Re: eBay, Auction Fraud, Scams and Swindels

["therealdmcvegas" <DMCVegas@xxxx>]

--- In dmcnews@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, "thinkstainless" <stldrgn@xxxx> wrote:
> Dear Members of The Delorean Message Board,
> 
> My name is Sean M. Corbett.
> 
> It has been over a year since the police came to my home and seized 
> my property. Which has recently all been returned to me except a De 
> Lorean that I had in my possession which was meant for one of my 
> customers.
> 
> I am not writting this post to tease, taunt, or intimidate anyone. 
My 
> purpose is to deliver a message who those who have been affected by 
> my actions of last year, to those who have mearly heard the one 
sided 
> story.
<SNIP>

As someone who read about these dealings on the sidelines, I feel 
compelled to comment. After all, this has been quite an interesting 
topic that I've followed.

For starters, it's nice to hear both sides of the story. And after 
reading what little you've posted so far, MANY questions have been 
answered, before they've even had a chance to be asked. You technicly 
don't have to respond to anything, so I'll give you kudos there.

This is after all, the land of opprotunity, and if someone can make a 
buck, that person will always be afforded the chance to do so. That's 
what makes the country great. Be it an honest buck, or not.

Now, make no mistake, I'm not here to judge you. I've no investment 
in anything related to you. But what I can tell you is this. Your 
site has some great insigt into eCommerce security for both buyers, 
and sellers. Which admittedly isn't something that I thought of 
previously. At least in the ways that you describe. But, I seriously 
think that your reasoning is still way off.

Put simply, you didn't fail, you got caught. It doesn't matter if 
didn't mean harm to people, the fact remains that you did. Back in 
high school, I had a friend, who's immigrant father fixed, and sold 
cars. He got busted for odometer fraud. It was an honest mistake. He 
thought that the odometer recorded only the milage on an engine, and 
NOT the entire car. In the same way of course that you would record 
the hours on a boat, or generator motor. So when he swapped motors 
from a low milage car that had been in a wreck, he also swapped out 
the odometer as well. Eventually, the guy whom he sold the car to 
found out, and sued him. Even in court, he admitted what he had done, 
not thinking anything wrong of it. He naturally lost the case. Even 
though he too intended not to do any harm to anyone, he too broke the 
law, and had to pay the price.

It's the same with you. Well, except for the fact instead of this 
being an honest mistake, you admittedly hid the fact that you were 
not in possession of said merchandise. You yourself even state that 
it was a fact that had to be hidden from your customers. In order for 
your business plans to work, you had to lie. From my POV as a buyer, 
you being in possession of said merchandise is far more important 
than if I can purchase it cheaper elsewhere.

Yes, I am an eBay'er, and yes, I too have gotten burned on auctions 
in the past. But that doesn't make eBay responsible for your legal 
reprocussions, any less than it does the sellers who incorrectly 
represented their cars, nor especially the buyers whom you blame for 
being too "premature", or "unjustified". Your scheme failed because 
of your own arrogance. It's not that you overlooked the aspect of how 
things could go wrong. You simply never took them into account. You 
also failed to realize 2 main things: #1. The most sacred things to 
people are their families, and their money. And not always in that 
order. You NEVER screw with either one of them! #2. You failed to 
research the buying and selling of used cars. I bet you never even 
bothered to research how a "lemon law" might apply to you, since 
you "represented" yourself as a business (I can only imagine the 
kinds of additional laws you could have/may have broken as far as 
fraud goes on that one). You didn't "Fail to take precautions" as you 
state. You just failed to be a totally honest businessman.

And please, don't try to play the "Six degreese of Kevin Bacon" in an 
attempt to compare yourself to John DeLorean to gain sympathy. It 
doesn't work, and I find it totally inappropriate. John DeLorean was 
entrapped, and later aquitted. You straight out knowingly, and 
willingly broke the law.

>From the neutral aspect of how you plan worked, I'll give kudos there 
as well. After all, you did have the balls enough to go thru with 
your plan, and it did work for a time. And who knows. From a neutral 
aspect, perhaps you yourself may have some sort of legal 
reprocussions against the original people whom were selling said 
cars. I doubt it, but perhaps you can figure out something there. 
After all, just because you're going thru these legal problems, that 
doesn't make them innocent after all for not being honest with YOU as 
a buyer.

All is not lost though. With your background experience, your work 
ethic, and the types of tactics that you utilize, I'd honestly 
reccomend either becomming an Amway distributor, or for even less of 
an investment, once your debt to society has been paid, I'd apply for 
a position as an advisor/investigator with the Federal Trade 
Commission. Steady work for someone in the new Information Age that 
is driven by a Service Industry with your kind of experience.

Pay your debts, continue on, and see where life takes you.

-Robert
vin 6585 "X"

BTW. If you really want to turn over a new leaf, and you truly 
believe that "honest is the best policy", then start by entering in 
the correct date on your web counter.