Complaint Review: eBay Inc. - San Jose California

eBay gave up the supervision of these scammers is the main reason, but these scammers are indeed very smart, they have designed a series of traps to deceive consumers and escape legal sanctions.

So how can scammers successfully sell fake meteorite while avoiding the penalties of the law?

The first important method is that the meteorite must be sold according to the Meteoritical Society (https://meteoritical.org/) classification criteria. Because the Meteoritical Society is the world's highest authority for the identification and classification of meteorites, selling meteorites according to the Meteoritical Society classification criteria will make consumers feel safe and relax their vigilance.

The Meteoritical Society's method of classifying meteorite has two important characteristics.

A, The Meteoritical Society names meteorites based on where they fell on Earth. B, all the meteorites in the fall site share only one name, which means that The Meteoritical Society is only studying the fragments of one of the meteorites, and then give this fragment a name. All meteorites found in this area (The Meteoritical Society does not indicate how big this area is) use this name, whether there is one meteorite in this area or there are 1 million meteorites.

Consumers often mistakenly believe that the name given to a meteorite by The Meteoritical Society is the unique name of this meteorite. In fact, this is a common name for a group of meteorites. This name is not given to the name of a certain meteorite, but to all meteorite found in this area . For example, they sell a meteorite named "NWA111" on eBay. In fact, this is one of all meteorites (or fragments of one of them) in the area of "NWA111".

So what evidence do these crooks use to prove that the meteorites they sell are the meteorites in this area (eg NWA111)?

These scammers are completely relying on "imagination" to prove that their meteorite is a meteorite classified by The Meteoritical Society. The reasons are as follows:

A, The Meteoritical Society only identified and classified the fragments of one of the meteorite found in this area, and refused to disclose to the public their basis and process of identifying the meteorite. The Meteoritical Society's research on meteorite is completely secret. Obviously, these scammers cannot obtain evidence from The Meteoritical Society to prove that their meteorite and the "meteorite fragment" named by The Meteoritical Society were found in the same place.

B. Meteorites classified by The Meteoritical Society all share the same name, but The Meteoritical Society has not announced how many such meteorites are in this area, nor how big this area is. The Meteoritical Society also does not provide identification certificates for meteorites, so these scammers obviously cannot obtain evidence from The Meteoritical Society to prove that their meteorite is the meteorite in this area.

C, The Meteoritical Society names meteorites based on where they fell to the earth. If the same meteorite (a meteorite with exactly the same chemical composition) is scattered in 100 different places on the earth, then this meteorite will There are 100 names. The meteorite called NWA111 sells for $100/g, another meteorite called NWA222 sells for $10,000/g. In fact, these two meteorites are the same meteorites, but they fell to different places. If the price of NWA222 is always 10,000 US dollars or higher, then someone will use NWA111 to impersonate NWA222. So selling meteorites according to the classification standards of The Meteoritical Society will inevitably lead to extreme confusion. This method is obviously not suitable for the meteorite trade.

These scammers know that selling meteorites according to the standards classified by the Meteoritical Society will inevitably lead to extreme confusion. But why should these scammers sell meteorites in this way?

These scammers have two major advantages in selling meteorites in this way:

A, If scammers sell meteorites according to the Meteoritical Society classification criteria, which will give consumers an illusion that the meteorites they sell are all identified and classified by The Meteoritical Society. In fact, this is a trap. The Meteoritical Society has no legal responsibility for any meteorites sold by scammers. The Meteoritical Society does not provide any identification services for meteorites. In fact, all meteorites sold by these scammers do not have a meteorite identification certificate issued by the Meteoritical Society. However, they added the Meteoritical Society's webpage to the product introduction column to give consumers a feeling that the meteorites they sold have been identified and classified by the Meteoritical Society. The Meteoritical Society even has no legal obligation even for any meteorites they name. Because The Meteoritical Society did not disclose the basis and process of their classification of meteorite, so they have no legal obligation to the authenticity of the "meteorite" that they named.

B, as scammers can sell meteorites in this chaotic mode to escape legal supervision. Although they claim that these meteorites have been classified and named by The Meteoritical Society, the meteorites they sold did not have a meteorite identification certificate issued by The Meteoritical Society, nor did they provide consumers with any evidence to prove that their meteorite is the meteorite that named by The Meteoritical Society. These scammers all claim to use their "credit" to guarantee the authenticity of the meteorite. As long as the scammers use their "imagination" and "credit" to guarantee the authenticity of their meteorite, then they can evade any legal obligations. No matter how much amount of fake meteorite they sell, they cannot be punished by law. No matter how much money consumers are cheated, they can't get justice through the law. As long as consumers buy meteorites according to the Meteoritical Society classification criteria, they fall into a trap.

