MacAddict Tracks Down eBay Scam Artist

OS24Ever writes "A future high school history teacher, Jason Eric Smith, sold an 867MHz PowerBook G4 on eBay right before finals. He found out the hard way that people are out there to rip you off, and he went to great lengths to catch this guy with the help of Mac heads everywhere. A great read and agreat way for us little guys to get back at these scammers."

something's rotten

[Anonymous Coward]

there's a lot of rotten apples on ebay.

Re:something's rotten

[Oliver Wendell Jones]

I've never sent anything COD, but wouldn't FedEx be partly to blame for accepting a phony/counterfeit cashier's check?

Re:something's rotten

[ShdwStkr]

No.

From FedEx's COD Policy (here [fedex.com])

quote

D. Checks (including cashier's, official, certified, business and personal checks) and money orders for the C.O.D. Amount will be collected at the shipper's sole risk, including, but not limited to, all risk of nonpayment, fraud and forgery. FedEx has no liability with respect to any such instrument.

end quote.

Re:something's rotten

[Joe5678]

From the same page:

E. The maximum C.O.D. Amount is $9,999,999.99 per shipment. THE C.O.D. AMOUNT IS NOT THE SAME AS, AND SHOULD NOT BE CONFUSED WITH, DECLARED VALUE. (See "Declared Value and Limits of Liability" section.)

Why do I get the feeling that their maxiumum amount is based on some entry field that only takes 9 characters?

Re:something's rotten

[derch]

The article's slashdotted, so I'm replying under the assumption the fake certified funds looks legit on first glance.

First, it's a question of reasonably expectations. If the Fedex guy accepted your "Sertifyed Chek," you'd probably have a case of incompetance against the delivery man.

On the other hand, if it looks like certified check, what do you really expect Fedex to do? To verify that it was valid, you'd have to get the funds and then call the issuer before handing over the package. That's going to add several minutes per COD package. In the case of some businesses, Fedex would have to schedule 15 - 45 minutes for delivery.

I worked for a company that was burned by a fake cashier's check once. The check looked real. Our bank accepted the check without problems. It wasn't till several days later that the bank found out it was a fake. In our case, the receiver had called his Fedex station and asked them to hold the package at the station, and he picked it up there. The address he had given us was actually a vacant lot.

Essentially, the carrier acts as your agent when collecting the funds. It'd be the same as if someone walked up to the counter and passed you a bad cashier's check or counterfiet money.

Wait At Least 10 Business Days to Be More Sure...

[Ron Bennett]

The check *appeared* to clear. Many people figure that once the deposited funds are made available in their account - typically one or two business days, that the money is theirs...

The problem is that a deposited check, etc can be canceled or not honored for upwards of 10 business days. So for one to be virtually sure that a check, etc is "good", they need to wait at least 10 business days (2+ weeks)...most folks don't wait that long, but they should or they run the risk of being scammed.

Also, even if the check itself is real (lets not even get into forged cashier checks, etc - even a well seasoned banker would have difficulty detecting some forgeries), the account it's associated with may not be and/or lacking any funds.

Bottom line is that waiting for clearing is critical...below is my understanding/experience with these things...not the gospel...

Common payment methods and clearing/dispute time frames:

Wire: Same day and very safe...they're not without risk though, but problems are rare. Some places that accept wires for payment impose a two day waiting period.

Check: 10 business days for personal/business checks. Cashier checks, etc have much shorter clearing times - BUT that assumes they're real...if unsure/concerned, then one should wait 10 business days as with personal checks.

Money Order: At least 10 business days if forged. It's best to wait, then be sorry if unsure.

Direct deposit (ACH): 2 business days. Can be reversed/disputed for upwards of 60 days.

Credit Card: Varies on circumstances and issurer, but can be reversed for upwards of six months later.

The law and procedures are very complicated and full of exceptions, etc...the bank, acting an agent, must make deposited funds available within a short period time as dictated by law/banking procedures...but the point is one should NOT assume just because their bank says funds are available that the funds are truly theirs...because they may not be :-(

Ron Bennett

Advice on cheques/money orders.

[mindstrm]

With regards to certified cheques, anyway...
certified cheques and money orders are widely considered as good as cash.

