Bad eBay Seller Alert
I just wanted to warn everyone that eBay seller jpm9674 has a number of tokidoki bag auctions up right now that feature photos that were stolen from other collectors. I advise everyone not to bid on any of this seller’s auctions. Also, remember to watermark your photos before posting them publicly on the internet to avoid having them stolen by unscrupulous individuals. If you are new to tokidoki, check out my List of eBay Users Who Sell Real tokidoki Bags & Clothes for sellers who are definitely safe to buy from (I have also made some recent updates to the list - if you know of any additional sellers who belong on the list, please comment on that post with your updates).
UPDATE: jpm9674 has been suspended from eBay, and appears to have re-registered with the username alewis677 (who is also stealing other people’s photos).
January 10th, 2008 at 4:07 pm
thanks for posting this! that’s scary
January 10th, 2008 at 4:16 pm
Indeed thanks for posting this
Heyyyy did anyone notice the ‘COSMETICS’ section on the tokidoki website? I knew they had one just didn’t know they started selling them on the website. I loveeee the lipgloss, verry pretty colors
January 10th, 2008 at 4:28 pm
It is scary! I’m glad that I have watermarked all of the bags in my collection post already. That seller has stolen photos from a lot of different sources.
Christine - I did notice the cosmetics on tokidoki.it - they just went up very recently. A few people have pointed it out, but I kept forgetting to mention it. Does anyone know what the “artificial light” is? I’ve seen it before, I just never knew what its use was.
January 10th, 2008 at 4:30 pm
thanks for the heads up
January 10th, 2008 at 4:34 pm
Yea, I got an email from another person on eBay telling me that this seller stole her photos of her bag from her personal collection (meaning it was never sold before) and used it on their auction. I bid on one of the bags only to find out my bid was canceled (gee I wonder why?!) The bag was immediately taken off of eBay from bidding but there are TONS of other bags that this person has up for sale.
January 10th, 2008 at 4:39 pm
thanks for the heads up. the ciao tan playground seemed to good to be true and i email them for additional pictures, but they haven’t responded. i collect the bags for personal use, and i sell them on eBay too. the last thing i want to do is sell fakes and misrepresent myself.
thanks Steph, for all your hard work!!
January 10th, 2008 at 5:13 pm
oh wow o.o I would’ve never known about this and might’ve even bid on one of his/her’s auctions…thanks for warning us!! =D
January 10th, 2008 at 6:28 pm
The seller and their items have been suspended. YAY! One less dishonest seller on eBay to deal with. Many people have bid on the bags and they are newer/brand new users so it’s obvious that they were unaware of that the auctions were not real.
January 10th, 2008 at 6:30 pm
Hooray! I am glad that eBay took appropriate action.
January 10th, 2008 at 6:34 pm
yeah, it’s only been an hour since I last checked those items and now they’re all removed! FINALLY eBay has done something right~
January 10th, 2008 at 6:38 pm
Yay!!
Is it normal to have “paypal account required” in a listing? because that’s what they had in all theirs. ??
January 10th, 2008 at 6:44 pm
It’s normal, yes. eBay gives sellers the option of requiring potential buyers to have a registered Paypal account in order to bid - because, ironically in this case, it can help weed out scammers or bidders who don’t intend to pay (according to eBay, if people take the effort to sign up for Paypal, they are more likely to follow through with paying since it makes it so easy to pay).
January 10th, 2008 at 8:41 pm
Artifical Light - Is it supposed to be kind of like the opposite of tanning lotion?
That’s the only thing I could think of. At first I thought it’d be concealer, but doesn’t look/sound like it..
January 10th, 2008 at 8:44 pm
Nevermind, I found out what it is:
Artificial Light Luminizing Lotion
As we know in the studio, lighting is everything. the gorgeous shimmer of ARTIFICIAL LIGHT softens the way light reflects off of the skin and hides wrinkles when mixed with foundation or applied alone, it’s like a soft focus lens for the skin. Contains ginkgo biloba and japanese green tea to add a vitamin-packed natural glow.
January 10th, 2008 at 9:36 pm
wow what a coincidence! last night i reported 12 different items that were fake Tokidoki bags (2 the first time, then I decided to do some more).
*will come back*
January 10th, 2008 at 11:36 pm
Krisha, they weren’t fake bags. They were pictures of real bags that someone stole from someplace online & were trying to pass off as their own. The buyers on ebay would’ve paid, and then lost all the $$ they’d just spent on the bag, because they never would’ve received one.
What about alewis677 ??! anther zero FB who made an account today. think it’s them again?
January 10th, 2008 at 11:56 pm
Great minds think alike, alli - check my edit to the original post. I do think that alewis677 is the same person.
January 11th, 2008 at 12:09 am
Whew! I was totally watching the Citta Giocco they had on aution!!!! Thanks alot for warning us.
