A woman who allegedly scammed internet auction users out of more than $30,000 did so with ease, illustrating the importance of being vigilant in the online marketplace, a Trade Me spokesman says. Elmira Rafiee, 24, is alleged to have contacted Trade Me and Sella users who were on the hunt forcheap electronics and made them offers they could not refuse. The victims had left their phone numbers on the question and answer section of auctions they were interested in, mostly for iPads and iPhones, making them easy targets for would-be fraudsters, Trade Me's head of trust and safety, Jon Duffy, said. Rafiee allegedly arranged to sell the items via text message, thereby avoiding Trade Me's security measures. However, she was ``certainly not a cyber crimes genius'' and got them to deposit money into her personal bank account, making the transactions easy to trace. Police arrested her earlier this month. Thirty-one complaints were made to Trade Me and a further 14 to Sella involving a total of more than $30,000. The biggest single purchase was $1100 for an iPad. Mr Duffy said this was a timely reminder for online auction users not to put their contact details on internet auctions, which was against Trade Me's rules and regulations. ``The first reason is people can circumvent the online auction process and do a deal off site so we don't get a fee but secondly, and more importantly, people can easily fall victim to scams if they step outside our security processes, meaning we can't see who they're dealing with. ``It goes back top the old adage: if it looks too good to be true, it probably is.'' Mr Duffy said it was likely there were more victims who hadn't yet complained. Rafiee appeared in Auckland District Court last week charged with accessing a computer system for a dishonest purpose. She will appear again on August 23.
