Cell Phones Donated For Charity Sold on eBay by Cingular Employee

According to the Fort Collins Coloradoan newspaper, two unrelated citizens of Fort Collins contacted the paper to share versions of the same disturbing story. They had each given old, used cell phones to two Cingular employees, with the understanding that the phones would be donated to a charity and given to someone less fortunate. But instead of becoming a charitable donation, the phones became a moneymaking venture for one of the people who accepted them. Lydia Bliven and John Ebbinghaus, the two people who had donated the phones, were contacted by a woman in Virginia who had purchased two phones on eBay. She couldn’t get the phones to work, so she contacted the former owners to find out what the problem was—and that’s when everyone discovered that the phones had not been donated as they were supposed to have been.

The Coloradoan newspaper looked into the allegations and located the eBay seller, who was using the eBay I.D. "acla." The Cingular employee who had accepted the phones was named A.C., short for Andrew Constantine Lao, 28. The paper contacted Lao, who identified himself as a former Cingular employee, but he said he hadn’t taken part in the scam although he knew about it. However, after speaking to the newspaper, Lao changed his eBay screen name to chinakat12677—a name that the newspaper says refers to Lao’s birthday. Upon checking the eBay account of chinakat12677, the newspaper found listing after listing of cell phones being sold at auction, with some of the descriptions saying that the seller had upgraded his existing phone, or that he was cleaning out his phone collection. At least 25 used cell phones have been sold over the past two months, according to eBay records.

The buyer who contacted Bliven and Ebbinghaus posted negative feedback for the auction by saying, "Phone was removed from charity box and sold on eBay/seller has chg’d his eBay ID." Police have said that they don’t think they can file charges because they can’t prove a crime was committed. Because the phones were donated freely, it would be hard for officials to place a value on them since they were given away. But eBay has put a stop to the fraud by closing Lao’s account. A notice was posted on eBay’s site that chinakat12677 is no longer a registered user.

As for Cingular, they also made a public apology, saying that that the employee in question (Lao) no longer works for them and this appears to be an isolated incident. The statement also added, "We are grateful to the many consumers who have donated their unwanted wireless equipment, whether through Cingular or elsewhere. Regardless of where consumers choose to make their donation or which carrier they use, we encourage consumers to erase any personal information from their device before donating it. As noted in the privacy policy on our Web site, consumers may wish to check their owner's manual or manufacturer's Web site for additional details."