LAST UPDATE 07/03/2009
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SCAMMED on EBAY AUSTRALIA ONE OF THE SO MANY UNTOLD STORIES OF HONEST PEOPLE BEING ROBBED ON EBAY BY THE SCUM OF THE EARTH
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ALL THE EMAILS I EXCHANGED WITH THE SCAMMER
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Let me introduce myself, my name is Pascal, I am from Sydney NSW, Australia. I have actually been scammed on ebay in December 2004 for the first time after over 100 transactions on ebay. I thought I would let the world know about it, so the guy who scammed me does not scam anybody else. I will also tell you what mistakes I did, I hope that by reading how I go scammed, it will help you stay out of trouble. Before I go any further, I would like to give more details about this scammer, so if you have been scammed by the same guy, you can contact me and be part of the group, who will take this guy down.
His ebay ID was (I say "was" because he is no longer registered): multisync_5d He did also use previously this ebay ID (No longer registered as well): multisync5d
He is registered on ebay under a false name: Ben K Mac His real name might be: Brett McKen 14/01/2005 His real name is Brent Mack though he calls himself Brett Mc Ken___ (False name)
Under ebay he is registered as being located in: Broome Western Australia Though he claims to be located in: Fitzroy Crossing Western Australia (Which is a long way from Broome, just like saying you are from Sydney, when you are from Newcastle) I have very strong suspicion he actually is located in: Perth - Western Australia precisely in Mount Hawthorn 14/01/2005 He lives in Broome but his family lives in Mount Hawthorn
His bank is located in Perth: BANK NAME: WESTPAC ACCOUNT NAME: 2bit devices
Mount Hawthorn
(branch)
HIS ISP: BIGPOND.com 14/01/2005 He has two different email address
He claims to be working at: Carline Kimberly Western Australia as an auto electrician 14/01/2005 He does not work, we believe he is trying to set up a Taxi kind of business
PROFILE: 14/01/2005 He is around 19-20yo - and unemployed for now. He does write English very well, at first he will seem very genuine, but the more you communicate with him, you will start to pick up his lies, unfortunately he is not that smart in that regards. He might be an electrician of some kind with no former degree, he possibly works as an auto electrician or as a PC repair man. Though I think he might be self employed and involved in other dodgy activities apart from scamming online. In other words a crook of first class. 14/01/2005 He has a strong interest in PCs, AUDIO, CAR PARTS. He scammed people by fake selling, Laptop, audio amps, turbo charger, Commodore chips etc...
HOW HE OPERATES: He register on ebay under a false name and address, and start to build a feedback very quickly by buying, car parts and electronics parts, and some other items. Then he also complete a few transactions as a seller, but always for small value items. I think what he does is to genuinely complete the transaction when he gets paid by money order, as the buyer have his address, but when the buyer directly deposit the money in his account, it is when he decide to scam. So far he could have the goods and proof to you he has them by sending pictures. But then he will not actually send them. I think the goods he sell or scam for are stolen either by him or some other people. As far as car parts goes, it is the same, they are either stolen or he steals them. Why I am saying he is involved in dodgy activities, it is because I believe he could also be self employed as an auto electrician or pc repair man. He might con people in believing the part (Auto or PC) are busted and are no longer working, and then keep them to resell or scam. View the impressive amount of feedback he is able to generate in such a short time, he might also be involved in money laundering and buy stuff for other shady people for a fee of some sort. Now when he gets enough good feedbacks from ebay, he put his high price ticket items for sale, then try to con also the other bidders, by encouraging transaction outside of ebay, then he de-registers (Cancel his ebay membership), and start all over again under a different username and false name and address. I believe he is already back on ebay, building his feedback for his next strike. As you can see he already did this twice, as so far we have uncovered 2 of his username, they might be plenty more. He has no regards for you, he is actually very sadistic and humiliate you until the end, he will actually keep in contact with you for about 2 weeks, but when you start to figure him out, you receive no more emails from him. His auction ads, have nothing to do with small time scammers, he is very descriptive about the goods he scam for, he would not just cut and paste specifications of the item from the manufacturers, he would also do a bit of commenting, and sound very credible, you will actually have no suspicion, and in this regards he is very good, believe me. Plus, his feedback is also very good. If you have been scammed by him or approached by him, or if you have any other information about him please contact me. You will be doing this world a favor, if you help us put him behind bars. 14/01/2005 There are possibilities he is involved in drugs traffic too but not confirmed yet.
