The eDeposit Auction Fraud Contest has concluded.

The winner is Peter Markham of Hawthorn Victoria, Australia. Mr. Markham has a won a Sony Cyber-shot 3.2 Megapixel Digital Camera for his winning essay. Thank you to the numerous entrants who submitted many interesting stories on auction fraud. We appreciate the time you took to enter. Also, thank you to Ina Steiner, editor of AuctionBytes.com, for helping us judge the contest. It was a tough decision to make!

Again, congratulations Peter Markham!

Here is the winning essay:

I purchased a signed piece of French art glass on eBay. After offering it for sale locally it was immediately challenged by a knowledgable collector as "not right" I withdrew it from sale and had it appraised by 2 leading dealers in 20th. Century decorative arts. The conclusion was that it was a clever attempt to 'age' a modern piece. A modern version of the classic from the 1930's had had the modern mark ground off and a forged version of the pre 1945 original script signature had been added instead. The result of this was to increase the value around 4 times.

When advised of this the seller went quiet and no communication could be got out of him. An eBay fraud complaint was lodged and proved successful. When the seller was advised by eBay that the fraud complaint had been upheld he immediately started offering a full refund. At this stage I am still waiting to see it before returning the item. I will probably still end up out of pocket a considerable sum for insured postage on the item both ways. The lesson I learnt was to be persistent; many would have given up and accepted the loss. The eBay fraud protection program did work. It was interesting that the Visa card organisation refused to reverse the original charge for the item on the technical grounds that while fraud was involved it was not fraudulent use of a card.

Peter Markham
Auburn Antiques
www.auburnantiques.com

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