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WHERE'S THE XBOX? - Karen Frank holds an empty XBox 360 game box that she paid $810 for on eBay. The seller in Wisconsin never received the money after she notified eBay about the fraud.
RON SIDDLE/Valley Press
RON SIDDLE/Valley Press
Thinking outside the XBox: $800 for empty container
This story appeared in the Antelope Valley Press on Friday, December 23, 2005.
By CHRISTOPHER AMICO
Valley Press Staff Writer
Karen Frank planned on getting her son an XBox 360 for Christmas.
So did thousands of other shoppers. Stores have been selling out of the new Microsoft game console since it launched in November. Some retailers exhausted their supplies months before that, with waiting lists exceeding several shipments.
So Frank did what other desperate parents do when the holidays approach and shelves are empty. She turned to online auctioneer eBay and paid $810 for the game system - double the retail price. Frank won the auction, beating 30 other bids. The package also included the racing game "Need for Speed: Most Wanted."
"As soon as the auction was over, I got e-mailed from somebody who said I'd been had," Frank said.
"Did you realize that you were bidding on an empty box?" the informant asked. When her order arrived, she indeed found only an empty box. It was, as the Wisconsin-based seller later told her, exactly what the description said: a "new XBox 360 Premium box."
Frank, who works at Artistic Carpet One in Lancaster, contacted the seller, Joe Lumley, to cancel her order. He refused.
He wrote: "Mrs. it is clearly stated in the auction that u where bidding on a premium box with an unopened copy of Need for Speed: Most Wanted. Had you been the only bidder, I would refund you.
"I in no way scammed you," he continued. "Please read closely next time before you bid. Thank you and have a wonderful Holiday season."
Frank complained to eBay and PayPal, the online cash register owned by eBay she utilized to pay. PayPal investigated and eventually stopped payment. Frank received most of her money back and the seller can't use eBay anymore.
The incident shocked Frank, who is a frequent eBay buyer and seller. "I'm sure it's quite rampant," she said. But Hanni Durzy, an eBay spokesman, said more than 50,000 XBoxes have sold since November and the vast majority are legitimate.
"A tiny handful of listings, out of all those, have been pulled because of misleading titles," he said. Durzy added, eBay isn't the ideal setting for a con scheme.
"If you list things on eBay, you're out in the open," he said. The Web site maintains detailed profiles of everyone who has an account, including mailing and e-mail addresses, phone numbers, credit card numbers and other identifiers.
"We're willing to turn all that info over to the police," Durzy said. "Most people, even dumb criminals, are not going to risk getting caught for a few hundred dollars."
He added that eBay's security team constantly combs the site for fraudulent sales.
"We try to identify and take down any listing deemed purposely misleading, and there aren't that many to begin with," he said. "Occasionally, some slip through, which is why it's crucial that people pay safely." He said eBay will facilitate $40 billion in trade this year. Of that, confirmed fraud occurs in 0.01% of cases.
EBay gives three recommendations for online shoppers: Know what you're buying. Know who you're buying from. Pay safely.
Frank doesn't blame eBay, but she's fuming at Lumley, who told her to return his box and game and has threatened legal action.
"I have over 622 transactions on eBay, and I've never had a problem," she said. "I don't think it's an eBay thing. I think it has to do with Xbox.
"People are in kind of a frenzy to get these things."
source: http://www.avpress.com/n/23/ and http://www.avpress.com/n/23/1223_s1.hts
eBay is good for small stuff like books or games, not big stuff that's easy to find in stores like video gaming consoles. :roll:
