Hey guys, I'm from canada, but i have to come to some of the florida guys for some help thats really needed.

Heres the situation, It was my fault for becoming the victim here i shouldn't have been so easy to trust the person. But here is what happens. I saw an FD for sale on ebay, and no-one had bid on it. I checked the sellers history and feedback, and he had actually made some real sales and had bought stuff in the past, so I thought okay.
I contacted the seller through email, and we shot a whole bunch of e-mails back and forth (I still have all the e-mails). The car was cheap, and, gullible me thought the seller was legit. I sent him $6000US through bank wire transfer, after which point the seller stopped contacting me, and stopped replying to my e-mails.

I have sent a few threatening e-mails about getting law enforcement involved, but i wont get the involved if he sends my money back, but alot of people tell me good luck on that one, so i'm worried that i wont get any money back. And the seller still hasn't contacted me, the seller also closed his ebay account, so i think he was planning something like this.

I was stupid to fall for the trick, And then i searched on the forums, and people talked about ebay fraud, and it happens exactly the same way as my tranction went through.

The reason i'm asking for help, is that I want to scare the guy, I just want my $6000US back, thats a really huge chunk of money there, so I woud like advice from you florida guys on how to proceed with this matter.
Just for reference, I have ran a search on the person, and i have his exact address in panama city, his telephone number (i haven't been able to reach him, noone home, goes to the answering machine (but i only just got the phone number within the hour, so i haven't tried much yet))

He never gave me the address, i found it under searching his name, and matching the address to the fake invoice he gave me (he put part(half) of his zip code in it, and this was the name and address which matched up to that zip code, exact match.

So I just want to scare the guy into sending me my $6000US back to me, so how should i proceed on this matter, I would love to come down there and meet him face to face, but now that i'm out $6000 and with no car, i need to work as much as i can to save up and buy another car.

I'm stupid for falling for the trick, but now i'm asking for some help, so if anyone could please help me here, I would appreciate it so much.

-Chas

 

dude, your screwed. Sorry to say it but its doubtful law enforcements going to even do anything about it. That persons account was most likely taken over but the fool that you sent money too. Report it to ebay asap so at least it doesnt happen again. They do have a whole department so to speak that deals with all of this kind of stuff. Dont waste anymore time posting here or even think you can scare a person like this. Be aggressive and quick.

 

Are you sure the money came to Florida? Most of the fraud like this I've read about involves foreign destinations such as the UK or Nigeria. Maybe your bank can tell you where the money was actually picked up, and you could contact law enforcement there. It doesn't hurt to ask.

Ditto above for contacting eBay, they work with law enforcement in situations like these. It sounds like it was an account takeover (the criminal got the legit user's password and took over the account), but it could be the actual person. I saw a vintage mid 60's Vette like this for around the same amount, and showed it to Mrs. Shopper & said it was too good to be true. The auction was well-written, and there was an almost imperceptible click when you went there from eBay that took you to what looked like an actual auction.

If you still have the emails, you can possibly figure out where he was when they were sent so long as it is not like an AOL or similar type of account that can be logged on to from anywhere. If you know how to copy the headers of the emails, I'd be glad to look at them and try to see where they originated from.

 

you're screwed man.
Never ever send money like that without putting it through your credit car. that way its documented and your credit card company has some serious lawyers on your side.

btw its a taken over account .. dont try to harras the account owner, because he's not the one at fault and you will just get sued yourself.

 

If you have his information...find out where he works and tell his boss. post his address here and email address

 

Damn I'm right in panama city too. Hope his name wasn't tracy.

 

The account had been open for 1 year and 10 months on ebay, and it had made 3 transactions in total, of which 2 of them were bad transactions.

Right after this transaction the account was closed (states this person is no longer registered)

The wire transfer was to a credit union in california, and i have the account number and all that stuff. I'm trying to contact ebay about it, but where do i contact, when i try the fraud stuff, the item id doesn't work there... so i cant continue with it.