Bandit on Ebay

Hello all,

I want to warn you about a real bandit acting on Ebay.
I won a bid for an Apollo 1260 for my Amiga 1200 and send the amount of 120£. I do know the delivery was successfull (according to the delivery notification service).
My 120£ are lost.

He stole me and stole 3 other people (see on Ebay). He takes money and no more news, no more answer (phone and mail) and, of course, no delivery.

I want to tell you who he is really :
His username on ebay is "luci-astra".
His real name is Mark Arstall.
His last known adress is : 8 henshaw walk, brunswick, manchester m13 9ur.
His last known email : pixieblade@freeuk.com

I hope he's ashamed, at least.

Please, if you are bidding on ebay, take attention !

Vincent.

[Steve]

I'm ashamed to be in the same City as that guy. It looks like he's stolen from four seperate people this month totalling to roughly £500. That is not only scandalous but highly illegal. Have you asked ebay what they're going to do about it because this guy should be arrested. I'm a regular ebayer and this stuff really pisses me off. The police and ebay should clamp down on this type of theft.

[Andrew]

Thats awful! I'm a regular ebayer too and can't believe this sort of stuff goes on. Ebay should remove this thief! As it is so much money, if u live close, I wud be tempted to knock on his door and get my money back!

[jmmijo]

Unfortunately this is why I've never used eBay for purshasing anything. I've heard too many horror stories So does this mean I will never buy anything on eBay, perhaps but I do plan on it as so many Amiga specific items can only be purchased there.

As for the reason sombody does this, plain and simple, GREED!

Greed knows no political or geographical bounderies. Being from the States I see this all the time, especially after the events of Sep 11

[Steve]

99.9% of the time Ebay is great. I have bought loads of stuff off Ebay and never had any problems. A general rule I follow though is to make sure the Seller has a good rating. I usually look for sellers that have ratings of 100+. Always check a sellers past feedbacks and never bid on an item when the sellers rating is 0 or less. Especially when you're paying for something really expensive like £350.

[RetroMan]

The point is, if someone on EBay got 500+ positive results, you don´t have to worry about wasting your money .... I often buy items from EBay (think I bought about 200+ computer items so far) and I NEVER had any negative results ! Ok sometimes the items aren´t that good as described, but all the times I had arranged something with the former owner and everything went out ok I hate those loosers stealing money from others through lies and if I EVER would come to one person like that here in germany, I swear I would open his door with a big Truck so he would never can harm anyone again Only joking but such things make me feel really bad

I know of at least one person in my neighborhood that was "robbed" by such a person on EBay and after a week he went to the police and he got his money back .... I say, EBay is not so dangerous like buying an AOL CD It´s save most of the time, you just have to differ between the good and the bad

[jmmijo]

Good advice everyone, thanks

It still doesn't make it easier as you never know when somebody gets the greed bug, regardless of their sellers ratings. This is just human nature, unfortunately

For those interested with a shity story of greed ...

Pieces of the puzzle are clear now, I begin to see the whole story.
When emailing with him after the bid, he gave me his "new adress" in Manchester, telling me not to worry with the different address on Ebay. Ok, I said, why not ? I sent the cash to his new adress. When checking at my post office for delivery (I'm french), I noticed that the delivery didn't happen 3 times for a "not at home". Ok, why not ? Maybe he's working I thought. At this time, he sent me an angry email, asking for cash quickly since I won the auction. Not a polite guy I thought, and told him to check his post office coz the cash was here ! Since that email, u know the whole story : no news ...
It's crystal clear : the "new address" he gave me is the old one. He really moved away but still uses the old address to fool people without leaving traces ...

But I'm ready to have the ending word.
I'm french, 120£ lost won't kill my way of life (althought it's an important sum for entertainment and important sum for people in general), but it's a question of honor and honesty (don't know how to say in english ...). I can't let this situation going on. I'm really decided to make an inquiry and ready to visit Manchester for my next holiday.
I got 1 kid, married and non violent, but he'll receive my hand on his face.
Right now, I wrote a complaint to ebay and tried to contact other victims of this guy.

admin:
// mon p'tit vincent, ce que t'essayes de faire là, c'est de mettre une signature à la fin de tous tes messages,
// c'est maaaaaaaal, c'est interdit ici, on considère ca comme du spam.
// Si tu veux vraiment avoir une signature, configure plutot ton UserCP :)
// Have a nice day ;)

Sorry monsieur l'administrateur. Réflexe ...
J'en prends bien note, surtout que cela fut dit dans un Français impeccable. D'ailleurs, un "p'tit" quelque chose me dit que tu es Français...

[jmmijo]

@Giana,
You said it most eloquently in English, you could also say it's a matter of principle, but I and most likely, everyone else knew what you meant.

Please keep us informed about this thief

[RCK]

Originally posted by Giana
Sorry monsieur l'administrateur. Réflexe ...
J'en prends bien note, surtout que cela fut dit dans un Français impeccable. D'ailleurs, un "p'tit" quelque chose me dit que tu es Français...

Yes, it is called the "Location" Field, and you can find it in all the user's post
(just bellow the avatar & the number of active post)

[DPainter]

Send him a sealed cookie tin containing a dead rat. Be sure to send it at book rate so it takes three weeks to get to his house.
Make certain it is well sealed so no one smells anything until it's opened.

Hello,

It seems the story is interesting you all, so these are the last details. Thank you all for ur support.

I took contact with other people fooled by luci-astra and had one answer.
At least (for the moment) one police statment is done. This statment will soon be sent to Manchester Police Dpt, where he lives (lived ?).
I stay in touch with him and try to learn how to deposit a complaint too.

