Help me Catch a Thief!

It's easy-peasy to have multiple IDs - you just register a new name (but may need a different email address each time - not hard with hotmail etc).

How to catch 'em? Create your own 'test' ID and place a nuclear bid so you WILL win. Then get the contact details from eBay.

R2

Have to agree with R2 on both counts.

Several of us here have numerous ID's for selling/buying different items etc...so thats answered your first question.

The only problem with getting the contact details is that you usually only get a name, phone number and email (thats what I get from .com.au anyways).

I would place the nuclear bid and win, then in your checkout process...ask to send a Money order or equivalent...that way you will get their address.

Good Luck

I would also send him/her a message asking some question about would he/she accept a money order if you won. Then when you win, you can ask for the name and address without arising suspision.

quote:

My question to you is, how would I find out if he has mutliple ids?

Boy! That’s a first. You might try beating it out of him with a rubber hose. Sounds like something you need to have the police check out with ebay. If you are a little squeamish about the rubber hose, you might get lucky doing a search on ebay. Since you know the kinds of things this person is stealing, you should be able to come up good “keywords” and further limit the search by category. Then, and most importantly, there’s the “Items near me” field on the search which lets you specify auctions within 10 miles of a zip code. I’ve never used that, so have no idea how accurate that feature is. That kind of search, depending on the type of item, might give you a small enough list that you could further “investigate” for contact info. Personally, I’d used the rubber hose.

quote:

Originally posted by Rick:
Personally, I’d used the rubber hose

Wouldnt a big thick phone book be better??

Rubber Hose would tend to leave awful welts, whereas, I have *heard* that the phone book doesnt leave any tell tale marks...just lots of internal ouchies.

Wet towels?

R2

quote:

Originally posted by region2:
Wet towels?

R2

Connected to mains?

Perhaps it’s a cultural difference between the States and the rest of the world, but directory assistance and sponge baths have been proven to be an ineffective method to extract confessions.

P.S. Hasn't the thief already been caught, and now it's just a matter of more jail time?

Food for thought - if they are ebaying your stuff for a good price, you might want to make them a partner.

Why not say you live locally and ask to collect to save the postage and his time and turn up with a couple of the men in blue,

If you caught him on one, you caught him! Turn him in and be done with it.