Money Laundering on eBay

[jeremysmith5]

It seems Money Laundering is not something that eBay is at all concerned about.

There is not one link or avenue I can find to report my findings:

If I could find an email for eBay I would email them, but I cant find any way of contacting them about it:

I was looking through the completed listings for chairs when I found one **bleep**py one for an extrordinarily high price !

I won't post the item number, in case I get recriminations, but if you look for yourself under "auction" items, "completed listings": highest price first, you'll find it as sold !!

If you dig a bit deeper, you'll also find other things out that confirm my suspicions. 

Why is eBay not at all bothered at this, I've seen this before as well:

eg: A NEW BMW, 1.0litre, no picture, but listed and actually bought by another member for £100,000.

Is no-one else bothered either, there are no discussions about this??

[blackburn_stevie]

Have you informed the Police about your findings?

[jeremysmith5]

No, I would imagine the police will be just as interested as eBay are !!

..wearing my skeptical cap !!

[papko]

Ok 

 Chair sells for 100k instead of £50 

 (though an Antique chair may get a better price a consumer one generally would not ) 

 So presumably buyer an dseller are "laundering money " as you say 

 How does the buyer pay ?

 by paypal ? (well it will have to be in the banking system in the forst place ) 

 by cash ?

 Well the seller must declare the amount in their tax return , and the buyer will want a receipt ?

 If no receipt invocices are needed , and its a simple cash transaction then why go through ebay in the first place ?

 Laundering money is processing cash sums as a result of crime , into the banking system as "clean "money .

So if I make 50k selling heroin , I can t put that 50k in a bank , as thta will flag up as a large sum , and someone will want to know where I got it .

 So either I say i won it at a bookies or a casino , (but Icant say that every week for obvious reasons )

 so then I have a business , selling burgers , where I can say that I have sold 1k worth of burgers today , and put the 1k in the bank (at the end of day )

And I do this everyday , then after a month or so , I have recycled the 50k , then HMRC pop up , You will need to file a tax return and pay tax on your busisness with the high tunrover , funny that you make 1k a day and all th eother burger vans make £150 a day ,,

 etc 

 It all flags up 

 So how OP , do people launder money on ebay ?

[jeremysmith5]

Hi Papko,

Thanks for your comments.....

I have no idea !! - well, how about this...

Perhaps the buyer says it's a business cost, and hence needs a receipt, which he gets, so can get money off his tax bill,

And perhaps the seller says it's just a personal effects sale, hence no tax is payable.

I know some chairs fetch alot of money, not the one I came across though !!!

[jeremysmith5]

One Flaw, I will admit, to the suggestion I just posted is,

the eBayer wastes 10% of his proposed tax avoidance gain in eBay Fees....

So, no, I have no idea !!

[papko]

There would be a limit as to how much you can set aside as a" personal sale "

 You may get away with £50 here and there , but if there is money region 2k going in your bank account regulalry , or going through your books as a "cash sale "

 The point being if you are in the money laundering business and need to launder 50k regulalrly etc ,m you are soon going to run out of friends associates  with which to launder even 1k 

Any transaction of 6k is flagged up under money laundering surveillance , just try putting a large cash sum in your bank account 

OP , I am not saying your suspicion is not valid , it may welll be , I am just trying to show the situation from the side of the law enforcement .

 Just how much time can you devote to analyse your hunch , and connecting dots , without any substantial proof .

 And that is no doubt ebays stance as well 

[cee-dee]

This wouldn't be the continuation of the old scam on eBay would it?:-

"Buyer" bids stupid money aided by "his mate(s)" and wins the auction.

"Buyer" contacts the seller "Hi, I won your auction for your car. Can I pay by cheque as I don't have a bank account and I've been given a cheque for £50k in payment for a contract so could I send you the cheque and I'll collect the change in cash from you when I pick up the car. If this is OK, you can keep an extra £1k for your trouble. I need to move this on fast please so would you let me know this is OK and I'll be round to pick up the car tomorrow."

Never heard of it? Over time I've had several of those.