The best way to deal with these things is NOT to put them in your bank account... but, if you can, to have them cashed on the spot. A postal money order can be cashed at the post office with ID.
A certified cheque (or any cheque. for that matter) can usually be cashed at the bank it was issued from, with proper ID. Some banks will insist they only have to do this if you take it to the branch it was issued from. Some will let you do it at other branches, but will require a small wait for confirmation. This is because, by law, a cheque is simply instructions for a bank to give you money from someone's account. There is no requirement that the receiver must use a bank account.

Re:Wait At Least 10 Business Days to Be More Sure.

[Ron Bennett]

"What about PayPal - is THAT safe?"

Well if you consider accepting 3rd party starter checks for payment, then maybe :-;

Seriously, PayPal is NOT a bank and thus provides virtually no protection - there are many well documented instances of PayPal freezing funds, withdrawing funds from people's bank accounts, negative balances, issueing refunds and allowing the buyer to keep the product too, etc.

PayPal is a very useful service, but anyone who trusts it for large amounts of money (of course that's going to be relative to one's financial worth, etc) is asking for trouble. They are not a bank and they basically play fast and loose with their policies - and good luck in contacting anyone there.

PayPalSucks.com and PayPalWarning.com shed more light on the darker side of PayPal.

http://www.paypalsucks.com/
http://www.paypalwa rning.com/

Don't get me wrong, PayPal works great and is very convenient for most folks, including myself...but still one should be aware of the risks they take on when using them to transfer money.

Ron

I had a farfetched thought...

[Dimensio]

...how about, when shipping something, trying to hide a GPS transponder somewhere in the object. Make it well-hidden, but also give it a limited-lifetime battery so that it won't be traceable after about a week.

If you get ripped, just follow the signal or keep track of where it last vanished (perhaps it went into a basement where it couldn't be tracked any further). Meet the crook at his/her door with a .45.

Well, okay, maybe not a .45 but be ready to inflict physical violence, since the feds are rarely helpful.

Re:I had a farfetched thought...

[Denito]

What a fantastic idea. Instead of losing your money to scams, you can instead use it all buying GPS devices that you ship away and never get again.

I haven't heard such great idea since my meeting with accounting 10 minutes ago.

SHHH!!!

[ez76]

If you get ripped, just follow the signal or keep track of where it last vanished (perhaps it went into a basement where it couldn't be tracked any further). Meet the crook at his/her door with a .45.

How many times do I have to tell you people?

The first rule of GPS-based loss recovery retribution fight club is:

You don't talk about GPS-based loss recovery retribution fight club!

Repeat article, sort of?

[Greedo]

Sounds a lot like this guy's story [macscripter.net].

Basically, stolen iBook has dynamic DNS and Timbuktu (VNC-like app) installed on it. Owner notes when stolen computer is logged into the net, runs Applescript to help track it, recovers it.

I think I read about this on /. back in January.

Re:I had a farfetched thought...

[spike hay]

Better yet, why not just password-protect the bios? Once they pay you, tell them the password.

Wouldn't work.

[j3ss]

Because all they have to do is pull the CMOS battery or whatver is powering the BIOS long enough so that the BIOS resets.

Re:Wouldn't work.

[Edmund]

Depends on the laptop. IBM laptops are well-known for being notoriously hard to crack. The passwords are stored on a seperate flash RAM chip on the motherboard, which is backed by a CRC checksum. In addition, the password is replicated on the hard drive, and when the BIOS password is set the exact same password is set on the hard drive.

If you simply wiped or tamped with the data on the chip, the CRC check would fail and the laptop would refuse to boot. Even if somebody managed to bypass the BIOS password by obtaining a "virgin" password chip (i.e. one that has no password set and a checksum to reflect that), they would still be unable to access the hard drive because they lack the password. If the hard drive was put into another computer, it would come up with a controller failure without the password.

Note that there is a way to circumvent this. You could buy a third party security chip (several companies sell them) and solder it in place of the original one. Then you simply toss out the original hard drive.

Apparantly a talented man from Australia has figured out exactly how the passwords are stored/encrypted on the chip and built a simple serial circuit and program combination to read it. The schematics and software are freely available on his website, and the idea is that you build the circuit, read the contents of the chip, send him the dump and pay him money to recover the password from inside the binary dump. This allows you to keep the hard drive.