The second important method of these scammers is "monopoly", the scammers on eBay are a family.

If a company (or an individual) sells fake meteorite for a long time, it will inevitably attract the attention of law enforcement agencies. However, frequent change of the seller's name is not conducive to establishing popularity and prestige among consumers. So it is a good idea to set up a meteorite dealer association. the scammers set up a meteorite dealer association ---IMCA (https://imca.cc). This meteorite dealer association is similar to a company, and the meteorite dealers who sell meteorite  are similar to many departments within a company. These meteorite dealers (or the company's departments) all claim to be members of IMCA. This has the advantage of increasing consumer awareness and trust of IMCA members, and thus monopolizing the sale of meteorites on eBay. Consumers will mistakenly believe that these meteorite dealers are independent individuals, they are in a competitive relationship, BUT their credit is guaranteed by IMCA. So consumers think they can buy meteorites from IMCA members with confidence. In fact, these IMCA members are a family.

The following facts can prove that they are a family, other meteorite dealers cannot join them.

The following text is on their website: "You will need the recommendations of two IMCA members for your application to be considered for approval. Please contact your two IMCA members and ask them if they are willing to submit a recommendation for you. These recommendations can be sent via email to [email protected]."

You can also read on their website for details(https://imca.cc/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3&Itemid=13)

This evidence is sufficient to prove that IMCA members are a family.

The reason why they want consumers to think that their members are independent  is to shirk their legal responsibilities. Once a consumer finds himself cheated, IMCA will come out and pretend to coordinate the conflict between his members and consumers. They want consumers to think that "the bad " is only the individual in the middle of IMCA , and IMCA as a whole will always only do the right and honest things. If one of the members of IMCA (similar to a company's department) can't get rid of the consumer's entanglement, they can fire "the bad", just like Gecko sacrificed his tail.

IMCA also has this text on its website: "Disclaimer

The I.M.C.A., Inc. (International Meteorite Collectors Association Inc.) prohibits members from engaging in any illegal activity in connection with meteoritic material. However, THE I.M.C.A. IS NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR THE CONDUCT OF ANY OF ITS MEMBERS. "

Please refer to their website for detailed content, https://imca.cc/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=5&Itemid=15

The above text can prove that IMCA will not bear any responsibility. The purpose of the establishment of IMCA is to gain the advantage of monopoly, not to assume any obligations.

This is why these scammers can successfully sell fake meteorite on eBay. First of all, they deliberately sold their meteorite with the Meteoritical Society classification standard. Although they all know that the Meteoritical Society classification standard is only suitable for meteorite research, it is impossible to use this standard for real meteorite trade. This standard can only cause confusion , but these scammers need this kind of confusion, so that they can use the authority of the Meteoritical Society to deceive consumers, and they can use the confusion of the Meteoritical Society's classification standards to escape legal supervision.

Another means is to establish an association like IMCA to gain an overall monopoly advantage, and can sacrifice individual when necessary to evade legal sanctions.

I have repeatedly warned eBay that these scammers use their management loopholes to sell fake meteorite, and hope they refuse to help these scammers. But it is a pity that eBay completely ignored my warning. eBay seems to value their 10% commission more, however completely ignores the interests of consumers who trust them. Without ebay to help them, this scam model of these scammers cannot be maintained for a long time. 

eBay is actually can very easy to help his consumers,all eBay needs to do is:

A, Ask these meteorite dealers to provide meteorite identification certificates issued by the Meteoritical Society, or provide similar evidence to prove that their meteorites are meteorites classified by the Meteoritical Society. Otherwise, eBay should refuse to help these scammers sell "the Meteoritical Society's  meteorite", and prohibit the copying of the Meteoritical Society's web page into its product introduction.

B. If they cannot provide evidence, they are required to clearly explain to consumers that the authenticity of their meteorite can only be guaranteed by their “credit”.

If meteorite dealers can complete the above information disclosure, consumers will not have any complaints even if they are cheated.

Unfortunately, eBay is not willing to help  consumers, they are more willing to draw a 10% commission from meteorite dealers. So I published this article to request you to help consumers get justice.