Zosser's, remember all the talk of the pen scammer Artit who was ripping people off on eBay a few years ago under several user names? Heeee's Back! He started running a bunch of pen auctions at really low prices a few weeks ago under several names. I even bid on and won 5 of them to check things out. Since I'm here in Bangkok I could be sure of getting the pens because I'd insist that he deliver them or I pick them up. Well now he says that oops, they are "lost" so he cannot sell them to me. So I had one of my pen spies who knows him but works for me go check it all out, and sure enough he doesn't have some of the pen he's selling. It's just a rip off as I guessed. He even has pens listed as mint that are totally obvious from the photos well used and abused.

So it's very simple do not buy from anyone in Thailand EXCEPT me SPEERBOB (feedback 8165) and the one or two other sellers with several hundred feedback. You all know me and know I'm good and as you know Puget2006 and one or two others with high feedback are OK. But do not buy from anyone with low feedback...PERIOD. It's very high risk. I do not post this because he's any competition, he isn't. I do not compete with sellers like him, my competition is other high quality sellers. I post this because I get emails all the time from people who got ripped off by this guy and I don't want more of my friends getting ripped off.

FYI: To end this on a positive note, I have some of the best pens I have ever list at one time on eBay this week! See SPEERBOB.

Cheers, BOB

Oh, is it a sin that I called you all Zosser's? Sorry, I post on both. Cheers, BOB

Thanks for this piece of information.

I have not heard of this pen scammer - but if what you say is true, what a horrible, horrible person

Speerbob - thanks for the 'heads up'.

Bob, I've seen many of Puget2006's offerings on eBay, and I've often wondered whether or not he was ok to deal with. I interpret your post above to be a green light to bid on his auctions.

Thanks for all the help you've been to the fountain pen community over the years. One of my first ever eBay purchases was from you, back when you were in Loudoun County, Virginia. You've had consistently good quality pens on your eBay site, and you've been helpful with the advice on this board.

Thanks for that heads up, Bob.

Thanks, Bob, for the heads-up. I love the red/black/gold Haolilai I bought from you recently!

Lisa

Thanks, I saw some of those listings and were thinking they were too good to be true. Your pen selections are great by the way.

Thank you for the heads-up. I can see that a low- to medium-cost collectible like fountain pens would be more ripe for exploitation by a scammer than many other categories. But ...

... what's a Zosser?

Thanks for taking the time and effort to flush him out like that! We appreciate it.

Fred

PS: Have you heard of seller thaigoodwill? Is he/she one of the more reputable ones?

Hi, Yes, Puget2006 is OKto deal with! Cheers, BOB

Hi, yes I know him. I would avoid him until he has another 6 months or so on eBay and more feedback. While I'm not sure he's out to scam people, I have noticed that he usually has problems every so often and gets kicked off eBay. In the last three years he has been under 5 names I know of. Cheers, BOB

Hi, A Zosser is a member of the Zoss pen list. Go to www.Zoss.com and click on the fountain pens link. Cheers, BOB

Hi Again, as expected. I got Emails from eBay saying to not send money for the 5 auctions I won from the Thai seller as he has been suspended. I knew better so hadn't sent it. I hope none of the other buyer got taken. The good part is he was taking Payment via Paypal only so if people paid via Paypal they likely can get their money back. That is another key thing I should mention. Paypal is not perfect but it's a much safer way to pay than bank transfers, cash, Western Union, etc. In fact it amazes how many buyers still do not use Paypal and that anyone would send anyone cash or Western Union. Cheers, BOB

Actually, I have just had a bad experience with PUGET2005 off ebay (Bob, I see PUGET2006 is not offering anything for sale now, and has 0 feedback, so I'm assuming you were vouching for him/her.

I just purchased a rare pen listed and described as "NOS" "never used or inked" . From the photos there was clearly shopwear (pen is 40+ years old) and what appeared to be dirt (in only one of the many pictures), but the section was still clear plastic.

Received the pen only to discover the section is new but the pen is definitely used, and what appeared as spots of dirt was actually wear through to the brass on the gold plating! Further investigation revealed ink inside the section and a couple of pretty deep scratches.

This is by no means a beater but it's definitely not NOS. To be truly generous, it was being sold with other similar models that had price stickers/decals on them, so a newbie seller might have made a mistake in haste. But not a serious pen dealer.

So I have to return to Bob's original statement, only buy from Bob out of Thailand. We'll see what PUGET2005 does (no response to my ebay message yet). But $200 may prove to be an expensive lesson in caveat emptor Thailandensis.

