Saratoga - maybe OT - need legal advice

[cpdwiz]

All - thanks for the pointers.... The checks were mailed using Fedex as they requested (I assume Fedex will not open up any investigation based on your reply). I also know the bank they got deposited with their account number since I printed a copy of the checks from my online banking statement but I do not think that I can do anything with it.... Can I call the other bank to open an investigation?

I will look into posting to TUG (not sure how to do that) and find out more for office of consumer affair....

Contact your State Police. Most local departments do not have net investigation units. State does. Also, contact the local FBI office. My guess, you are not the 1st this has happened to by this person. There is still a slight hope of justice. Call today though.

 

[MamaKate]

Wow this is horrible .

I don't live that far from Ladera Ranch. If they would have given you a "good" address, I would have been happy to go bust out their windows for you (I'm just kidding everyone ).

Sorry this happened to you.

 

[kawanku]

mamakate - please don't bust other people windows.. it is criminal...LOL
wow - you guys are fun.... thanks to lighten up my day...
I google map the address - it is an office building and based on info from somebody else - all my fedex actually got sent to the UPS Store in that building.... unfortunately - can't do nothing at this point... wish I live there.... so I can go busting their windows with mamakate....

 

[Liljam]

A few of those things stood out to me too - holiday in stead f vacation threw me off, and the way he worded things seemed a bit "foreign." I read the whole thread before I posted, but I don't remember this so I'll ask... Does your bank have copies of the checks that were cashed to show signatures and where they were cleared? Every check that goes through my bank actually can be see FRONT and BACK on my online account. Can they trace that for starters? This is a serious matter. Wouldn't it be considered felony in most places? I'm certain it's worth your time to find someone to investigate this more! But good luck!

 

[kawanku]

liljam - yes, I do have a copy of front and back and - I have brought up to my bank attention to dispute the charge and they can't do anything for the following reasons:
- the signature was not forged
- I was not forced to write the check to this company

so basically the bank said, I am willingly to send these checks and authorized them as legal payment (there are no fraud involved with my physical checks)........ bummer...

 

[Brian Noble]

I think you have to resign yourself to the fact that this money is gone. Realistically, the best possible outcome at this point is that they are eventually caught and punished in a criminal proceeding.

 

[disneynutz]

The only way to try and track these people down is investigating their known information. Addresses, phone numbers, website, and email.

I would start with a small claims action using the known information as a defendant. Use the threat of a subpoena on the UPS Store manager/owner to obtain account info and patterns. Was the mail forwarded or is it picked up? If it's picked up they live in the area. Is the box still active?

You can also pay a small fee to do a reverse look up on the phone number with account information.

The question is do you want to take the time to pursue this? The a hole is betting that you won't and they will do this or other scams over and over until caught.

 

[kawanku]

All - I already be in peace in not getting the money back.... (still sucked but what you can do??). However, I haven't given up on the idea or reporting and following up... and I found more information today...
and I do need your help if you know....

Hi - for all of you expert in Ebay - I found somebody who also got scammed after I contacted the winner of one of this company rental week. She replied to me through Ebay but Ebay blocking my reply to her and I do not have her email address.

Can you tell me how to contact her?

This is partial msg from ebay:
We have determined you are trying to contact an eBay member with whom you are not currently involved in an open transaction. For the protection of the eBay community, we sometimes block these types of communication. To prevent this occurrence from happening in the future, we recommend the following


I have also tried to contact other member using the same venue - but Ebay blocking my email too.... It seems that if you don't have any transaction with that member you are not allowed to send them any msg... Please advise...



Thanks

 

[DisneyDreamers2007]

In the future, always use Paypal for any purchase transactions online (Ebay, Tug, or otherwise). Paypal is not that great at disputes, but using your credit card on Paypal will really insure your purchase, so this is the safest method.

Try emailing/calling Ebay to see if they can let you contact the other Ebay member. Also, you could try a round about method of trying to contact someone who has done business with them recently and see if they will contact them for you. If you PM me with the Ebay member's name, I will try to contact them for you too and will give them your email address.

I'm so sorry to hear that this happened to you.

 

[kawanku]

About Paypal -That is my bad also. I told him that I want to pay using Paypal but he told me that he can't do Paypal.....

I have PM'ed you about ebay..... thanks for your help...

 

[Horace Horsecollar]

About Paypal -That is my bad also. I told him that I want to pay using Paypal but he told me that he can't do Paypal.....

It seems that the crook was pretty smart about covering his tracks and eliminating some avenues of recourse. He wanted a check, not PayPal. And he wanted it sent by FedEx, not the US Postal Service.