Hello,

Last news.
It seem the guy has two names :
Mark Arstall or Marcus Luciastra.

[RCK]

Originally posted by Giana
It seem the guy has two names :
Mark Arstall or Marcus Luciastra.

Marz Attakz !!! police will catch you, run

Hello,

Investigations are going on ...

I've found traces of Mark Arstall here :
http://www.cris.com/~jws/lal/Europe_UnitedKingdom.html

It's a kind of directory for Amiga Users in UK.
His email : marka@theabyss.prestel.co.uk is dead.

Seems the guy is a real Amiga user. That's chocking.


I don't want delation (note, I do not want), but if anybody knows him, please tell him seriously to pay back or send the hardware for every Amiga user involved.

[Peanutuk]

Ebay is such an invaluable tool for finding AMiga stuff and it is a shame when users steal your money. This shappened to me - I bought an Amiga 1200 expanded with a monitor, printer and modem.

The package didnt arrive despite my cheque being cashed. I sent several emails and was given several promises. The emails then stopped. I checked his ebay record and got his phone number, I phoned his house and spoke to what I presume was his mother. I told her the situation. A week later the package arrived. This was about four months after I paid. During this time I had claimed my money back through ebay's fraud claims service [which does work well if a little slow].

When the package arrived the monitor was in pieces. printer knackered, no modem and the AMiga was in parts!

He had put no safwty packaging in the box, just dumped it all in a big cardboard box!

But genrally anyone who has considerable positive feedback should be ok - however it is oftyen the ones with very large feedbacks {power selers etc.] which can be bullies.

[Andrew]

I have recently had a similiar problem. I purchased Knights Of the Sky many months ago, sent my money but......nothing.

I emailed him 3 times and in the 4th email, threatened to report him to ebay. He replyed saying he was on holiday and would reply as soon as he got back.........Nothing.

Problem is, i dont know the auction number of the auction (deleted all email) and so cant report him. Is their any way I can find out the number. Do ebay keep records of all completed auctions by their members like Yahoo auctions?

Thanks

[th4t1guy]

If it weren't for Ebay, I wouldn't have a cd32. People like that deserve to burn...or get poop bombs in the mail.

[Andrew]

I agree th4t1guy. As Peanutuk said, Ebay is a great place to get Amiga stuff but a very very small minority are real scumbags as some of the stories here show. But the vast vast majority are all kind and honest people.

[jmmijo]

I'm sure it's just me, but I find many sellers on eBay to be just plain greedy as well

I also think there are those whom buy Amiga equipment knowing that they aren't going to use said hardware/software just to resell it later at a premium

Of course maybe I'm reading too much into this but hey, just my opinion of course

[Twistin'Ghost]

Originally posted by Andrew
I have recently had a similiar problem. I purchased Knights Of the Sky many months ago, sent my money but......nothing.

I emailed him 3 times and in the 4th email, threatened to report him to ebay. He replyed saying he was on holiday and would reply as soon as he got back.........Nothing.

Problem is, i dont know the auction number of the auction (deleted all email) and so cant report him. Is their any way I can find out the number. Do ebay keep records of all completed auctions by their members like Yahoo auctions?

Thanks

Go to your My Ebay page, which logs all of your transactions over a certain period of time (months, I think). It should be detailed there complete with a link to the ended auction.

Failing that, you could go to ebay's Search page and have it search for completed auctions with the keywords Knight Sky Amiga. Or you could search for all auctions won (or bid on) by you. Many different ways. Good luck. I hate crooks.

[DPainter]

Also watch out for people selling "used" out-of-print videos, as if they purchased them from video stores. They print out copies of the covers and put fake "be kind rewind" stickers on what are just copies on new videotapes. This has happened to me and I mistakenly gave the guy a good rating before I got the video.

[Twistin'Ghost]

Ya know, you can always go back and add comments to your ratings, if only to warn others.

[backtoskooldaze]

Hey th4t1guy when i was reading the posts about the ebay scam i was in fits of laughter when i got to yours about the poop bomb i will try that myself if that happens to me on ebay or for that matter to anyone who pisses me off!

P.s I feel like a real terrorist now:laugh

[Peanutuk]

"I feel like a real terrorist now"

Nothing to be proud of surely?

[backtoskooldaze]

Hi Peanutuk ,I am not going to get in to a dispute with you but if you look at th4t1guy's picture on the poop bomb it's quite funny (don't you think?) but when i say i feel like a real terrorist i am only joking m8



Do you think bin laden would take me seriously????


P.s Lighten up m8 theres enough war in the world without you adding to it.


Make Love not War!!!!

[Andrew]

Tried all of Twistin but no luck. it only logs auctions you've won a maximum of 30 days ago and the search came up blank

[Peanutuk]

Just goading you Twisty!

Another good one is to take a sausage and place it in a back full of maggots [ available at any good fishing shop]. Place this bag in an air tight container, wrap and post [2nd class or equivalent].

Receiver gets a nice box which when opened releases a swam of blue bottles and a lovely rancid smell.

Mmmmmmmmmmm.

[rlake]

Andrew: Go to feedback forum and outstanding items... that'll give you a 90 day limit.

[Andrew]

Many thanks rlake. Now I can try and get my money back. Thanks again

[Andrew]

Looks like it been sorted out. I reported him to ebay, he emailed me asking for my address and ebay emailed me saying they took "The necessary disciplinary action".

So looks like I'll get my game soon. Thanks for the help everyone.