For years now, there's been a thorn in eBay's side - a troll with many pseudonyms, one of which is Ebayisajoke.
This troll torments eBay and those who use it. Even though he's been banned from eBay, he'll create stealth accounts and use them to outbid customers, refuse to pay, and leave nasty reviews.
One example of his baiting ways: He's allegedly threatened to have an order of protection taken out against an eBay seller, Hubcap Joe, posted a negative report on his business to the Better Business Bureau, stolen images off the seller's site, and accused Hubcap Joe of purveying stolen merchandise.
He has a private YouTube channel whose purpose is to expose eBay's endless list of alleged sins, including its MasterCard deal being a scam and its payment system violating California law, its videos using subliminal messaging, etc.
He's got a penchant for Anonymous-inspired attire, so he wears a Guy Fawkes mask and digitally alters his voice for his videos.
Now, many are breathing a sigh of relief.
Now, thanks (maybe) to a local reporter in the US city of Detroit, Michigan, Ebayisajoke has been unmasked.
The reporter, My Fox Detroit's Rob Wolchek, hired private investigators to track him down. For a week, they staked out a Detroit man they believe to be the troll/fraudster.
Wolchek then cooked up a newscast that makes fun of the guy for being fat, shopping at Walmart, eating at fast-food restaurant Subway, and going to the movies ALONE (GASP!), even getting access to the man's apartment building to check whether closet doors in the building match the ones that show up in videos by Ebayisajoke (they look like they do).
Yet for all that, Wolchek didn't bother to find out if any of the man's alleged stunts are actually illegal.
And that is exactly why I haven't given his name. You can find it easily by watching the My Fox Detroit news clip, if you'd like to join them in their tongue-clucking party.
This is not meant to belittle the anguish and lost business eBay businesses have suffered by being harassed, by not being able to make a sale, and potentially losing business due to fictionalized negative reviews.
If Ebayisajoke has committed serious, actionable crimes against you, I would assume that you've spoken with an attorney by now and will be pursuing charges against him, and that the investigative work involved in prosecution will bring to light what crimes might have been committed and what the culprit's true identity is.
When it comes to trial, I will be interested in hearing about all of those details.
Until then, this feels like a witch hunt to me, replete with the Mail Online's analysis of the body mass index/social deviant horror of it all.
Follow @NakedSecurityImage of troll and legal advice courtesy of Shutterstock.
Criminal Acts by person parading as ebayisajoke.
* Stalking, Michigan
* Impersonating an FBI Agent
* Impersonating law enforcement in multiple States and counties.
Civil violations by person parading as ebayisajoke.
* Tortious Interference
* Copyright Infringement
"This is not meant to belittle"; have no fear ebayisajoke likely will visit and agree with your belittling. And steal your article.
First, if you aren't aware of Fox News way of 'reporting' by now, then I seriously don't know how to respond to that.
Second, it's not a question of being legal or not. It's wrong. If he has evidence of Ebay being corrupt, then he should take that evidence through the proper legal channels.
If he is aware of sellers on Ebay being unscrupulous, then he should expose them with actual proof. If he has no such proof, then he is guilty of defamation of character.
He made multiple accounts and made multiple bids with no intention of ever paying the sellers. Is it legal? I don't know. Is it right? No, it isn't.
Local Fox stations are very different from the Fox we all know and loathe. Even the fox news website is more liberal than the prime time hate machine.
Fair and balanced.
Of course liberals hate it.
"Fair and balanced."
Anytime you hear anyone claiming this you should immediately question what their motives are. In case you missed it, everyone is human, no one can be "unbiased" it is simply NOT POSSIBLE. Everyone has their opinions and their own point of view. Anyone who tries to tell you otherwise is trying to hide something.
I think it would be much better if all news groups would just quit pretending, just come out and say "Hey we lean towards __________". Then at least you can better judge what is really happening. You will never get the full truth from any one place though. Kind of sad that people are still missing that point in this day and age where you can check a number of places in a matter of minutes.
Agree completely!
making bids and refusing to pay seems like fraud, to me..
ebay provides a service and i hate to hear that someone is trying to muck things up, there..
Well now that he has been "outed", maybe someone can actually bring a charge against him. Sorry... no sympathy for a$$hats like that.
"And that is exactly why I haven't given his name."
Except in the URL of the link to the Daily Fail, where his name appears in full.
If you don't want to include his name in your post, you can leave off everything after the "/article-2391138/", and the link will still work.
Hi Richard, thanks, I have amended the link as you describe.
There is so much more to this than what has been reported so far. The person that can connect the dots should be able to write a Pulitzer winning article. Just saying.
You have replied several times to several sites claiming the same thing. Oddly enough, your site is practically devoted to Ebayisajoke.
You don't have a impartial view of this matter. If there was "more to this" beyond getting traffic to your site, you would have provided it by now as would he.
You're trying to spin this into something that will benefit you and your site. These is nothing more to it that that. If there is, provide it and I will retract my statement and make a public apology on your site.
That would be concrete evidence clearing Ebayisajoke. Not heresy.
I'm glad the guy was outed but is it necessary to mock him for his weight and for his shopping habits? That smacks of bullying. Go after his crimes not his human weaknesses.
I agree with your Christian approach. However, let it be noted that he is guilty of extreme bullying.
It is a witch hunt--because he is a bonafide witch!
And what if this isn't the actual guy? There's a reason we have laws specifying burden of proof. Also, I wasn't aware that the answer to bullying was more bullying. I certainly don't want to live in any society that thinks that's helpful. I bunch of idiots heckling a guy who may or may not have done wrong is not justice, it's a mob.
He deserves every annoying, stupid, non-sensical thing that happens to him. A$$hats like that troll ruin the ebay experience for anyone attempting to buy or sell. No life scum frogs like this moron need to be exposed for the tools they are. I hope worse happens to him and if I could do it myself - I would.
Because it is. Burden of proof is awfully hard to have on one's side when they wind up nailing themselves to the cross.
You're right. The answer to bullying is to stand up to the bully, which is exactly what happened. Which is the reason why he denied being Ebayisajoke, got into his pick-up, and drove off. Typical bully who took the typical coward's way out.
And I don't want to live in a society that allows a bully carte blanche because they believe that the faux anonymity of the internet somehow gives them the right to destroy someone's character. And I certainly don't want to live in a society that chooses to ignore such actions because it's not affecting them.
Wrong. This is justice. He flat out admitted to it. If you need this evidence, go to chuckfitscammer to latest news, then scroll down to 'his response and protection order' video.
Your stance is horribly misinformed and misguided. It's one thing to be innocent until proven guilty, it's totally different when the evidence is there but can't be bothered to take five minutes to look it up.
He didn't deny anything. He just didn't want to do it for rob wolchek