I would think that he was also careful about hiding his true identity when signing up for his website, phone number, bank account, and UPS Store box -- using cash, a fake address, and fake identification.

He's probably scammed many other victims in the past, and he'll continue to cheat other people until he's caught.

We can only hope that the FBI will pursue this criminal. Let's hope the FBI can identify patterns or slip-ups that allow them to eventually put this guy behind bars.

 

[DisneyDreamers2007]

I'm allowed to send messages to those ebay users for you. Please read the PM I just sent you

 

[LIFERBABE]

Friday, Oct 17, 2008
Posted on Fri, Oct. 17, 2008
Ignore those suspicious e-mails, and send them to the feds



DAVE LIEBER

A retired Benbrook man received an e-mail this month from FBI Director Robert Mueller. Don Gerik says the top G-man asked for his help in recovering $10 million from Nigeria that was secretly deposited in an overseas bank account in his name. While the e-mail wanted his help, it also raised suspicions about him.
"If you are not a terrorist, then why did you not receive the money directly into your account?" it asked.

The e-mail showed the FBI’s J. Edgar Hoover Building in Washington, D.C., but the wording was often garbled and sometimes made no sense. Gerik noticed that the e-mail’s display address was robertmueller@fbi.gov, but the reply-to address shows that an answer would go somewhere else.

His gut told him that an FBI director wouldn’t be e-mailing him if he was suspected of laundering millions of dollars overseas for terrorist operations.

"I would think the FBI would be knocking on my door instead of sending me an e-mail," he said.

Fake FBI scams are well-documented on the Internet. The best source, of course, is the FBI, obviously unhappy that scammers are co-opting its name.

The FBI steers inquiries about cyber-related crimes to its partner agency, the Internet Crime Complaint Center (known as IC3). The public is asked to forward fraudulent spam e-mails and other suspected illegal Internet activity so investigators can study and catalog them.

This year, IC3 sent an "Intelligence Note" advisory to law enforcement agencies and the public warning about fake e-mails that "give the appearance of legitimacy due to the usage of pictures of the FBI Director, seal, letterhead and banners." In bold lettering, the advisory stated, "THE FBI DOES NOT SEND EMAILS SOLICITING INFORMATION FROM CITIZENS."

The Watchdog asked Kevin Kolbye, assistant special-agent-in-charge of the Dallas office, to examine the Benbrook man’s e-mail. Kolbye quickly found errors:

The FBI does not send out letters endorsing financial schemes.

The letter claims to come from the FBI’s "Anti-Terrorist and Monitary Division." Kolbye says there is no such division.

Other references to organizations and methods are made up, such as S.T.D.P., which the e-mail claims stands for Secret Diplomatic Payments, the FBI Bank Commission for Europe and the World Wide Commission. None of these exist.

The FBI agent suggested that anyone receiving the e-mail could do Internet searches for the above references and quickly learn that the note has no credibility.

The goal of an e-mail like this is to solicit personal information such as name, address, bank account number and routing number, which allows money to be removed from someone’s bank account.

"On average, we’re receiving about 20,000 complaints a month that have to do with e-mail scams, identity theft, auction frauds and other cyber-related crimes," Kolbye said of IC3, which works with other police agencies to prosecute.

Gerik, the Benbrook retiree, is off the hook. No, the FBI is not coming after him. But others get unnerved when something like this arrives in their inbox.

When enough complaints pile up, IC3 starts an investigation. The key is building the number of complaints to attract investigators’ attention.

The investigators at www.ic3.gov want to know who is bothering you. Believe it or not, there are people who actually want you to forward your worst spam to them.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

What to do
Forward troubling e-mails to www.ic3.gov. You can also reach the Internet Crime Complaint Center through www.fbi.gov.

Remember that if the opportunity appears too good to be true, it usually is.

Never reply to e-mails asking for banking information.

Be wary of individuals representing themselves as foreign government officials. Be cautious when dealing with individuals outside the country.

Beware when asked to assist in placing large sums of money in overseas bank accounts. Do not believe the promise of money for your cooperation.

Source: Internet Crime Complaint Center

 

[8mma]

Like my mom always said "If it sounds too good to be true..."

 

[dudelydude]

Hey 8mma,

Thanks for chiming-in about 5 months after the fact. I know you are still earning your ears, so I won't goof with you too much. If you look at the top left-hand corner of the posts, you will see the date when people posted. This post started and ended last October. Some posts do last for a long time, but this particular one ended shortly after it finished.

Good Luck on the DIS....it can be an incredibly useful tool.

 

[DVCGeek]

dudelydude - since this has been bumped now by 8mma, I'll also add that it's possible kawanku has (or will) hear more from the legal investigations he tried to get started. So despite this being several months old there still may be new content on the horizion.

kawanku, sorry to hear this happened to you. OUCH on the $. Best wishes!