I was totally screwed back in September by an Ebayer named 2995Wayne (aka - Robert Dixon). I ‘bought’ 2 Spiaggia Cucciolos for $255 and I never got anything. It turns out he was a security guard at the Lesportsac Warehouse in Sterns, KY. I’ve been in contact with 2 other people that had their money stolen as well. If you were ripped off by this person, you can contact Bob West at the KY police dept. (mcsoinv@highland.net) - he’s collecting all the evidence against him. M
I’m so glad that I might have a chance to get a Citta Giocco or BV - at least that’s something to be glad about. Thanks again Admin for the warning. You ROck!
January 11th, 2008 at 12:30 am
Okay guys… Here is the situation: I was the one who reported this person on eBay and the sn and items were “suspended” not deleted. They were photos of real bags but did not belong to the person. I got the email from the original owner telling me herself that the photos were stolen.
The eBay rep wrote me back and told me they couldn’t do anything about since I didn’t own the pictures. WTF?!?! I contacted eBay’s Live Chat and asked them about it before writing an email to their security dept. The rep told me to write anyway, even if I didn’t own the pictures. Okay so I wrote and now I got a slap in the face like, “Oh yea, we can’t do anything about it if it’s not yours.” Be VERY careful guys! - Those ads will come back up soon so be on the lookout!
January 11th, 2008 at 12:56 am
alli: i’m sorry if i confused you. i just meant that last night, i was reporting bad eBay sellers. reporting a seller the way people did with this seller to get him/her in the current suspended status they are in now. the sellers that i reported had not stolen photos, but they were selling fakes (which is just as bad, counterfeits aren’t allowed on eBay).
what’s making my head spin is this seller who has over 10,000 positive feedback. he/she is selling fakes despite the good rep he/she has been building for a long time…
eBay ID: jessicasbizarregifts
Item number: 290195996802
January 11th, 2008 at 1:50 am
Wow, this is so sad. I knew I never bought tokidoki bags from ebay for a reason; this is my discovery to why I never will now.
January 11th, 2008 at 4:22 am
Another update: All I have to say is… UNBELIEVABLE! eBay has refused to remove any of the auctions because the seller didn’t technically “violate” any of eBay’s policies. Wow… I thought the people at eBay were bad, now I think they just don’t care. I guess they want to see some of us get ripped off so that they can have jobs at the end of the day.
It wasn’t really the fact that they wouldn’t take off the seller’s auctions, but the fact that don’t have their facts straight about their own policies. - One person told me to write an email to another person who says something different. Lesson learned: Be alert, research first!
I really recommend to everyone who reads this to check out Stephanie’s list of fake/real eBay sellers. Sellers with zero feedback should be the first sign that they may not have real bags or pictures of their own product to sell, especially if they seem to have a lot of auctions. Purchasing a Tokidoki bag from proven real sellers are the only way to shop on eBay!
January 11th, 2008 at 7:00 am
Hunty: now i’m sad that you said that. i got all of my pre-Tutti prints from eBay, all at reasonable prices. L’amore BV, Pirata BV and Zucca (with the most amazing print placement a Zucca could do for Pirata). I paid more than “25% off full price” but i never paid original retail price or more.
As long as the seller has a decent amount of feedback, replies to your questions, and sends you more pictures when you ask: you should be a-ok.
StephYummy: that really stinks. it’s really sad that we’re all going to have to start water marking our personal-collection photos.
January 11th, 2008 at 10:35 am
Krisha - I won’t argue with that. I’ve always bought my bags from purse forums though. I won’t say that there weren’t scammers *there* either.. Your best defense is education (for fakes) and common sense.
StephYummy - what the hell is wrong with these people?! We, the customers/buyers are the only reasons there IS EVEN a stupid service like anyone’s Ebay to begin with! What kind of a auction site finds it cute to lie and deceive customers/buyers? …Ebay.. x_x
January 11th, 2008 at 11:31 am
Sellers, you should also check out the completed auctions of LSJR8201. I believe this person re-registered as JPM9674. I reported this to Ebay also. I was one of the winners of an LSJR auction and was advised by Ebay not to pay for it. I will NEVER bid on anything from a zero feedback seller again.
January 11th, 2008 at 2:03 pm
Krisha - I know what you mean. My bf bought a lot of Tokidoki products from online for fraction of the price. It’s just a sad reality that even though we can get this stuff for cheap online, we have to jump through rings of fire just to ensure we don’t get burned by scammers. Watermarks do make it a lot harder on others to just steal and use your photos but that doesn’t stop everyone. So sad…
Hunty - In eBay’s reply to me, they wrote this one line that really ticked me off: “…we often cannot remove listings based on the representations of third parties whose credentials we cannot verify.” - I told them straight up, why would anyone need “credentials” to report on another individual with no “credentials” (no feedback) themselves?! I made the point that in the 5+ years I’ve been with eBay, I have no reason to kick anyone off of eBay, I just want to be able to shop safely. They sent me back some b.s. email with the same spoof as the previous email. This is just proof of how apathetic eBay is about their lazy policies.
Linda - I bid on one of the auctions that JPM9674 had just to see how the auction would turn out. After my bid, no more than an hour later, I get an email from the original owner of the pictures and the auction ends. However, when I checked JPM9674’s other auctions, they were still running strong. eBay has become a really disappointing place.
