Mark Cripps did the story on our ring, it is in the news now

Mark Cripps wrote the story about what happened with our ring and eBay and Indonesian customs. To see this story please go here http://www.stoneycreeknews.com/scn/viewpoint/viewpoint_802106.html.

I hope it helps some one else from getting burned.

Please pass this story on so others can hear about it.

I have copied the article here as well.

Please let Mark Cripps know what you think about his story.

Grandmother's ring held ransom
Mark Cripps, Stoney Creek

(Jun 1, 2007)
At least twice a week, I receive an email made to look as if it is coming from eBay suggesting my account is in jeopardy if I don't update my information and report back as soon as possible.
I continue to forward these to the RCMP email fraud centre (info@phonebusters.com), despite the fact it seems almost impossible to control the fraudulent use of eBay and PayPal and other companies involved in the sale and trade of goods over the internet.
Recently, I received an email from a reader scammed a few weeks back by an eBay fraud artist who bilked this woman of a treasured family heirloom.
Needing some extra cash for her family, Lori-Lee Craig decided to sell her grandmother's ring, valued at more than $1,200. On social assistance, Ms. Craig hoped to garner some extra cash to pay off some bills, buy her four-year-old son a nice birthday present and use some of the money for a move to a larger residence.
She received a bid from a buyer who has a 100 per cent rating on eBay (ratings are used on eBay so sellers and buyers can determine who they are dealing with) asking whether the ring can be shipped immediately. The buyer says he wants to give it to his mother for Mother's Day.
After payment from PayPal was confirmed, Ms. Craig shipped the item via FedEx. The buyer was in Indonesia. She borrowed the money for the shipment costs, as the purchaser said he needed the ring immediately.
The next day, she received an email from PayPal saying the funds were being held for investigation into a possible fraud.
Ms. Craig called FedEx and asked them to stop delivery. She was told her shipping fee was not refundable ($116 down the drain) but that a stop shipment order had been processed.
Unfortunately, the item had already cleared customs and was sealed in a container. There was no way to get the item back until it was actually shipped to Indonesia.
Ms. Craig said it was a heartbreaking decision to sell her grandmother's ring, but she was trying to do something for her family, who lives on Ontario Works.
PayPal determined the account of a legitimate individual had been fraudulently accessed. They refunded the money to the owner of the stolen credit card used by the thief in Indonesia.
Expecting the money, Ms. Craig had planned a birthday party for her son and promised him a toy he had his heart set on.
"He does not understand we are $116 short of our monthly budget and now it is just not possible. No party, no money."
They continue to check with FedEx, hoping at the very least they will get the ring back. They find out from FedEx an individual attempted to pick up the ring but did not have the $360 wanted by Indonesian customs officials. He walked away. Indonesian customs now wants Ms. Craig to pay $360 to release the ring. She agreed. As soon as FedEx responded Ms. Craig was willing to pay the $360 to have the ring returned, they decided they wanted $900.
"We were prepared to spend our month's budget for food just to get the ring back," said Ms. Craig.
Through this entire ordeal, neither eBay or PayPal offered any assistance for what was basically a fraud orchestrated through their online services. eBay said it would refund the $1 posting fee they charge to put an item up for auction. How sweet they are.
"eBay and PayPal might as well put up a sign - Thieves Welcome," said a frustrated Ms. Craig.
Knowing she will likely never see her grandmother's ring again, Ms. Craig said she just wants to let others know eBay is becoming a target for scam artists all over the world. She started a blog and has received numerous responses from others who have been scammed.
She said she's learned eBay is being abused by fraud artists in numerous ways:
1. people are cracking the system and eBay is not addressing security concerns.
2. fake eBay emails - don't ever respond!
3. scammers who phone people and say they are calling on behalf of eBay and ask for personal info. Once they get this info, they go into people's personal accounts and change passwords, post fake items and always use Western Union for purchases.
4. letters arriving via pre-paid envelope. Look like they are from eBay or PayPal, ask for updated info.
I contacted eBay's PR firm Environics based in Toronto and they did not provide any comment on this specific case, offering up only basic rules for keeping eBay accounts safe.
"PayPal and eBay have flaws in their security and nothing to protect sellers," said Ms. Craig.
Personally, incidents like this reinforce for me why I will never purchase anything on eBay.
It's swimming with scammers and as long as eBay and PayPal continue to ignore problems, it's only going to get worse.
For those who use eBay, review the following Web site - http://pages.ebay.com/securitycenter/mrkt_safety.html.

