Whether his real name or an alias was used is only partially relevant. The police are your allies. Go to them in your town. They are connected and can get info. I know that fraud on the internet has become a huge issue so they have ramped up a lot of manpower to prosecute these slime. 300 bucks isn’t enough to spend a lot of time or money on. As someone pointed out, you were enticed to go around the system and now…
Most people get super pissed when they get burned like this but they let it go. Some people, obsessive psychopathic types who can not possibly bear being had, will be cunning enough to find him and wreak havoc on his life if not fold him back into the available nutrient pool.
Be assured that most people like your friendly merchant get bagged eventually. Small solace and a hard lesson.
I assumed he cashed the money order and there is at best a poorly scribbled signature on the back. I recomend going the official route but if you want to get him by yourself here are my thoughts on how you can get him on the 2nd transaction. Send him a personal check. This will only work if you don’t have a branch nearby him. He will have to cash it against his account - now you will have his account info and signature. You can see if the signatures match. Then again you rish doubling your losses.
Double or nothing?
Sorry couldn’t resist and sorry for your loss.
While the personal revenge ideas are slightly humorous, they’re stupid. Go the legal route. Take the high road.
In my opinion go to your local police department. That is what I did when I was scammed 6 months ago on eBay and in a week and a half the person had sent back the money in full with a written apology. Most police departments have divisions that deal in internet crime and have the skills/knowledge to get to the bottom of this.
With any luck your P.D. can be equally as helpful in getting your money back.
If not then go through other routes like reporting it to the FBI Interent Fraud (or somethine like that) Division. The Post Office also has a form you can fill out to report this as mail fraud as the Postal service was used to assist in the crime…and that is also illegal 
And if you cant get your money back then do everything you can to make his/her life miserable for a little. Although it might cost you…the personal satisfaction might be worth it 
Oh yeah, saw this and thought I could add my personal experience to this so I registered. First Post
I should call the police. There still the tool of the “man”. But i’m all grown up and i’m the “man” now. it’s time for them to work for me. i’m going to call them up today and report this f*cker. i’m also going to check out the usps web site and see whats there that i can use. does anyone know the email address of New York state’s attorney general? with any luck i’m going to be the obsessive psychopathic type who can not possibly bear being had person who gets this guy.
Here ya’ go:
For NYS agencies: http://www.state.ny.us/index.html
For NYC agencies: nyc.gov
BTW, does the guy live in Manhattan (New York, NY), or one of the other boroughs (Queens, Brooklyn, Bronx, Staten Isl.)?
he lives in place called east elmhurst. i think that’s in Queens, but i’m not sure.
Yes Elmhurst is in Queens, sorry I can’t offer you any advice on this topic because my knowledge on this subject is very slim. I do however hope that you catch this piece of crap :O)
-NHL
Just an update so far. I filed a report with the USPS for mail fraud. I also called my local police but they said they don’t want to even file a report until I get the copy of the money order back in the mail. The officer I talked to on the phone did not sound to encouraging. I also contacted all the people who left feedback on this guy on ebay for info. Before he scammed me he seemed to have bought some items on ebay. Out of about 12 people, 5 have emailed me back so far and only one had any info. It seems that the address he gave me to mail the money order to is the same address that he had the stuff he got from ebay mailed to. Good news I guess. Also one of the people said that they had the impression that he was a kid.
I have also filed a report with squaretrade, a mediator for ebay. Maybe they will have some luck.
Another update. I finally received the copy of the money order in the mail yesterday. On the back there are two names. The name I wrote the money order out to has the word son in parentheses. The name that the email account is under is written below the first with what looks like a bank account number. There’s also lots of rooting numbers on the back from the banks that it went through. I assume that the first person is the son and is to young to have a bank account or maybe just needed his dad’s sig. So, what do I do now?
Something like this happened to me once. I ordered a product off a website, sent them a money order, and the company never sent me the item. I repeatedly e-mailed them, mailed them, etc. but they never responded.
Then I discovered that mail fraud is a federal offence under US law. Because at least part of the business transaction took place by mail (i.e. I mailed them the money order and was expecting them to mail me the item), this qualifies as mail fraud. I went to the US postal inspector’s website at http://www.usps.gov/websites/depart/inspect/ and downloaded the forms to report mail fraud. I had to include a detailed description of the incident and provide all relevant documentation (receipt/copy of the money order, invoice, e-mail correspondence, etc.). I mailed it off and waited.
It must have worked because I received my product not too long afterwards! The postal inspector must have scared the miscreant company into submission.
As long as you have the correct address and a more or less correct name for the deadbeat, and provided you used the USPS at some point in this transaction, you might have similar luck. (I mailed my payment via Canada Post but of course it just gets handed over to the USPS at the border, so I still qualified.)
Regards,
Psy
We’ve already given you about half a dozen options. Why don’t you try some of them and then get back to us.
If you want to get serious, write the parents. I’m sure they don’t know he cheated you. Be nice, be polite. Tell them all you want is for him to send the item you bought.
You could even try something like, “I bought this from your son, and he hasn’t sent it yet. I realize he’s probably busy, and will send it eventually. But I’m anxious to get it. Could you please ask him to send it as soon as possible.”
It seems that you are overlooking one of your allies in this situation: the company that issued the money order. It is their responsiblity to ensure that the proper person cashed the money order. You believe that to be the case, but the intended recipient claims otherwise.
Why don’t you inform the company that the money order was cashed, but the person for whom it was intended claims to have never received it? Then ask them to refund your money. This should motivate them to determine what really happened. Their resources likely far exceed your own.