Ben Anderson Apropas Auctions, ApropoAuctions BJ Anderson, Erik Kesterson, Michael Aklin, John Teal Tried scam on ebay but we are pursuing... Ripoff La Jolla California

On Thursday, March 6, 2008, justice may have finally begun to catch up to Benjamin Joseph Anderson, the elusive "CEO" of Apropos Auctions, LLC and all its various incarnations (AproposAuctions, Apropo Auctions, ApropoAuctions, Apropas Auctions, ApropasAuctions, Apro Auctions, AproAuctions, etc.) who apparently hid behind checking accounts based on a supposed Limited Liability Company in Michigan that, according to other information posted on this site, was invalid in Michigan and also invalid and not registered with the California Office of the Secretary of State. Read on to learn more about the Anderson's web sites, his YouTube video, about the search warrant and how to help justice prevail. I also understand there may soon be major media coverage.

On March 6, 2008, after a lengthy undercover investigation of Anderson, his postal mailbox operations, and his the so-called Executive Officer of Apropos Auctions, LLC, Meir Avraham Waknine, the U.S. Postal Inspector office served a search warrant on Anderson's southern California residence as well as his mailbox, taking away all of his computer equipment and all other evidence of his alleged Ebay scams at both the residence and the mailbox. I have been informed that Anderson told the agents executing the search warrant that he never cheated anyone, blaming everything on shoddy business practices.

Please help bring these two to the justice they deserve. If you believe you have been ripped off by either of them, or suffered any mental or other abuse by or because of them, please contact:

Postal Inspector Agent J. Liam Gimon at jlgimon at uspis.gov or call him at San Diego area code 619 and phone number 531-8245. Help Agent Gimon understand how you were ripped off and/or harassed by phone, in person or otherwise by these two (and others?) and that what happened to you was not simply a case of poor business practices. Although the search warrant has been executed, arrest warrants will follow if and when the investigating agents and the United States Attorney determine sufficient evidence exists constituting probable cause of the commission of one or more crimes. You can assist the agents and the U.S. attorney in making that determination by providing them concrete evidence of how you were ripped off or harassed, or both.

Two other things you may want to do, which others have suggested and seem to have worked, are to file complaints with both the Postal Inspector and the Internet Crime Complaint Center, or IC3. Just go the IC3 website at www.ic3.org and there you will find their on-line form for making a complaint. Making a complaint with the Postal Inspector is also very easy and can be done at their website: http://postalinspectors.uspis.gov/forms/MailFraudComplaint.aspx .

If you'd like to call Meir, he seems to use a cell phone number in the L.A. area code of 818 and number 220-3733 to make some of his harassing phone calls.

Apparently Ben felt the need, after the raid, to make his MySpace site "private," so at the moment you'll only get to see one picture of Ben. However, you can see the amazing Ben's "fascinating" political views on YouTube. Just go to there and search for "Ben Anderson". You'll see Ben talk for five minutes about all his wonderful ideas, but strangely enough he doesn't tell the prospective voters anything about himself, where he lives, who supports him, where he went to school, where he grew up, where he works, what's he's accomplished in life, what experience or accomplishments he believes qualify him to be a member of the California legislature, etc., etc. Of course, he never actually ran for office. I guess he couldn't even be straight about that.

Meir's MySpace site is http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=251971702

Ben also created a MySpace site for Apropos Auctions LLC! It's quite funny. Click on Pics to see stock photos of his non-existent staff, building, etc. On the right is an apparent self-penned fairy tale about the history of the great successes of Apropos Auctions, LLC and the fact that "executive director" Meir Waknine joined the supposed company in 2007. I guess they didn't know they ought to capitalize that proper noun. It's at: www.myspace.com/aproposauctions

It also will be helpful if you can update here at RipOffReport any additional information you may have.

Thank you.

Read aproposauctions.com.
This guy may be holding back criticism by dealing with just those he sees on here complain enough, but he has cheated dozens if not hundreds of people. Look up his old names on ebay and find out that they are closed but not before logging up to two hundred negative reports (like macroseller).

He sells low dollar items then hits up people for $200-400 items and steals their money.

He may have fooled some but not all buyers.
See Jas of Northen, Oklahoma and others who are out their money.

The vendor DID send the proper merchandise so the reports are not to be taken seriously. All previous reports and updates are rescinded. To the owner of the ripoffreport website - apparently this person just send merchandise late.