HOW HE GOT ME & WHAT WERE MY MISTAKES: Please download the auction ad, to see good it was:
He scammed me for a second hand SONY VAIO C1 laptop. I was bidding on behalf of my wife as she needed it because she was due to travel and needed a PC to complete a job using excel. This kind of laptop and specifications were just perfect, further more we could not have afforded a new one. So I told my wife I would look on ebay. Back a few years ago I remember there were a lot of scams involving laptops, but they were for brand new laptops, though it looks like it is less frequent now, apart from the new trend which is an auction telling you how to get a new laptop for about $40. As far as I am concern I was after a second hand laptop, so already my chance of being scammed (To me) where very low. Found this laptop, decided it would be the one, I used a snipping service (Which is a service that automatically bid for you at the last seconds) to get it, won it for $525, with shipping cost & insurance, it came up to $552. A couple of days before I had been in contact with the seller, as he was also mentioning in his ad, an external CDrom drive, because SONY VAIO C1 do not come with CDrom integrated, but originally you could get an optional external one, only later models came standard with the external CDrom drive. Anyway the ad mentioned I could have an external CDrom drive for an extra $55 so I asked a bit more information about it, the scammer responded, here are his exact words: "The brand of the external CDROM case is generic, and the brand of the CDROM drive is Sony (52X). The colour of the box is silver, and the colour of the CDROM drive is black (it was originally white, but the drive came with a black face new). " I mean, with such details you would really think the guy is for real, wouldn't you? So I won the item, and now I started to make a few mistakes, one of them was being in a hurry to get the item, it was caused by the fact that my wife was due to travel soon, and at this stage we had decided with her she would take my laptop, and I would wait for the SONY VAIO C1, so the auction ended Friday afternoon, and we exchanged a few emails over the weekend with the seller, scammer should I say, and it was agreed that we would pay him the following Monday around lunch time by a direct deposit on his nominated bank account so the fund would clear immediately, once my wife had paid, I had agreed with her she would ring me and I would send the scammer an email saying it was done, and he could check his account online and send the laptop in the same afternoon. My wife did the deposit rang me, I had already received an email from him saying the funds were not there at 2:23PM, while just a short while ago my wife had advised me the she was a bit late and she was most likely going to do it at 2:30PM, which in the main time I had advised him. The bastard was very impatient to get the funds, no wonder. To recap I did a lot of mistakes myself which could have prevented this to happen: First I did not check the location of the item thoroughly (Whether it was the true location of the scammer or not), if I would have checked, I would have noticed that Fitzroy is actually Fitzroy Crossing a little place in the middle of nowhere. I would not have been that keen on Bidding, plus not being from Australia, I knew there was a Fitzroy somewhere, so I was probably confused about an area of Melbourne as well, having heard about Fitzroy, this was not the same Fitzroy. Second mistake I did, was not to get more information about the seller from ebay, such as the seller's phone number, which appears not to respond, the scammer might have caller's ID. I tried now a few times but no chance so far he does not answer. Third mistake, I sent the money to an account that seems to be a business account or belonging to a registered trading name (2bit devices). Big mistake, I should have asked him his personal account and I would have noticed that his ebay name did not much his account name. Fourth mistake, I should have picked this right from the beginning, after I won the scammer actually told me he would also included the external CDrom as he got more than he hoped he would have got. Though it happens some people will actually give you some freebies, it is a very rare occasion, I remember thinking, well that is nice of him, yeah right... And the waiting game started................................................................my wife in the main time did not travel, the trip was cancelled, due to some personal circumstances in our lives, yes we have our own other personal problems outside of ebay, so this scamming coincided just with some huge other problems we were having, so I still had my laptop with me, and the confrontation started, there is not much point in describing the whole thing, but the laptop was never received, the scammer could not even prove he sent it, he actually try many many things to convince me he did send the laptop, all I asked was proof, but I got nothing, the amount of lies he fed me with, is just unbelievable, he refused categorically to send DRIVER's ID license etc...When I asked for a refund, he tried to con me by scheduling an online banking payment, getting the receipt, and then canceling the transaction after. I mean I will probably put online the emails exchange we had, so you can have the whole story from the beginning to the end. Unfortunately he also scammed one of the under bidder for the laptop, and many others for car parts. If you are an under bidder, and the seller contacts you, never complete the transaction out of ebay, or at least check with the winner, if whatever the seller told you is true. Scammer like this have no remorse at all, they belong in jail. I feel very sorry for this under bidder, as it seems also he was very new to ebay. So this scammer, not only he scammed me, he thought he would kill two birds in one shot and so he did. Bastard...
