I feel ashamed, hurt, frustrated, ripped-off, dumb, betrayed, angry… Why? Because yesterday somebody shamelessly ripped me off for 65 euros… I had seen an advertisement on a Dutch equivalent of eBay (www.marktplaats.nl) that said they were moving their store so they had spare iPods Nano’s 4GB for 130 euro. That was pretty attractive obviously since that’s half of the normal price. I contacted the guy, they sent me an email back saying I should pay 65 euros first, then they’d send me the package and then I could pay the rest. I told him I wanted him on the phone, so he called me, I talked to the guy, he explained to me again what to do, etc…

It sounded suspicious from the start, but for some reason I was in an apparent state of denial, not wanting to give in to my instincts… I payed the 65 euros, and then a few hours later I was browsing www.internetoplichting.nl (loosely translated to www.internetfraud.nl) because my suspicions were growing stronger, and guess what? When I put his name in the forum search his name turned up several times. It hit me like a hammer…

It took me several hours to read through all the information that was being thrown at me on the internetoplichting.nl forum, but in the end it turned out that this guy had been arrested in 2004, was in prison for a year and was released in November. A month later the fake advertisements were appearing again. By now 35 people have gone to the police already for a total amount of more than 3000 euro. Add the known victims that haven’t gone to the police and the total is 4500 euro. Add to that the numerous victims that didn’t find their way to the forums and didn’t file a police report and the total is probably a lot more…

Normally I wouldn’t whine that much about 65 euros. After all… my bike was stolen last month and that one had cost me more than twice what I lost now. It’s just… metaphorically speaking, they didn’t just kill me, they invited me for dinner, offered me a drink and then shot me in the back of my head while I wasn’t looking. That’s… arrghhh… I can’t believe I actually talked to the guy on the phone…

Anyway… Last night I printed out about 40 pages of information for the police. I went to the office this morning. Unfortunately they could not prosecute yet because technically there was no fraud yet because I only ordered the item yesterday. So I’m going back next Thursday… I hope they’ll catch him soon… Several people are working on a daily basis to find his tens of advertisements a week and have them removed from marktplaats.nl.

If you ever order from a so called company from marktplaats… Make sure to get their ‘Kamer van Koophandel’ number and look it up on kamervankoophandel.nl. Then at least you’ll know if they’re lying about their shop. Also check whether the name fits the address on telefoongids.nl

The first time I bought something on marktplaats… And with that it’s also the last time, I’m afraid. I haven’t ordered from eBay yet, but I think I trust them a lot more since you can read feedback and if you pay with PayPal you can get your money back if it’s under $500.

Beware!