Fraud Victim advice

[David]

I agree that if your facts are accurate filing a police report is a good idea. Also, if the suspect lost and never paid a small claims court judgment, that won't look good on his record. At the least, it won't help his credit rating.

[David]

One reason you file legitimate claims is that it helps serves as notice for future people who are either wondering whether or not to do business or have their own legal problems with the person. If a person is stealing items and selling stolen goods, this is information future honest customers and businesses would want to be aware of.

[jppopma]

Sadly the criminal court system has the same issues as any civil court. Even if you do get a good felony charge laid on this other person (which will be very difficult), what will compell the person to appear in court? If this guy is a fraud, he likely has plenty of warrants from being the dirtbag he is---so what is another warrant from another state that he will never be picked up on?

From a police standpoint, we do not like getting involved in the messy civil matters. I'm not saying this is strickly civil, but odds are that you may hear that. If the suspect is out of state, the investigsator will try to call but has no other way to follow up and complete the investigation. I have been victim before myself, and ran into the same walls.

Unfortunately, I do not know enough civil law to know if a court can order garnishment of an out of state defendant or not. At least if they could do that, you can win by default and get your money back.

You can try one or both, and I wish you the best with them all. Let us know how it all turns out. If all else fails, vintagedeputy may live nearby the fraud and pay him a visit.

[10thMan]

Mike, FIGHT!!! I wouldn`t, or won`t hesitate to File a Police Report, or do whatever it takes. If they don`t get in trouble now, it WILL catch up to them leaving a "paper trail"

I`m aware it`s a pain to do, but Hammer the guy anyway you can, I know I do. The "Oldschool" approach really opens their Eyes, or Closes them if your Tough.

Let us know,
Sean

[karamaxjoe]

Here's a feel good story for your Tuesday morning!

If you've read this thread before you know I had been srewed on an ebay transaction with a paypal chargeback. Basically I sold a jersey, received payment through paypal, buyer filed a chargeback and I was out the money and the jersey. Turns out the buyer opened an account with a stolen credit card number.

I filed a complaint through the buyers local PD and yesterday the jersey showed up in my mailbox. I've attached the letter below for your reading pleasure. You've got to love the line about the two detectives showing up at his door.

In closing I'd say to never give up when the crooks screw you out of something. I never thought the cops would help, but they did.

[yanks12025]

Mike,
Same thing right now for a me, i bought an item and he sold it to someone else and i have yet to get my money back. So i called his local police and they want me to write a statement about what happened and send any proof to them and then they will go from their, i hope they will tell him that he has 3 days to give me my money back or ill press charges.

[Fraudfinder!!]

That is good news.

As I said in a previous post, a call from a detective usually will motivate the bad guy to come clean. To have two of them show up at your door is even better. I attended a conference last week with Ebay/Paypal dealing strickly with law enforcement and what they offer to police agencies. More and more law enforcement agencies are investigating these types of crimes and not calling them "civil problems". The Ebay Fruad Division is not perfect but they are at least getting the word out to police on what they offer as far as supplementing a police investigation. It is up to law enforcement now to take these complaints more seriously.

[Fnazxc0114]

i had someone hack into my paypal account and they stol 900 dollars from it. two days after this happened i got a blank cd sent to me overnight. the guy who stole from me was covering his tracks. luckily paypal found in my favor and refunded the money.