[meteorite-list] Ebay fraud

[Eric Wichman]

Mike and All,

Most true meteorite dealers are fed up (they have been for quite some 
time) with the policy Ebay has on such obvious fraud. Unfortunately 
there's not much that can be done about it.

How does Ebay know that the supposed "meteorite" auctions aren't 
meteorites at all other than the word of people like us who are in the 
meteorite industry? You can do nothing more than report the perpetrators 
to Ebay, but Ebay legally can't just take the words of "real" meteorite 
dealer over another Ebay dealer because that simply could be seen as a 
ploy to rid a dealer of their competition. So, Ebay continues to ignore 
the "fake meteorite" problem for fear of getting sued for shutting down 
the auctions that are suspicious and/or obvious fakes.

There might be something that could be done for a specific seller. Every 
time there is obvious fraud, someone could try buying the "fake" 
meteorites (if it's not expensive as in the case of 
starchasersmeteorites supposed lunars), and documenting every aspect of 
the sale, recording on video the package as it's opened, and recording 
the cutting and testing of the fake. Even then it is open to argument 
whether this will be valid and seen by Ebay as PROOF that this is not a 
meteorite.

Continue to report the "fake meteorite" dealers and hope Ebay eventually 
gets around to doing something about it.

As for the obvious fraud that has been committed against you, I would 
contact Ebay directly. If you are a powerseller, Ebay gives you a direct 
phone line to contact them. You can talk to them, email them photos and 
documentation of everything you experienced with this particular seller 
and file a fraud report.

All in all it's very tough to prove fraud with Ebay. You need evidence. 
If you have the proof Ebay "might" listen and shut the seller down.

Regards,
Eric Wichman
www.MeteoritesUSA.com
www.MeteoriteWatch.com

P.S. You can get info on how to file reports with Paypal and Ebay from here:

http://pages.ebay.com/help/tp/inr-snad-process.html

Or here: http://pages.ebay.com/help/tp/isgw-buyer-protection-steps.html



> Subject:
> [meteorite-list] E bay fraud
> From:
> "Mike Miller" <meteoritefinder at gmail.com>
> Date:
> Mon, 8 Sep 2008 08:28:31 -0700
> To:
> "meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com" 
> <meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>
>
> To:
> "meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com" 
> <meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>
>
>
> Hi all a while back I bought a stone that was supposed to be Nantan on
> E bay it was actually a pretty good fake. They had added coloring to
> make it look rusty and a magnet really stuck to it. So I stuck it on
> the saw thinking it might just be a ball of rust, well as soon as it
> started cutting it turned the everything a reddish color. When I
> finished the cut and looked at it, it was stone not iron at all.I
> would be surprised if it is not hematite. So I contacted the Chinese
> dealer and told them all of this and after a couple attempts to
> satisfy me will some discount or a better deal next time. I filed a
> case with Pay pal and demanded a full refund, and that they stop
> selling these lumps of rock as meteorites. I do not know if they ever
> really stopped but I see they are back to their same old tricks again,
> except this time I know that they know they are committing fraud. Does
> that make any difference? Is there anything we can do?
>
>   
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