Hi, My big mistake here. I should have said Puget 2005, not Puget 2006! Puget2006 is some guy in France. On Puget2005, No problem at all. Certainly if you had a problem with him, let everyone know. Hopefully he'll take care of it. For the most part he seems alright, hopefully he'll do the right thing. If not, well he deserves the post of course. Everyone messes up sometimes (Lord knows I have!), but it's how the seller handles it that matters. Cheers, BOB

Another one that looks too good to be true...

Especially with a large amount of feedback from one guy.

Just so that people know- using paypal still isn't much insurance. They will credit you back if there are funds in his paypal account and will even try to get funds back to a linked checking account, but if both of those are empty, (which is highly likely for a scammer) that's as far as they go.

CJ

Yes, i know this guy. Be very careful, you could loose money. Cheers, BOB

I also had a bad experiencce with puget2005. I bought a Pelikan described as a PelikanM1000; the pen was in fact a PelikanM800. I told puget2005 that I would keep the pen and did not want any part of the price refunded. But, I did ask him to refund the Paypal fee which he added to my invoice and which I paid before I discovered this was against ebay rules. Puget2005 did not refund the fee. He had added the Paypal fee to all his ebay items and refused to change his policy to be consistent with ebay rules. I sent him several email mesages including in them a reference to the relevant Paypal rule. I was finally forced to report him to ebay, which I had wanted to avoid. I would be very reluctant to buy from him again for two reasons - his misidentification of his product and his failure to respond appropriately to a legitimate complaint.

mehitabel

Thanks Bob....I trust your judgment. I too am a pen seller on eBay and I have, from time to time, made purchases from you (I am RetroFunk50s and bought a Conklin a few months ago). By far, your knowledge and selection of pens blows me away. Honest pen sellers must unite to drive the rats back underground!! Thanks for who you are and what you do, Michele Roeding-Boyle

I am a happy and repeat customer of Speerbob - on one occasion he returned a rather expensive pen - without any hesitance. Thanks Speerbob - and happy selling.

Two more to go
Send2Pong
losacbw
or am I wrong?

You're right. Same guys. cheers, BOb

Any time you get into antiques or products that have a high collector value, you're going to find con-artists online and on eBay. That said, eBay's rating and volume metrics do a pretty good job. Just be careful when trading with people who have low auction counts.

Bob,

I just paypaled Send2Pong for a pen. Are you guys saying this is a scam?

thanks,
purpledog

P.S. I went to the first few posts of your thread and I think the seller is that scammer you were warning us about. Is that anyway I could ask Paypal to reverse the transaction? The seller's other auctions end in about 2 days' time, and as long as he doesn't close his paypal account, there is some chance i may get the money back...

P.P.S Another thing I want to add about the seller is that while the descriptions for the pens are written in proper English, his replies are in broken and misspelt English. It did not occur to me earlier that something was wrong (I thought he was rushing his reply and misspelled the words), but come to think of it now, something might be really wrong. The seller still has a few Parker pens on auction, so I am hoping other FPN members will not fall for the scam as I have, if the seller is indeed a scammer.

Artit, eh? Hmmmm... did he use the eBay name Oasiso some years back?

This is getting interesting.

While looking at the feedbacks of the 2 sellers from torbich's link, one of them got a feedback as a seller from sakura_9999, and the other one got his only feedback as a buyer from sakura_9999. I don't know how these eBayers are connected to each other, but I think there is a connection somewhere.

purpledog

P.S. Just to add, while bidding on two of sakura_9999's pens very recently, I lost both auctions to someone who happens to be registered in Thailand and has zero feedback. Not too sure if this helps to contribute anything.

P.P.S. One more thing. If you look at Send2Pong's feedbacks again, the buyer, sakura_9999 left 3 positive feedbacks on the same day within 2 hours after the auctions ended. Would any buyer leave a feedback before he receives the item?

Having said all these, Send2Pong did receive positive feedbacks from another seller for 2 expensive items bought. So, if he is indeed a scammer, why would he by buying items that are expensive. He could have bought something cheap to build up his feedback score.

Although the auction template and presentation style of the 2 sellers are different, the descriptions are very similar. All the pens sold have NO DING, NO DENT, NO DAMAGE, although it is very evident this is not true for some of the pens from the photos.

I wish I have read this thread more carefully earlier on, and I would not have taken the risk of the possibility of being scammed. Now I am at a loss on what to do next.

purpledog

P.S. From my paypal account, the seller's name is numchar luksana. Does Bob know this person?

Another one strange guy.
Feedback is only 2, and listed 9 not so common pen lots.

Will be nice if you keep me posted thru PM of the outcome. Tks

[/size]SCAMMER SCAMMER SCAMMER[size="5"]

Look at ebay Item number: 120256483339 (ended ) from I/d Send2Pong

AND


ebay Item number: 280224511531 (still running 10 hrs More) from I/d losacbw

They are the same photo with a suspect same item.........But from differ seller.

