EBay Fraud – Alarmacar Christian Donner, March 12, 2007December 22, 2009 On 2/9, Lewis Seals purchased 200 DDR memory modules on liquidation.com at $10.62 a piece. The condition was described as ‘salvage’, meaning that the modules were not functional. Mr. Seals used the user id ‘alarmacar’ for this transaction. Several days later, Mr. Seals started auctioning off these memory modules on Ebay. He used the Ebay account alarmacar’ for these listings. In his auctions he described the modules as follows: … taken from computers being updated and were verified working at the time of the upgrade. However, we have not tested these modules and are offering them as “as-is, where-is” with no returns, guarantees, or claims as to working condition. I purchased a 1GB DDR module on 2/24, when the user alarmacar’s feedback on Ebay was still good. This changed drastically over the course of the following days. Today, EBay lists 43 negative and 9 neutral ratings from the last month. A few users had given positive feedback. When I contacted them, it turned out that they had not tested the memory at the time, and that theirs was not working either. I called Ebay a week later, on 3/2, and reported the user. A few hours later the user alarmacar was listed as no longer active. When I received the memory, it turned out to be a 512kB module with corroded and damaged pins that did not pass the power-up test. I removed it and, luckily, my computer was not damaged by the exercise. The web site for alarmacar.net has been showing an ‘under maintenance’ splash page for some time, but has now been taken down. While the domain alarmacar.net was registered using a company name and a PO Box address, a search on Archive.org revealed that at one point the site had actual contact information: In January 2003, Lewis Seals founded Alarm A Car in Memphis, TN with a goal to forge a company dedicated to delivering the finest car alarm systems on the Internet. Today, Alarm A Car has achieved the goal of giving the consumer the best quality with the lowest price. […] Key Management Lewis Seals, Chairman, CEO & President Leah Smith, Senior Vice President & Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Love, Senior Vice President, Merchandising Alarm A Car Corporate Office 56 Sawyer Circle Memphis, TN 38103 Phone: 1-877-243-2349 Fatwallet lists another phone and fax number for Mr. Seals, plus an appartment number at the Sawyer Circle condo complex: Voice: (901) 568-0603 Fax: 4354170014 Address: 56 Sawyer Circle #371 Memphis, TN 38103 Mr. Seals probably does not reside at the Sawyer Circle address anymore. The ship from address on my PayPal transaction shows a different address, also in the Memphis area: Alarm-A-Car 2154 Berry Bush Lane Cordova, TN 38016 This is a 3 bedroom condo, and interestingly enough, the previous owner foreclosed on it in 2005. A recent domain registration for the domain lewisseals.com shows the same address, along with a new phone number (901) 406-6500 and the email address lewdog_98@yahoo.com. Another email address: lseals@memphis.edu The seller alarmacar has not responded to my request for a resolution. Today, I am waiting for a resolution of my claim with PayPal. I will keep other posted about any progress with PayPal and would like to hear from you if you also filed a claim. Update 3/19: Ebay has removed alarmacar’s account and transaction history. The transaction no longer shows up on my account (!). In order to preserve the evidence, I took snapshots of various web pages while they were still available: The item’s auction page Alarmacar’s feedback history (page 2, page 3) The auction page on liquidation.com Update 3/29: This is what my history log shows: Mar. 21, 2007 PayPal Case closed Mar. 21, 2007 PayPal Refund issued Mar. 21, 2007 PayPal Refund initiated Mar. 21, 2007 PayPal Email sent to seller Mar. 21, 2007 PayPal Email sent to buyer Mar. 13, 2007 Buyer Email sent to PayPal Mar. 9, 2007 Buyer Email sent to PayPal Mar. 6, 2007 PayPal Case under review Mar. 3, 2007 PayPal Seller provided proof of shipping Mar. 3, 2007 PayPal Email sent to seller Mar. 3, 2007 PayPal Email sent to buyer Mar. 3, 2007 Buyer Complaint Case filed However, at the top of the page, it says this: We have completed our investigation of this case. We have denied this claim and a refund will not be issued. I called the resolution center and learned that it was denied because I first opened it as a “not received” case, and that they do not change a case to something else. This is different from what I heard when I last called, which must have been around 3/9 before I sent the email. I explained to the resolution rep (Karen #2325) that this policy opens the doors for fraudulent sellers. All a seller needs to do is hold off shipping for a couple of weeks until the buyer opens a claim, then he can ship whatever he wants – PayPal will apparently protect him. She did not have an answer to that other than repeating the provision from the user agreement that states that one can only open one claim per transaction. It seems to me that this provision in the user agreement would not hold up in front of a court. Also, I finally researched the memory chips on the module – they are K4H510838F-TCCC, and I have 16 of them, which makes the module indeed 1 GB module, but my BIOS reported it as 512kB. Related Posts:TyreWiz not working after battery changeThe Great Cat Litter Poop OffAmazon threatens customer of 26 yearsSUTAB Scam? Ebay
