Scams Against Buyers
Part 1: Intro - Scams against Buyers
Part 2: The Empty Box Shipping Scam
Part 3: The "Expensive Phone Book Scam" or "Reach Out & Rob Someone"
Part 4: Shill Bidding
Part 5: Wrong Descriptions: The Old Bait and Switch routine
Part 6: Bid Siphoning
Part 7: The Overpriced Shipping Scam
The 'Phone Book Scam', or 'Reach Out and Rob Someone'
You may have heard of another version of this, where instead of an empty box, the seller sends phonebooks, newspaper or other heavy objects that would approximate the weight of your item. This is just a criminal and stupid seller, trying to be clever- or one just having a little extra fun with the scam, no doubt impressed with their own 'ingenuity'.
The reason they will go to extra lengths to fill the package with heavy and worthless material, is they feel it will somehow bolster their case later on with the postal officials if they are caught. They will argue that they sent an item, as the weight on their mailing receipt proves, and it must have been you or a postal employee who stuck the items in there.
Of course, this is not too bright on their part if you live in Des Moines, Iowa, and they live in Los Angeles and send you an LA phonebook.
If this person has a history of doing this, they will most likely be caught, especially if they continue with this fraudulent action, as there is almost always a paper trail involved. If they live in a foreign country, it will be up to an international group like INTERPOL to worry about, and they have many larger fish to fry right now, so you may be out of luck.
If you fall victim to this scam, we advise filing a complaint with the Consumer Sentinel. This program is designed to track international e-commerce fraud in a large database- the information is used to assist law enforcement agencies around the world in combating online crimes against consumers.
If this type of auction fraud happens in the United States, it is a vastly different story. If the seller sent you the empty box from another state, with a verifiable address, and if they can be found by federal authorities, they are in BIG trouble, and up a proverbial creek minus the proverbial paddle. That is because their crime was committed across state lines, which opens them up to a whole new host of federal charges, including mail and wire fraud.
Depending on the methods they use in the crime, they may even be guilty of racketeering or similar violations of the RICO statutes. Deep trouble for them, in other words, if you can convince the government they are worthy of investigation.
Back to Auction Fraud Part 2: Empty Box Scam
Read Auction Fraud Part 4: Shill Bidding
