Aloha!
Good questions. This collector has purchased shells from a friend here in
Hawaii on Ebay under his past name so he is legitimate. Some dealers log
onto Ebay using psedo-names to inspire bidding. Ebay refers to this as
"shilling" and is frowned upon. This bidder has in fact placed minimum bids
on this same faked material before but was cautious never to go higher.

Ebay has very strict rules regarding fakes & copies. If a purchase is made
through Paypal on a "faked" item a investigastion is done & in most cases
the money is refunded with the dealer's IP address being blocked from Ebay.
But many bidders don't file in fear of "negative" feedback reprisals. Most
seasoned Ebayers know who to avoid online & at times has been mentioned by
name(check past CONCH-L listings regarding Ebay).

It's too bad some people out there use shell collecting as a dodge to
rip-off trusting, honest collectors.                     Mahalo!  CHRIS:)

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