Alarmacar is a snake! I bought 2 chips advertised as 1 gb DDR and they were in Fact 512’s one of the chips fried the capacitor on my computer causing me to replace the board. The other chip failed as well. Ebay blew it as far as I am conserned because as Donner said, They should have had a system in place to put a stop to this. I encourage everyone who got burned to leave a message here on this site so we can all take a group effort against ebay for our feedback and money! Michael Peterson Missouri Internet Service
I also bought 2 sticks of junk—seller knew they were junk and to me commited fraud–I think all negative feedback he left for honest buyers should be removed—I filed a paypal claim on 2/23/2007 and have yet to hear anything—I emailed ebay and they simply said there was and is nothing they can do cept to suspend his account on ebay—shame on them for not taking this more seriously to protect buyers from scum like alarmacar—I spoke with mr seals and he laughed at me and said its his money now and there is nothing that we can do—what a POS—
There is something we can do. The state of TN takes fraud VERY seriously and, after reviewing the liquidators site and reviewing the original listing by Mr. Seals he can look forward to a lawsuit.
Athena, are you in TN? I have been thinking about bringing this in front of a MA court, but that would probably not impress Mr. Seals. I would certainly join in on a lawsuit in his home state.
I’m not in TN, However I just started sending links to YOUR site to the local media. Between your site and the residual info in ebay, there is no doubt that there is fraud here. If you want to talk please send me an email and we can talk.
I’m so glad someone is taking note of this and doing something about it … great research! I purchased 3 memory modules from Alarmacar which were physically damaged. (I’m out $165) My auction was #300081810279. Ebay has now removed this listing because there was fraud, but will not remove the negative feedback Alarmacar left me to relaliate to my negative feedback I gave him for selling junk. It is not fair for us that had 100% feedback rating after several years on ebay .. and let someone like this come in an ruin it! If ebay removes an item, they should also remove the feedback for that item (meaning leave the bad sellers feedback to show their bad reputation … but restore the buyers feedback). If Ebay leaves the feedback, then they should let ALL the remaining people that were “taken for their money” be able to voice their feedback … which can no longer be done as Alarmacar is “not a registered user” now. I can’t even imagine the amount of money they STOLE from everyone! Something must be done about this! People like this give Ebay a bad name. Now I just hope that all of these people out there with Junk Modules will be honest and not try to resell theirs on ebay as an “as-is” … that will only add to the problem. I have sooooo much more to say on this issue but I’ve shown my anger for the moment. đ
http://www.ic3.gov/ you can file a complaint here and with the consumer affairs office in TN http://state.tn.us/consumer/ccp.html
I also bought 1 stick, u know if hes actually sold all or most that adds up to around 12k for selling junk parts. My perfect feedback now has a neg,…..sigh
I just filed complaints with the TN dpt of commerce (link above) and also with the FTC (https://rn.ftc.gov/pls/dod/wsolcq$.startup).
I was just reading the ebay pages about filing a fraud complaint and ebay takes $25 of your recovery for fees!! So if you were out 200 which is th maximum you would get 175. So I was taken for 59.95 so I could only get from ebay 34.95. I’m not sure how I feel about that.
Thanks for the info. I too bought when his ratings were all + and he gave me this RMA address when I offered to delay my feedback: Alarmacar P.O. Box 902 Cordova, TN 38088 I photographed the 1gb chip and marked the location of 5 missing surface mount components that rendered the chip useless. I have not heard from him and have a paypal claim pending. In addition, I complained to the BBB in tennessee here http://64.132.116.21/complaint/view/40036039/c/qhd5q7 He is not a BBB member though. After complaining to SquareTrade I got a suggestion not to purchase the warrantee as they do not warrant defective goods. I flat asked them if I bought the warrantee if I could get my money back.
Now that you mentioned missing components I took the magnifying glass and found several missing SMDs as well. There is no doubt in my mind that the lot of junk on liquidation.com were tested – to be not working. He must have missed this himself, because he way overpaid for the junk at over $10 per DDR. I mentioned this because I don’t think that Seals planned to get out of the Ebay business like this. Maybe he panicked when he realized that he was not going to break even if he remained honest.
