been reading up here alot and there’s tons of info i’ve learned 
now i have a question about auction fraud. my sister was victimized on an auction site for over $1k for a laptop. she sent the money to a po box a month ago and has not had any contact w/ the seller since then. what can an attorney do for her? she’s contacted the the us postal service, but who knows how long that will take to get rolling? all she has is an old address, email address, and that po box address.
thanks!
Report is at once to the proper authorities!!! Be it the police, an attorney whom ever.
Who has your sister been victimized by? Not e-Bay I hope?
I use e-Bay quite often and have never had a problem with pay-pal.
Do as much research as you can into the site and find out who is running things…webmaster, etc…etc…
Good luck and welcome to the boards!!!
yahoo auctions. i’m just wondering what an attorney can actually do in this case. sue? i was told that she would have a more difficult time b/c it was sent to a po box.
any other help?
thanks…
if she paid by CC, she can dispute the charge - IIRC, she has 30 days.
if she sent cash or equivalent, she should be in the same state as the seller. a lawyer can explain the details, but it’s a jurisdictional thing, and interstate criminal prosecution for fraud is more than a $1K’s worth of trouble for the prosecutor.
hmmmm… she paid by cashiers check. also, the seller is out of state (my sis is in illinois and the seller is in CA). are you saying that interstate criminal prosecution for fraud would not be worth a $1k claim?
thanks a bunch!
ooops! FYI, that’s me (dfarrales) that just posted as “tyscobe”. i forgot to log out of my roommate’s profile
Welcome to the Real World[sup]TM[/sup]
sorry
It’s possible (but perhaps too late now) to stop payment on a cashier’s check (cite pdf) but I wouldn’t try it without a lawyer (plus the bank might want a bond for double the check amount to protect itself; ouch).
Perhaps you could have a chat with the friendly people at the bank about the fraud? Maybe you could score some information about the fraudster (i.e., what’s been printed on the cashier’s check if it’s been presented at the bank) you didn’t have before.
-AmbushBug
How long did you wait to see if she got this laptop? Did you email the person? Did they reply? Are they on vacation? Did you try calling them? Did you check to see if the order was cashed? It has a tracking nbr for this.
Otherwise call the police in the city of the person with the laptop & talk to them, they probably investigate it if its more than $250 (they told me that once).
I know people who do this but I just cannot understand how someone can send such large amounts of $$$$ to people they don’t know for a product that they haven’t seen and are taking the sellers word for it. It seems so ripe for fraud.
Heck, only somewhat recently have I trusted companies and I only pay by credit card so I can dispute the charge. If I haven’t received the product very quickly after they say I should or it gets close to 30 days, I dispute no matter what.
There is a coworker here that ordered used Bowes (SP?) speakers for several hundred dollars. Everything worked fine so he was ok but I asked him what would have happened if they weren’t (broken, not Bowes, not sent) and he just shrugged his shoulders and said it never happened. If it did, he would be screwed. I would think, at minimum, the money should be held by a third party till the buyer agrees the seller didn’t lie.
One thing she should do is file a complaint at the Internet Fraud Complaint Center http://www1.ifccfbi.gov/index.asp
The complaint will be forwarded to her local cops and to the police where the seller lives.
I can’t guarantee a useful response (depends on local laws and the time law enforcement has available to put into the case) but it can be handled. I’ve had a few complaints like this referred to me, and I’ve been able to recover the property or the money in each case.
it’s been about 3 weeks now since she sent the cashiers check. i believe she’s trying to get a copy of that check right now, but i really doubt the bank will give any info about their customer. my sis has had very good luck dealing w/ sellers on ebay and yahoo. she’s also had several large $$ transactins that have gone smoothly. i guess she just let down her guard on this one. i mean, the guy only had 1 feedback!
she’s debating on whether or not to use an attorney but i’m wondering if it’ll just end up costing her more than what she might even get back, if she’s lucky.
They deal mostly with forums with trading/selling between members, but the links and advice they offer has been quite effective in some cases.