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eBay fraudsters sentenced to jail


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Posted by batesie
Three Romanians who conned eBay customers out of thousands of pounds have been sentenced to a total of eight years' imprisonment.
The "cell" tricked customers into paying for £300,000 worth of fictitious goods which never arrived.

The man said to be the gang's ringleader, Nicolae Cretanu, 30, of Forest Gate, London, was given a three and a half year term for the fraud.

His wife Adriana, 23, and George Titar, 26, both got two and a half years.

The couple advertised everything from non-existent cars to concert tickets and used 12 aliases and an accomplice to collect the payments.

Their accomplice Titar, of Stratford, London, collected payments from money transfer shops.

Don't use money transfer to send money to anybody who you don't know personally.

Chief Supt Nigel Mawe


The two-year scam was successful because buyers on eBay have to pay before they are sent their goods.

People were told by email that they had been unsuccessful in their first bid but were offered a "second chance" to buy a similar item.

But the goods they purchased never arrived and the trio managed to net at least £300,000 from the scam.

The majority of the cash was sent back to the gang's accomplices in Romania in what the police described as a well-planned and sophisticated fraud.

The racket was finally exposed after suspicious staff at money transfer firm Western Union alerted police.

Essentially safe

Chief Superintendent Nigel Mawer who led the operation said the fraud was operated by a "significant cell of Romanians operating in London".

"We believe there were 3,000 victims of this fraud and this type of fraud is still continuing."

He said that up to a £1 billion worth of fraud of this type took place in the UK a year.

And he issued a warning to potential internet auction customers: "Don't use money transfer to send money to anybody who you don't know personally.

"It is not designed for that and Western Union support that and work with us on that," he said.

Chief Supt Mawer added that the cell's accomplices in Romania had been arrested and were awaiting trial.

The criminals used the site to gather information and initially to contact their victims but carried out the fraud separately

eBay spokesman

He stressed that internet auctions were essentially safe as long as customers followed the "good guidance" on how to buy safely.

In this case people were duped into not following those rules, he said.

Responding to the case, eBay issued a statement saying it was sorry that anyone had suffered through their association with eBay but pointed out the transactions had not taken place on the internet site itself.

"As soon as we were made aware of them we took action. By working with the police we helped ensure that the prosecutions were successful, showing that crime does not pay on eBay.

A spokesman said: "The criminals used the site to gather information and initially to contact their victims but carried out the fraud separately beyond the protected environment we provide.

"Payments were made using Western Union money transfers, which both eBay and Western Union strongly recommend against.

"In fact, eBay.com in the U.S. has banned payment via Western Union and eBay.co.uk will soon be following suit."

As well as pursuing the gang's "cohorts in Romania", Chief Supt Mawer pledged to pursue asset confiscation procedures against the gang with a view to creating a compensation fund for their victims.

The sentencing comes after the trio pleaded guilty at Middlesex Guildhall Crown Court to conspiracy to obtain fraud by deception and money laundering earlier this year.

Their arrests in May were prompted by an investigation by Scotland Yard's specialist economic crime unit.


Story from BBC News:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4385956.stm


Posted by solidsingh
bout time

Posted by kk.226
£300,000?! that's impressive. I remember a 17 year old boy got arrested after connin people out of £47,000 or summin.

Posted by brownlad007
i remember that too.

its so easy to scam people on ebay its unbelivable !

I know how to but prefer to earn money

Remember:

No westernunion: they dont care who sends/recieves money aslong as they recieve their fee.

Posted by JT
It is far too easy to scam people out of money on ebay. No matter what method of payment you use to purchase something from ebay, you are always susceptible to attack. Even paypal sadly.

Posted by Leviath
3 down 100 million to go

Posted by slattery69
it sad to see three entrepreneurs sent to jail for trying to earn an living.
whats the world coming to

Posted by Leviath
Quote:

On 2005-10-29 17:26:50, slattery69 wrote:
it sad to see three entrepreneurs sent to jail for trying to earn an living.
whats the world coming to



hopefully a world were people like that can be hung by the scrotum and left to be eaten alive by fire ants


Posted by slattery69
that would be worth seeing though id be more intreged to see the ring leaders wife hung by her scrotum

Posted by Leviath
you obviously havent got a scrotum otherwise you wouldnt say that!

Posted by slattery69
im not real sure where your coming from with that comment do you enjoy been hung from the scrotum. since it was nothing more than a joke i was making as one of the people involved was a woman

[ This Message was edited by: slattery69 on 2005-10-29 18:57 ]

Posted by Leviath
I obviously dont read the news!!!

Then two by the scrotum and one by her clitoris...


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