The mystery dishes

I hate washing dishes! Well it is not that I actually hate doing the dishes; it is more that they never seem to end. You can wash as you go, and still have dishes to do after dinner. You wash them and they are back the next day. God help you if you end up not being able to do the dishes one day, because they multiply. It becomes a mound of dishes in a blink of an eye. It is like every dish in the house is now on the counter waiting to be washed, even ones you don’t remember using. Have you ever found a dish in your cupboard that you don’t remember having and have no idea where it came from? I know what happened, you left some dishes over night and they multiplied, you get an unknown dish out of it. If only that were true, I would have the largest matching dish set in the world. Actually I would end up with the largest unmatched dish set in the world. I wish I had a dishwasher, but then I am sure some thing weird would happen to. Dishes will start vanishing the same way sox do in the dryer. The mystery dishes that show up when you leave them over night have to come from somewhere.

Paypal is back, why did it go down?

Paypal is back up. No explanations yet for what happened that had Paypal down for most of the day. I wonder how many sales were lost, how many websites are now looking for other payment gateways. It is not like there are not 100’s of them out there. What ever caused this has hit Paypal a large blow. People are not going to be so trusting with their money now. It only takes one time not being able to access my funds to make me to start looking around for another payment gateways. Even if it is just a back up so I can continue to do business if Paypal goes down again. At this point most sales at www.medievalmagic.ca are done threw Paypal but now we are going to spend the extra money to get the software so we can use other gateways. I am sure that there are a lot of other companies doing the same thing, not to mention the number of individuals who are going to start questioning using Paypal. I guess it all depends on what explanation they give every one. I doubt that they would tell us if some one hacked in and did this. It would destroy our perception of security. Not that people are not having their accounts broken in all the time, it is just usually because some one gave their information to the wrong people. Darn those scam emails. At this point in time most people feel secure using Paypal. However, I want to know why Paypal was down for so long.

Paypal is down, no one can access their accounts

Does any one know what is going on with Paypal. It’s down. Go ahead; try getting into your account. You can try but you will not be able to access your account. We called customer service; they don’t know what is going on either. Here is their number 1-402-935-2050 (a U.S. telephone number), or their contact page https://www.paypal.com/row/contact-phone. Their techs are trying to fix it, but they don’t know what happened, so they don’t know if they can fix it, or when they can fix it. They keep telling every one it is safe to do transactions and that when some one gets into your account that you must have given the info to some one. There is no way some one can hack in, and now this happens. I don’t know. I hope they can fix this, but we will be looking for new payment options for http://www.medievalmagic.ca/ from now on. Keep trying your account; let us know if you can get in.

Reporter may be doing a story on our ring/eBay nightmare

Good news. One news reporter, Mark Cripps, Managing Editor, HAMILTON COMMUNITY NEWS is looking into doing a story on what happened to us with my Grandmothers ring. This is great because it might help some one else from getting taken on eBay like we were. It will also tell people not to send things to Indonesia unless they know the person they are shipping to. I will let every one know when he has printed his story. If I can I will put a copy of the story on my blog. I must say that I am very great full that he was willing to hear our story, and even more willing to share it.

