BetaONE will rise again! - I Was Scammed On Ebay!!! Grrr!

I cannot believe this! I was scammed on eBay! I ended up using the "Buy It Now" on an item costing me $400! I used PayPal to pay for the item. I decided to make the purchase because the seller had a really good feedback rating. Well, the purchase was made on Friday. I get an email today from the seller stating this:

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I send this message with great anger and disbelief. Those of you receiving this e-mail, over the last week, have purchased either a Mpx 300 or a Razr off of ebay from the seller who is known as [MEMBER ID REMOVED]. That username has been registered with ebay for quite some time now and has built up a solid reputation as both a seller and a buyer. That, it appears, is about to change. I am the owner of that account, I have been using that account to build a good name for myself of the few years it has been in existence. That account is tied to a paypal account to which all of you had sent your money to, which like the ebay account, has, up until now, a great record and reputation. What I am about to unfold will anger you as it has angered me, and at this time I have no solution to the problem. A business "friend" of mine approached me early last week with a favor. He had "acquired" some devices and was wanting to sell them but had no means to do so, he asked me if he could use my account with ebay and paypal to sell the items and collect the funds from those purchases. After much reluctance to do so, I visually inspected the items that were sold and agreed to do so. I then gave that person "the key to the castle" so to speak, and he proceeded to list the items on ebay. All is well and as the proceeds come in I withdraw the balance accordingly and transfer the money to him. At that point I have no access or control to the auction listings, what is being sold, and for how much. Foolish me. Upon friday after all the items have sold and all the money collected, things seemed to have changed. I am unable to contact this person in any way, his phone number has changed, the address he gave me as his home address if i need to see him is not accurate. I like you, have been taken. I do not know at this time if any of what you purchased will ever arrive at your doorstep. For this I am deeply and truly sorry. All of you have the ability to leave me negative feedback, and to file a dispute with paypal, in an attempt to recover your funds. Negative feedback will be returned with positive feedback, any disputes with paypal will result in a no response from seller. The no response will destroy my paypal account and the negative feedback will destroy my ebay account, all of which is deserved and expected. I sent this letter to all of you as an honest and decent attempt to let you know what I know. Good day, any reply's must be sent to this address for i am no longer conducting any ebay or paypal business from any other address then this.

Well, there were quite a few replies back from the other people who were scammed as well. Someone requested to file a class action lawsuit against the seller's "friend", and requested his "friend"'s information... The seller's reply:

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A couple of you already have filed against my paypal account, like i said earlier i will not respond to any disputes filed. After 10 days your money will be refunded to you by paypal as part of the buyer protection policy. All of you will get your money back. As far as the small claims court e-mail that was sent out, I will not give out the identity of the friend in question, and no one has my name or information. Again, i am sorry for what happened, please get your refunds through paypal.

Well, that would be fine and dandy if :mad:BUYER'S PROTECTION WAS AVAILABLE ON THE ITEM!!!:mad: I already reported the issue to eBay and already filed a claim against the seller. The issue is that I do not know if I can get refunded the full amount. Since Buyer's Protection was not an option, I may only be entitled up to $200 if I pay eBay $25 for protection. What a load of crap that is!!!

You do not know how angry I am. It takes a whole lot to piss me off (try to find 1 posting here on B1 where I was pissed off - you won't find it)... I guess there is always a first!

Am I screwed? What other options are available to me... I am not all that happy about the possibility of losing $400 of my hard earned money for something I will be getting nothing in return! If nothing is done about this I may never use eBay again!

GRRRRR!

-SlickVic78