Chicago Scams Tracked Down with eBay Help

Stacey McBride had gone through a divorce and she needed to sell her $10,400 wedding ring. So the 36-year-old New Jersey woman put the jewelry on the eBay online auction site and soon received a taker. But the taker was a faker.Calling himself Christian Hamilton, he e-mailed McBride offering to buy her one-carat ring and the matching diamond encrusted wedding band.He asked her to send the jewelry to his apartment in the 6100 block of North Kenmore in Chicago. He also sent her a link to an Internet “escrow service” that would turn over his money to her after he received his merchandise.You guessed it: Christian Hamilton and the escrow service disappeared — and so did her jewelry.”I always thought I was street smart,” McBride said. “I guess I’m not Internet smart.”As many as 300 complaints of eBay-related fraud are streaming into Chicago from out-of-state victims who are losing millions of dollars in the scams, law enforcement sources said.

EBay scams traced to Chicago