This board and its members can pat itself on the back for showing one local idiot that
he is not smarter than many thousands of sets of vigilant philatelic eyes - worldwide. 
Real "People Power" at work. :idea:
This thread started it all:
http://www.stampboards.com/viewtopic.php?t=88&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0We have already had
28 of his fake ebay stamp selling accounts
closed down and de-registered, largely due to this board, and the fine information sharing stemming from this board in the threads below.
APTA have also got involved, and I am told have senior stamp collector contacts who work in the NSW Police who also are placing colleagues on this fellow's tail.
Stamp dealers internationally have been briefed on the fellow and his fakes, and none of them will likely be conned into buying them, as they are now fully aware of what is out there.
Oxygen is starved. No outlets = no reason to keep offering the dud stamps, as he will get lumbered yet again.
A
job well done by all concerned I'd say.
The ebay fake handles involved -
all now de-registered are:
aw1940
aussiestampsales
nswstamps
modlink2002
stampbuyers
indepbrokers
george0mighty
wynstoninvest
davidsstamps
gregbear_61
bexapunk101
azarbay*123
idealstamps_1
jones-philatelics
prestige_stamps
byzantine2006
lunaheloui
vtoledo20
baltantiq
topchoice001
fj...antiques02
top_gun59
perm209
express.stamps
doyle_doyle
century_stamps02
stowie02
scott222_01
p.webster01
.
The next to last last 5 were all banned September 11, 2008, and the fourth to final one was banned on November 13. and that one only managed to sell 2 fake perf "OS" lots before being banned, although he was just starting to offer many more fakes. The final three on the list was banned February 5 and February 22 and February 24 .. again before they could even really start selling forged things.
A large group of collectors and dealers are now spotting when the new fake ID's pop up on ebay, discuss them informally via email, and reporting them direct when it is agreed they are offering fakes. In my view, these were all the one person at work pretty much. He has a criminal record, and has served long jail sentences for other offences. This person is a fully trained and qualified medico, and one wonders what drives someone that smart, into this kind of petty fraud.
He knows enough about stamps to make
more money selling legitimate things, but this all seems to be a giant game to him - "fleece the bunnies".
Most fakes offered were Australian official perfins, and a small range of fake cancels and overprints were also involved, including a few NZ issues.
Some were fairly convincing, and many were appalling. Where some ebay buyers get their brains from one really wonders. When you see total obvious fake rubbish attracting a raft of high bids to $190 for comically bad things like this below, clearly cancelled a few days before it was listed, with a cheap rubber stamp pad, and a laughable rubber cancel:
If ebay are given these other 29 recently banned names when you see a new seller of fakes pop up - they will find via their highly sophisticated data matching software, some slight connections that exist, exist enabling them to ban the new ID.
ebay are the leading edge in this data matching ID, and despite this guy using a string of
false names, PO box addresses, street addresses, paypal accounts, bank accounts, and phone numbers - he
always gets caught by ebay.
An
established dealer will be there next week, next month, next year - and usually next decade, if you end up with something you might want a refund on.
As we can all see, these ebay cons are always knocked out of business sooner rather than later, (often a week after the sale closes!) and often your only recourse is to pound sand for your $600 refund.
ebay in the PAST did
not really want to know, and even paypal did
not really want to know it seems. ebay and paypal make money
EVERY time a sale occurs. Whether it is fake or not is not of
any interest whatever to them.
What
DOES interest them
is refunding money via paypal under the much touted Buyer Guarantee. This crook has already cost ebay many $1,000s in refunds - more than he has ever paid in listing and final value fees, so they are now VERY interested in stopping him whenever he pops up. He has always long vanished with the dough, but THEY need to pay it back to the buyer of the forgeries.
Because of this, ebay now have set up a fast new portal to report suspected sellers of forged stamps at - www.tinyurl.com/ebayfakes - there is space for 10,000 characters in your reply, so all the relevant info can be added. Unlike most ebay complaint forms that allow 100 characters etc. Perhaps remind ebay something like this when you list all the fakes names connected with a new fake seller:
The sum of PayPal charge-backs involved with these TWENTY NINE stamp forger accounts listed here must be quite significant already, and each time ebay allows them to trade under a new fake ID, it will add to the eventual $$$$ loss to ebay via charge-backs when buyers discover the stamps they bought are fake, and later demand refunds from PayPal, from a by then de-listed seller.
And inaction will mean that ebay is seen more and more by those in the stamp buying community as a totally unsafe and unwise place to buy stamps, costing ebay even more revenue as buyers go to other sites and mainstream dealers who offer a guarantee of genuineness. If you see a new ebay seller pop up listing forged 'OS' perfins, and 1937 and 1946 Omnibus "Specimen" set perfins etc, and Australia related overprints, start a new thread below and other members can offer their views. Or email admin[at]stampboards.com
You
CAN happily post to the same thread found at:
http://www.stampboards.com/viewtopic.php?p=2786
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