Sent Money Order; No Item Received

[vdang83]

I purchased an item online from a seller (a Powerbook laptop), through a forum not through an auction site like eBay, and sent 2 postal money orders.

The money orders were sent certified mail, which required the seller to sign upon receiving the letter which contained them. It's been a little a month and still I have not received the item. The seller stopped responding to my emails and forum messages after he received payment.

I still have all the money order receipts, certified mail receipt (w/seller's signature), emails, and I found him on MySpace through which I also tried to contact him but unsuccessful. Can anyone provide any other info on ways I can fight this? I live in CA, seller lives in Ohio. What should my next step of action be? Any help would be greatly appreciated.


Here is the link to the forum thread:
http://forum.westcoastrydaz.com/showthread.php?t=81613

[Frazzle]

Access to the forum you linked to needs a username/password.

However, this sounds like straightforward fraud.

Firstly, I would report it to the police. They will likely be able to advise you further.

Secondly, I would post to the forum, saying what's happened so that other people don't get bitten.

However, I'm sorry to say that I think you are very unlikely to get your money back.

[Daneel]

Well, if you can easily find a real name for him, it should be a lot easier to report him. If you could post his MySpace link and anything else you have on him, someone here may be able to trace him.

[vdang83]

His name is Nathan Doyle. I also have his address.

I am 99.9% sure this is his MySpace profile-

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=27641586



He had comments on there all from the same person, whom I tried to contact in order to get ahold of the scammer, but I see he just recently deleted them. He also deleted the pictures of himself. However, I saved a copy of his page before he made any of these changes.

[Saturn Girl]

If you have the headers from one of his emails.That will help. If you can post them. be sure to remove your personal info.

[Daneel]

There are still comments by people in his blog... but if you already have his real name and address, that should be enough.

Found this too:
http://forums.yojoe.com/showthread.php?p=17401

[vdang83]

Whoa........there's no question about this guy's intentions. How did you manage to find that Daneel?

Here is the header (I think) from the email:

Return-Path: <zartan26@hotmail.com>
Received: from hotmail.com (bay114-f38.bay114.hotmail.com [65.54.169.48])
by mx.gmail.com with ESMTP id 38si608275nzf.2006.04.22.09.57.16;
Sat, 22 Apr 2006 09:57:17 -0700 (PDT)
Received-SPF: pass (gmail.com: domain of zartan26@hotmail.com designates 65.54.169.48 as permitted sender)
Received: from mail pickup service by hotmail.com with Microsoft SMTPSVC;
Sat, 22 Apr 2006 09:57:15 -0700
Message-ID: <BAY114-F3880A2FFA781FCE1520A9FD9B80@phx.gb l>
Received: from 65.54.169.200 by by114fd.bay114.hotmail.msn.com with HTTP;
Sat, 22 Apr 2006 16:57:13 GMT
X-Originating-IP: [69.213.251.69]
X-Originating-Email: [zartan26@hotmail.com]
X-Sender: zartan26@hotmail.com


Thanks so much for your guys' help

[Daneel]

I searched "Nathan Doyle" Springfield Ohio in Google.

That IP is for a Hotmail server, you need the Received: line furthest down in the full headers to get his IP.

[Saturn Girl]

he sent PM with ISP. It shows Dayton, Ohio.

[vdang83]

I corrected the full headers. So it looks like the email came from a computer in Dayton, Ohio?

What should my next step of action be? Springfield Police?

[Aeval]

Here is what I would suggest:

You can definitely try to contact your local Police Department and appraise them of this situation. I strongly suspect that they will either refer you to file a complaint in the jurisdiction where the seller resides, or inform you that it's a civil matter and that you should pursue a civil lawsuit against the seller.

Unfortunately, you may be facing an uphill battle trying to get the law enforcement involved in this, but it surely does not hurt to try.

I would also advise you to start a file on the seller, and organize all the information that you have on him. That data may come in handy should either the law enforcement get interested, or you choose to pursue a civil lawsuit against the seller.

Let us know if we can help you out with anything else. :)

[vdang83]

Seems like this guy is a BIG-time scammer who victimized alot more people:

http://forums.yojoe.com/showthread.php?t=35671

[vdang83]

Thanks Aeval for your advice. I am trying to get in touch with some of the other victims and I will be definitely calling the police.