Per attorney Dan Schultz, (9.25.07) formal complaints are already filed with
The Michigan Office of the Attorney General
and the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3)
The US Postal Inspectors
The Michigan Corporations Division
Each complaint method for others to follow is detailed on the website we have set up to handle these worldwide complaints. By filing your own complaints and referencing the originals as outlined you will help bring this case to a conclusion.

Anyone who writes us with a verifiable transaction and details about themselves (i.e. a phone we can trace and call) will receive our investigative report on HOW the scam operates and how it is possible to continue to operate for so long. We have figured out how Ben cleverly constructs his IDs, and how he gets his businesses to look legitimate before the scam is launched each time.

Full text of how to register complaints and help this case are online at www.apropasauctions.com (we took the business name for anyone googling his business - they will find out about the scam instead).

Please let us know the details of names he used and emails so we can post them everywhere.

HIS LATEST FAKE NAMES and MILITARY IDS:
Charles Wilkerson
chuckson3 on eBay
chuckson3@gmail.com

William Brooks
brooksbythemile on eBay

The Michigan Attorney General original complaint is number: cp60ch9001
Their website is www.michigan.gov/ag
On the online form, in the section for Primary Person, please enter the information we have about Anderson (name Benjamin J. Anderson, phone number (714) 717-0587, the 1025 Kronner, Columbus, MI 48063 address (because the La Jolla address no longer exists), and the farnanfinds@gmail.com address) into the section for the primary person.

Thank you for your help everybody.

The Better Business Bureau lists 7 unanswered complaints against Apropas Auctions, LLC. But that is not the real company name.

Ben used these additional addresses:
900 East Ocean Front, #E, Newport Beach, CA 92661
Phone 818-352-8355
in May of 2006 he was reported to BBB. No response.

In February of 2006 he was reported again,
with an address of
2547 East Vista Point Road, Orange, CA 92867
And the person listed as being the primary contact for the company was a NEW name:
Matt Burkey
We have no idea if Matt Burkey is just another alias of Ben's or a real person.


Another complaint has his former 7486 La Jolla address with no name.
And yet another has his name as Sean Grimes, the "owner" of ApropoAuctions, LLC.
FOR FREDERICK who received his Star Trek set. That's great. You were not a victim of any crime. But others have been. No. Not me. I didn't send him any money when the flags went up. If Ben wants to do business in a proper manner I have no problem with that.
BUT...
Interestingly enough, and here is what upsets people vehemently Frederick, Sean Grimes is the name of ANOTHER dead Iraqi war veteran. That is what irritates some people.

If he just used his real name, a real email, and tried to be above board I wouldn't react badly. But finding names on a veteran memorial site apparently and using them? This is okay with everyone?

The BBB in California lists their complaints as:
Complaints Concerned Sales Practice Issues: 1 Outcome of the complaint - No Response: 1 Delivery Issues: 4 Outcome of all complaints - No Response: 3; Unpursuable: 1; |[Company cannot be located.]| Refund or Exchange Issues: 2 Outcome of all complaints - No Response: 2

To anyone searching from Michigan.
The company is REALLY named Apropos Auctions, LLC. Reg. 10/7/2004.
It was registered in Michigan in to Brent Dupay who we contacted.
Brent no longer has anything to do with the company.
He is no longer the registered agent for service
nor has any contact with anyone. So please do not approach him further.
He has already given answers to authorities who have asked him questions.

There was a time when the company apparently did a good business as stated,
and everything was run properly.

Benjamin J. Anderson (Ben) took over as agent after Brent.
The old address used was 1025 Kronner, Columbus, MI 48063
for the registered agent.

The phone for the Michigan state Bureau of Commercial Services is 517-241-6470.
They would like to know that Ben is using the registered LLC without an registered agent, an official operating address or phone, and no way to directly contact him. They would revoke his corporation unless he corrects that information.

So to answer Ben's Best Buy questions. Yes. The state requires management of the LLC to have official addresses, phones, etc. on file and current. Every time you move you are supposed to update them.

And using the name Apropo, or Apropas, instead of Apropos (so you can alter and deposit checks) is not allowed by law.