Unfortunately, I don't have the URL of his website off-hand. If anybody has used his services, does it actually work? :)

- Ed.

My Favorite quote is.....

[neurostar]

"That night I dreamed of Mr. Christmas and a baseball bat, some duct tape, and roofing nails."

neurostar

Re:My Favorite quote is.....

[Dimensio]

Honestly, that would have been my method, especially since there was little chance of recovering the stolen goods. I prefer the kind of vengence where I can take personal satisfaction with the feeling of hard metal or wood repeatedly slamming against flesh. I like to hear the crook whimper and beg and sob like a small child as I crush his legs.

Of course, fun as it would be to let them live and leave them crippled for life, I would know the importance of ending it so that I could not be identified by them later.

Yes, I am a very disturbed person, but I'm not that bad if you haven't tried to screw me over.

Re:My Favorite quote is.....

[fidget42]

This was best described in "The Princess Bride" with the definition of "To the pain."

Re:My Favorite quote is.....

[GreyPoopon]

Is this the correct spot to insert an inappropriate comment about correctional facilities and large men named "Bubba?"

* Please note that this is not intended as any form of discrimination against anyone with the name of "Bubba."

Re:My Favorite quote is.....

[kmellis]

"That night I dreamed of Mr. Christmas and a baseball bat, some duct tape, and roofing nails."

I have this recurring dream every year about this time. Weird.

A smart mob / posse?

[certron]

I think this is interesting for the sole fact that a whole lot of people who owe no direct kinship to each other elected to cooperate for a common cause.

I was listening to a presentation about different pagan holidays, and one component of one of the rituals was to honor / remember your ancestors. What made me remember this was that the presenter said that the ancestors didn't have to be biological, instead could be cultural, intellectual, or spiritual ancestors.

In this case, it seems that these 'artificial' families are willing to stick together and cooperate on a common goal, even if they themselves will not directly benefit. I suppose this is just a regular community, with enough people in it that a few would be motivated to assist. Then again, I could just be amazed by my own insight, marvelling at a fact that others have known for ages, and so think that I am smarter than I actually am. :-)

Re:A smart mob / posse?

[bricriu]

There's a Vonnegut novel, "Slapstick," that involves the plot point of the President of the US giving everyone new randomly-from-amongst-a-certain-set-of-words-and-n umbers-assigned middle names. The idea was exactly what you say -- that now everyone has a new "family". Typically loopy Vonnegut, but ultimately an interesting idea (which is also typical Vonnegut behavior).

I'm sorry - but he was an idiot in the first place

[Dark Paladin]

I sell things on Ebay as well (usually old games that I'm done with) - and I don't do COD. Paypal - sure. Checks and money orders, but I wait until they clear before they ship.

I know we should be more trusting of people, but I've become convinced that 20% of the population is made of Assholes that can be trusted only as far as they can be shot.

Still, I have to admire his spirit tracking the guy down - if nothing else, that's one less asshole to worry about. Only 1 billion to go!

Re:I'm sorry - but he was an idiot in the first pl

[oyenstikker]

Surely you're not trying to say that there is only one asshole in every 7 people.

Re:I'm sorry - but he was an idiot in the first pl

[MalleusEBHC]

Surely you're not trying to say that 20% comes out to 1 in 7 as a fraction.

20% huh?

[kfg]

You're one of those people who think the glass is half full, arn't you?

KFG

Re:I'm sorry - but he was an idiot in the first pl

[saskboy]

And if you live in Canada, you can neither send nor receive merchandise, and be covered by PayPal's seller protection, because Canadapost is not recognized as a shipper by PayPal.

www.paypalsucks.com and if you use it for anything more than playmoney on the internet, you are a bafoon. PayPal is only for buyers with credit cards, not for sellers who are dumb enough to use it.

I'm sorry, but you didn't read carefully enough.

[uigrad_2000]

Checks and money orders, but I wait until they clear before they ship.

As others said, it was a cashier's check. Normally there's no reason to wait for a cashier's check to clear.

