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I Got Scammed: Any Ideas?

R

rogers106

macrumors member
Original poster
Sep 8, 2008
40
0
Vermont
Hey guys,

I'm an idiot.

I found an ad for a first generation iPhone on Craigslist and went through the whole e-mail negotiations only to find that we couldn't come up with a good place to meet.

I ended up mailing a personal bank check to this person, who deposited it in their account and mailed me a dummy iPhone (non-working, display model).

I have the following information on the person: their name and their address. They are (unfortunately) located ~200 miles away.

I know, I know... stupid, stupid.

Is there anything I can do? Anyone run into this before? Or am I pretty much S.O.L.?
 
Are the police the ones to call for internet things like this? (Can they actually do anything for me?)
 
rogers106 said:
Are the police the ones to call for internet things like this? (Can they actually do anything for me?)
Click to expand...

Fraud is fraud.

It's still a crime, whether the police can be bothered to do anything is a different matter.
 
call the police and take them to his address, do a reverse lookup and get his phone number and tell him to send your money back or the police will be contacted. but yeah that was really not a good idea. it's actually probably a good thing you didn't meet in person b/c he probably would have jacked you and you would not only have a dummy phone but a hospital bill to go with it.
 
You should be able to cancel the check or do a bank reversal on the funds. Call your bank, file a police report... you'll have your money back in no time. If he's really only 200 miles away, you probably share the same overall police department and they'll pick him up for fraud.
 
wow. a 200 mile drive wouldn't take all day :)
go there with a copy of all your emails and details and go straight to the local police station.
 
You can track through your bank, where it was cashed and by who. If they used their account to deposit it (its possible) then they can track the person and police can work on a fraud angle. Either way, make a police report.
 
Even though you don't get your cheques returned, all banks have fiche, or something similar, for all cleared items.

Call the police, they will trace the account from your cancelled cheque, and, hopefully, put some "pressure" on the depositor to return your money.
 
Personally, after calling the police, I'd drive on his house with bricks and do $500 worth of damage to his house and car.


I absolutely hate scams, and scammers. He'll just keep doing it because he'll keep making money on it. Just make sure he doesn't make money on it this time.
 
......then again the guy could just say he mailed him a real iPhone & that it is the OP who is trying to scam ...just a thought .


Best bet is to go to your bank with copies of all email , the display iPhone etc etc and explain the situation.

don't fancy your chances mind but best luck all the same .
 
I'd file a police report, providing where you mailed it and also contact the bank as well.
 
6a00d83451c83e69e200e553eed1d58834-800wi


Time for Judy Justice.
 
kellen said:
Nice. Way to advertise in a not so obvious way. I wonder if they are a full member or not.
Click to expand...

This is actually fairly common. Real people register and look for relevant threads to post their spam in. A good way to catch them is to look at their join date and their other posts.
 
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