One thing that has come out of this is the number of people who have been burned on eBay, both as sellers and buys. If you have been burned on eBay and would like some one to hear your story, please email me your story. I am going to start adding them to my blog. We all know it is happening, but no one seems to be doing any thing about it. Maybe if we share our stories people will hear us. If we can save one person from being taken on eBay by these thieves it is worth the time to write out our stories. Please share my blog with others so we can tell people what is going on, and what our stories are, and how we can try to protect ourselves. My email is info@medievalmagic.ca

Indonesian Customs in now holding my Grandmothers ring hostage for $900.00+

Robbed on eBay and now by Indonesian customs for $900.00+

Indonesian customs uses ring as a hostage to get $900.00+ from us. We are getting robbed twice.

We made the mistake of putting my Grandmothers ring on eBay for $1000.00. Like so many 1000’s of others we were scammed. Some one used another person’s eBay account and Paypal account to buy the ring. Please note that there is no protection for sellers on eBay. At first we thought that we were going to be out just the $116.00 shipping cost as we had contacted FedEx and did a stop shipment. Well things did not work out, and the ring made it to Indonesian customs. The only reason the person did not have my Grandmothers ring is because they would not pay the customs of $330.00, oh and by the way the Indonesian customs will not release the ring until some one pays the $330.00. Indonesian customs does not care that it was not suppose to even make it to them, or that this is a case of theft. Not their problem.

FedEx tells us to pay the $330.00 as Indonesian customs is known to take up to 6 months to resolve a dispute, and they charge you a storage fee. The storage fee is usually more then the customs fee and the chance of them saying, “oh, so sorry to hear about this person stealing from you, we wont charge you the customs fee” is 0. So we would have ended up paying both storage fee and customs fee. So we make arrangements with FedEx to pay the $330.00 and have the ring shipped back. So it was to arrive here yesterday or today. Guess what? No ring! We call FedEx to find out that Indonesian customs has now issued an invoice to FedEx for over $900.00 “custom fee’s” and will not release the ring until we pay it. Indonesian customs has now decided that $330.00 is not enough; they want us to pay over $900.00. They are holding our ring hostage.

All I could think of was “This is not happening”, but it is. They want us to pay $900.00 to get my own ring back. So if I want my ring back I have to pay almost the value of the ring. What is going on here? FedEx has no idea what Indonesian customs is doing or why they are charging so much. They are going to try and fight it, but as I indicated earlier, they will take up to 6 months to resolve the issue and are going to charge a storage fee, and the chance of them letting us win is 0. Their country, they make the rules, why would they let us win?

Please share my story with as many people as you can. I know it is too late for me, or my Grandmothers ring but please let people know about this. Maybe we can stop it from happening to some one else. I did contact the news shows and reporters in my area, but it is happening so often too people that there just is no story in some one being robbed on eBay or by Indonesian customs. So what happens, every one knows its happening but know one reports on it, so it keeps happening. The only way people are going to know about this is if I stand up on a box and yell as lowed and as long as I can. I am doing that but I need your help to let others know. If no one else is willing to tell this story then it is up to me to try and let people know.

Thank You,
James Porth
Lori-Lee Craig
Medieval Magic
info@medievalmagic.ca
www.medievalmagic.ca

$456.00 lost but getting my Grandmothers ring back

Just an update, the ring is on its way back to us, should be here some time this week. FedEx told us to pay the customs because Indonesian customs is known to take 6 months with any disputes, and they charge you a very large storage fee, so even if you win, you end up paying as much if not more then the original fee. Also, they tend not to let any one win a customs fee dispute, so we would have ended up owing the customs for both the customs fee and storage fee. I am past the crying and anger stages and have reached the acceptance stage. The good thing is that FedEx is going to charge our account for the Indonesian customs fee and then bill us at the end of the month. This will let us budget and figure out a way to pay it off.

I just want others to hear my story so they are more careful then we were and don't ship any thing right away and get burned the same way we did. The sad part is I have been getting email after email from both sellers and buyers, who have been taken for on eBay. We are not going to be selling any thing on eBay again. I could write a "How to use eBay to steal 101" book with all the information I have found out. I may do a blog, not to help thieves but to help people from being taken in by the con-artists. What got me the most is not the number of people who have been taken, but by the fact that there is nothing we can do once it happens. The police cannot help, eBay and Paypal will not help because they can not afford to become responsible for this. There must be some way to protect people, but I don’t know what it is yet. If you have some idea of how to make it harder on thieves please let me know.

