Broadband Tech > Security > Scam and Phishbusters > [Scam] Victim of Romania Ebay fraud

reply to MGD

Re: [Scam] Victim of Romania Ebay fraud

People come here for help, not to be yelled at.

reply to x17451745
Sorry to hear you got conned. Being Romanian, it ticks me off to see such things happening over and over again, then being looked at suspiciously and my country being called "3rd world."

It's aggravating to see the slowness of authorities, too! They have some success stories, busting kids after stealing tens of thousands of dollars off (no offense) gullible eBay customers, but the money is never recovered. And the underground networks thrive and specialize in stealing eBay accounts, e-mail accounts, identity cards, forging e-mails and websites, and cashing out money through WesternUnion/MoneyGram.

The average American Internet user is in for a big surprise if he or she is not extra careful. There are so many warnings everywhere on the Internet, even eBay has sent another newsletter titled "Protect Yourself from Spoof Email and Web sites & Fake Second Chance Offers" to all its customers on October 11, but some people choose to ignore the warnings and dive into the unknown head first. The "DO NOT USE WESTERN UNION" message has been going on for at least two years. I'm sorry to say that in some cases people learn this the hard way.

Anyway, to put an end to this rant, here's the bottom line. e-frauda.ro site is like a black hole; even my own reports for spammers and the like didn't get any answer. Police can record a complaint and "investigate" it for months or years, but you will need a contact here for the bureaucratic procedures, most likely a lawyer who can act on your behalf. It can turn into an expensive course of action with nearly zero chances of recovering your money. Even if the Police does find a circle of suspects and gathers enough evidence to bust them, a lawsuit can take even a few years to reach a definitive decision and the stolen money has already been spent or lost before making official arrests.

Scams go both ways, I've lost $100 on an auction started by some dude in Houston with Indian or Pakistani name. If you play with fire long enough, eventually you will get burned. Accept the fact that you have lost the money, learn from this experience and warn fellow e-shoppers to be extra careful and assume every transaction can be a hoax, a spoof, a con. And, do your best to record a complaint with the Romanian authorities and hope that maybe, maybe the scammers will eventually get caught and your complaint will add up to others to get a court conviction. That's pretty much the only satisfaction you can realistically hope for.

Again, sorry for your experience, better luck next time.

A good page to read on eBay: »cgi3.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?V···of-fraud

My own "About Me" page on eBay, with a similar warning: »members.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dl···ebmaster

reply to MGD
The address seems real, according to the phonebook - there are 11 residences with the same street and number, probably sharing a common courtyard. However, there is no person "Bogdan Nicolae" or similar among those 11.

The entry gate to the courtyard may be open, so anyone could sneak in and hang an extra mailbox with the name of a person not actually living there. The other residents may not notice the new mailbox, or simply not question its presence there. The mailman simply gets to the address and inserts the mail in the corresponding box. This way, the scammer can have a postal address completely untraceable.

The Romanian White Pages (phonebook) website is here: »www.paginialbe.ro/index_engleza.php3 . For the above address, select "Bacau" under District (BC stands for Bacau), then click the "->" arrow button below, click the button with the city name (Onesti), enter "Republicii" for Street, and "36" for Street No. and click "Searching". The first 10 results will be displayed. "Urmatoarea" button will take you to the next page, "Precedenta" goes to previous page, "Alta cautare" starts a new search. Each row contains the phone subscriber name, street, number, (block staircase, floor and apartment if it's a block of flats), city name, country code (40), zip code, and telephone number starting with area code of the district.

I know; it's one ugly, non-intuitive, poorly designed site, it hasn't changed in YEARS. *sigh*

Another useful site in locating an address is the Romanian Postal Services site, »www.posta-romana.ro . Of interest here is the zip (postal) code finder, which can hint you if a street and number exists in a city. This site is awfully slow, I can't get you a direct link at this time.

[edit] Here's the link: »www.posta-romana.ro/index.jsp?pa···guage=EN .

reply to E_V
hey E_V do u want my phone number too?
i keed.
sorry to hear this has happened. if you have any more info i think i could call the cops there...
Onesti is a small town and mostly poor. it shouldn't be too difficult to find that guy..
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ain't that the truth!?!

I believe the problem may be that the thief is using a fake or stolen id, and his name is not really Nicolae Bogdan nor may he actually live at that address in Onesti.

It is my understanding that you can pick up a Western Union transfer from anywhere, as long as you have id in that name and have the MTCN number and the transfer details. The money may not have been picked up in Onesti at all.

MGD

well, back when i was in the states i used to send money back home and the guys from WU were pretty strict about the id...
My girlfriend had some problems picking some money up because i forgot to write her middle name correctly. she had to tell the person at the "window" my address and phone number in order to be able to receive the money.
i mean take it up with western to see exactly where the money was picked up and by whom...
i know they must write somewhere the equivalent of the ssn here in romania on a piece of paper and i don't know if you can come by an id that easy ...
i mean i've never tried it... but still ... the guy that picked up the money wasn't that smart. if a police investigator would really do his job than something has to come up. these are not ghosts picking up the money .. it's real people and in their greed they do make mistakes and this scum does deserve a long stay in a romanian prison just because regular honest people here in romania are seen mostly as thieves and liars and it takes a while until one can prove that he is not like that.

anyway .. back on topic, can the OP inquire as to where exactly the money was picked up? it's hard to believe that WU doesn't keep track of these things.
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ain't that the truth!?!