jgarcia08
Community Member
I'm glad I was for some help. To be honest I'm grateful that I did not do the trading with this individual. If I had a torch I would gladly give it to you, good job man.
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Tennyson
Active Member
- Joined
- Jun 18, 2019
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- What state or country do you live in
- Maryland
Excellent write up @jessezm and great story. I had a similar experience I'll share below, and I'm hoping you and all others who were scammed will take further action to get your funds back. If you have questions on my experience or what you can do to help, feel free to pm.
I was scammed many years ago for selling a reeftank on Craigslist. I lost thousands of dollars via a Western Union money transfer. My story had a happy ending though, the scammer was sentenced to several years in prison, and after about 8 years from filing my police report I received all my funds back. The United States government sued Western Union for $586 million dollars for 'processing hundreds of thousands of transactions for Western Union agents and others involved in an international consumer fraud scheme'.
To have a Venmo agent respond to you with absolutely no help might suggest fraud, not only on the scammers individual part, but on Venmo agents who are intentionally withholding evidence. A federal lawsuit may already be in the works for them, but it all starts with your complaint. Someone out there is keeping track and compiling these cases, so it really counts to talk with a police officer to get your report in, mention Venmo, and help end the scams and corruption. 'Sending to someone you trust' can only work for so long.
I was scammed many years ago for selling a reeftank on Craigslist. I lost thousands of dollars via a Western Union money transfer. My story had a happy ending though, the scammer was sentenced to several years in prison, and after about 8 years from filing my police report I received all my funds back. The United States government sued Western Union for $586 million dollars for 'processing hundreds of thousands of transactions for Western Union agents and others involved in an international consumer fraud scheme'.
To have a Venmo agent respond to you with absolutely no help might suggest fraud, not only on the scammers individual part, but on Venmo agents who are intentionally withholding evidence. A federal lawsuit may already be in the works for them, but it all starts with your complaint. Someone out there is keeping track and compiling these cases, so it really counts to talk with a police officer to get your report in, mention Venmo, and help end the scams and corruption. 'Sending to someone you trust' can only work for so long.
jessezm
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Apr 24, 2018
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- Downtown Atlanta
- What state or country do you live in
- Georgia
I actually did nearly call the cops last week when - and you really have to admire this point of sale for this - the original scammer tried to charge back the entire $1,950 payment on Paypal, claiming that the payment was an "Unauthorized Transaction"!!!
I tried to keep my cool, since intellectually I knew I had all the evidence to prove otherwise. But having Paypal place a hold and a negative $1,950 balance on my account was definitely beyond aggravating! Especially when they told me it could take up to 10 days for them to review. But it went away after about 5 days after I flooded them with screenshots and links to everything that happened. Had he met with any success there, I can guarantee the authorities would have been involved.
A quick note about your comment, though: While Venmo did tell me that I was in violation of their terms of agreement and therefore they couldn't process my claim, they did say that they would "cooperate" with law enforcement should that become necessary. I took that to mean that if I did pursue getting the cops involved, that they may have been willing to provide more information.
I tried to keep my cool, since intellectually I knew I had all the evidence to prove otherwise. But having Paypal place a hold and a negative $1,950 balance on my account was definitely beyond aggravating! Especially when they told me it could take up to 10 days for them to review. But it went away after about 5 days after I flooded them with screenshots and links to everything that happened. Had he met with any success there, I can guarantee the authorities would have been involved.
A quick note about your comment, though: While Venmo did tell me that I was in violation of their terms of agreement and therefore they couldn't process my claim, they did say that they would "cooperate" with law enforcement should that become necessary. I took that to mean that if I did pursue getting the cops involved, that they may have been willing to provide more information.
Reef man 89
Valuable Member
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Blows my mind that this happens!!! This guy is a no good point of sale. IDC if he is having a hard time right now the whole country is struggling. It’s just sad there is people is this world that scamming people is ok. This clown must not be having that hard of a time if he is gambling all his money.
I'm assuming you mean Karma will be his cell mate, and you're right, he will be getting him in the end...
@jessezm , all bets would've been off when he tried to get his money back through PayPal. I would've seriously considered getting the authorities involved.
Hopefully by you pulling back the curtain, the locals can keep tabs on him.. because you know he's going to do it again. He was only remorseful with you because he got caught.
What a read! Glad that everyone got their money back but just ridiculous how some people would take advantage of the trust that this amazing community has built. Definitely would have gotten the authorities involved as many have stated. Great work nevertheless!
Having the night to think more on this, I honestly believe that eli isn't going to stop, based on the simple fact that he tried to get the money back after making things [simi] right. The consequences were extremely low for him, and by his account, worth doing it again.
This is a perfect example of someone needing to be removed from society for a period of time in order to reflect on his actions and understand the consequences if he does it again. By leaving the authorities out and only paying the money back, in a way you have condoned it and told him that his actions are okay as long as he gives back what he has stolen when he gets caught.
All you're doing is creating a better criminal, one that will learn from these mistakes and hone his skills further. I encourage that the parties involved really think hard about pressing charges. I know he's not a murderer or a rapist but this is your chance to stop future crimes against unsuspecting people.
Like nowI love that this thread still gets a little attention from time to time
One Reefing Boi
Valuable Member
wow.. I wasted my entire lunch hour reading this but glad I did! What a wild ride. TBH was more engaged in this then most recent TV shows I have watched
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