THANK YOU EBAY Now why would I say thanks to ebay. Some of you are going to say, well too bad for you, you should have been more careful etc...okay I admit I did my share of mistakes. Ebay tells you that over 99% of the transactions are genuine, only less than 1% might be scams, well I am not exactly quoting, but it sounded to be something like that I read on ebay's site...funny how it was due to be my 103 transactions on ebay on this username (I have two username), pretty much accurate that I get scammed. Why I am piss off at ebay now, as well as the scammer off course, I send ebay an email advising ebay I got potentially scammed, I receive in return a "template style response", that is a bit offensive to me. I mean for a company of this caliber, you would expect they would have a whole department dedicated to scam. Anyway, the reason why I am angry at them, it is because they failed to verify this persons real identity. In other words, anybody can register to ebay under a fake name...fake address...fake everything, and sell fake products, the only thing which is not fake, is the money you loose. To sum up although ebay seems to be a safe place, it is just an illusion...further more their feedback system is flawed, they should list feedbacks by as seller, and by as buyer, not mixed together, there again it is an illussion, a person could be a good buyer, and then a scammer as selling is concerned. Ebay just mix both of them...not good at all. As far as securities goes I can see a lot of flaws in ebay, such as also person who end auction early, this is a practice I have also noticed which is potentially dangerous. And people who end auctions early should have a dedicated feedback for this action too. Ebay told me also in their "template style response" and I quote: "We have
investigated your report. At this time, the seller you reported In other word even though the guy scammed me, I am not able to know if he was suspended or if he freely cancelled his membership, like I said before this might mean, that this guy is already back on ebay under a different username scamming again. You see what I mean ebay is not much of help when you are in deep shit. If they have suspended his membership that's something, and they also should have advised me about why or probably warned me as I was the last guy with a transaction with the scammer, they did not. So really I do not know what really happened, great isn't it? So yes I feel ebay should refund my money and every single cents of it, because they fail to verify the ID of this scammer, and ebay provided me with a fake name. I am not much into law, neither do I have read every lines of their TOC, but to me they provided me with false credential as far as the seller's information goes. If you are a lawyer, read ebay TOC and then tell me if I am wrong, and if you believe they should refund me. Do not get me wrong I love ebay, my wife tells me she will never ever purchase something from ebay. I just think ebay should do an effort and find a system to verify its member like its parent company Paypal does. It also happens the other way around when newly registered people bid on stuff and never pay for them, of course most of the time they did register under false name, address etc...And the seller is left to go thru the painful process of recovering the fees. That's my say...
UPDATE ON THE THANK YOU EBAY SECTION:
Actually, I thought I would re get acquainted with EBAY's TOC, From what I read it is pretty straight forward here it is: 3.2 Safe Trading. Because user authentication on the Internet is difficult, eBay cannot and does not confirm each user's purported identity. Thus, we have established a user-initiated feedback system to help you evaluate the user you are dealing with. We also encourage you to communicate directly with potential trading partners through the tools available on our Site. You may also wish to consider using a third party escrow service or services that provide additional user verification. See our Buying and Selling Tools page (at http://pages.ebay.com.au/services/buyandsell/index.html).
