Online fraud with brand name watches
More and more aggrieved Ebay customers in the Topseconds case
The Topseconds case goes beyond all dimensions. This is why the police and the public prosecutor´s office are now going new ways. On February 17th, 2009, over 11.000 damaged customers were addressed by Topsconds via email. Senior persecutor Fred Apostel explains: „The customers all have an Internet connection that they use“ and "this is why we choose to go this way." In the mail, the damaged Ebay customers are referred to a homepage specifically installed for them. Technical processing is more convenient and it is easier to reach everybody, because there are simply so many customers, say the prosecutors.
More than 2.000 lawsuits were filed at the police in Bonn since the beginning of December 2008 until today. The damaged customers are spread all over the nation and were cheated by more than 1.2 million Euros according to statements of the police. In order to determine the final sum of the damage, all known buyers were now addressed by mail. The police asks all customers of Topseconds that made purchases after November 22nd, 2008 to register online. "Even if you already filed a claim, you should use this service. For all others, filing a claim is no longer needed after filling out the online form", says Detective chief superintendent Michael Tempel. In the future, the police want to approach damaged customers more frequently online and thus facilitate the filing of lawsuits.