Good Morning,

My name is Frederick. My wife and I purchased a Star Trek DVD set from this company on ebay's website. I was alarmed after reading this website Friday and figured my money had been stolen from me. I am happy to report that the set arrived Tuesday, September 4th. While the entire transaction took nearly a month, I am very satisfied with my order. I got a good deal on the DVDs so I am not too bothered about the wait.

Richard, you really seem to have it out for this guy. What is your story? I looked up some of the user IDs you posted on here. Assuming these IDs all belong to the same seller, it is pretty clear there are thousands of positive feedbacks on there. This does lead me to believe that the seller is telling the truth. I did a search on this website and found only about a dozen complaints on here, some of which date back about 5 years. This seems reasonable with the thousands of positive feedbacks I see. I saw at least one complaint on here that was later retracted.

Are you certain all these complaints were not resolved? Based on what I've read I see you have not paid the seller? If this is a fact then I don't see what right you have to call this man a fraud. This may just be a misunderstanding. I just wanted to offer my two cents. I hope everyone resolves their issues.

Now that the elusive Ben Anderson has decided to respond, I would like him to post the other question I asked. He omitted all but the points he could answer to in his very official sounding rebuttal. The main reason I took offense immediatley to his business methods was 1. He did not give me his real name or a full address to send money. 2. The name he gave belongs to a dead veteran. Not good. 3. His business doesnt exist in any database. 4. His maildrop is several hundred miles away from where he said he was located for shipping the product. Thats a heck of a commute Ben.

Just because I didnt fall for your scheme doesnt mean I am not a victim of yours. You wasted a lot of my time, and you play with peoples emotions.

QUESTION:
What state is the company Apropas Auctions (he sent me Apropo Auctions, LLC) registered with and who is legally allowed to accept service? This is a standard and normal question for anyone with a company. Especially one that claims so many satisfied customers. If you are in business 8 years with 100,000 clients, you must have a real business address somewhere for the LLC. Is it California? No checked. Nevada? No checked. What state Ben? Surely you have a copy of the company LLC filing. Just post the face page with a state seal.

WHY no one elss name is in my complaint.YET.
So everybody knows, I will not release other customer information of Ben's until they authorize me to do so. But thanks for bringing that up. You see, no sooner did I post than the people this man has cheated in the past started writing me. I am telling each one that I am creating a database. We will organize ourselves to file reports with all the proper authorities.

And yes, while we did attempt to contact ALL 70 mailbox rentals in the San Diego area, and most were VERY receptive to knowing who this person is, there might be someone who he smooth talked into renting him a box. But we also contacted every corporate office of the major vendors around the country.

Let me ask young Ben a question. If his business so stable and everyone can always reach him, without his home address, then why does he need a dozen ebay identities, why is ebay security reviewing everything, why are there so MANY negative feedbacks on his various ebay accounts? Why does he use blind emails? Why doesn't his company have a website, a simple webpage, a web store or some entity to locate this company? Why isn't he BenAnderson or ApropasAuctions as an ID. That makes more sense than a dead veteran's name.

Has he read the other complaints online about him? (not just here.) Does he think we are all that stupid? And NO, I did not send him money. I tried. This all started out very innocently. His ebay ID simply said, Derek Argel, McFarland, CA on the invoice. I couldnt send payment. I tried to find this or any other Argel there. Why would his ebay name be Derek, or Argel or anything BUT Ben Anderson? If you have complaints you work them out. But he didnt do that. He shuts down one name and uses another. Why doesnt he list his ID as the company name? Apropo or Apropas Auctions? How come the company is not in the US? Anybody can contact any secretary of state to look up the filing of any LLC. If you are real, you are in the database.

ANSWER: He uses all those IDs because he hides his multiple identities, multiple locations. He uses gmail through Google to keep anybody from finding him.

My real name is the same name Ive used in business for almost 30 years. Same websites. Ive had four phones for the business in 20 years, and anybody who wants can always get my cell number. So, yes, there are CEOs who are completely upfront, do worldwide business like I do, who will let you call them anytime. Using their real name. The same name.

To anyone who believes his rebuttal, simply put, if you want to talk to me directly, go to a website Ive listed for apropasauctions.com, or apropoauctions.com, email me, Ill send you my phone. We can always meet in my city, Charlotte, NC or yours if I am out on the road any time. But be aware. I will be checking out each person who sends me email.