So looks like I am wrong, ebay is not responsible
for providing me with false information. Really, now I wonder how many fakes
there are on ebay right now, although I have to say what they say about
authentication is true, they are not trying their best for sure, well
compared to their parent company Paypal. Also since the guy is a fake, and
he registered under a false name, I wonder what this privacy concerns are
all about. That is also reflecting the current society trend, it is all
about money, so long their get the money, they are happy. The days were
there was a genuine interest in helping people are gone I guess, it is the
"template style" society now. You have a problem, you get a "template".
Funny in a kind of way... And if you are a victim, well too bad for you. Let me tell you Brett McKen we will get you, it is really unfair for Dave, for Paul, for Rick and for my Wife. You belong in jail, and this is where you will end up.
UPDATE ON THE CASE TO COME BELOW:
17/12/04 I just got an email from a 5th guy scammed by Brett, paid and never received his item. Also 1 police report has already been filed, I am waiting to see if the person agrees to have the report number and more details published here so anybody scammed by Bret McKen can call the WA police and quote the report number has being related to their case.
19/12/04 Here are some more details: 2Bit Devices is a Registered Business Name only - to a Brent (not Brett) in WA The address for 2Bit Devices is now vacant (according to the Strata Title Managers) The Police have been to the address already looking for Brett (according to the shop next door) There appears to have been a prior offense recorded against 2Bit Devices So far if you want to report Brett to the POLICE, please use this phone number: 08 9387 6777, if you need the incident report number, please email Pascal (I have been asked not to make this number public for security reason), so when you call the police you can quote the incident report number and tell them it is related to your case.
IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN READING THE SEQUENCE OF EMAILS WE EXCHANGED HERE IT IS: http://www.ezydollars.com/SCAMMEDONEBAYAUSTRALIA/Sequenceofemails.htm
20/12/04 Here are some more details: I am lodging my report Tuesday 21st of December. I would like to thanks all the people who have helped me, I know you know who you are...So far we were able to get a lot more on the guy that I thought was possible.
Here is a message board if you would like to post your tips on "how not to get rip off on ebay": http://www.ezydollars.com/scammedonebayaustralia/ 2008 DISABLED DUE TO SPAMMING
21/12/04 6th person came forward, this time the person has been scammed for $995 for a mechanical part he never received. Not good, it is really bad now, I am sure they will be more people to come forward unfortunately. Brett scammed for a bit over $2400, and it keeps going up.
23/12/04 7th person came forward, this time scammed for $810 for a mechanical part as well. So far Brett scammed for a bit over $3200 that we know of. Hopefully justice will be done. There are probably a few others, and they are most probably not aware of us, I would think he would have scammed out of ebay a whole batch of people for these VN chips he was selling, and I wonder too how many guys he would have sold the "Turbo charger" to as well. For now I am going to forget about Brett McKen---, and take a holiday in Surfers from the 24/12 to the 3/1, if any other guys come forward tell them I will answer their emails after the 3/1, hopefully by then the police would have already pick him up. Nevertheless, I am cursing him for life, he did emotionally hurt my wife and I, he could have scammed us full stop, no he had to also torture and humiliate us, by letting us believe the item was coming, then by letting us know the refund was coming, though I never believed him, I wanted too. I am sure most of you who have been scammed by him know the feeling, you wait and wait for something that is never coming, something you were excited about. Brett is just an hopeless bloke, he seems he has some talent with computer and mechanics, but he chose to take the wrong path, may be he thought he was smart, but he is not, scamming using his real email address and leaving a trail of clues, thinking he will not get caught, soon or later the police always catch up with criminals and that is what he is to my eyes and no doubt to yours too. On the positive side, as a result I met a lot of wonderful people that helped tremendously, and this is fantastic, it is the spirit and that is 110% Australian. The support has been great, thank you again to all of you. On this note I whish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year 2005. Pascal