I bought one and is not working. I filed a claim with paypall for not recieving the chip, i got it 20 days later and when i tried to use it, it didnt work. my claim was closed, so if anybody is or are sueing this person, let me know, couse i want to file against him but do no know the currect channels. i even called my credit card company to get my funds back, but it was too late. they have a 30 day clouse. So I am out of this money.
Same thing happened to me. Email resolution@paypal.com and reference your case number. They will reopen your case. c.
Yeah, I have yet to hear back from paypal about my funds my brand new computer is fried from this stupid scammer. I’m VERY furious and want him to compensate my computers value as well as the money invested in his crappy ram.
If you look at the pictures of the ram sold on liquidators the units at first look are bad. It’s his duty as a responsible seller to know what he’s passing off on others for a fee. Based on his responses I think he knew exactly what he was doing.
I have considered all your concerns regarding the memory purchase; however, if you look at my record anyone can cleary see that this is not fraud. Paypal currently has funds in a limited account. I have advised several that I am currently filing a dispute for the ram via credit card company. I am have not access to these funds. I purchased $12,000 worth of ram and sold it to my customers exactly what I was told and how it was sold to me. Futhermore, when people started having problems with the memory we stop selling it immediately. I have not made the inital investment back on this venture. I am requesting that you be patient in the matter until paypal resolves your case; which should be shortly. I can no longer respond via ebay messages.
First of all I would like to thank all the people that have helped to get this seller out of the game and also the help to reconize bad memory. I was also along with the rest of you who’s money was taken for non functional parts. I have claimed it with paypal and I’m still waiting on a reply from them. I was under the idea that I was going to be getting 1gb module and instead got a 512mb stick that did not work. After getting the chip, which took over the time needed to ship at 2-5 day priority, when looking at the stick closly pins are broken or missing, one of the chips is coming off and further and I’m planing on taking pictures. Has anyone thought about contacting the liqudator company about this person. Ebay should take more action on people like this when events start happening.
Lewis, I appreciate that you are talking to us. I do think that you are not correct with one claim: “I sold it to my customers exactly what I was told and how it was sold to me”. Liquidation.com did not advertise the memory modules as “taken from computers being updated and were verified working at the time of the upgrade”. This is something that you made up, and this is the crucial point. Memory that comes from upgrades will generally be working, which makes an ‘as is’ purchase an acceptable risk. Memory that comes from a junk lot cannot assumed to be generally working, and I certainly would not have bought from you had I known that.
As defined by liquidation.com, salvage means quote “Salvage assets have been identified as defective for reasons concerning their functionality, appearance, or both. Salvage assets usually can only be used for parts” I would assume Mr Lewis knew this when he re-sold them as quote “taken from computers being updated and were verified working at the time of the upgrade” IANAL but I suspect this makes those items fall into the “Significantly not as described” paypal protection clause. I once bought a defective AC unit and paypal refunded all my money. The seller was charged with (amoung other things) grand theft as shown here http://tinyurl.com/2duw5z I corresponded with Shannon Tan about that ebay seller some of the information I provide was used in his trial. I will be happy to get my $50 back and the price of ram is dropping to where I can get a new stick for $50. The company I work for routinely does surface mount welding and I could have repaired the memory stick. But then, I paid $55 for a “working pull”, not $10 for salvaged components.
The liquidator listing clearly states “salvage” for professional buyers. It seems that Mr. Seals was in the car alarm business and should not have ventured into computer components without a “certified” consultant.
Every time I think about this I get pissed! If anyone has a lawsuit in the works let me know! I am prepared to spend far more than I lost to get even with this guy. At First I thought it was an honest mistake and when I saw that he bought the shit for junk and sold it ĂąâŹĆtaken from computers being updated and were verified working at the time of the upgradeĂąâŹÂ That was a lie and he needs to be held accountable as such and so does EBAY! Lewis you blew it!!!!!
well the piece that I bought couse my new motherboard, harddive, and video card to stop working, they are dead now. I am trying to get paypal to reopen my case. Its nice to see that Mr Lewis is speaking, but what he needs to do is take care of all the wrongs that he did. also as mentioned before, paypall only refunds about half of what you spent. Mr Lewis, if you are still reading this, as you know almost all the people that got burnt on this deal have filed against you. As as you also know, I think you knew what you were doing or selling, couse why would you have escalated my claim with paypal(when it was late in shipping). You knew it would have been better to get someone else to pay for your bad judgement.(as paypall). All you have to do Mr Lewis is to give back the monies that you have gotten. meaning if you have to sell your car, get a loan to payback. before this matter esculates into a bigger problem for you and you loose everything you own.
