Diamonds on eBay

[yettihead]

This scam really sucks as I have recently been a victim of. I received a call the other day looking for feedback on my recent transaction from asurion. I logged into my sprint account to find a $50 Insurance deductible charge. Someone did a claim on my diamond. I asked asurion why they would ship my phone to a person in Texas when the name doesn't match mine and I live in Wisconsin. They're response was that people have multiple people on their accounts who might not live with them.

Just a warning to others in that if the phone was shipped to you, Sprint's fraud department has your name and address. I am pursuing this with Sprint's fraud department and will press charges to whoever this person is. I have his name and address. My word of advise is this; these phones on ebay are part of an insurance scam and if you buy these phones, you are part of it also. I hope all other Sprint users who have been part of this fraud such as me also follow up with Sprint's fraud department to file charges.

Long time reader,
Chad

[boxermansr]

Originally Posted by yettihead

This scam really sucks as I have recently been a victim of. I received a call the other day looking for feedback on my recent transaction from asurion. I logged into my sprint account to find a $50 Insurance deductible charge. Someone did a claim on my diamond. I asked asurion why they would ship my phone to a person in Texas when the name doesn't match mine and I live in Wisconsin. They're response was that people have multiple people on their accounts who might not live with them.

Just a warning to others in that if the phone was shipped to you, Sprint's fraud department has your name and address. I am pursuing this with Sprint's fraud department and will press charges to whoever this person is. I have his name and address. My word of advise is this; these phones on ebay are part of an insurance scam and if you buy these phones, you are part of it also. I hope all other Sprint users who have been part of this fraud such as me also follow up with Sprint's fraud department to file charges.

Long time reader,
Chad

Did you recently purchase a phone on eBay, or was this "claim" just out of the blue. If it was done on eBay, chances are that the person who the phone was shipped to, had/has no idea that it's a phone obtained VIA a claim.

If the claim was just done at random, then I dunno what to suggest, other than what you're already doing which is keeping on top of Sprint and/or Asurion.

I know that in my case, the person who got the phone that was claimed using my insurance, had no idea that it was obtained in that fashion, of course, we both purchased from the same person on eBay.

[yettihead]

I did not purchase a phone from ebay, I purchased my diamond from Sprint when they were first released. It definitely looks to be someone on the inside, just finished reading the whole thread.

It probably is the same with the person who received the phone, just purchased it from ebay not knowing of the fraud. When Sprint contacts him hopefully he will tell Sprint who he purchased the phone from. Unfortunately he is the person in possession of stolen property.

Chad

[joeyjoe]

Originally Posted by boxermansr

Thats why I said for the PERFECT scenario, I'd say that everyone HAD insurance, I realize that everyone doesn't. How that's going to work out for buyers who got phones that were claimed on someone else's insurance, I have no idea. (In your case, not having insurance, I imagine you get a phone that was LIKELY claimed using someone elses account information). The phone you got, most lilkely is 100% free and clear, as none of this started (at least with celldep0t) until about 3 weeks ago or so (based on what I've heard from him at least).

All I know, is that SOMEONE got a phone that was claimed with MY insurance. I talked to the guy myself. As far as celldep0t, this whole mess just started a few weeks ago, another seller contacted celldep0t, offering to ship phones FOR him, at a lesser price. In the end, that person ended up screwing celldep0t, AND several of the people who got phones both from HIM (he was selling as dmilton111), and from people who got them directly from celldep0t (as dmilton111 either stopped shipping phones FOR celldep0t, or something else which I can't even begin to imagine).

As far as getting info, all the buyer needs to ship us a phone is our name and address, which they get when we pay (via paypal, or however). In this case, the seller was forwarding that info off to the person who was shipping phones FOR him (in this case, dmilton111). My theory speculates that dmilton himself, or someone he knew, used THAT information (the name, and the shipping address), to access the buyers Sprint account information (how, I don't know, but it HAS to be done, as in order to file a claim "supposidly" the person filing the claim has to know the account PIN of account holder that is filing the claim).

Now, I don't know anyone who buys a phone and provides the seller their PIN and any pertinent passowords to their account on top of it, but somehow, someONE got that information, which was needed to submit the claim.

I know I got a 50.00 charge. I know where the phone that was claimed was shipped to. I talked to the person who got the phone, they purchased from the same seller, the seller himself admits that he was "in bed with the devil" so to speak (in that he was letting someone else process the orders for him, the seller has no idea how the phones were being obtained)..

Well I appreciate you sharing with us your experience. I showed this forum to a buddy of mine that bought a touch pro on Ebay as well. He got it from mullingsm and said it came directly from the seller via USPS express mail and he was legit. I looked that seller up today and to my surprise I noticed you left her bad feedback saying something about a phone programmed with a different number and they were responsible for your $50 charge for your purchase from 11/13/08. Did you get charged $50 twice or did you get the wrong person? Something does not add up. How many people did you buy from? Who did you buy from first? Also, you said "As far as getting info, all the buyer needs to ship us a phone is our name and address." Think logically. If this was true then anyone would just open a phone book or go online to 411.com or any other site and have access to millions of names and numbers and spend all day trying to make orders. You can not contact Sprint or any phone company with just a name and address and they give you your phone number. You can not ask a phone company what your number is by just using a name and address. I use to work for Verizon and I know there is no search engine for reps to look up a number by an address or name. You must have the phone number, the you need a pin or social to verify. Anyway, at the end of the day we are all looking to save big money (maybe too much money ). I also have TMobile and actually went to the store yesterday in person to purchase a new white G1 for full retail price (over $434). This beat windows mobile hands down easily anyday (yeah adroid o.s =D>). With this phone you have still have to call into TMobile to place the imei on your account for the proper provisions and create a google account on the phone. I did not want to take any chances with eBay (suspiciously low prices) now and not be able to have full access to my G1 eventhough its a sim card phone. Hey if anyone has tried the G! let me know. I know its not a windows or Sprint phone, but after 1 day i'm hooked. Might even be selling my Sprint phones.

