BEWARE OF ONLINE SCAMMERS...

This is a post by my friend Sanz, who got scammed through an EBAY transaction. I am reposting this to help her track down teh culprit and perhaps too, warn others about this scammer. For more of this, visit Sanz' Multiply Blog, that's http://sanasanz.multiply.com/journal/item/156/Scammer_Hazeil_L._Cruz for your address bar.

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Name: Hazeil Jade L. Cruz
Address: Mabolo, Cebu City 6000
Number: 09052688022
Ebay ID: alwaysonstylehaze

(She had 13 positive feedbacks, 3 of her previous buyers emailed back that they used Gcash to pay her and their items arrived. They already deleted her number and forgot her name cause their transactions were done Aug-Sep 2008 - Users: hwggrivas and lee-808 were the ones who replied in my email, the other one i already deleted.)

The story:

January 29, 2009 - My cellphone went crazy, even plurked about it here.

January 30, 2009 - My phone was officially declared dead. Started looking around for a new phone. Browsed thru ebay and bidded on alot of phones to choose from, from sellers WITH feedbacks. Left for the mall afterwards to have my phone checked.

January 31, 2009 - I went to the mall to canvas cost for phone repair and left my phone there for check-up.

February 1, 2009 - I called repair shop and they informed me phone repair would cost 2,500 so I said I'd just get back my phone coz it was t0o expensive for just repair. When I got back home, I received email from ebay that I won one item.

Item I bidded and won: E71 Complete Package Used

Item details:

Confirmation sent to my email from ebay:

Invoice and message sent afterwards:

I texted the seller after I read the emails. When I texted her and asked where and when in cebu she's going to be available for meet-ups so I could have her and my bestfriend's bf meet, she said she currently left for baguio for a business trip and would return by march. So I asked for her mode of payment, she said Gcash is convenient for her now because she's busy. I still hesitated and even plurked about it.

So I asked for her Gcash details to get her personal info (which is only what's written above). I asked for the total amount with insurance and she said 8810. I withdrew from my savings account and cashed-in at Globe Limketkai. I texted her and said I'd send payment after she sends me actual photo of the unit and box and a photo of the unit turned on and she agreed and sent me photos:

February 3, 2009 - After I received the photos, I sent the amount 8810 thru Gcash (I still have our conversation thru text, the cash-in details from Gcash and the transaction info for the amount I sent to her). She texted back she got the payment and will ship after lunch. And I logged in to ebay and marked the item "payment sent":

An hour later she texted back with tracking number from Air21 - 300 001 734 819, she also said the latest day for it to arrive is Thursday Feb. 5. I tried to track it online but online tracking said the number was invalid so I tried a couple of hours later, which again returned invalid. So I sent her another message confirming the number, she said it was correct and maybe the system was faulty - which I know usually happens most of the time.

February 4, 2009 - I was at work and started feeling weird. Scared and uneasy. I had my sister call Air21 cdo (but unfortunately, they weren't helpful, they shouldn't have answered the phone) so I had her call long distance to Air21 Baguio about it, and they asked for our numbers, also the seller's. They called back the same day that the seller's number was off and shipment from Baguio to CDO would take about 2-3days and that they'd check their receipt files for the said receipt. I was even more worried. So after work, I started to clear my mind and went to the mall. User from ebay, hwggrivas, texted me a couple of times and even called me up and said he was worried for my situation, he also said he paid for Gcash with his transaction with that seller but the seller's name (on his record, he says) was Christine Ong from Iloilo City. I almost cried when he told me this, he adviced me to call using another number and try to get more info from her, I said thanks and headed home. When I got home and checked on her profile again, I saw she relisted the phone again together with a LV Black Mahina XS Purse (item photo you'll see on first photo in this blog). I was even more worried, so I texted her again if she had more e71 cause she relisted it, she replied hours later that she instructed her cousin to relist only the LV bag and was sorry the e71 got relisted, she said she'll unlist the next day when she gets home. I texted her back to give me a copy of air21 receipt and she said she'll email me a copy when she gets home and unlist the item.

February 5, 2009 - The latest ETA of the said unit, guess what? no unit arrived. I wanted to break down but I was still holding on to sis clarashoppe's words that baguio shipment might take about 2-3days to arrive here. I tried to call the seller but her phone just kept ringing but no answer. I tried to text and call user hwggrivas, hoping to get more info from him but he didn't reply nor answer my call too. Same day, I found out her feedback corner is now set to private. So I thought, maybe some of the members I messaged is part of her scam, or she's expecting a negative feedback. I also found out, she ended the relisted item early and gave the latest bidder the current price she bidded. So this means another person is being scammed too.

Here's the cache result from google:

I tried to call her this morning but I couldn't get thru. So did all my other friends who tried to call her, she barred her incoming calls.

I already sent a complaint thru ebay, sent her a message there, and still waiting for their feedback. I will also email Globe and try to ask help from yahoo for traces of her info.

This is rather a very expensive lesson. Hope alot of you will learn to be more vigilant than me. I wasn't ready to spend 2,500 for a phone that's dead - where all my contacts, apointments and such, but I chose to spend that much on a very slightly used, t0o g0od to be true, E71 coz I wanted to be able to access the internet anywhere and have my important documents and such with me.

I have had a few transactions on ebay with even more than that price, and to sellers with lesser feedbacks, but this is just different. Shoulda, Coulda, Woulda.. indeed are the last words of a fool. I just hope she needed the money so bad, and hope her issues - or whatever reason she has to have done this, are solved. I hope she doesn't scam anybody else. I hope in time she'll change her mind and stop doing this stuff coz it won't do her any good.

I will update this blog for more info. I just feel so bad now, I feel like my heart is about to explode.