After a three year investigation and countless complaints, a south Florida man will spend 5 1/2 years behind bars for running one of the largest eBay scams in the history of eBay. The details of the massive operation include, hundreds of auction accounts, multiple identities and constantly changing PO Boxes.

In 2006, Jonathan Harkness bid and won a flashlight from an eBay seller. He sent $90 via money order, however, to his disappointment he never received his high tech flashlight. He was ripped off like so many other non suspecting users of eBay.

In 2007, Harkness wrote his congressman, describing the scam and alerting him that this may be part of a bigger scam. Rep. Adam Smith urged the U.S. Postal Inspection Service to investigate.

After a long three year investigation, Nilton Rossoni, 50, a Brazilian businessman with multiple aliases living in South Florida, was sentenced to 5 ½ years in federal prison for running one of the biggest eBay scams in history.

Rossoni was convicted of hauling in $717,000 from more than 5,500 eBay buyers, by creating at least 260 different eBay accounts, and using dozens of e-mail addresses with Yahoo, Google and AOL, as well as nearly 60 private postal boxes. It’s possible that Rossoni actually scammed even more users, utilizing sites other than eBay, however, the prosecution was able to gather enough evidence to get a strong conviction in this case.

This scam took place between 2003 – 2008 while he sold hundreds of different items. He maintained a strong reputation by fabricating fake buyer feedback that was positive. He also insisted on money orders or cash, and asked users not to send money via Paypal.

It’s now 2010 and people are more educated and understand Paypal helps prevent fraud. When you send cash to someone you have never met, you are taking quite a leap of faith. Be sure to always use Paypal or a similar service when sending money to someone online.

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