A total of 70 people were arrested in Romania earlier this week for their part in an eBay scam which saw them attempt to infiltrate trusted accounts to trade non-existent goods.
The alleged scammers are believed to have used phishing techniques to secure the login credentials for trusted users (often known as Power Sellers) on the auction site eBay. The gang then used these accounts to list and sell non-existent goods including Rolex watches, luxury cars and even a recreational aircraft.
Buyers, who believed that they were bidding on and buying genuine products, ended up handing over payments for goods that they never received, despite believing that they were buying from reputable traders.
Around 800 people, based across Western Europe, Scandinavia, New Zealand, the USA and Canada, are thought to have fallen victim to the scam, equating to around €800,000 (US$1million) in losses since 2006.
A joint FBI and Romanian Directorate for Investigating Organised Crime and Terrorism (DIICOT) investigation led to the execution of 101 search warrants and multiple arrests across Romania.
