It is partly my own fault, but he scammed me for about $50.
I was selling some comics and magazines on eBay, and he won two of them. I sent an invoice, and he sent me an email asking me to mail to a location in Ohio instead of his address in Germany. Other eBay members had asked me to mail to different locations before, and no problem had occurred, so I didn't think this would be different. (My mistake -- PayPal has no seller protection for items mailed to unofficial addresses, and even if you send to the correct address, they require you to show documentation of where you mailed an item.)
The day after I mailed the magazines (along with about two dozen other items I mailed to other buyers), I received an email from PayPal saying the payment from the German bidder was being withdrawn while PayPal conducted an investigation. I called PayPal and they wouldn't tell me anything about the "investigation." After about three weeks, the investigation was mysteriously completed and the payment was reversed, meaning I had no payment and no magazines.
I called PayPal again, and they told me the original payment had been made from an illegal or unauthorized bank account, and they were obligated to return the payment. I asked if any action was taken against the buyer, and they gave me a general "PayPal takes such matters very seriously" type of statement.
During this time, I emailed the winning bidder repeatedly. His responses (when he gave responses) were brief, evasive and always unhelpful. He repeatedly asked me for the item number and pretended not to know what I was talking about. Then he kept saying, "You must contact PayPal" after I had already given him the story. He wouldn't answer basic questions about whether he received the items. Clearly he didn't care and was just biding his time.
His email address is regino1966@aol.com. The person he asked me to mail the items to is Klaus Beutow.
I've been reading this forum with fascination. After reading it, I suppose I feel lucky to only be scammed for $50. Anyway, part of this is my own fault for mailing to a different address and not documenting my shipping. If I had played by PayPal's rules they would probably refund my money (or so they say).
I see a lot of people here have researched the identity and legal situation of Wilhelm Uthe in Germany. What I am curious about is -- who is this guy in Ohio? Clearly he is an accomplice and in many ways just as guilty as Wilhelm. Does anybody know anything about him?
Here is the address where I was asked to mail the magazines:
Klaus Buetow
5921 Lengwood Drive
Cincinatti, Ohio, 45244
It's actually in Hamilton County, not Cincinnati. It's the District 5 Anderson Township and the police contact there is 513-474-5770. I've already contacted the police and left them details. I figure they won't do anything but at least they should have a record of what's going on.
The email for this person was at one time kbuetow@cinci.rr.com.
I can't believe these two guys have been scamming people together for 10 years or more and are still getting away with it. I also can't believe that eBay and PayPal haven't figured out a way to block them from continued scams. From what I can tell, the eBay account regino1966 is currently active on eBay. Why is this?