Fraud alert Fair warning to Audiogoners.

Glreno,
You have now satisfied 95% of my concerns about the vagueness of the allegations. You have to admit, a DA would have laughed at your report of facts in your first posting on this thread. I would admit that a DA would take the facts in your last post very seriously.

I am still concerned that there is an anti-arab hysteria brewing since 9-11. Your first post identifies the culprits as being of Arabic descent. Maybe you have information about their identities which confirms that. But so what? How does that information help the ebay/audiogon/audiomart shopper to detect and avoid the scam? I don't suggest that because they may be arabs that we should look the other way. Crooks should be identified and prosecuted. But would you have pointed out that they were of British or German origin if that were the case? And if all I know is that their screen name is [email protected], what difference does it make to me if they are Arab, German, African, British, etc?

First of all, the information given was not meant for prosection, only as a warning to consumers. It is not necessary for you to receive a case ready for prosecution to take precautions in purchases made on the internet. If you choose to ignore that information, that's your business. More information was available to you, just as it was for me, simply by exploring the websites with your eyes open. That was the purpose of this posting.

I understand your concern about labeling. I considered carefully what I wrote in that posting. It is certainly not my intention to be inflammatory or cast a shadow on any particular race or ethnic group of people. Nor do I think I have done that. Facts are facts, and I have them to support what I have said. My intentions were to only provide as many indicators or clues to the identification of these false ads as possible. I based the indicators mentioned in the original and follow-up postings on what I use to identify these false ads. Some of the email addresses I have found use Arabic surnames. Some of them are indicative of a certain political philosophy. When you see this in email addresses of sellers, it is just one more caution to be aware of. As I said, look at the totality of events. Fraud cases in particular are like small snowballs rolling downhill. As they pick-up speed, they grow in size. With fraud cases, one clue leads to many others, until a pattern is apparent and obvious. The information I gave was the results of that first small snowball I "discovered" that has now grown to an enormous size. I can't begin to tell you how complex and far reaching this case has become. And consider that I probably only know bits and pieces of it.

Would I have pointed it out if they were British or German? Absolutely! I don't care what race or ethnicity they are, I just want them caught. As far as "satisfying you", after being involved in many newsworthy events over the course of my career, and having been interviewed and quoted (and misquoted) by various forms of media, I have learned one thing: You can't please everybody.

As far as the "hysteria", in our city there were some minor, isolated incidents, and nationwide there were a handful of newsworthy events related to September 11th. But those occurred within two months after that tragic event. Maybe it's different in your community. If so, that's unfortunate, and it makes it easier to understand your concerns. Feel free to email me at my personal email address of [email protected]. This discussion has veered to far away from the intent of this original posting.

More to the purpose of this thread, if anyone has become a victim already, and don't wish to send the information to me, at least notify the FBI at www.ifccfbi.gov. If you would also cross reference your complaint to the original complaint # I02030713598991, I would appreciate it. This group may also be currently attempting to establish accounts with Paypal. They do have access to numerous stolen credit cards. I will post more information if possible as I come across it.

Speaking of copying ads, I would encourage sellers to mark auction/classified pictures with their name in a way to prevent picture thieves from cropping out the identifying marker.

I have sold items on ebay only to find my pictures resurfacing in later auctions. Often it's just people who don't have cameras, but the practice is misleading and can be wrongly used. Photo thieves also make your own posting look like a scam.

They have found their way to Audioshopper. Check out http://audioshopper.com/cgi-bin/classifieds.asp?action=showad&id=63658. Same email as "afrank" on Audioweb ([email protected]). He moved to Audioshopper because his membership was revoked from Audioweb.