And once I get confirmation that it is acceptable from each person emailing me that this guy took their money and ran, I will post those names and info too. The first person wrote me within a few hours. He sent the website for his company, very legitimate, and even told me his efforts at trying to track this man down. Along with his personal contact data. We traded info. Very soon I will be able to do that with a lot of people Ben. And we are going to collect our efforts and you are going to settle these complaints.

Finally, anybody who wants to know what Mr. Thomas Lee of PakMail stated can call him at his phone. He was very specific about complaints he received. Not people needing to stop by for shipments etc. Complaints. Oh, a few wanted to stop by, but probably only because they wanted to meet Ben. Mr. Lee also told me he had a hard time making some believe HE was not Ben. And that he, Mr. Lee didnt take their money. He was upset about being put in that position.

In the end, I was very lucky, because of the red flags raised before I sent him money. So I will spend the same money on making sure he never does this to anyone again.

Ben - if you want to prove that I am a liar I have a very simple method. I ordered the Muppets 15 DVD Collection, a rare out of print set from you. There were only three advertised on all of ebay. Yours ( a fake one) , another (which I bought) and a third which is gone by now. No more. So take a digital photo of yourself holding up the collection you supposedly have, with a newspaper showing the date. That will prove you have the DVDs, its a current picture, and you are who you say you are. Very Simple. But you actually have to have the collection, and that will be tricky since they are out of print and generally unavailable. You can get single episodes but NOT the whole 15 dvd set. There was also a 10 dvd set but we can count the boxes and dvds you lay open on a table in the picture. Lean in and smile. Show us.

And I can retract what I wrote. After you answer to every person writing me now.

You cant and wont. Because you are a fraud.
Dont like hearing that? Give me a location and register for process service and I will be glad to get in a legal battle. Thanks for writing. I was beginning to wonder if you were still around. You must have been a little spooked when you started receiving emails at all the different ones I have on file now.

So the readers know - I sent the same email to every ID he has used for years.

And thanks for letting me know you have another mailbox.
Where is it? Anyone with a legitimate address posts it.
We will be glad to contact the owners of that mailbox rental store too.

I am responding on behalf of the company libeled above on this page. It is troublesome that an individual can slam a company's good name without merit. The author of this post, Richard , libeled our company without cause.

Richard did not pay for the auction contract on ebay's website. His emails immediately became hostile and accusatory without cause. All correct and relevant contact information was provided to Richard at the close of the auction. Richard demanded private residential contact information for one of our company's member managers. This action was highly inappropriate. Can you imagine calling Best Buy and demanding the home address of their CEO or you would threaten to contact the postal inspectors? This is exactly what Richard has done.

If you read through Richard's manifesto against our company you will see that at no time does he mention any tangible cases of fraud. He offers no names of individuals that our company has ALLEGEDLY defrauded. Most of what he has written is also factually inaccurate as well. For example, he claims he contacted all the mail box stations in our area to warn them against doing business with us.

Just for curiosity's sake, I went to a box station three blocks away from our current address and they had never heard of Richard or our company and were glad to offer a box to us. The owner of Pakmail has also informed us in the past that they did receive phone calls about our business. However, they were not from people who were claiming they were ripped off. The majority of the calls were from people who, either wanted to call to arrange a local pickup, and thought that was our number or they had some sort of question about our company or an order.

We receive a large volume of mail every day. In the over 8 years we have been in business, our company has successfully dealt with well over 100,000 customers. Our sales come from several platforms. We don't exclusively utilize ebay only. We also use Amazon, Craigslist, our website, and several other platforms for our sales. We also do business offline. Our reputation is outstanding because we always take care of our customers.

However, every once in awhile you do run across some individuals who just cannot be pleased and they try to hurt you. This is what Richard is trying to accomplish at this point. If you are reading this page and you have an actual concern about dealing with our company, please feel free to email with any questions you may have and we would be happy to assist you.

Advice if you are having trouble with an order:

1. Contact the seller immediately. If the seller does not hear from you they do not know that you are having a problem. It is your responsibility as the buyer to inform the seller if you are having a problem with your order.
2. After you email about your problem, please allow up to 24 hours during normal work days for a response.
3. Once you receive a response, please remain patient and allow the seller to investigate your order.

In the unlikely event that you have a problem with our company, if you follow these steps you will be taken care of every time. I thank you for your time. I have no desire to carry on a dialogue with a man who has not paid. Therefore, this will be my one and only response on this forum. If you have any questions please feel free to email. Have a good day.