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Three Romanians who conned eBay customers out of thousands of pounds have been sentenced to a total of eight years' imprisonment.
The "cell" tricked customers into paying for £300,000 worth of fictitious goods which never arrived.
The man said to be the gang's ringleader, Nicolae Cretanu, 30, of Forest Gate, London, was given a three and a half year term for the fraud.
His wife Adriana, 23, and George Titar, 26, both got two and a half years.
The couple advertised everything from non-existent cars to concert tickets and used 12 aliases and an accomplice to collect the payments.
Their accomplice Titar, of Stratford, London, collected payments from money transfer shops.
The two-year scam was successful because buyers on eBay have to pay before they are sent their goods.
People were told by email that they had been unsuccessful in their first bid but were offered a "second chance" to buy a similar item.
But the goods they purchased never arrived and the trio managed to net at least £300,000 from the scam.
The majority of the cash was sent back to the gang's accomplices in Romania in what the police described as a well-planned and sophisticated fraud.
The racket was finally exposed after suspicious staff at money transfer firm Western Union alerted police.
Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4385956.stm
This is a very interesting article. And when I think that somebody said to me that eBay is not the safest place to buy on the net.
The "cell" tricked customers into paying for £300,000 worth of fictitious goods which never arrived.
The man said to be the gang's ringleader, Nicolae Cretanu, 30, of Forest Gate, London, was given a three and a half year term for the fraud.
His wife Adriana, 23, and George Titar, 26, both got two and a half years.
The couple advertised everything from non-existent cars to concert tickets and used 12 aliases and an accomplice to collect the payments.
Their accomplice Titar, of Stratford, London, collected payments from money transfer shops.
The two-year scam was successful because buyers on eBay have to pay before they are sent their goods.
People were told by email that they had been unsuccessful in their first bid but were offered a "second chance" to buy a similar item.
But the goods they purchased never arrived and the trio managed to net at least £300,000 from the scam.
The majority of the cash was sent back to the gang's accomplices in Romania in what the police described as a well-planned and sophisticated fraud.
The racket was finally exposed after suspicious staff at money transfer firm Western Union alerted police.
Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4385956.stm
This is a very interesting article. And when I think that somebody said to me that eBay is not the safest place to buy on the net.