January 11th, 2008 at 2:20 pm
Although it is frustrating that eBay won’t remove some auctions that we know are fake, I totally understand their policies - just like in the legal system, the accused is innocent until proven guilty. The burden of proof rests with the accuser, which is a fair policy, because for all eBay knows, we could all have a personal vendetta against an innocent seller. If and when the actual person(s) who had their photos stolen report the auctions to eBay, I am sure they will get pulled, just like all of jpm9674’s auctions did.
January 11th, 2008 at 2:30 pm
Stephanie - You’re right. They’re policies are to protect those of us who get snitched out by others who don’t like us and the proof they need is solely based upon those who rightfully own the pictures - that I understand as much. But this person already had at least one or more auctions reported in on them by the actual owner of the pictures! In my opinion, that’s sufficient proof that any items in similar nature could potentially be falsified as well. eBay’s sloppy policies only regulate on a auction-by-auction case, not on a seller-by-seller case. I really hope these scumballs get caught up in their own slime!
January 11th, 2008 at 3:52 pm
eBay really needs to reform their dismal customer service.
It isn’t just limited to trademark disputes. My boyfriend recently bought a bunch of stuff off of eBay and used Paypal to pay for his purchases. Somehow, Paypal screwed up and sent the wrong shipping address to the seller, so his things got sent to the wrong place. What makes this awful is that the address his stuff got sent to no longer exists. Miraculously, he was able to recover the items he bought, but Paypal (which is owned by eBay) refused to own up to their mistake.
Even though I’ve been lucky so far in my Tokidoki bag purchases on eBay, it’s stuff like this that make me weary of ever buying anything off of eBay again.
January 11th, 2008 at 4:12 pm
regarding the cosmetics…
that was a collaboration toki did with smashbox around 1 yr ago I think?
it was on sephora and smashbox sites before… as well as some beauty sections in pharmacies etc.
I have the entire collection… which I bought about half a year ago… at the tail end of the retail period.
January 13th, 2008 at 6:40 pm
OH no! i accidentally bid on one of these bags and i am the highest seller! i don’t want to pay them and the auction ends in 2 hours. what do i do if i win?
January 13th, 2008 at 7:36 pm
Cynthia - I advise you to retract your bid.
January 13th, 2008 at 7:42 pm
That ebayer stole my Spiaggia Gioco picture and I reported them this morning, I think it has been taken off =)
January 13th, 2008 at 8:56 pm
whew, glad i didn’t win it, someone sniper bid it at the last minute. i hope she doesn’t get scammed
January 15th, 2008 at 5:17 am
Any new news on alewis677? They seem to be adding a few more auctions, and I noticed the background has changed on the photos. Plus their other items look like the photos were taken from professional websites.
I’m just concerned because I’ve been selling on Ebay for years and the last year has been horrible because of all the fake sellers. And I am trying to get a couple of Tokidoki pieces and this scares me.
January 15th, 2008 at 10:50 am
That seller put up 4 different Pirata bambinone bags while I was trying to sell mine. Needless to say, mine didn’t sell. I’ve decided in the future, I’ll take my photos with an actual piece of paper with my username on it and place it with the bag. Watermarks can be removed in any photoshop program. Just another idea.
January 15th, 2008 at 6:02 pm
definitely, anyone who has photos of bags on a public hosting site without watermarks: my advice is to take them down and watermark them and make them private (or at least watermark the heck out of them if you want them public) to hopefully make this happen a little bit less in the future
how is alewis677 still able to sell after having confirmation of stolen photos from the person who commented above??!!
January 15th, 2008 at 6:04 pm
Julie H. - I wouldn’t get overly spooked by alewis677. There will always be some bad apples in any bunch. Hopefully everyone who has photos of tokidoki bags posted publicly on the internet anywhere has either taken them down or watermarked them so that this sort of scamming behavior won’t continue.
Amy - The piece of paper idea is good too. I try to add my watermarks in parts of the print where someone would have a near-impossible time removing them in Photoshop.
alli - I really don’t understand why alewis677 is still on eBay at this point.
February 5th, 2008 at 5:17 pm
do you think this person is the same again? i do. they scammed 2 people as this username & 2 as alewis.
February 5th, 2008 at 5:25 pm
alli - Yes, that is definitely the same person. Same location as alewis - Franklin Lakes, NJ. What is extra weird about that is Franklin Lakes is a really well-to-do town - strange place for a scammer to be based out of!
March 8th, 2008 at 7:37 pm
alewis677 is no longer a registered user on Ebay so everyone should probably be loooking for another new account by this same person.
April 4th, 2008 at 3:29 pm
hi, i recently purchased a hello kitty x tokidoki bag from the seller okki0910.. im not sure if its real or not?
it does have all the charms and everyting..but i read somewhere its fake if it doesnt have the lessport logo on the handles,or the packaging is a clear bag and the charms are not covered..my charms were not covered
can anyone help me pls
im living in the uk.thanks x