This email is about Internet auction frauds where people copy photos
and text and clearly do not have the items at all.  As a regular
Internet auction buyer and seller I have read with interest the many
postings on this subject.

Simply, my advice is this: If _you_ see a fraud then _you_ report it.
It is no use emailing the MMD and telling us all to avoid such-and-such
an item.  eBay don't read the MMD and mechanical music is just one of
tens of thousands of sale categories.

If you see a fraud going on, scroll through the eBay help menu 'til
you get to the bit about "send email to report fraud".  Enter the
fraudulent item number and in the box below tell them what the other
item it's been cribbed from was.  eBay have a manned email help-desk
receiving information and investigating fraud; they _will_ pull the
item and cancel all offending fraudulent accounts right away.

They really will do this; it's not just lip-service, either.  I have
reported items before and got them cancelled and I will do it again if
I see it going on.  Clearly very few others actually do this since I've
read reports of fraudulent items only to see them still advertised days
later since nobody actually took any action.  So it was me; I got a few
pulled!

If you see fraudulent stuff advertised here in the UK just go to the
www.ebay.co.uk site as it will be far quicker to get it dealt with.
If you can't find the old genuine listing, just tick the "completed
items" box and you can go back through a few weeks worth of completed
listings.  If it was an expensive instrument just click to sort "highest
price first" and you'll get your info in seconds.

I have no idea why mechanical music is being targeted but I think it
fair to say that it clearly is affecting all areas of high-value
antiques on the net.  The fraudsters do it as they know collectors
will part with their common sense, even before their cash, when they
spot a long hankered-after item for sale.

We are all naive at times but the usual hints of net auction frauds are
a "private auction" (so potential suckers cannot be alerted by other
vigilant watchers), a seller with either very little or no feedback
(this feedback from accounts with equally deficient feedback on items
with were also in turn private auctions to avoid scrutiny).  You don't
need to be Sherlock Holmes to work this out.

The best way to stamp out these scum (for this is all they are) is to
constantly close off their avenues of attack.  Report the items and get
their accounts closed.  You need ID to open accounts and it takes time
to create new accounts.  Scammers are playing the numbers game, hoping
to get lucky with one big hit, and regarding all the closed accounts
and wasted time as an occupational hazard.

Make it not worth their while tapping away at their keyboard and
finding fresh ID.  You enjoy mechanical music with money you worked
hard to earn and save.  Don't allow a few vermin ruin it.  Get them
shut down by simply reporting it.  Case closed.

Sincerely, from the pro-active school of pragmatic thinking,
Adam Ramet