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I'm an idiot, ended up getting frauded. Ideas?
- Thread starter jpcody
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http://member.dnsstuff.com/pages/tools.php?ptype=free give that a shot. Its the one in the top left.
EDIT: Also chances are all the info you will get is the ISP name. You would have to contact the ISP to get an address.
Can you not use network utility in the Utilities folder in the Applications folder for this? I can't remember for sure, though, as I'm not sitting in front of my Mac right now.
Hire a private detective.
It will cost you about $200 but they will get the address, telephone numbers, family telephone numbers of the guy. They may even call the police and turn up at this guy's door. The police are willing to work with a PI if the PI has hard evidence.
It will cost you about $200 but they will get the address, telephone numbers, family telephone numbers of the guy. They may even call the police and turn up at this guy's door. The police are willing to work with a PI if the PI has hard evidence.
First I find humor in the OP's continual claims that the police are adverse to work, do not know how to use the internet, and do not care. The basis of these claims tells me that the OP has a sense of entitlement that is a bit larger than most. The police will priorotize the claims as necessary because as they may appaer to be adverse to work, internet, etc. they're also understaffed and overworked, he must be adverse to understanding or attempting to understand his community's current police state.
The original post reads as though the OP is shocked this happened to him. I am not and frankly I believe there is enough information on the internet that would support why it is impossibly stupid to send money to someone for a local purchase. Craigslist starts off by saying that you should deal locally. This isn't an avert to promote the use of their site. Unfortunately, much like the claim that the police or whomever he was dealing with does not know how to use the internet it is clear the OP is a bit confused too. A simple Google search was seriously helpful and could have prevented the scam from ever taking place.
OP, I hope you get your money back but I seriously hope you get it back because the police helped. Perhaps that will allow you to invent some sort of appreciation for law enforcement.
The original post reads as though the OP is shocked this happened to him. I am not and frankly I believe there is enough information on the internet that would support why it is impossibly stupid to send money to someone for a local purchase. Craigslist starts off by saying that you should deal locally. This isn't an avert to promote the use of their site. Unfortunately, much like the claim that the police or whomever he was dealing with does not know how to use the internet it is clear the OP is a bit confused too. A simple Google search was seriously helpful and could have prevented the scam from ever taking place.
OP, I hope you get your money back but I seriously hope you get it back because the police helped. Perhaps that will allow you to invent some sort of appreciation for law enforcement.
Why police won't do anything?
Maybe I'm missing something here, but I've seen police do some pretty strange things, and it's not from sloth. My friend had a car stolen. After a couple weeks they caught the kids who took it. The police let them go without charging anyone. Why? Keys were in the car. He had left the doors unlocked (common practice to keep windows intact) and the keys in the center console (not common practice, oops). All the kids had to do was say the they were borrowing it from their "friend" and that he was pissed off at them and trying to get back at them.
Where does this leave you? Say the police find this guy? So what? He could say he gave you the computer, or that you owed him the money and this computer thing was a scam you were working. Did he use his real name? Of course not. With a fake ID, there's no way to trace him to the money with any real evidence. The combinations are almost endless, and they all end with the police doing a lot of work for nothing. Hope the PI can help. Realize, the trail could lead to someone innocent being set up to look like the crook, or crook could claim he was????
Maybe I'm missing something here, but I've seen police do some pretty strange things, and it's not from sloth. My friend had a car stolen. After a couple weeks they caught the kids who took it. The police let them go without charging anyone. Why? Keys were in the car. He had left the doors unlocked (common practice to keep windows intact) and the keys in the center console (not common practice, oops). All the kids had to do was say the they were borrowing it from their "friend" and that he was pissed off at them and trying to get back at them.
Where does this leave you? Say the police find this guy? So what? He could say he gave you the computer, or that you owed him the money and this computer thing was a scam you were working. Did he use his real name? Of course not. With a fake ID, there's no way to trace him to the money with any real evidence. The combinations are almost endless, and they all end with the police doing a lot of work for nothing. Hope the PI can help. Realize, the trail could lead to someone innocent being set up to look like the crook, or crook could claim he was????
