[Blinky]

I contacted the original seller directly about the item I had been bidding on. Evidently, he already contacted the police. Here is what was sent to me in correspondence. I really have no idea if this is real or part of the scam for certain. The bothersome thing for me is this scammer got my private email address from hacking into Ebay. I was sent a bogus "invoice" that looked exactly like a real Ebay invoice but then asked me to send a money wire transfer to a bank in Czechoslovakia instead of using Paypal. I don't think Ebay cares about these scammers in the least. There is an individual that posts the same scam listings week after week and they sometimes stay on Ebay for days on end. I used to "report" them but I just stopped because I see it keep happening over and over. Ebay could stop it if they really wanted to.

Here is what was sent to me by the original seller:

"Let me fill you in. The buyer insisted on picking up the unit the night his payment went through. Turns out he lived fairly close by. He came to my house, & inspected the unit, which I had sitting on my coffee table in my living room. He was satisfied with the unit. We both signed a reciept detailing the sale. I even threw in 8 tube damping rings. While I picked up the box & held the front door, he followed me out of my house. He opened his trunk & I placed the unit inside. He drove off. When I returned to the house I discovered the receipt was missing from the coffee table where I had set it down to pick up the box. I then realized the buyer must have pocketed it when my back was turned. I immediately tried to call him, but his voice mail was deactivated. Right after that, I then called E-Bay to explain what happened. I was assured they believed me & I had nothing to worry about. Of course, the buyer then contacted E-Bay, said he refused the unit when he was at my house and demanded a refund. Which E-Bay granted. Needless to say, this made me extemely unhappy, with both the buyer & E-Bay. $1300 is alot of money to lose! The next day my wife coordnated all the correspondence between the buyer, E-Bay & myself and we took it to the police, expalined the situation & filed a police report. In the days that followed, a local detective confronted the buyer. Was invited into the buyer/crook's house & searched his trunk. The detective told the buyer/crook that I wasn't going to let this go. Finally, the detective said he would sit in his car for 5 minutes & if he (buyer/crook) returned the unit in that time, we would agree not to prosecute. Presto, he brings it out. Unfortunately, 5 screws & a mount post for the phono stage were detached. Which were recovered. I insisted that E-Bay agree to pay to ship it back to VTL & for whatever else is needed to get the unit back to tip top condition. I'm waiting on the written confirmation now. Hopefully, I will ship it soon."