From the article:

I called Sgt. Knapp at 2:45. He told me he was on his way back to the house. They'd already made the delivery and arrested the guy. He had more than $10,000 in counterfeit cashier's checks waiting for deliveries.

The importance of a 'P'

[Mr Guy]

If he was a spammer [slashdot.org] and not a scammer, he could have just posted it here and had the guy in hours.

Beatles tune...

[Vaughn Anderson]

new Beatles tune mp3... only available K**Za

"I Catch Counterfeiters with a Little Help from my Friends" ...who just happen to be Addicts... go figure..

It was...

[PDHoss]

like, a really good 867MHz PowerBook G4. ... ... ... ... bummer.

here goes

[mao che minh]

Mac Addicts to the Rescue

or

How I Caught a Counterfeiter with a Little Help from my Friends

a true story by Jason Eric Smith

Check out the Forum

in the interest of getting this out, no fancy layout, just hand coding. maybe i'll spruce it up later. the names of the innocent have been changed, the names of the guilty though...

I am a college student (my second time around). Specifically, I'm studying to become a high school history teacher. I am a student with a lifelong habit though, Macintosh. I got my first Mac in 1986, a used Mac Plus with 1 megabyte of RAM a massive 40 megabyte external hardrive. Since then, I've always had to keep up, first it was the SE, then the IIsi, the Powerbook 140, and from there on, more Macs than you can shake a stick at (I missed the Mac TV). I usually keep my Mac for about 6 months, and then resell it and move up. I almost always buy used, so don't get any ideas about me being rich.

Since I went back to being a student again, I've been selling Macs more regularly, picking up good deals on used Macs locally and then reselling on eBay. I've been doing this for about two years now, its relatively easy, takes about an extra hour of my day, and usually pays the rent. In November when the new Powerbooks came out I decided I was going to buy one for myself, to keep, an early Christmas present that would come in handy for taking notes in class and finishing up a presentation I needed to do on the New Orleans school system. The day they were announced I ordered a nice new Powerbook G4 867 and found it on my doorstep only a few days later.

It was a beautiful machine, if you've never played with one in person, you won't believe it. I played with it for a couple of days, took it to school to take notes and do research on. The more I used it, the more I loved it. But, it was just too much to be carrying around, $2300 in my backpack had a tendency to make me a little nervous. I decided maybe I should turn it around and pick up an iBook. My girlfriend and I decided we would use the extra money to donate to some charities for Christmas. So on November 19th, up on eBay it went, along with an Airport Basestation and a bunch of other knickknacks. I set a buy-it-now price on a whim for $2950.

The next morning I checked my auction, a couple of bids placed, and so the buy-it-now option was gone. Checking my email I got a couple of questions about the computer and much to my surprise, an offer to buy it for $2900 from Steve Matthews, a dad with a lucky son in college who was going to be getting a Powerbook for his birthday. Steve wanted to pay for it COD, no problem, its actually how I usually sell things. I called him on the phone number he gave me to ask a couple of questions and make sure everything was on the up and up.

He reiterated that he was buying it as a last minute present for his son and since it was already setup as a package, he thought it was a good deal. Not to mention the Chicago Apple stores were still out of stock. I got home from school, packed up my Powerbook and accessories, and off they went Fedex overnight to Chicago, never to be seen again.

At 10:21AM on November 21st, a man going by the name of Paul Smith signed for my two packages and gave the driver an official cashier's check from LaSalle Bank for $3052.78 in return. The check made it back to my doorstep the next morning. I went to the bank, deposited the check and withdrew enough to go ahead and pay my rent and pick up a couple of household items. I sent an email to Steve to make sure he got everything ok and to check that nothing had been damaged in shipping. No reply. As the old saying goes, no news is good news, right?

My girlfriend and I went away for Thanksgiving, and when we got back on Friday, I had a message from my bank. The branch manager had called to let me know she had a returned item for $3052.78 and that my account was now in the negative. Seriously in the negative. No problem I thought, I'll just call Steve and see what's up.

So I dialed the number I had. In the back of my mind I expected a "this number has been disconnected message". Instead I got an answer, the voice sounded identical to Steve, so I asked if Steve was there.

