eBay scammer gets four years in slammer

A man convicted of swindling more than $259,000 using fraudulent eBay listings and other venues was ordered to serve 52 months in federal prison and pay $252,000 in restitution. Derrick Lee Swantz, 57, of Lakewood, Colorado, was convicted in January of implementing two separate fraud schemes. In one, he offered luxury …

[Sureo]

Now...

...what about the other 50000 scammers cheats and crooks on ebay?

[alan]

@Sureo

I think you missed a few zeros from that number......

[David S]

@sureo

Nah, they're all legit man. Look at their feedback: "***** A1 Top ebayer!!!!111!1zomg1!!"

[N]

Agreed - go after scammers

So what about the rest of em?

I hope someones screen dumped his profile, I suspect there may be a few negative ratings!

[Daniel]

Bad maths day?

171,750 + 17,500 = 198,250, so presumably he had sixty thousand dollars'-worth of scams, going on elserwhere, to arive at a total of $259,000.

Sorry to be pedantic.

[AC]

heh

"I'll sell you this car that I can't let you see, just send me some money and I'll send it out to you."

How can any sensible person think that is anything other than a scam? I don't think the idiots should be reunited with their money but the ass scamming them can safely be shot and left to bleed out.

[David Wilkinson]

Does ebay still get their cut?

If someone conducts a fraudulent transaction via ebay, does ebay return their profits?

[Sampler]

@ Sureo

Nah, they use paypal and line eBays pockets with their scam takings - this dirty rotten scoundrel had the gall to use other services cutting eBay out of their share and they don't like that, not one bit...

[Anonymous Coward]

You buy the car but you don't own it

He sold only a license to that car. The license does not allow you to touch the car. If you touch the car you are infringing his copyrights so you are a thief.

"A man convicted of swindling more than $259,000 using fraudulent eBay listings and other venues was ordered to serve 52 months in federal prison and pay $252,000 in restitution."

So he remains with $7,000.

[Kenny Swan]

no title

@David Wilkinson. Ah, come on now. You've gone a bit mental there. Keep your head in the game, son.

[Mike]

Caveat Emptor

OK so the people he scammed should have known better than parting with cash for vapourware and eBay does give advice against this sort of thing, but what gets me is the 1% scammers, building up a nice book of happy customers when they sell make little or no money then sell a few high value items (like cameras) which "get lost in the post, you should have bought insurance" and bang several hundred dollars profit, very low bad feedback and stays looking trustworthy. Oh and there's the ones that buy 10 lots of 1 cent ebooks then happen to have a $1000 laptop for sale at $400 or 100 memory cards at 80% of everybody else's price.

Lesson of the day, check the selller and not just "is their feedback over 98%", what have they bought, what have they sold, if there's a bargain that's too good to be true then maybe it isn't.

[Joe M]

If the name fits...

"Derrick Lee Swantz, 57, of Lakewood, Colorado, was convicted in January...."

Derrick Lee Swantz? SWANTZ!!!? How appropriate.

[Aaron]

Jail humour

@Anonymous Coward: Yes, he keeps the $7,000 but he pays for it in the end... hahaha!

[chris]

Economic Darwinism

(a) What kind of moron buys a car sight-unseen over the internet?

(b) Can I have their email address, since I need to transfer many millions of dollars out of the royal bank of england.

[Rex Alfie Lee]

Gee Shucks, Bugger, Damn

Couldn't have happened to a more deserving scumbag. May he get screwed while he's in there.

[Anonymous Coward]

Moral fo the story...

at the end of the day the only winner is eBay.