"This was quite a big scam:" Con artist steals money by pretending to sell computers on eBay

“This was quite a big scam:” Con artist steals money by pretending to sell computers on eBay

"This was quite a big scam:" Con artist steals money by pretending to sell computers on eBay

CHARLOTTE (WITI) — It's an internet scheme that would have been easy to fall for. It unfolded on eBay and victims lost thousands of dollars. It all started with buying a computer.

Berry Younce used the username "SQ20" to post ads on eBay saying he had computers for sale.

"This was quite a big scam throughout the whole country, where Mr. Younce is basically selling the computers on the Internet, but not really having the product," said U.S. Postal Inspector Christopher Davis.

Berry Younce ran computer selling scam on eBay.

How did Younce pull it off?

"He is posting computers and people were underbidding the cost to purchase it. Therefore, if he was not having the computer people were bidding on, he would have to go buy it at a larger cost," Davis explained.

Eventually, postal inspectors received several complaints about orders not being fulfilled through eBay.

"We got seized computers, various documents, lulling letters from victims who are saying, 'where is my computer? Where is my computer, Mr. Younce?'" Davis said.

Inspectors say more than 250 orders went unfilled and losses were more than $200,000.

If you plan on buying something off of eBay, do your homework.

"Do more research on your seller on eBay. You can contact eBay and they'll give you feed back and you get more info on the seller," Davis advised.

Younce was sentenced to one year home confinement followed by three years supervised release for the scam.