Take a look at my latest necklace

I love making new things. I hope people enjoy my work as well. I will be showing off some of my work here. I am trying out a new program we just added to our web site www.medievalmagic.ca, it lets me show off my work as a little add. I think it is interesting, and I will be playing with it for a bit seeing what I can make and how it looks.

You might as well hang up a sign on eBay, thieves welcome

First I had to go through the hard question, do I sell my Grandmothers ring. I don’t have a lot of hers and I miss her very much. We need the money though, so I think she would understand. It was a hard thing to do but on eBay it goes. Then comes the inquiry could we ship it out right away, rush shipment, some one wants to buy it as a gift. So we go out of our way to make sure we ship the ring as soon as the payment hits Paypal. How far out of our way, we barrow the $116.00 so we can ship it. That is just over ¼ of my budget for the month seeing as I am on Ontario works (welfare) right now.

I have a very hard time sleeping that night. I sold my Grandmothers ring so I am feeling sad, but at the same time I am happy that we will have some money to pay off a few bills. But I cannot sleep, there is just some thing eating away at me. The next day we get an email from Paypal, the transaction was fraudulent – some one just stole my Grandmothers ring. We were out $116.00 for food that month, but at least we were able to contact FedEx and get them to put a stop shipment. Things are going to be hard but at least we are getting the ring back.

Mothers Day, just don’t feel like doing any thing, to upset and I am worried about the ring and how we are going to pay back the $116.00. On top of that the 16th is my sons 4th birthday and I have to explain to him that we cannot get him the gift Mommy and Daddy said he would have for his birthday. He does not understand we are $116.00 short of our budget and now it just is not possible. No party – no money. It is a good thing we had picked up a few small things for him. But it was very hard to have to tell him that he was not bad and that was not why he was not getting his big gift, just some bad things happened. What price do you put on a parents tears when they have to tell this to a child.

We keep checking with FedEx, yes there is a stop shipment order. So why does it show that it is still going? Monday the 14th we find out that FedEx did not stop the shipment. The only reason the person did not have my Grandmothers ring is because they would not pay the customs of $360.00, oh and by the way the Indonesian customs will not release the ring until some one pays the $360.00. So we get robbed twice.

So now the ring is sitting at Indonesian customs and we have to spend our months budget for food just to get it back, or we can just let Indonesian customs confiscate it. So now what. What are we suppose to do, other then cry that is. At this point I start finding out what can be done. Nothing. FedEx does not care that we had a stop shipment on the ring, eBay said we can file a dispute on the dispute console but all that will do is get them to give us back the $1.00 listing fee. It does not matter that some one used some one else’s eBay account to buy the ring, not there problem. Seller protection – none. Every thing is for the buyer. Paypal, well they let us know that there was a problem, and they took all the money back and that way the person who’s account was broken into did not loose any thing, oh the seller, to bad, not our problem.

We thought we were dealing with some one we could trust. The eBay buyer had a good record and looked like they could be trusted. The fact that some one else was using the guy’s account does not matter to eBay. There was no way for us to know this was not a real sale. A week after the sale we got 6 emails from eBay to let us know that the email communications from the eBay buyer could be fraudulent. Thanks, a little to late though, um, we told you. Is eBay going to do any thing for us, no. Same with Paypal. Not their problem. So even though it was the security of eBay and Paypal that was breached we are paying the price. I am not very happy with eBay or Paypal right now. Then FedEx let us down as well. We put a stop shipment return to sender when the ring was in Alaska, why did it get all the way to Indonesia after we were repeatedly reassured over the phone there was a stop shipment and it would not get that far. What do you mean the only reason the thief does not have my ring is because they would not pay the customs, and now I have to pay for it. Oh, and its not your problem. Yah, I am never using FedEx again.