That is a good point, if he’s all “sorry” why would he dispute our claims with paypal? Also why would he laugh at another customer and tell him it’s his money now and there’s nothing we can do about it? If he REALLY wanted to resolve these issues he knows what to do.
We bought (2) 1gb memory and out $167.00 and I really feel terrible because I gave the nut head positive feedback on 2 different orders before my husband could even check them out. I guess it will teach me a lesson before putting it in writing. Is there any other people that should or need to be contacted on Ebay? Would love to help out if we can. Husband is still mad about it everytime his server(s) slow down…”my lovely memory that doesn’t work” moan and groan. So what’s the next step? Paypal is still sitting on it in our account and we still can see the feedback under our log in name on Ebay. Let us know what happens.
Schneider & Wallace Attorneys at Law 180 Montgomery Street, Suite 2000 San Francisco, California 94104 Tel: (415) 421-7100 Toll Free: (800) 689-0024 Fax: (415) 421-7105 TTY: (415) 421-1655 Email: info@schneiderwallace.com
I am also a victim from California. I am a college student and I was really looking forward to upgrading my computer since I am on a tight budget. I cannot believe somebody would jeopardize their moral sentiments over 50 bucks. Paypal and Ebay does not care about these kinds of fraud because to them, we are only a number. Paypal takes roughly the entire 30 days to even respond to thei emails and Im not even sure if Paypal will give me back the money.
In all honesty, I think Ebay is the one who should be held accountable, more than the criminals. Ebay isn’t like a red cross or public service company that looks out for the interest of others. No. Ebay is a private company that runs on profit, and for this reason, they have to be regulated well so that paying customers get what they pay. Ebay works as the middle man, selling things on behalf of the seller. If the buyer is screwed, both the middle man and the seller should be held accountable. Either way, I paid my fees to both ebay and paypal, so why should they hide their faces when things go bad?
Received this from PayPal today: Dear Christian Donner, We have concluded our investigation into your claim detailed below. We regret to inform you that we were unable to resolve this case in your favor because the claim was incomplete, filed incorrectly, or outside the bounds of coverage as defined in our User Agreement. As a result, we have not taken any action at this time. Please be assured that this case has been noted in the seller’s record for future reference. Not sure what I am going to do next. Gotta sleep over it.
Sent this back. Dear PayPal, This is very unfortunate. For me (and the 120 other individuals who were sold defect memory modules by Alarmacar) this case is definitely not closed with this denial of a proper resolution. We believe that Ebay neglected to react responsibly to mounting negative feedback of this seller, and this clearly constitutes enough substance for legal action. Best regards, Christian Donner
Let’s bottom line it here, PayPal and Ebay are the same company. Either way they win. The entire time we’re on hold, the seller is on hold, ebay and paypal is holding OUR money. Doing whatever they have to with our money to make MORE money for themselves. Do we get the interest earned on our money? NO, so where does that leave us? Holding an empty bag. Not for nothing Ebay and PayPal is at least complicit in any bad acts these “sellers” are committing. Not only that, if you notice if you get a refund or cancellation, the money doesn’t go back into the account it came from, it goes into your “paypal” account. Earning interest for them. Not FDIC insured just in case something goes wrong the account holder is covered. So where do you want to go from here?
What do they mean by “the claim was incomplete, filed incorrectly, or outside the bounds of coverage as defined in our User Agreement” … how did you file your claim? … and when did you file it? How can they deny a claim when the items you got were physically damaged? Had the auction stated “physically damaged” instead of “working pull at time of upgrade” … I’m sure NONE of us would have purchased a single one. AAARRRRGGGG!
i too bought 2 1 gb memory didnt fry my comp but they also didnt work have also filed paypal claim havent heard a thing from them all i want is my money back but i dont think it will come
***UPDATE*** well I have not heard nothing from paypal—filed on 2/23/07–upgraded to claim on 2/26/07—so I am still waiting—they keep asking him for stuff and he provides it —you can see that in the resolution page on paypal—so has anyone else heard anything???
Mar. 3, 2007 PayPal Case under review Mar. 3, 2007 PayPal Email sent to seller Mar. 3, 2007 PayPal Email sent to buyer Mar. 3, 2007 Buyer Complaint Case filed That’s all I have reported from paypal.
