I just wanted to give everyone hear a heads up about something VERY bad that is happening on E-Bay. Here is my brief story:
I went looking on E-Bay for some magic DVDs that I did not already own and I ran across a person selling both Chris Korn DVDs together as a set. The bidding was VERY low, so I put in a bid thinking that I probably wouldn't win the auction. Turns out I won. My bid was $20.00 and the shipping was $10. Considering that L&L sells these together as a set for $65 without shipping, I though I had found a bargain. THEN I looked to see where the items were shipping from... SINGAPORE! *Ouch!* But the seller, "billy_magic" had a lot of good feedback, is a power seller and almost everyone said the items arrived surprisingly fast even though they were coming from overseas, so I didn't worry too much.
About a week later I find a slip of paper in my mailbox telling me that I had a package waiting at the post office. I ran down there and signed for the package. First thing I noticed, no return address. This struck me VERY odd as it is now impossible to mail a package domestically in the United States without a return address. I'm not exactly sure why you can't mail without a return address, probably something to do with the current "terrorist panic" which is unfortunately still going on in the United States, but I digress.
On my walk home from the post office I opened the package and found the two DVDs that I ordered, sort of... They might have fooled some people, but they were obviously bootleg, counterfeit copies.
I immediately contacted paypal to attempt to get a refund. To my surprise the seller immediately refunded my money. Probably most people would let it go at that, but the items I ordered were published by Bob Kohler, who I met a few months ago at the local magicians hang out in Las Vegas. Bob is a VERY nice guy and did not deserve to be ripped off by this clown on ebay, so I started the process of notifying everybody I could about billy_magic. Unfortunately ebay does not take things like this very seriously at all. I received an automated email saying "Thank you for helping to keep ebay safe, blah, blah, blah..."
The bottom line is that ebay doesn't take any action unless they get a lot of complaints. (Maybe others here can help out with that.) So billy_magic is able to operate without much fear of things getting shut down... At least for a while.
I realize that magician's sometimes "accidentally" copy a DVD for their own personal use, or to give to a magic buddy, which is STILL illegal, but in my opinion that is WAY different than someone creating a business on ebay and getting lots of money from illegal activities and hurting our publishers in the process. Even the "accidental" copy here and there hurts the publishers and the creators of the material, so please don't do it!
I sent an email to Bob Kohler explaining what billy_magic is doing and giving Bob the option of either me sending him these bootlegs for evidence or if he liked I would just destroy them. Still wanting on a response from Bob...
I also contacted a few other agencies who may be able to help shut this thief down; however his "web store" is still up and in operation here:
http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQsassZbilly_magic
I though this would be the end of it but then I received this message from another ebay user:
"billy_magic sells pirated DVDs, ripping off the copyright of Americans in the process. You should try your utmost to get him shut down. He used to operate under another ebay handle (. That one got shut down and he set up another. Please do report him to interpol, ebay, paypal and Singapore's Commercial Affairs Department.
You can see that he has made quite a decent living since May 2007. Assuming that each pirated set costs $40.00, he has made over $50 000.00 of tax free dollars to date! I bet you this guy also cheats on his income tax so report him to the Singapore Inland Revenue Service as well.
Don't let him go with impunity.
billy-magic is also benmagical. Same old shady operation.
He will only appear under another ebay handle if ebay shuts this one down unless ebay blocks any more registrations from his ISP."
Anyway, if you buy things off ebay, please avoid getting ripped off by billy_magic. If you have any contacts within the various publishers of the materials he is ripping off, please direct them to this post.
If anybody has any additional advise or experiences that may help the situation, please let me know.
Thanks,
-ThisOneGoesTo11
I went looking on E-Bay for some magic DVDs that I did not already own and I ran across a person selling both Chris Korn DVDs together as a set. The bidding was VERY low, so I put in a bid thinking that I probably wouldn't win the auction. Turns out I won. My bid was $20.00 and the shipping was $10. Considering that L&L sells these together as a set for $65 without shipping, I though I had found a bargain. THEN I looked to see where the items were shipping from... SINGAPORE! *Ouch!* But the seller, "billy_magic" had a lot of good feedback, is a power seller and almost everyone said the items arrived surprisingly fast even though they were coming from overseas, so I didn't worry too much.
About a week later I find a slip of paper in my mailbox telling me that I had a package waiting at the post office. I ran down there and signed for the package. First thing I noticed, no return address. This struck me VERY odd as it is now impossible to mail a package domestically in the United States without a return address. I'm not exactly sure why you can't mail without a return address, probably something to do with the current "terrorist panic" which is unfortunately still going on in the United States, but I digress.
On my walk home from the post office I opened the package and found the two DVDs that I ordered, sort of... They might have fooled some people, but they were obviously bootleg, counterfeit copies.
I immediately contacted paypal to attempt to get a refund. To my surprise the seller immediately refunded my money. Probably most people would let it go at that, but the items I ordered were published by Bob Kohler, who I met a few months ago at the local magicians hang out in Las Vegas. Bob is a VERY nice guy and did not deserve to be ripped off by this clown on ebay, so I started the process of notifying everybody I could about billy_magic. Unfortunately ebay does not take things like this very seriously at all. I received an automated email saying "Thank you for helping to keep ebay safe, blah, blah, blah..."
The bottom line is that ebay doesn't take any action unless they get a lot of complaints. (Maybe others here can help out with that.) So billy_magic is able to operate without much fear of things getting shut down... At least for a while.
I realize that magician's sometimes "accidentally" copy a DVD for their own personal use, or to give to a magic buddy, which is STILL illegal, but in my opinion that is WAY different than someone creating a business on ebay and getting lots of money from illegal activities and hurting our publishers in the process. Even the "accidental" copy here and there hurts the publishers and the creators of the material, so please don't do it!
I sent an email to Bob Kohler explaining what billy_magic is doing and giving Bob the option of either me sending him these bootlegs for evidence or if he liked I would just destroy them. Still wanting on a response from Bob...
I also contacted a few other agencies who may be able to help shut this thief down; however his "web store" is still up and in operation here:
http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQsassZbilly_magic
I though this would be the end of it but then I received this message from another ebay user:
"billy_magic sells pirated DVDs, ripping off the copyright of Americans in the process. You should try your utmost to get him shut down. He used to operate under another ebay handle (. That one got shut down and he set up another. Please do report him to interpol, ebay, paypal and Singapore's Commercial Affairs Department.
You can see that he has made quite a decent living since May 2007. Assuming that each pirated set costs $40.00, he has made over $50 000.00 of tax free dollars to date! I bet you this guy also cheats on his income tax so report him to the Singapore Inland Revenue Service as well.
Don't let him go with impunity.
billy-magic is also benmagical. Same old shady operation.
He will only appear under another ebay handle if ebay shuts this one down unless ebay blocks any more registrations from his ISP."
Anyway, if you buy things off ebay, please avoid getting ripped off by billy_magic. If you have any contacts within the various publishers of the materials he is ripping off, please direct them to this post.
If anybody has any additional advise or experiences that may help the situation, please let me know.
Thanks,
-ThisOneGoesTo11
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