Hmm. Where to begin. While I see your point, I think the bottom line is this: OP admitted he did something stupid. But a crime has taken place. In a country where we cannot take the law into our own hands without significant risk, we rely on law enforcement. If they fail to respond due to overwork, understaffed, etc. there is a serious problem that needs to be acknowledged. The problem is justice cannot be served. Personally i would have no problem with the OP tracking down the scammer and getting his money back even if he needed to break a few fingers, but the overworked, understaffed Police would probably reprioritize this incident and take action.
An alleged crime has taken place. Or not, depending whether it falls under mail fraud statutes (or impersonation, or something) or not - if not, it may only be a civil breach of contract, and the police do not enforce that.
Also, to the police, the OP could just as easily be a scammer trying to get money back for a machine they actually received.
No argument there. I am assuming OP is telling the truth and I see no reason to assume otherwise. You raise a good point regarding the He said, She said problem here. How to prove you never received the merchandise or from the sellers viewpoint, that buyer did receive the merchandise? Once again, assuming OP is telling the truth, if the "scammer" used a false ID that would seem to hint at something not so upfront in this transaction.
Don't forget the civil aspect of the law - you can sue this guy for fraud. Depending on your state you may or may not be in "small claims" or "limited civil" court - probably the latter - and if you are competent, organized person who can read confusing instructions, you won't need a lawyer. Go to the web site for the state court in your county and look for information on "how to file a claim." Also, local legal services organizations may be able to help you, contact the state bar association and the state attorney general's office for info.
You don't need much information about him, it sounds like you have plenty to make out a valid complaint, and you can use the pending lawsuit to get more information--the most valuable thing this gets you initially is that you probably will be able to subpoena the information from his employer and ISP. That, and the fact that when you do find him, you can serve this guy with summons and complaint, which is very intimidating.
This is also probably the only way you are going to get your money back, but what's more, you may be able to obtain damages for more than just the $1,600 - fraud is good for that. Expect to shell a few hundred bucks, that you might not get back, but you'll learn something about the legal system, and you very well might get all of your money back.
And to the flamers who are about to jump in and accuse me of contributing to our litigation happy culture, please suggest a better alternative for our friend here, preferably one that doesn't involve violence or letting the con man get away with it (and undoubtedly prey on others).
You don't need much information about him, it sounds like you have plenty to make out a valid complaint, and you can use the pending lawsuit to get more information--the most valuable thing this gets you initially is that you probably will be able to subpoena the information from his employer and ISP. That, and the fact that when you do find him, you can serve this guy with summons and complaint, which is very intimidating.
This is also probably the only way you are going to get your money back, but what's more, you may be able to obtain damages for more than just the $1,600 - fraud is good for that. Expect to shell a few hundred bucks, that you might not get back, but you'll learn something about the legal system, and you very well might get all of your money back.
And to the flamers who are about to jump in and accuse me of contributing to our litigation happy culture, please suggest a better alternative for our friend here, preferably one that doesn't involve violence or letting the con man get away with it (and undoubtedly prey on others).
Sorry for my lack of a response; I thought the thread had died out.
@jessica...Firstly, I apologize for possibly offending you with my negativity towards law enforcement. I'm incredibly appreciative of the job they do and the effort they put in to helping individuals. I had simply dealt with two officers who refused to help. Secondly, from time to time, intelligent people are affected by circumstances and poor judgment, and they make bad decisions. While your piling on in regards to my error might have seemed helpful, it was not at all. Even a little.
@canadaRAM...While I understand your point, for the sake of the thread and any future advice, I would like to assure anyone who could possibly help me that this is not the case. I legitimately am seeking ways to recover my loss. I'm a student planning to get married over the summer, and 1600 dollars is far from pocket change.
@notyourlawyer...Do you know of any resources where to begin in a civil suit?
As for an update, after not hearing from my detective for a week, he finally answered the phone today. He hasn't been able to investigate the things I provided him, but he does say that this individual has some other issues with the law.
Does my choice to investigate through law enforcement prevent me from pursuing some sort of civil suit until the investigation is complete? I'm not a fan of using the legal system unless it is necessary, but I feel I might never see this money again without it.
Any advice on where to start would be greatly appreciated.
