Police search for man who ripped off Trade Me buyers

Police are investigating a Blenheim man who they believe fleeced internet traders of nearly $15,000 and then fled overseas.

Detective Richard Rolton, of Blenheim CIB, told NZPA complaints had been received from 15 buyers after they transferred funds for laptop computers the man was selling via the Trade Me website between January 12 and 20.

The man was selling the laptops for $850 each, and his advertisement said "please allow 7/14 days for postage for laptops will be double-checked for faults".

However, the total amount owing to buyers is $14,630.

The man had been trading on the Trade Me site for a while and had received positive feedback from other buyers up until he sold the laptops.

"So he was a bit of a rogue, really," Mr Rolton said.

Police were "reasonably confident" they knew who the man was but could not identify him until they were certain it was him that was operating the bank account number given to buyers.

The man had gone overseas, but Mr Rolton said the indications were that he intended to return to New Zealand.

Trade Me regulatory manager Michael O'Donnell said the company had an investigation unit to deal with scams on the rapidly growing auction site.

It was this unit which alerted police to the scam.

Scambusters, the internet watchdog group that revealed an alleged scam of reproduction oil paintings last year, also exposed the laptop rip-off.

Scambusters spokesman Alf West, of Queenstown, said the latest incident was one of the larger scams it had come across recently.

He said Scambusters had been monitoring the man for 10 days.

Mr O'Donnell said the laptop scam was reported to the auction site business on February 8, and staff immediately started to track the man down.

He advised buyers on Trade Me to use SafeTrader, which used a bank to enable safer transactions.

- NZPA