"Oh, Steve, yeah, that's my cousin, he's out of town for Thanksgiving you know. He'll be back Tuesday"

"Can I leave a message for him?"

So I left my information and asked that he give me a call. That little voice in the back of my mind let out a sigh and an uh-oh. The voices were the same right? Was I being scammed? Well, if I was, I certainly wasn't going to let the weekend go by without doing a little investigating.

I started off with the information I had. His AOL email address, his phone number, and the address I shipped the computer to. The AOL address didn't yield anything. Doing a reverse lookup on the address (thanks to Whitepages.com) I got three names and phone numbers, none of which matched anything I had. The phone number didn't give me anything. I finally found a way to lookup the exchange on the number to see if it was a cell phone or a landline (Fone Finder). It came back as Nextel and I wanted to scream.

There really isn't anything you can do with a cell phone number. There are no directory services. The cell phone companies won't give out any information. And that's that. I called Nextel and pleaded with them. The customer service rep I spoke with seemed more confused than anything. He kept asking me what my Nextel phone number was and why I suspected someone was fraudulently billing to my account. I calmly explained at least three times that I was not a Nextel customer, that I was just trying to get an address for another customer I suspect has defrauded me, etc, etc. I finally gave up on Chris from Nextel, I've had customer service reps who don't even speak English who were more helpful.

I was at a dead end. I'd just sent my $2300 laptop, my Airport basestation, and a load of stuff to somebody I didn't know and all I had to show for it was a bill from Fedex for overnight shipping and a returned cashier's check. It's hard to sleep comfortably knowing some asshole has your Mac and is doing god knows what with it.

Sunday the first of December, I sprang into action full force. I called for help. I knew I wasn't going to get anywhere with this on my own, so I figured I might be able to get some help from some bulletin boards. I posted my tale of woe and call for assistance on every Mac bulletin board I could think of. I hoped that somebody who worked for Nextel, some fellow Mac addict like myself, might be willing to bend the rules a little. I wanted this guy's address and I wanted it bad. I was already pricing flights to Chicago and putting my professors on notice that I might have to miss a little class. I may have made an error in trusting this person, but I'm not someone you want to have that happen to. I will get you. I will hunt you down, and I will bring a baseball bat with me.

I got more replies than I could keep up with. Everyone wanted to know what they could do to help or at least offer support. Well, everyone except one guy who just wanted to let me know how incredibly stupid he thought I was and that he would never have accepted a counterfeit anything. I think a 102:1 great person to asshole ratio is pretty good. Several people living in Chicago offered their assistance, be it in gathering information or even forming a tough guy squad if necessary.

The most important reply I got was a pointer to an online PI service that does reverse lookups on cell phones. I was already beyond broke, but I figured $85.00 more wouldn't kill me. Twelve hours and $85.00 later, I had a name, an address, and a landline phone number for this guy. The name and his AOL email were eerily close, actually with a last name like Christmas, it would be pretty weird if it didn't match up. I couldn't believe it. A Chicago resident named Melvin Christmas had just ruined my Christmas. I was expecting William Faulkner to come popping out of the pantry at any moment and laugh at me.

I was now ready to call the police. I called the Chicago police department and filed a report. I gave the operator all of my information, including the real name and address I had managed to get. "A detective will contact you within one to two weeks, thank you." One to two weeks?!? I had this guy, I'd done all the work already, all you had to do was go pick him up. I'd even gone ahead and called Fedex and spoken to the Chicago station manager and was assured that the driver would cooperate in identifying the guy if necessary. All they had to do was pick him up. In one to two weeks he could be gone. And all the while my precious Powerbook is sitting god knows where being used by somebody completely undeserving of a Mac. I know in my heart that Mr. Christmas is really a PC guy.

I was furious. Chicago PD weren't going to do anything about this. If they were anything like the New Orleans PD, one to two weeks was likely to turn in to never. I figured I'd call Mr. Christmas myself. Let him know I was going to give him a chance to fix this, and I thought, maybe at least scare him. Let him know he was dealing with someone who would track him down no matter what, even if I had to make a deal with the Prince of Darkness to do it. Mr. Christmas said he didn't even know what email was. Obviously a PC user.