Someone go tell ebay please......

losacbw: No longer a registered user.
First busted. Waiting for a second.

Hello All!

I am a repeat and very SATISFIED Speerbob customer who got burned on a set of Waterman Gentleman pens back in November 2007 by the seller known as Chareonpon. I've posted some details of this on an earlier thread. As Bob has noted, this guy uses multiple identities and as soon as eBay knocks him off ... he's back at it again. I would urge all of the members who've been burned to consider lodging a complaint to the IC3 (Internet Crime Complaint). I'm in the process of doing so myself. I believe that this is a newer division of the Justice Department which I discovered while looking at the California Attorney General's website on internet crime.

It is my belief that Chareonpon, Artit, send2pong, losacbw, and possibly sakura_9999 are the same individual; or in collusion with one another. If one researches their listings one finds too many similarities to be coincidental (i.e. the same hand holding the pen). Chareonpon represented himself as having a US presence; however had me mail his payment to his "sister" Wanvipa Pooraya. They shared the same zip code in Citrus Heights CA and had different addresses on the same street. If one googles Wanvipa Pooraya, one finds several links to a young woman who matches the picture posted on eBay by the seller sakura_9999. They all have a feedback policy that guarantees a scathing negative for anyone that challenges them. As far as I'm concerned, eBay really could care less about us buyers with integrity.

They inasmuch said that unless the police were involved, their (eBay's) hands were tied. Good luck to all of those members who've been burned! I certainly empathize with your frustrations. Please keep me apprised of any future developments with this problem.

best regards,

Jim
Ohio

Seeing Send2pong's objects, I allready thought something was wrong (I am a newby): 29 objects, some of them really nice and rare but only feedback from 3 different people during the last month.

I bought a pen from send2pong and paid using paypal. is there any way i could get paypal to reverse my transaction while his paypal account is still active.

on the same note, send2pong gave me a tracking number, but it is not valid. i messaged him on 2 occasions and have yetto hear from him.

purpledog

Hi - I think that you'll have to contact eBay's Trust and Security division and start a complaint ticket ... i.e "item not received or as described" in conjunction with filing a complaint with Paypal (doesn't eBay own Paypal???)


I filed a complaint with eBay (maybe 3 weeks out) who subsequently contacted the seller .... who then sent me a slew of pigeon-English emails begging me to not make trouble ... "item ship ... you no get ... you good customer ... make right you ... " or something similar

as noted ... no pens ever came and NO reimbursement of my $400+ USPS money order ... and then the seller either dropped from or was forced off eBay before I could get any resolution ... didn't even have the satisfaction of ripping him in feedback

I knew I was in trouble from the git-go ... the bidding process was strange ... the seller above me was removed by "administrative action" ... making me the high bidder ...
the seller below me suddenly became "no longer registered" which froze my bid at a much higher amount than it had been earlier in the auction ... it's my contention that
the seller employed shill bidding and I got snared

We need to band together and stop this (Potty Mouth) from continuing!

later,

Jim

I've heard that ebay scam called the "trimming method"- where a legit buyer bids and a sham bidder outbids (artificially forcing your bid up to the max). Then the shammer is removed by the seller (because he's also the sham bidder!) through some vague "administrative" move. Sometimes, like your case, they also have a sham low bidder to help force your bid up above a certain bar too. Some scammers use one or both of these methods. These sorts of scams will plague the internet so long as people are on the web buying and selling goods for money. The plain fact is that internet buying can be very wonderful and efficient, but it is also the best opportunity for scammers because there is no real person-to-person interaction.

Ebay's system of doing business has helped these sorts of scams to flourish. You're on the hook for the item because you technically won it, but the whole thing is a big trap. You don't pay and you get negative feedback. You pay and you get scammed. I'd have an inclination to do the former and at the same time file a report with ebay.

Jim,

I filed a complaint case to Paypal's Resolution Centre, since money was paid using Paypal. In the message, I cited the reasons that the seller could be a scam, and wanted a refund before the seller closes his account. I told Paypal if I get refunded and still get my item, I will 're-pay' back the seller. I don't know if this is going to work. It works for me the last time I paid for a DVD but didn't receive it after 4-5 weeks. Although the seller has closed his eBay account, I still got back my money with the help of Paypal.

purpledog

Look at eBay item #300221589333.

