crime
Gang fraud on eBay classifieds – trio in custody
The eBay company logo can be seen on the display of an iPhone SE in the eBay online marketplace app. photo
© Silas Stein/dpa
The scam is not new, but apparently still lucrative. A trio of young men financed expensive cars and branded clothes by selling fakes on eBay. It is now behind bars.
Because they are said to have earned several hundred thousand euros with fake sales on the eBay classifieds platform, three men from Frankfurt am Main are in custody. The trio, aged between 19 and 20, is said to have used the money to finance trips, branded clothing and rent expensive cars, among other things, as the Würzburg public prosecutor and the police announced on Tuesday. In this context, a nine-person group from the Schweinfurt area is also being investigated on suspicion of money laundering.
The suspects are said to have obtained the money by pretending to sell expensive items such as game consoles and graphics cards. They are said to have mostly used hacked user accounts from other users of the platform who knew nothing about it. In order to reassure the buyers, they are said to have also sent photos of the ID cards of other fraud victims during the price negotiations.
The money is said to have flowed into the accounts opened by the group of nine in the Schweinfurt area – without the goods offered in the online classifieds ever reaching the fraud victims from all over Germany.
Notice to the police and public prosecutor