I kept checking the message boards. Maybe someone would have a better idea. I called the local FBI field office. Agent Jones was very understanding, but let me know that even though this crossed state lines, the field office didn't take anything involving less than $5000. "Try the Chicago PD".

I kept everyone on the Mac boards updated as best I could. On Tuesday I got a useful reply, try the Secret Service, counterfeiting is their jurisdiction. I made my way to the under-renovation Federal Building here in New Orleans. After walking many a dark, scary hallway, found myself at the door of Agent Keith Lopola. Keith came out and heard my case. I had brought copies of all the emails between myself and Steve Matthews/Paul Smith/Mr. Christmas, a copy of the check, and the call journal I had started keeping. Agent Lopola told me the same thing the FBI did, "It falls under our jurisdiction, but we can't take the case." He wanted to let me know that he really felt for me. Thanks. I left the office determined to call and bother him and the Chicago PD everyday for the rest of my life or at least until Mr. Christmas was behind bars.

Finals were fast approaching. It's not very easy to concentrate on school when all you can think about all day is the fact that all of your student loans for the next semester are going to cover this counterfeit check. That and some grubby criminal has your Powerbook. It's enough to drive someone to the drink.

Tuesday night I got an email from someone who had seen my story posted on O'Grady's Powerpage, a Powerbook enthusiast site. George Dunbar had seen the story and thought it sounded eerily similar to his. I called him, we compared notes, and turns out it was the same guy. George forwarded me all of his emails. Everything was the same, word for word, it was like Mr. Christmas just copied and pasted and magically made money. George was in it worse than I was though and had completely given up. He was out $6000 and two computers. He also let me know that there were more victims. He'd talked to at least three other people who had been taken by the same guy, all of whom had just given up. I was not going to give up. That night I dreamed of Mr. Christmas and a baseball bat, some duct tape, and roofing nails.

Wednesday morning I decided I was going to Chicago. I set up another eBay auction under my girlfriend's account, this time for same computer, different city. Three hours later, lo and behold I received an email from eBay user videopro55 (the same one) asking me if I'd like to sell the computer right now for $2500. Oh yes, I'd love to sell the computer, I'll even be there when it gets delivered to make sure it gets "setup properly".

He emailed me a new address and phone number, the phone number again traced back to the same address for Mr. Christmas. I called the Secret Service and the Chicago PD, pleading, all they had to do was be there when Fedex dropped off the package. It was a guaranteed hit, he'd have another counterfeit cashier's check, all you'd have to do is arrest him. Like shooting fish in a barrel. "Sorry, Detective McDonaugh will be out until next Wednesday, can I take a message?" Fine, if the cops won't do it, I decided I'd just Priceline a ticket and be waiting next door when it got dropped off. So I'd know what kind of neighborhood I was looking at, I asked for help again in the Mac boards. Two Chicago residents replied, and the next morning, courtesy of Tim, I had 23 pictures of the house, the cars in the driveway (with license plate numbers) and the neighborhood. I'd like to see a Dell user do something like that at 4:30 in the morning for a complete stranger a thousand miles away. I started planning my trip. I decided I'd leave on Saturday, have the package delivered on Monday, and make it back just in time to screw up on all my finals.

On Friday in preparation for flying up I mapped the new address from the one for Mr. Christmas to see how close it was. As I looked at the map, it hit me. The new address wasn't in Chicago. It was in a suburb, Markham. I googled for the Markham police and 5 minutes later was talking to a very enthusiastic Sargeant Knapp. I had hit the jackpot, the new drop was outside of Chicago jurisdiction and therefore outside of their inattentiveness as well. Sargeant Knapp informed me he loved this kind of thing, even had a UPS and Fedex uniform ready. He'd call Fedex and they would set it up for Tuesday. I was certain I was dreaming. After talking to two detectives in Chicago, an FBI field agent, an agent in the New Orleans field office of the Secret Service, an agent with the L.A. Secret Service and having a conference call with a large group of agents from the Chicago Secret Service, I finally was getting somewhere. And I didn't even have to stand on someone's doorstep with a baseball bat to do it.

