Scammed on Ebay -- What can I do?
 

The amount was under $1000 (but close)

Paid with paypal, no paypal insurance.

The person had a decent feedback rating so I didn't bother with the insurance.

He's had the payment for nearly 3 weeks and doesn't respond to email.

I know he's received the emails because I threw an image in the last email sent to him & his access was logged :Graucho



I know:

-- his name
-- his valid home address
-- his telephone number
-- his internet provider
-- his IP.
-- His wife or ex-wifes name.


What are my options?

charge it back

technically speaking ebay did not scam you so your comments are LIBEL

just a thought :2 cents:

sue em

You're powerless, seriously.

I have a non-disposable paypal account.

Give him a call?

or drop by, with ummm a large baseball bat

Nah.... not at all.


I am just looking for legitimate legal options to threaten him with now that I know he's intentionally not responding.

Call the police station in his home town and file a report. I believe you can also file a report on the fbi site. You can also contact ebay, they used have a fraud clause where they give you up to $250. Also, make sure to fill out a bad report on him scamming you in the feedback.

A call to his local cops would be a good place to start.

kill him if he continues to fuck u over

I was kidding sue him or fuck his wife

Have... got the machine a couple times. Didn't leave a message yet (don't want to let on that I know his number yet)

I'll give him a 2am call tomorrow if he doesn't respond to the next email.

on eBay (referring to a seller on ebay), not BY ebay. :winkwink:

Best of luck. I really hope you get your money back. I know how irritating it can be when you think that you are getting something, but then find out you've been cheated. Good luck dude!

I don't think the cops will help, it's not a criminal matter. You should consult a lawyer and send off a legal letter to his address stating your intention to pusue the matter by civil recovery. That normally does the trick.

Legally he has just not completed his part of the contract, he has technically not stolen from you.

So long as he doesn't move in the next week, I guarantee I'll get my money or the item. I'm just curious about the various legal routes I can go.

Actually, the cops will help. They helped to get my money back when I was scammed. Also, they helped shut that guy down. Another friend of mine was able to get his money back by telling the person who scammed him that if he didn't have the money back in a couple hours that he was contacting the police in his home town and listed the name of the detective that was from his area. Also, threated to contact the postmaster general, fbi, ebay, and every other place possible. The guy sent his money back... My friend still contacted all of those places... Turns out that the scammer had been selling bogus concert tickets and soccer tickets.

That's different, that's selling illegal merchandise, which is a crime.

Legally I could ask a few bikers in his home town to drive their choppers up to his doorstep at 3am & ask him what the fucking problem is.

That's a bit of a pain in the ass for this amount though.

Maybe just a couple choppers. :winkwink:

Try to reach him, after try with the cops and if they say they cant help you go to a lawyer(and it will be not free)

Just incase there is any confusion let me explain.

If someone breaks into your property or steals your wallet, that is theft, it's a criminal offence and the police will arrest etc..

If you want to buy or sell something and enter into a verbal or written contract with somebody and one party does not follow that through it's not theft.

There could be many reasons why they could not complete their side of the contract and it's up to the civil courts to decide what action to take.

But not much of a thought, cause he never said ebay scammed him.

Look at the thread title:Graucho

Legal to call his & his wifes family members trying to 'track him down' and make sure nothing has happend to him (reciting the failed transaction to everyone as I go of course) ?? :Graucho


If he would have responded after seeing the email (which I know he saw because of the logs) -- then I wouldn't be being so aggressive about this.

But it's been nearly a month & I haven't gotten one reply from this guy over several emails.

Take off and nuke them from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.

Depends on local law's, often contacting somebody at a place of work about a debt is illegal.

He didn't say Ebay Scammed him, read the title! Scammed ON ebay!

Read next time!

jDoG

What is his info? We'll help tag team him. Maybe he lives near one of us and we can take a picture of his house to scare him.

Is it a debt? I am not a creditor.

Actually, he lives near you... ~30 mins away.

Well, give me his info. joseph4829 at yahoo.com

J.

it's not theft, but it is fraud.
the police will help. the fbi does have a form to fill out to report internet fraud.

i've been there, done that and succeeded in getting my money back.

next time, think a little before you pretend to run your mouth about things you know nothing about.

gobigtime, i'd suggest calling him first and discussing the matter with him. leave him a message if he's not home. advise him that if the merchandise isn't shipped within X amount of days with a tracking number as proof, you will exploit all your available options, including a paypal chargeback, an ebay fraud complaint, a call to his police department and a fraud report with the fbi. tell his machine if he isn't home.

most people will cough up the merchandise right away and give you a tracking number, or they'll refund you. if they don't, then exploit your options, one by one. start with the ones that have the least possible consequences to you (ie: contacting his police department)

find another auction he is running and email him from a hotmail/yahoo account and ask about the item. Like ship time, costs etc. Then ask for a phone # and you want to call him to chat before you bid.

Then call and chew his ass out.

Wow - This is the post with the most substance I have ever seen you make.

:thumbsup

Thanks for the offer Joseph.. I'll definitely keep it in mind. :thumbsup


I'm going to give the guy one more shot via email & 24 hours to reply now that I know he's getting the emails.

I would still rather have the item at this point - but my patience is wearing very thin.

Interesting, the truth is I don't know about that. It was a contract where you would give him money for his item, so him not giving you the item is a dept i would guess.

A dept doesn't necissarily have to be money so I think the laws for debt collection would still stand.

hahaha... you haven't seen some of my credit card related posts.

i work for visa customer service, so i kinda get carried away during visa topics.

I would love to send him a photo of his house with a little text on it that says:

"Is my _________ still in there somewhere or has it been shipped?"


The look on the guys face.. woo priceless.

NP. What city does he live in?

J.

your location states uk. the laws there are different from the us. stop giving him shit advice.

a creditor can call you at work about a debt if you've provided the creditor with your work phone number.

in a case like this, he is not a creditor. he is simply a buyer who is being frauded by a seller.

gobigtime, calling his family, relatives, etc. is sketchy grounds. he could technically call it harassment and press charges, although he'd have little to go on, especially if you're polite during the call. if you call from a payphone, he'd also have trouble proving it was you.

Lewisville.

Wrong, it's only fraud if you can PROVE in court that the person deliberatly set out to decive you and never intended to pay for the goods, or was running a scam of some kind.

As this issue stands the person has just not fulfilled their side of the contract.

Fuck, that's just 20 mins away. I'm aways going through there to play roller hockey in Denton.

Well I would want to recite the problem.. the failed transaction.

I'd blow my cover right away :)

if you make it seem like you're genuinely interested in his well being, there's not much they can say. especially if the calls aren't recorded.

this has nothing to do with someone not paying for goods. are you even reading the post?

the seller listed an auction, he was paid, and he failed to deliver the goods. that is fraud. i've been in gobigtime's shoes many times. i've filed police reports and fbi internet fraud reports and i've received refunds or my goods 9 times out of 10.

i know what i'm talking about.

Yes my location say's UK, that's why I said I didn't know about contacting his regarding the matter, I said it would depend on local laws.

I wanted to warn this person that there are often laws resricting the rights of somebody chasing a dept.

The US legal system varies so much from state to state I hardly think there's a huge difference between Criminal and Civil law between the US and UK.

It's simple you entered into a contract and the other person failed to honour that contract. There is nothing to lead anyone to presume at this stage that fraud has been commited.

Has he ever answered the phone?

Also, where do you live?