Page 1 of Ripped off on ebay: any suggestions?

I got ripped off on ebay recently when trying to buy the boxset of the 1st series of Doctor Who from a guy who was selling a lot of trendy telly boxsets (Lost, Desperate Housewives etc) on one day auctions. He had a lot of positive feedback, but I know that`s easy to fake up. I sent off my cheque and then the negative feedback started to appear and the guy just disappeared from ebay. I dread to think how much money he (or they most probably) wandered off with. Tens of thousands I would guess from the number of auctions he had running over a few weeks. At least it taught me never to trust a seller who accepts cheques and postal orders, but won`t under any circumstances take paypal ("I don`t accept paypal, don`t bother to ask").

My problem is that I`ve noticed another seller has started up and their modus operandi seems to be exactly the same, except cleverly this time they`ve made all the auctions private, so you don`t know who`s bidding on items (and can`t drop them an email suggesting they be extremely cautious about this seller). I`m absolutely convinced, because of the almost identical way these two sellers are operating, that it`s the same scam artist starting up again and that he`ll disappear with another big pile of cash in a few weeks time. I have informed ebay, but I don`t trust them to do a thing about it until it`s far too late and another load of buyers have been ripped off. I realise I could be wrong about this new seller, but my gut instinct tells me I`m not. Should I just leave it now and hope that either I`m wrong about this seller, or that ebay will step in if necessary? Can anyone else think of anything that I could/should be doing at this point? I realise my own money is lost, but it would make me feel a little better if I could stop him getting away this nasty little scam yet again.

You should contact ebay about this and they will investigate. I recently had my account hijacked twice in the space of 24 hours by some crafty blighter and ebay stepped in immediately and removed all the fake listings he`d placed in my account, refunded the listing fees and made sure that everyone who had bid on the fake auctions was notified. They even phoned me to make sure everything was okay so they do seem to take any dodgy goings on quite seriously.

what address did you send the cheque to ? send him some rotten eggs mixed with smelly pooh :D

(please don`t tell me it was a P.O. box....)

No, it was a proper address, but I`m sure it was only a temporary one and the scam artist has moved on with the loot. I could end up sending eggs a la excrement to some innocent person who`s just moved into the place. Revenge is a nice idea, but I was more hoping for something a little more long-term like arrest and the thieving git becoming a blushing prison bride.