Dispute History Log – All Results Last 5 Show All The Dispute History Log displays all actions related to your claim. Date Actor Action Details Mar. 26, 2007 PayPal Documentation received from seller Mar. 21, 2007 Buyer Email sent to PayPal Mar. 17, 2007 Buyer Email sent to PayPal Mar. 4, 2007 Buyer Email sent to PayPal Mar. 2, 2007 PayPal Documentation received from seller Mar. 1, 2007 Buyer Email sent to PayPal Feb. 28, 2007 PayPal Documentation received from seller Feb. 27, 2007 PayPal Case under review Feb. 26, 2007 PayPal Email sent to seller Feb. 26, 2007 PayPal Email sent to buyer Feb. 26, 2007 Buyer Dispute escalated to claim Feb. 26, 2007 PayPal Email sent to buyer Feb. 26, 2007 PayPal Email sent to seller Feb. 26, 2007 PayPal Email sent to buyer Feb. 26, 2007 Buyer Dispute filed
I think we have the right to know what documentation is being submitted by Alarmacar. Why doesn’t Paypal give us this information as to what information they have or at least a status or who is working on the claims. Why is Paypal taking sooooooo long?
I tried to reopen my claim, I sent them the information and I got an email telling me to send it to the despute dept. well I have done that and have heard nothing.. I even called that attorney that Athena gave us. they took my information and they knew about what happened, but I havnt heard nothing from them also.. Hate to say this, but this makes me very learly about buying anything on ebay now.. I wish they had someway to check these guys better. Once you hit that send payment through paypall, they have the funds, and if they dont send you the item, u r screwwed again.. oh well, once burned, twice shy………
That’s all I have too. I can’t believe PayPal is so irresponsible. Things that take too long don’t seem to work. I hope that it is not the same thing with our claims. đ Mar. 5, 2007 Buyer Email sent to PayPal Mar. 3, 2007 PayPal Case under review Mar. 2, 2007 PayPal Email sent to seller Mar. 2, 2007 PayPal Email sent to buyer Mar. 2, 2007 Buyer Complaint Case filed
lol—I didnt see the little test there—anyway—got an update from paypal–and yes I am getting my money back—paypal wants me to send junk back to thief (lewis seals)with a tracking number to verify delivery—then let paypal know the tracking number—and then I get my money back from the thief—I hope that brings good news to all who filed the proper claim.
how do u go about shipping it? I am planning on using USPS. Does First class mail provide tracking? I think it only offers certified mail
I sent mine priority mail with delivery confirmation—–mine made it there to the po box—but as of the 6th of april he (the thief) is yet to sign and pick it up so he can tell paypal he got my items—if you bought more then 1 item you must send in separate mailing—dont send all together—so now the USPS may send back my items cause the thief has not picked them up yet—so I emailed paypal and am yet to hear whats next___I wish I coul meet this thief in person. we would have a very nice chat about his selling practices.
Well its over—without waiting for the thief (lewis seals) to notify paypal of getting my returned items—they have issued my refunds back to my CC—:) –so as far as I am concerned the money part is over—now comes the legal part—I have contacted Memphis Police dept. and am going there on 5/1/2007 to swear out an arrest warrant on mr seals for theft—fraud—and anything else I can do—they have told me they have enough complaints from others without me to seek a warrant for his arrest—4 other states are also in contact with the Police in Memphis which has control over cordova—–so I hope he gets whats he gets—the amount of money he stole and using the USPS to send his salvage RAM to others in other states constitutes several felony’s—So Mr Seals if you read this—I would be exspecting the doorbell on your apt to ring with-in the next few weeks—I hope you remember to not drop the soap—lol.
well I didn’t get my money yet even though I sent Paypal the tracking number. At this point, I don’t even care about the money. I just want to see justice done. I don’t believe a word this fraudulent man said in the comment above, because if he truly was sorry and recognized his mistakes, he would not have put so many people through annoying process of getting the money back they deserve. This man did not have to get arrested. He could have ended all this quickly by issuing refunds. It is his turn to be sorry. Also. Ebay and Paypal ethics is definitely a joke, not that I expected them to serve their customers as much as they profit from them. I think Ebay and its affiliated companies should be boycotted.
Alarmacar is an idiot, lets get past that. But how about Class Action Lawsuit against Ebay? I cannot respect their business ethics and the way they hide their tails when it comes to the bad side of business. I will not forget this Ebay experience. Once I graduate law school, I definitely will be looking for more options.