Thread: How to deal with online scammers?

Well was bound to happen sooner or later, but it looks like for the first time I got someone attempting to scam me out of some money on the internet.

Went to buy something via the buy/sell/trade section of a forum I frequent and the guy simply stopped responding once I sent him his money. Unfortunately for him, I think he's pretty new at this type of practice because in the process of talking to him and due to the way the money transfer we did works, I got his full name, telephone number, two email addresses, a paper trail, and probably soon a mailing address as well (I already know the general region of Kentucky he lives in because of where he picked up the transfer).

And being the slightly internet savvy guy I am, I was able to do some research online and get a hold of his sister (LOL) and now she is working on getting a hold of him as well to see what's going on. And I guess if nothing comes from that I'll just report him via the IC3, and maybe his local authorities if I can figure out exactly where he lives.

Anyone had something similar happen to them? And if so, how did you deal with it and how did it turn out for you?

Sorry to hear about that, teh_pwn. I suppose this is already an avenue that you would have explored, but how did you remit payment to this shady fellow? If you used a credit card or PayPal, you can initiate the relevant payment dispute mechanism of the particular vendor. At the very least you would get your money back that way, which is why those are the only methods by which I will purchase goods over the internet. I've been burned a few times and always been made whole by the payment processor. Since you mention picking up a transfer, I am guessing you used some sort of money wire which may not have payment protection mechanisms in place. If that is not an option, I have no experience with the IC3 and therefore don't know if they use triage by materiality to handle claims, or said another way, if the sum in question has to be large to get their attention. I would think the best way to handle this is if you have the contact name of the sister and this thief lives in a town in Kentucky, tell the sister that you will contact the local PD and press charges unless the brother refunds your money. And then follow through if that doesn't work. You could pursue the IC3 process in parallel as sort of a belt and suspenders approach. Good luck!

Nay, used a money transfer via his request. But before you go thinking I was missing an obvious sign he was a scammer, let me say this is common practice on this particular forum. Due to the nature of the items sold here, mostly game accounts, beta keys, and other various "virutal" goods, and the instant delivery that comes with them (ie just emailing a number, password, cd key, etc, instead of mailing a physical item) paypal is typically frowned upon due to how easy it is to reverse and screw over the seller in a limited time period. Especially if you are an "unrepped" user, they use iGiver just like us, and if you have 0 iGiver people will be more apprehensive about dealing through methods that require more trust, such as paypal, or going first in a trade. In this case we both had 0.

So yea, no method of dispute with a money transfer of this type, leaving my only options (that I know of) as law enforcement or just somehow dealing it out with the guy.