill) if this happened to me. Sorry again, and I will keep an eye out.
Sorry about you luck! One of the reasons I use credit card and paypal. If they do not accept paypal I do not use them.
WOW, does this crookery ever end? MarkH is correct, Paypal provides the best protection to the buyer on Ebay. Paypal will generally stand behind buyer everytime, and will refund your money. While not a sign of anything fishy, as paypal fees are high, I generally beware of sellers who do not accept it. A seller who does not take it will have excellent documentable feedback and do many items per month before I would bid on an item. I have entered that PCGS # into my flag list, if I see it, I'll let you know !!!
Yes you are right with the paypal.. I agree and Im partially at fault for all this. they left a HUGE trail and hopefully all will be resolved. I will post tomorrow regarding this. Paypal fees are high....for a 4000+ coin I can understand trying to avoid them. Thats the main reason I paid with a personal check, rather than a money order at least they need an established bank account to deposit or cash the check. All in all, Id much rather have the coin...it was pristine!
Wow, I'm sorry to hear that and will keep an eye out for the coin. But I'm wondering....was your password "guessable" or how did someone hack your account?
It wasn't HIS account that was hacked. It was the SELLER'S account. Ambro was the high bidder on the hacked auction.
Sorry to hear all this. This is why I would never consider buying a rare or expensive item from ebay. From what I have read here and on other forums is that there are way too many crooks on there for me to take such a chance.
We, there are also many top flite dealers who sell on ebay. Of all my purchases on ebay this is the very first time anything like this has happened.
ACW, Using PayPal and a credit card gives you a great deal of protection as a buyer. I wouldn't buy any expensive coins on eBay without those protections unless I knew the seller pretty well...Mike
Or a local check cashing establishment. Sure they have to pay a stiff percentage to the check cashing owner but they don't really care because they aren't out anything, they still walk with a lot a free money and they don't have a bank account that can be traced.
Man, I'm sorry to hear about this man, and I will keep my eye out for you. That is a pristine coin. What's the sellers name? Phoenix
If the number is not listed, it may be a phony as well. With the proper photoshop skills it wouldn't be very hard to change the number on a stolen picture. If that's what happened, the guy probably changes the number before each use of the picture, and it won't be of any assistance.