@jessica...Firstly, I apologize for possibly offending you with my negativity towards law enforcement. I'm incredibly appreciative of the job they do and the effort they put in to helping individuals. I had simply dealt with two officers who refused to help. Secondly, from time to time, intelligent people are affected by circumstances and poor judgment, and they make bad decisions. While your piling on in regards to my error might have seemed helpful, it was not at all. Even a little.
@canadaRAM...While I understand your point, for the sake of the thread and any future advice, I would like to assure anyone who could possibly help me that this is not the case. I legitimately am seeking ways to recover my loss. I'm a student planning to get married over the summer, and 1600 dollars is far from pocket change.
@notyourlawyer...Do you know of any resources where to begin in a civil suit?
As for an update, after not hearing from my detective for a week, he finally answered the phone today. He hasn't been able to investigate the things I provided him, but he does say that this individual has some other issues with the law.
Does my choice to investigate through law enforcement prevent me from pursuing some sort of civil suit until the investigation is complete? I'm not a fan of using the legal system unless it is necessary, but I feel I might never see this money again without it.
Any advice on where to start would be greatly appreciated.
I just wanted to applaud your tact in this response. You seem like a humble person who had a lapse in judgement and immediately acknowledged it, rather than placing all of the blame elsewhere. Sorry to see you getting punished for what amounts to your being a little too trusting and I hope that this somehow pans out for you.
Successful criminals are often very consistent in their modus operandi. Yours is obviously successful, because he's now smoking $1600 worth of crack, thanks to you. So use his consistency to your advantage. Set-up some kind of "alert" via Google (or any other...) to look for the same key words in the same order, in future postings. He'll probably change to a new Hotmail address, so don't bother Googling it. But if he said something like "I need to sell this fast because my grandmother just found out she's got cancer", set-up an alert for "sell this fast" + "grandmother" + "cancer". Limit it to Craigslist if you want. But sooner or later, your scammer will be advertising his boat, or ATV, or camper trailer, because he needs to "sell this fast" because his "grandmother" just found out that she has "cancer". Start corresponding with him and you'll find out pretty quickly if it's the same scammer. Then lead him into a trap of your own choosing. Fun fun fun!!! 
There is a big legal grey-area that makes this type of allegation very difficult to investigate. By any practical definition, a Fraud involves intentional misrepresentation. You are a victim of a fraud if someone promises something that they have no intention or ability to deliver. A Civil Breach of Contract, on the other hand, assumes that both parties were honestly trying to live-up to their end of the deal, but for whatever reason one was not satisfied with the other's results. And because it's related to the other two, Theft by Conversion means that you've borrowed or rented something and are unable to return it as per your rental agreement (in practise most often because you've pawned it for crack.) In order to lay a Fraud charge, for example, the investigator must be convinced that the accused party had absolutely no intention of delivering what he promised, or an inability to deliver what he promised. And that is a very difficult decision to make, especially if you are not able to even tell the investigator who the suspect is. So yeah, live and learn.
I don't trust the police in my area. I've had so many bad experiences with them for no reason at all that I won't even begin to post them here. I'm not surprised that you had a hard time finding someone to help you.
I deal a lot on Craigslist and I can't believe you sent out a money order. That's really unfortunately but I guess sometimes things like that are going to happen. I hope you get retribution because that was a lot of money!
I deal a lot on Craigslist and I can't believe you sent out a money order. That's really unfortunately but I guess sometimes things like that are going to happen. I hope you get retribution because that was a lot of money!
What I did... (That worked)
I got scammed on ebay over a 1TB drive... back when they cost over 1000, i won one on ebay for 500 (seller with 0 feedback, my poor judgement). dude never sent it... ebay wasn't too helpful, so I wrote to the attorney general's office of my state (and his), as well as the better business bureau. I also contacted The Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) at http://www.ic3.gov/ ... Basically any site that came up to report internet fraud via google, I used, and, well, doing that got "the man" at my scammer's door and I guess he freaked out and finally sent me the drive, which I am still using today. I think it was some college kid trying to rip me off, but when the law showed up at his house, and his parent's businesses (as he told me), he got ahold of me literally begging me to call of the dogs, as it were, and making excuses... He said he'd already sent the drive (but somehow had no problem immediately sending me another?)
Uh huh!
Anyway, I'd try calling out these agencies on him, it worked for me! Best of luck!
