Along with George Tritar who was also jailed they got people to send money for non existent goods ranging from cars, tickets and even parachute trousers. Victims, many from the USA would bid for items but then receive an e-mail telling them that they had been outbid but would be offered “second chance” to obtain similar or identical items. They would be then requested to wire the money and needless to say no items would ever appear.
In court it was suggested that the scam was actually being run from Romania and that the Cretanus and Tritar were little more than foot soldiers. One of the worry features of this case was that it was not eBays much vaunted security system that lead to their downfall. The Police economic crime unit were tipped off by staff of Western Union in London who became suspicious by some of the money transfers going through their office.
Cretanu was sentenced to 3 years and his with and Tritar to 2 ½ years a piece. After the case an eBay spokesman pointed out that none of the transactions took place on eBay and that the company had co operated fully with the police.
Hard on the heels of this case ITV, a national UK television company broadcast a peak time program highlighting another eBay fraudster Philip Shotram and the amount of counterfeit goods available for sale on eBay. Presenter Jonathan Maitland ordered 20 Designer items from different e-Bay sellers all of whom had positive feed back. When the goods arrived 14 were positively identified as fakes.
Philip Shotram from Pontypool in Wales has been found guilty of defrauding eBay buyers out of more than £80,000 and is due to be sentenced next week. He was interviewed in the program and even suggested that eBay might give him a job uncovering other peoples fraud. The interesting thing was that when this suggestion was put to the eBay spokesman, Gareth Griffitths, Head of Trust and Safety said he would like to meet Shotram.
This morning details of the fraud case are appearing in most of the national press and continued publicity like this can only reflect badly on the company in the long term. When Shotram is sentenced next week this is bound to attract considerable publicity and it is hoped that eBay will act swiftly on both their approach to fraud prevention and pirated goods. They not only need to do something, they need to be seen doing it or otherwise buyers and sellers could vote with their feet.