[xanekka]

Originally Posted by batcatman

I got from the same guy too, did not come with any Asurion stuff, haven't been billed yet from sprint, i havent left any feedback yet, did u get charged anything extra on ur sprint bill??

I don't see any charges yet. I hope I won't. Coz I paid for the phone in good faith. I shouldn't be charged twice.

[joeyjoe]

Originally Posted by reconboy

Keeping the phone is the easy part, the seller never had possession of the phone in the first place.

Paypal can retract the payment easily as the seller never had anything to sell since it was a scam.

Now granted I may have to pay Asurion 200.00 for the phone but atleast I will or maybe able to keep service on the phone since I DO have insurance. The money I paid the seller would in sense pay Asurion.

Actually what you are telling people to do is scam Paypal out of their fees and pull a wire fraud. Paypal does not and can not require someone to have a product in hand. I can be your buddy in Texas and you live in Cali and you don't have eBay but want me to sell your phone for you then you ship it. Its perfectly legit. Also many companies such as SMC, Quickstar, Mary Kay etc drop ship your orders and you can take Paypal on your own personal site. If you feel you have stolen merchandise in your possession and refuse to return it then you are what's called "being in possession". What you would have to do is file a claim and return the item and get your funds back. You can not legally be forced to pay and other fees once you severe ties with the item thus voided your contract with that seller. Only the people envolved in doing the "fraud" can be liable. The end user can not. It would never hold up in court. Trust me when I tell you this. My sister is an assistant D.A. in New York and handles criminal cases daily.

[bostonshaker]

Originally Posted by joeyjoe

Actually what you are telling people to do is scam Paypal out of their fees and pull a wire fraud. Paypal does not and can not require someone to have a product in hand. I can be your buddy in Texas and you live in Cali and you don't have eBay but want me to sell your phone for you then you ship it. Its perfectly legit. Also many companies such as SMC, Quickstar, Mary Kay etc drop ship your orders and you can take Paypal on your own personal site. If you feel you have stolen merchandise in your possession and refuse to return it then you are what's called "being in possession". What you would have to do is file a claim and return the item and get your funds back. You can not legally be forced to pay and other fees once you severe ties with the item thus voided your contract with that seller. Only the people envolved in doing the "fraud" can be liable. The end user can not. It would never hold up in court. Trust me when I tell you this. My sister is an assistant D.A. in New York and handles criminal cases daily.

There we go, comparing Mary Kay, SMC and Quikstar to an insurance scammer. That makes complete sense.

My best friend is an attorney and I don't go giving out legal advice. Not a good situation with different laws in different states, etc.

[c3hutson]

Originally Posted by yettihead

This scam really sucks as I have recently been a victim of. I received a call the other day looking for feedback on my recent transaction from asurion. I logged into my sprint account to find a $50 Insurance deductible charge. Someone did a claim on my diamond. I asked asurion why they would ship my phone to a person in Texas when the name doesn't match mine and I live in Wisconsin. They're response was that people have multiple people on their accounts who might not live with them.

Just a warning to others in that if the phone was shipped to you, Sprint's fraud department has your name and address. I am pursuing this with Sprint's fraud department and will press charges to whoever this person is. I have his name and address. My word of advise is this; these phones on ebay are part of an insurance scam and if you buy these phones, you are part of it also. I hope all other Sprint users who have been part of this fraud such as me also follow up with Sprint's fraud department to file charges.

Long time reader,
Chad

You might want to consider the fact that these people (myself included) had no idea what they were getting themselves into when they hit "buy it now" before you try to F*** them over.

[yettihead]

Originally Posted by c3hutson

You might want to consider the fact that these people (myself included) had no idea what they were getting themselves into when they hit "buy it now" before you try to F*** them over.

I understand that, but once you received the phone with the information that it was an insurance replacement, what did you do about it? Did you contact Sprint and Asurion and are you working with them to go after the scammer who sold the phone to you. If you keep the phone knowing this, why shouldn't someone press charges as you are knowingly keeping stolen property.

This is why I am working with Sprint's fraud department and have not gone to the police. I will let them decide who should be charged for this. I do not want to F***** an innocent person over. The fact is, it is a stolen phone, your actions what you do with it after you found out it was an insurance scam determines what happens to you.

[bostonshaker]

Originally Posted by yettihead

I understand that, but once you received the phone with the information that it was an insurance replacement, what did you do about it? Did you contact Sprint and Asurion and are you working with them to go after the scammer who sold the phone to you. If you keep the phone knowing this, why shouldn't someone press charges as you are knowingly keeping stolen property.

This is why I am working with Sprint's fraud department and have not gone to the police. I will let them decide who should be charged for this. I do not want to F***** an innocent person over. The fact is, it is a stolen phone, your actions what you do with it after you found out it was an insurance scam determines what happens to you.

I take exception with this statement as the paperwork that came with the phone uses acronyms and most people would not even know it was a scam, only that it was drop shipped from an address in Kentucky.

Is it common knowledge?................or your's and someone elses.

Point being is that I really think that people who are blaming the buyers are way off. I surely did not have any idea that I would be receiving a scammed phone when I paid for it. Being condescending towards people who this happened to is not constructive and you all need to STFU unless you have something useful or helpful to say.