So this one person has devastated my family. First by stealing from us, and having us pay extra to ship it to them. Taking ¼ of my family’s money for the month. Then Paypal and eBay will take no responsibility for the unusual circumstances to help us. Now FedEx lets us down and we have pay another $360.00 or say good by to my Grandmothers ring. So I get to chouse between feeding my family and saving my grandmothers ring. It was hard enough to part with it knowing that the money from it was going to help my family, but to lose it this way is unbelievable. That does not even touch on the emotional hell I have gone threw this last two weeks. Or what it made me feel like to tell my son he could not have some thing I promised him. So much for us moving from a two bed room apartment to a three bed room town house. We were expecting to be able to move in a month or two, have to give that up to after working for a year to get there.

This was not some joke or harmless crime; this has hurt my family in ways this thief does not care about. The icing on the cake is that this thief will never pay any price or consequence for their actions. No one is going to even try to find them, let alone charge them. They just get away with it, and do it again. There is nothing to stop them. Any one can be next. As for eBay and Paypal, not their problem. So what if they lose me as a customer, what do they care? They have millions of people willing to use them. There is no incentive for them to stop this, or help the people this happens to. There is insurance for the buyer but nothing for the seller.

You might as well hang up a sign on eBay, thieves welcome. Come in, use some ones account, and steal from as many as you can, then move on to another account. Get caught, no, you may not get every thing you try to take, but you just move on to the next account. No one is going to try and find you, or make you pay for any thing. No consequences, steal until there is nothing left to take.

Psychic is the in thing right now

Have you noticed how many psychic, magical and mystical shows are out there right now. It seems to be the in thing right now. Lots of books, TV shows and movies are coming out. It seems live every day there is some thing new out there. I am glad that there are more shows out there that represent psychic and mystical in a respectable way.

Every Wednesday Montel Williams, http://www.montelshow.com, has Sylvia Browne helping solve mysteries and odd happenings, telling peoples futures, as well as messages from the dead.

I like the kids show ghost tracker, http://www.ghosttrackers.tv. This is a reality show that puts kids against each other to become the ultimate ghost tracker. The kids investigate paranormal activity at haunted locations and are judged for skill and competence by their peers (other ghost trackers). Based on the art and science of ghost hunting, this reality show pits kids against each other to become the ultimate Ghost Tracker. While investigating paranormal activity in haunted venues contestants are judged on skill and competence by their peers - only the brave survive! Based on the art and science of ghost hunting, this reality show pits kids against each other to become the ultimate Ghost Tracker. While investigating paranormal activity in haunted venues contestants are judged on skill and competence by their peers - only the brave survive! Based on the art and science of ghost hunting, this reality show pits kids against each other to become the ultimate Ghost Tracker. While investigating paranormal activity in haunted venues contestants are judged on skill and competence by their peers - only the brave survive! This one is all about kids going to haunted locations and then using special equipment and their feelings and senses to identify where the haunting is and what is haunting. It is only a ½ hr but is still interesting to watch.

I have enjoyed The Dead Zone, http://www.usanetwork.com/series/thedeadzone. It is very well written, and worth taking the time to hunt down when it’s going to be on. The schedule keeps moving around for this one. This show started in 2002 but I only found it last year. I am looking forward to seeing all the seasons. The story is all about this guy, Johnny Smith, who comes out of a 6-year coma with psychic abilities. His wife has moved on, married a cop, has his son who does not know about him so you get some complex story lines, but they have some good writers that keep the stories interesting and focused on the psychic aspect. The show is based on characters from Stephen King’s novel The Dead Zone. I have not read the book, but I do like the TV show.

There are other shows out there, some good, some bad. Some I watch, some I keep meaning to watch, others I don’t find the story line interesting enough. I found some of them went to far to keep the psychic character conservative and the story line was very dry. Others have gone to far and have made the shows violent and to occultist and expect that to carry the show, again the story line is just not there. Just because the topic of the show is interesting, you still need a good story, believable characters, and a good plot. You cannot expect people to become fans if you think that because the main character is psychic or mystical or investigates the occult is enough. We still expect a good show.