Letters from solicitor about selling counterfeit GHDs

[Joel]

Hi all,

Earlier this year I bought some GHDs for me and 2 cousins from a website call DHgate. I had no idea that the GHDs were counterfeit and with them being such a low price I thought it was a great deal. So I ordered the first pair for me but my parent had already ordered me a pair which meant I was going to have two pairs so I decided that when the pair I ordered arrived I would sell them on eBay, which I did and the buyer was happy and had no complaints. I went back to the website a couple of weeks later and thought they would be good gifts for 2 of my cousins so I bought them a pair each and be being stupid I didn't check if they already had a some, which as you can guess they did. In case you were wondering why I didn't just return them, this was because I didn't want the hassle of sending them so far and maybe never getting my money back. It was hard enough communicating with the seller just to buy them in the first place. So I received the next two set of GHDs and put them straight on eBay, this time they were taken off, I was unsure why so I re-listed but this time I must have typed in the wrong quantity as I had listed 13 on their. So without knowing I had sold most of the 13 GHDs (which I didn't have) over the first few days and as I hadn't checked the listing, I hadn't changed it. So I cancelled all of the auctions and decided it was only fair if I re-list just 2 of them, so I did and they were removed again, thinking the same thing happened I re-listed them one more time and they sold and the buyers were happy and had no issues with them. I checked my messages on eBay to find that the reason they were removed was because the GHDs were counterfeit and that I had been suspended from eBay for 7 days. I didn't really look into it that much so I just took the suspension.

About 2-3 months later I received a letter and an email, which had the letter attached to it, from a solicitor's office saying that they were representing Jemella and that I had been selling counterfeit GHDs on eBay and that I am to pay £350 for Jemella's legal fees and £50 for every set of GHD I sold and that I have 2 weeks to pay. I replied to the email saying that I have sold three sets of GHDs and that I had no idea they were counterfeit (which apparently meant nothing to them). The solicitor sent me an email back saying that their records show that I had sold more GHDs than what I had said. This must have been because of the quantity mix up on the listing.

After reading the letter I was terrified being a student with no money, who has just come back from a very expensive gap year. So I started asking people and doing a bit of research and a lot of people told me that I should just ignore the letters and emails. Although I did reply to the first email I ignored them and the letters after that.

2 weeks passed and nothing happened, but then I received another letter from the same person. This letter was worded exactly the same with the same content the only thing that was different was the date I had to pay by which was another 2 weeks. So I ignored it again.
And you guessed it another 2 weeks passed and nothing happened but then another letter with the exact same content is delivered, and again the only difference is the date which I am to pay by. I ignored this letter again and then didn't hear from them until now.

I had been away for since March and April which is when I was receiving these letters so I was unsure if they were still being delivered or not. I got back and none had been delivered so I figured it was forgotten now.

2-3 weeks after coming back again, my doorbell rings, so I answered it and all the man did was ask me who I was and I told him my name then he handed me some papers in a plastic wallet and left. I pulled the papers out to find that he had given me all 4 letters that had been sent to me since the first one but nothing else. SO this means that they had been personally delivered to me. But just the 4 letters nothing else.

I need help now, I thought it had all gone away, but obviously not. There was nothing attached to the 4 new letters I received and he didn't tell me anything. So now all I have is 4 new copies of the old letters I ignored.
I'm guessing it means they are going to take is further, but what I'm worried about is that they think I have sold 13 of the GHDs which means they are going to ask me to pay £350 plus £50 for each set of GHDs, which will come to £1000. When if I have to pay anything at all, it should be £450.

Can anyone help me out here? Should I carry on ignoring it after they personally delivered the letters?

Any advice?

Thanks,

Joel

 

[mightymoose]

Ignore them. End all contact.
If you receive a summons to court then go have your say, but do not communicate with anyone otherwise.
Should it get that far they would have to prove how much you sold, and it seems you can easily prove canceled transactions.
Even then, they would likely still have to prove that you did this knowing they were fake, or reasonably should have known.
Until you are ordered to court there is nothing that needs to be done.

 

[Michael Wechsler]

Unless the cost of the item was so ridiculously low that you should have known it was fake or stolen, it will be difficult to prosecute you for any statute that requires knowledge. I don't know the law specifically in your case but I do know that many of these collectors are about trying to intimidate people into a settlement.

I can't say what would happen in your case but imagine the following - Lawyer/solicitor takes you to court. Demands an absurd amount of money and also to cover legal fees. Best thing to do - not sure. But since you've already spoken to them and you've already provided evidence, you may want to tell them you're poor, have no money, was an innocent victim of someone else's scam and if they want to take you to court, go tell the judge that they are prosecuting a victim with no money. You can't get blood from a stone nor will they get sympathy from the court.

That said, no offense, many poor students do stupid things because they think they won't get caught. Search these forums. You'll find dozens of students claiming they found a great price for X and then tried to sell the goods that, on their face, were very likely counterfeit. I can't tell you which you are but if you've only sold 2 or 3 items then chances are nobody will want to spend time prosecuting you. But they will spend time finding ways to scare you, especially if they don't cost too much.