A German pensioner was sent an eclectic mix of goods including four boats, 12 bicycles and a mobile home after an impostor posing as the senior citizen spent € 400,000 ($477,000) on a series of eBay auctions in one night of shopping debauchery.

Horst Lukas from Iserlohn near Dortmund also supposedly ordered dozens of rock concert and football match tickets as a result of the bizarre hacking attack. Why he was targeted remains a mystery; but whether the pensioner was a victim of a shopaholic, a prankster or an incompetent fraudster is the least of his worries just now. Lukas is fielding dozens of complaints and even threats after refusing to take goods fraudulently ordered in his name.

"I am at the end of my tether. I've been cursed at in letters and emails because I haven't been in touch about my purchases or have sent things back," he said, Ananova reports. eBay Germany is to cancel the results of auctions supposedly won by Lukas. German police are investigating the case. ®

Related stories

• Mysterious 'Vladuz' again hacks eBay employee servers (23 February 2007)
• Two coppers nicked in uniforms-on-eBay probe (23 August 2006)
• eBayers banned for wrecking Live 8 ticket auctions (16 June 2005)
• World Cup 2006 organisers clash with eBay.de (25 April 2005)
• eBay trader arrested in missing DVDs probe (23 September 2003)
• The strange case of eBay, zippymilk and the missing DVDs (7 August 2003)