This is the third or fourth time (might even be more) that someone registered in Thailand with zero feedback (falkovd) won sakura_9999's items. Although the seller has high positive feedback, such colluding act is really not to be condone. Probably, in a couple of weeks' time, there will another eBayer by the name of falkovd selling fountain pens and watches again.

purpledog

I have noticed a lot of that strategy happening lately with vintage and contemporary Italian fountain pens .

John

Hey Purpledog - glad to hear that you've contacted Paypal - hopefully they will make it right!!

in looking over the posts today, I see that I failed to add the seller known as kittiwat_x to my "rogue's gallery" of suspect eBay vendors. I might add that I'm tempted to bid to win one of sakura_9999's low-priced items just to have a chance to snag a current address for her ...

BTW - are there any lawyers on board? ... does RICO apply here ... it certainly seems like there is a pattern of ripping people off using data transmitted across state lines and/or national borders

best,

Jim

Duplicate post. Sorry.

purpledog

I have messaged send2pong for the correct tracking number. he has failed to respond to my many earlier messages, and in my last message, i told him i will do something drastic if i do not hear from him. if i dont hear from him in another 24 hours, i am planning to leave a negative feedback, telling others not to bid on his items. I really don't care about getting a retaliated negative feedback. But I don't know if that is a bit harsh, given the fact we really do not have real concrete proof he is a scammer. I would like to give people the benefit of the doubt.

I am in a fix. On one hand, I don't want to have a person wronged, but on the other hand, I don't want more people to get cheated if this is really a scam.

purpledog

Purpledog - please refer back to post #25 in this thread ... Bob has indicated that send2 and losacbw are one and the same ... losacbw bailed on Bob when he said that he (Bob) wanted to collect the pens in person in Bangkok ...

further proof that something's afoot is the fact that sakura_9999 left the only two positives that loascbw had ... I agree with you that we don't want to trash someone's rep without cause ... however trashing their rep isn't going keep a scammer from plying their trade ... as Ray-Vigo said a few posts back ... the scamming is inherent with internet transactions of the type we subject ourselves to on eBay ...

the only thing we can do is exactly what we're doing here ... freely exchanging information about our online experiences in the hope of making life difficult for those that would prey upon us ... trashing reps and subsequently getting someone kicked off eBay is only a minor inconvenience for these folk ... until we find some legal venue that makes it difficult for them to function ... we're going to continue to be plagued by their ilk

In researching the problem confronting us, it appears that the Thai scammers have a completely different take on things. They seem to be only concerned with the present ... with no concept of consequence for their actions. I've been told that the whole idea of auctions is relatively new to them .. so eBay is like a kid in a candy store ... or perhaps ... shooting fish in a barrel ... those of us that aren't vigilant in the pursuit of our pleasures often suffer at their hands

am tired ... late here in Ohio .. will check in tomorrow AM

goodnight all!

Jim

I purchased a Pilot pen from thaigoodwill and although I like the pen, it was advertised as having a gold nib, but it's only gold colored, not real gold. I blame myself for not asking - paid way too much for it. At least it works! Be sure to ask questions of this seller and don't assume a plated nib will be listed as plated. I think Bob has the same pen for half what I paid - and accurately labeled.

Add to the list:

I bought a pen advertised on ebay as a black Pelikan 1000, O3B nib. The pen turned out to be an 800. The seller did offer to refund. I did not return the pen as I would have bid the same amount on an 800 (it was the nib I was most interested in). But, I did ask for the Paypal surcharge to be refunded as ebay sellers are not allowed to pass on the Paypal surcharge to the buyer. When the seller did not respond after 3-4 email requests (and I allowed plenty of time for the possibility that the seller went away for a few days, the time change, etc.), I reported him/her to ebay and the seller did change his/her Paypal policy.

The seller was puget2005. He/she is still selling on ebay. I did have the impression that the seller was probably an honest seller and that the pen size was an honest mistake. What was more worrisome was the seller's failure to respond to my request asking for a refuund of a fee that was illegally charged.

mehitabel

All of Send2pong's sale items have been retracted, either by himself or eBay. Earlier on, I was planning to leave a warning message in my feedback to other potential buyers, but I guess there is no point in doing so now.

purpledog

PD - I just checked and send2pong is still listed as being a registered seller who currently has no items up for sale. Doing an advanced search for completed listings ... 4 pages totaling some 96 or so items have closed within the last 2 weeks. Maybe he's just in between listings ... however I DO find it MOST strange that of the 12 total positives he's racked up ... three of them came from our buddy sakura_9999 who posted her positives some 45 minutes after the auctions closed.

What I want to know ... is how is it possible to get the item from Bangkok to California in less than an hour so that she may examine it and post feedback?????

ROTFLMFAO .....

even our beloved Speerbob can't pull that one off ... his items generally take 2 weeks


just amazing ...

best,

Jim