Hello, so a few days ago I got scammed 30 dollars from some guy online. He also sent me money from hacked paypal accounts which could gotten me in so much trouble. I didn’t know he was sending me money from those accounts and I refunded all of the money that was given to me.
I was wondering if I could report him to the fbi. I have a ton of screenshots of the chats we had on skype and the transactions we did on paypal and bitcoin. I tried reporting him on a forum we both go to, but the mods aren’t doing anything. I want to get this guy in serious trouble for stealing money from me and for getting me in trouble with paypal. He’s probably stealing money from other people.
I know this isn’t the right forum to even discuss about this but I just didn’t know what forum to go to. I just remember this forum because I posted one time years ago. I’m at my wits end.
But what about the hack paypal accounts he used to send me money that could have gotten me in serious trouble? Surely that has to be a big issue, since he’s hacking accounts and taking their money.
You could report him to Paypal and they would try to straighten things out with the account owners, sure. (I once had money stolen from my Paypal account by someone on another continent. I contacted Paypal, they investigated, they paid me back. They never said, but I’m pretty sure that they just ate the expense instead of anything actually happening to the thief.) But the FBI is busy chasing terrorists, smugglers, murderers, drug kingpins, etc. Your complaint would be way, way, way down on their list of priorities.
(ETA: I suspect that money being stolen from hacked Paypal accounts is something that happens literally every day, probably multiple times a day.)
Report him to your local police. May want to go in person and print (or write out) all the web site URL’s, user names, dates, screen shots, emails, etc. So they will have all the information needed to track down the person.
Then get a police case number. And then report it to paypal, etc. - Give them the police case number.
The thing is he’s probably not in the same area as me. I’m pretty sure he’s American since I heard him talk on skype. I have the emails of the paypal accounts that were sending money to me. I have screenshots of his skype profile, and the chats we had.
I’m personally afraid to call paypal about this because they could limit my account and not give a damn.
In a Jim Carrey Dumb and Dumber “So you’re saying there’s a chance” sense, yes. But not a realistic one.
Do you know where the scammer lives? Near you, or in a different state or country? Because the further away he is, the fewer authorities there are that can/will deal with it. (I’m imagining someone sitting in an internet cafe in Lagos.)
I don’t know to be honest. All I know that he’s american. Maybe if I find his ip address or something. Also I feel like he isn’t really all that bright despite scamming me.
That does not matter! Your local police are there for YOU. They can advise you on your best course of action.
Also businesses like Paypal, banks, charge card companies, etc. have services to PROTECT YOU from theft/fraud/crooks. There are there to HELP YOU!
I’ll give you some advice… “The squeaky wheel gets the grease!” That means if you complain far and wide (call anyone concerned with this issue and call them back to check on their progress), you are a LOT more likely to get resolution to you problem.
Don’t call anyone, then nothing will happen. Think about it!
Look, even if the guy gets away scot free (99.999% chance), you can still enjoy some decent karma (does one “enjoy” karma? prob not) in not everyone’s a dick by following upthread advice: report it somewhere to some authority, tell PayPal so you both know you’re not a dick, and perhaps they’ll cover it, a la Amex.
An interesting question arises if the OP has been doing things that Paypal might not exactly agree with.
The OP mentioned bitcoin in the same sentence. I don’t know anything about Paypal’s attitude to bitcoin dealers, but if they don’t approve of that and that’s what the OP was up to when he encountered the scammer then things might be more … complex … than we assume.
But absent something like that then yes, the OP ought to report any concerns to Paypal and let their process handle it. They know they’re a conduit for lots of scum and villainy. Some of which they’re willing to clean up after and try to prevent in the future. Some of which they’re not. But there’s no downside in asking.
I do assume that “no matter who you report it to” is not restricted to the FBI. As in the op title, ic3, the internet crime complaint center of the DOJ, is devoted to the internet fraud and in fact does look for such patterns and is interested broadly in “mass market fraud”. The DOJ recently had major action taken against perps engaged in mass mailing frauds, each one small, but in total “defrauded U.S. victims out of more than $29 million”
DOJ does care about many small frauds and does benefit from reports to build cases.
The local police will refuse to entertain your complaint, unless you have substantive evidence that the perp is living in your police jurisdiction and you are willing to do all the investigative work yourself and turn it over to the police or prosecutor. In all likelihood, they will read you a web address, and tell you go to online and file a complaint, probably through your state’s attorney general. If you do, you will never even get an acknowledgement.