And hopefully others will read this and learn from your mistake at least!
There's a reason why at the top of every craigslist for sale page it says:
"Beware any deal involving Western Union, Moneygram, wire transfer, cashier check, money order, shipping, escrow, or any promise of transaction protection/certification/guarantee."
I got scammed on ebay over a 1TB drive... back when they cost over 1000, i won one on ebay for 500 (seller with 0 feedback, my poor judgement). dude never sent it... ebay wasn't too helpful, so I wrote to the attorney general's office of my state (and his), as well as the better business bureau. I also contacted The Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) at http://www.ic3.gov/ ... Basically any site that came up to report internet fraud via google, I used, and, well, doing that got "the man" at my scammer's door and I guess he freaked out and finally sent me the drive, which I am still using today. I think it was some college kid trying to rip me off, but when the law showed up at his house, and his parent's businesses (as he told me), he got ahold of me literally begging me to call of the dogs, as it were, and making excuses... He said he'd already sent the drive (but somehow had no problem immediately sending me another?)
Uh huh! Anyway, I'd try calling out these agencies on him, it worked for me! Best of luck!
And hopefully others will read this and learn from your mistake at least!
There's a reason why at the top of every craigslist for sale page it says:
"Beware any deal involving Western Union, Moneygram, wire transfer, cashier check, money order, shipping, escrow, or any promise of transaction protection/certification/guarantee."
I was scammed for a much lesser amount probably 10 years ago. The way I found his address/social security/drivers license number was simply by explaining my situation to a helpful customer service rep where the guy cashed my MO. She gave me all his information and I was able to track him down.
In the end, he got away - as he lived half way across the US and the amount of money he scammed me of wasn't enough for me to pursue him.
I am very surprised that you never got his address/info. After confirming that MO belonged to you, they should have no problem telling you the info of the person that cashed your check. In fact, you can usually get a copy of the money order that will probably have atleast some info about him on it.
Sorry about your loss - we all make mistakes. All that's important is that we learn from them.
Jeez, why don't people read the information on top of CL pages, such as:
Avoiding Scams & Fraud
http://www.craigslist.org/about/scams
Avoiding Scams & Fraud
http://www.craigslist.org/about/scams
Had a quick scan through the OP's Twitter link (see OP) to see if he updated how he got on.
Conclusion: My god twitter is a tedious load of bollocks!!!
@Consultant. I think the OP acknowledged his mistake at some great length in all the posts before yours.
Conclusion: My god twitter is a tedious load of bollocks!!!
@Consultant. I think the OP acknowledged his mistake at some great length in all the posts before yours.
just following up...
If you're still looking to pursue this, I have a couple ideas. You said upthread that the cops told you that the perp has had previous trouble with the law. Even with something as small as a traffic ticket, if you know the jurisdiction, you can find his address. Since you know the name, simply go online to the county where he lives and look for the criminal courts page. Almost all of them have search functions. It should pull up any issues that person had with the law with their address. If not, once you have the ticket number or identifying information from the citation, go down to the police station and ask them to pull the arrest record. It's a public record, and they will provide you the info.
Then, you have the most recent address for him or her.
If you're still looking to pursue this, I have a couple ideas. You said upthread that the cops told you that the perp has had previous trouble with the law. Even with something as small as a traffic ticket, if you know the jurisdiction, you can find his address. Since you know the name, simply go online to the county where he lives and look for the criminal courts page. Almost all of them have search functions. It should pull up any issues that person had with the law with their address. If not, once you have the ticket number or identifying information from the citation, go down to the police station and ask them to pull the arrest record. It's a public record, and they will provide you the info.
Then, you have the most recent address for him or her.
And if you read the thread, you'd see that this guy has already taken disproportionate abuse for a mistake he already admitted with humility. For goodness sake, look at the thread's title.
File a police report. It will be necessary in order for any investigation
whether by yourself or any law enforcement entity. With what you have
you have a decent chance for some sort of satisfaction.
Also, watch Craigslist for similar ads. Odds are they do it on a regular basis.
whether by yourself or any law enforcement entity. With what you have
you have a decent chance for some sort of satisfaction.
Also, watch Craigslist for similar ads. Odds are they do it on a regular basis.