A teenager who committed several frauds on eBay has been sentenced by a Queensland court to three years in prison after he profited over $40,000 from promising to sell electronic goods and never following through.
Founder of the Professional eBay Sellers’ Association, Phil, says the incident only serves as an example of why online retail is still being avoided by millions of customers.
“This type of incident makes it harder not just for eBay sellers, but for all online sellers. It makes it harder for us to sell goods,” he says.
eBay and PayPal Australia were contacted for comment this morning by SmartCompany but was not available before publication.
The Brisbane District Court ruled yesterday that Philip Heggie, who was in Year 12 at the time of the fraud, would serve three years after pleading guilty to more than 100 charges relating to online fraud.
Heggie was caught in part due to some journals he kept while committing the fraud, which police used as evidence during the trail. The journals reportedly go into some detail about the fraud and Heggie’s methods.
Heggie was eventually caught when he tried to access $5,000 out of $2 million that was accidentally deposited into one of his 119 fake bank accounts.
The defence argued Heggie only started the fraud in order to pay pack a substantial amount of debts, and up until that time had been selling goods on eBay legitimately.
“He didn’t appreciate the level of criminality he was engaged in,” defence barrister Ruth O’Gorman is reported as saying.
However, judge Kerry O’Brien argued the fraud was extremely sophisticated. He was sentenced for three years but will be eligible for parole in 12 months.
The incident comes during a bad time for online market frauds – last month business-to-business market Alibaba.com saw its chief executive and operations officers resign after sellers promised goods to customers and never delivered.
Leahy says he applauds the sentence, and welcomes it as a deterrent for other potential fraudsters who believe they can get away with swindling customers.
“The fact is, trading online is actually very safe. If you speak to most merchants, they have a very low fraud rate and that needs to be said.”
“But customers also need to be careful when looking online. They need to make sure they’re looking at someone’s feedback on eBay, and look at the comments on their trading history before making a decision… and they should also look for contact numbers so they can check and see these people are legitimate.”
Leahy also says businesses should look into using electronic modes of payment other than bank deposits, such as PayPal, so transactions are checked and recovery is possible if funds are lost or stolen.
Patrick Stafford is a freelance journalist and a former deputy editor of SmartCompany.