 

[SunnieRN]

Darn!!! My daughter is mytwoboys. When I saw this I was hoping the op had a resolution in this case.
We saw Daniels ad on Ebay and at least one other person got scammed in addition to the op. We bid on the week and lost. The ad was for a 2 bd. Well low and behold, my daughter got an email from Daniel. It said "I have a second 2 bedroom available for that same week. Are you interested?"
We talked to Daniel a few times. Well Daniel apparantly had several weeks available. He said he was a broker for people who couldn't use weeks they had booked, both through Disney and II.
He also gave us the fed ex spiel. I called my bank (happens to be the same bank he uses) and asked what protection I would have if I didn't get the product I was promised, (the reservation), They told me they could only honor a stop payment. Once the check cleared, I was out of luck. By the way, we were going to rent a 1 bedroom from him for $1500 for the week. We took a chance as he said we would have a confirmation number within 48 hours. Well we got a confirmation number, it was bogus, so I put a stop payment on the check, called Daniel and then reported him to ebay. Ebay couldn't do anything however as the transaction didn't take place on ebay, only contact from ebay. I often wonder if he is still out there duping other people.
It was interesting as I sent the fed ex letter to require a signature. It wasn't signed for by Daniel and he called me about 5 days after I called him to cancel and asked why I hadn't ever sent him a check....Doh... I not only sent you a check, I called you and cancelled. "Oh," he says, "Did you want another week instead?"
"Ahhh no.....I'm the one who tried to report you to ebay after you gave me a fake confirmation number."
I then got another call from him about a month later asking me what I wanted him to do with my check. "Should I return it to you?"
So not only is he a thief, he is a stupid and confused thief as well.
Hope the op got resolution, however I seriously doubt that unfortunately.

 

[dianeschlicht]

Darn!!! My daughter is mytwoboys. When I saw this I was hoping the op had a resolution in this case.
We saw Daniels ad on Ebay and at least one other person got scammed in addition to the op. We bid on the week and lost. The ad was for a 2 bd. Well low and behold, my daughter got an email from Daniel. It said "I have a second 2 bedroom available for that same week. Are you interested?"
We talked to Daniel a few times. Well Daniel apparantly had several weeks available. He said he was a broker for people who couldn't use weeks they had booked, both through Disney and II.
He also gave us the fed ex spiel. I called my bank (happens to be the same bank he uses) and asked what protection I would have if I didn't get the product I was promised, (the reservation), They told me they could only honor a stop payment. Once the check cleared, I was out of luck. By the way, we were going to rent a 1 bedroom from him for $1500 for the week. We took a chance as he said we would have a confirmation number within 48 hours. Well we got a confirmation number, it was bogus, so I put a stop payment on the check, called Daniel and then reported him to ebay. Ebay couldn't do anything however as the transaction didn't take place on ebay, only contact from ebay. I often wonder if he is still out there duping other people.
It was interesting as I sent the fed ex letter to require a signature. It wasn't signed for by Daniel and he called me about 5 days after I called him to cancel and asked why I hadn't ever sent him a check....Doh... I not only sent you a check, I called you and cancelled. "Oh," he says, "Did you want another week instead?"
"Ahhh no.....I'm the one who tried to report you to ebay after you gave me a fake confirmation number."
I then got another call from him about a month later asking me what I wanted him to do with my check. "Should I return it to you?"
So not only is he a thief, he is a stupid and confused thief as well.
Hope the op got resolution, however I seriously doubt that unfortunately.

Holy Cow! Sounds like the scam artist hasn't been caught yet, so dumb or not...he's getting away with it!

 

[DVCGeek]

I then got another call from him about a month later asking me what I wanted him to do with my check. "Should I return it to you?"
So not only is he a thief, he is a stupid and confused thief as well.
Hope the op got resolution, however I seriously doubt that unfortunately.

If you got it returned (and didn't touch it once back in your possession), I wonder if it would have fingerprints (or maybe be sent USPS since a stamp is cheaper than FedEx?) that law enforcement could use...

 

[SunnieRN]

If you got it returned (and didn't touch it once back in your possession), I wonder if it would have fingerprints (or maybe be sent USPS since a stamp is cheaper than FedEx?) that law enforcement could use...

I never got it back. He called me with a number that came up "unknown name" so I couldn't even trace him that way. When this all occured we were talking to the op. We tried to help him several ways, including telling Daniel we had changed our minds and wanted to rent from him after all. Unfortunately that is when he disappeared, until the last call I got from him about the check Very bizarre and I hope Karma bites him where the sun doesn't shine!!!!