14/01/05 So far officially we are 13th to have been scammed by Brent including myself, but by the looks of it, they are many more, I estimate about 22, I received an email from the detective in charge, and they are 9 email addresses I do not recognize. I had some contact with Adrian, Brent small brother, he does not understand the action of his big brother, and he said it is not like him, like he said his brother left home in July 04 suddenly, and was also listed as a missing person, which I concur following this document: 2538.pdf Adrian had very little contact with Brent after July. There is no point in bothering Adrian, since he has nothing to do with this. We know the cars Brent is driving, like I said before to one of you guys, I thought he had two cars, if he did not sell one of them, then he has: A white Holden commodore sedan reg: 1AXX 800 A yellow holden commodore VN 1990 stretch limo reg: SSR 887 Check the yellow one here: DOWNLOAD ZIP FILE 132KB Looking at the second car he purchased on ebay, some people suggested may be he was planning to use the car for taxi services. So may be all of us, have contributed to set up his own little taxi services business, so we are all share holders in his little company, LOL. Funding a business by scamming people tough is not legal. Like I told his brother, if he is found guilty and does not restitute the money, the next action we will be to sue him. If we have to do so, I will ask for compensation and all lawyers fees. But I will go a step further and make sure ASIC never, ever, issue him another business license of any kind for the rest of his life. He has been given the opportunity many times to refund us, and he did not, and eventually he will have to pay for this. He has caused me and my family great stress, since I purchased the laptop from him for my wife, my wife and I had a disagreement about this issue since I was responsible for the purchase. But like I said already and I know I am repeating myself, he humiliated me by keeping on saying the laptop was on its way. You know that feeling, when part of you is saying you got scammed, and the other part of you wants to believe the laptop is going to arrive. So you wait for the postman everyday even though you know the laptop is not going to show up. This mix feeling is horrible, and as much as it seems crazy, it is better to know 100% you have been scammed and that is it, so you do not have to hang in this horrible state of mind. I suppose on a much, much bigger scale, it is what happen, when someone you care about disappear, and then you know something bad has happened to them, but then you want to believe they will show up suddenly un-hurt...well now I feel better knowing I have been scammed. That is it for now, there is not much I can do, I let the police proceed with their investigation. Though I will have my revenge over Brent Mack, an eye for eye my friend, this law is the only law I believe in. If I never get my money back from you, you will never work in Broome and I will make sure every single resident there know you are a thief, and that ASIC never ever give you a business license. So long the money is not refunded this website will stay.
01/10/05 I am not sure if the police arrested our guy but the story is not forgotten, I really want to know if the police got him at the end, last time I heard he had move from Broome, and missed a court appearance.
01/03/2008 The latest news I had was that he had moved to NT for a while and may be back and forth between NT and WA and again that he did not show up to court appearances. I had kind of moved on from this story, until I heard about a cop this year that said they were still on his trails, right behind him. I believe he can run, but soon or later he will be cornered, it is just a matter of time...it is either that or he will commit even more serious crime. I had been in contact with his brother for a little while and it seems even though he hurt a lot of people, the most hurt are his family and I really feel sorry for them, and somehow one day he will look in the mirror and realize what a poor bastard he is...well that is his problem...so long he does not refund me the money, this page will stay up...
07/03/2009 Just was updating some of my sites, so quickly checking the net out of curiosity I found out Brent was quiet popular on Google: Another victim site: http://www.users.bigpond.com/soundpush/sux/ In the News: http://www.news.com.au/technology/story/0,25642,23083069-5014239,00.html http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/01/03/2130789.htm The only thing, is that he scammed way over $5000, I am guessing he probably stole in the order of $15000 to $20000, specially using car parts and computers as bait. It is a sad story not only for the victims but also for his family whom had to put up with all his rubbish doing for years, he is not realizing that they are probably the people he hurt the most. He can run but soon or later he will have to face justice.
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