[jeremysmith5]

Cheers Papko and Cee Dee,

Perhaps I'm just over suspicious then....

I've just been looking through some past listings: try looking up " a bug's life" - "completed listings" or "sold"....

Someone thinks a copy is worth alot !! - I suppose you could put this down to  " the kids" I suppose.

And Cee Dee: I guess there are some scammers out there that still try that one on.

Maybe I was a bit quick off the mark thinking it's money laundering !!

- still, makes me wonder !!

[jeremysmith5]

But you've got to wonder !!

...There's some guy asking 6 grand for a few little injectors ! 

Although i've never seen any that small before either .

...Cheers Papko, thanks for your comments and pushing some sense my way !

[joe_bloggs*]

Interesting article in the Guardian about money laundering through betting shops

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2013/nov/08/gambling-machines-drug-money-laundering-bookies

And of course many people with money to launder regard the UK as one of the best places to make their assets invisible to the tax authorities (for the right fee of course)

[5129frederick]

VERY clever and so easy!  £20.00 or £30.00 is pin money when you're talking of three or four figure sums.  A word of warning on a slightly different angle.  Virtual roulette is far more addictive than drugs, especially when youu start winning - THAT'S when you start chasing for bigger and bigger winnings, trying to keep up with the big boys you see feeding hundreds of pounds and winning hundreds without even batting an eyelid.  I know - from personal experience.  If you're on £80,000.00 per year it's no problem  When you're on £16,000.00 it's a very different story.  For over forty years I worked in the City area of London with a Ladbrokes less than 100 yards from my office.  I saw somebody win £1500.00 and then put it all back again!  I wanted to kick his you-know-what, but it was none of my business.  Once you've won £130.00 in as many seconds, that's when you get back late for work and not give a fig.  Winning money was the worst thing that could ever have happened to me.  I retired - just in the nick of time.

[**caution**opinion_ahead]

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@joe_bloggs* wrote:

Interesting article in the Guardian about money laundering through betting shops

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2013/nov/08/gambling-machines-drug-money-laundering-bookies

---

Very interesting ... and sobering.

[rose2008-2008]

Its always very annoying that you can never seem to e.mail sites like Facebook or E,bay directly. Its wrong you should be able too. Its almost like they dont want to have to sort out important findings. Like Facebook (although thats not money orientated). You tell them that a member of society is on there who should not be and they are just not interested.!!!!!!!!!!. Things need to be changed.

[tiace11882]

A normal person doesnt pay  $473.32 for a  unlesss its getting hand delivered to my door and ALL my part balloons filled. These people are commiting fraud. How can we we turn them?

[aheath47]

I want to report the same thing, saw a "used and chewed pen" going for £5000 and once I'd put my eyes back in my head I added it to my watch list. The listing ended up being withdrawn, perhaps they didn't like the attention or maybe it was just some people messing around. It seemed rather suspicious though and it'd be nice if ebay had a category for activity like that 😕

[jeremysmith5]

It does make you wonder, doesn't it ? !!

I also saw a boys school in hartfordshire, in Wing, being sold for £1

and the same seller was selling a 1 ltr BMW, with no picture for £100,000, and someone had bid and won it .

this seller had several past names, which were all similar, all which only ever had a couple of deals done, and traced back to Germany, I recall.

No-one at ebay is interested! - We need to press the "report" button, but then we'll still never know if they did anything about it !!

Surely they (ebay) are complicit in fraudulent activity and perhaps money laundering if they do nothing.

[jeremysmith5]

There are still chewed pens up for sale !!!! Haha

[5129frederick]

I laundered money in the literal sense - inadvertently left a couple of £10.00 notes in my back pocket.  Went through the was and came out perfectly o.k.  Lucky or what?  

[murph007bat]

I agree there is some thing going on.  $999 for a phone clip??  And the list goes on.  Yet ebay will flag me if my shipping costs appear high.  Yet product that are obviously worth under $10 and are being listed for hundreds of dollars is suspicious at the least.  Not to mention embarassing for ebay.