I spent the entire weekend on pins and needles. What if Mr. Christmas figured something out between now and Tuesday? All would be lost. I wouldn't even get the chance to confront him on my own. On Monday I spoke with Sgt. Knapp to make sure everything was ready to go. I had sent him a package with all of my documentation (he didn't have email), and I tried to explain what all the email stuff meant as best I could. He had worked everything out with Fedex and they were set for the delivery on Tuesday.

I called my brother in Nashville and had him send the package. I had set everything up to be coming from there so that Mr. Christmas wouldn't get suspicious. I could barely sleep Monday night. All I could think about was something going wrong and my only chance at getting this guy being missed. I wanted to update everyone on the Mac boards, but I had to keep it quiet until I knew something was going to happen.

Tuesday afternoon Sgt. Knapp called. They had tried the delivery but no one was home. I just wanted to scream. The board users kept posting how the suspense was driving them nuts. Well, it was going to give me an aneurism. A million possibilities went through my head. Maybe he had somebody working at Fedex who tipped him off, maybe I worded something in one of my email a little off. Sgt. Knapp called me back to let me know they would try the delivery again tomorrow. He also wanted to let me know that they had intercepted another package that was being sent to the same address. Looks like he'd already struck again, thankfully the lady from New York will get her computer back. He also told me that he was definitely going to keep pursuing this, and that oddly enough, the address I'd given him was also related to another fraud case, but this one much bigger (hundreds of thousands) involving a certain Chicago franchise I won't mention. So maybe I had led them to something bigger than just some asshole counterfeiting cashier's checks.

Today I had finals all day. I'm a 4.0 honors student. I've had a 4.0 all semester. I'm not sure if I'll keep that after today. I just couldn't sleep last night. All I could think about was Mr. Christmas and the delivery. I couldn't study either. So I winged it, I'll get my grades tomorrow. I called Sgt. Knapp at 2:45. He told me he was on his way back to the house. They'd already made the delivery and arrested the guy. He had more than $10,000 in counterfeit cashier's checks waiting for deliveries.

*I* got him.

I'm right now waiting on Sgt. Knapp to fax me a copy of his mug shot for posterity. Then I'm going to go celebrate. Sgt. Knapp said the guy was cooperating and he was going to try to recover my laptop. I'm hopeful, but I don't expect it. I might not ever get my computer back, but at least there is one less asshole on the street. When will criminals learn? You just shouldn't mess with Mac people.

For everyone on all the boards who offered their help and encouragement, I thank you. This would have been a lot harder without you. If you're ever in New Orleans, look me up and I'll buy you a beer. I've still got to figure out how I'm paying to college next semester, but I'll keep some beer money set aside for ya'll.

Oh yeah, and if there are any lawyers in the Chicago area who can file a civil suit against this guy for damages (yeah I know I'm not going to collect) please contact me, misterye a t yahoo d o t com

The sites with great users that helped out (you can sign up for the forums and read all about this as it was going on): MacRumors.com MacNN ThinkSecret O'Grady's PowerPage

Update 12/11/02 18:58 CST: Sgt. Knapp is sending me a copy of Mr. Christmas's mug shot. I'll post it as soon as I get it.

Update 12/11/02 21:39 CST: For those interesting in getting in contact with me, my email address is misterye at yahoo dot com, if you think you were also a victim, please call me at 504-894-1243 and I'll put you in touch with the appropriate people.

Update 12/11/02 23:36 CST: I've gone back through and added links where appropriate. I'll try to reformat this tomorrow.

Update 12/12/02 10:36 CST: Ok, so how's this for small world: Apparently this thing is getting posted everywhere. I just got a call from Matt of the Real World Season 9 (the New Orleans Real World). So anyway, the cast of the New Orleans Real World used to all work at 735 Nightclub. I moved down here to actually take-over their marketing right after the show ended. So I never met Matt or any of them until speaking to him today. Small, weird world.

Update 12/12/02 12:03 CST: I've added a forum where everyone can talk about this. Here it is.

Update 12/12/02 13:30 CST: For those of you wanting to donate to my cause, I urge you to choose a local charity. There are a lot of needy people and organizations out there this season, if you can't think of anything local, I'm a big fan of Doctor's Without Borders and Lambda International. If you really must, you can send money to my girlfriend's Paypal account, [e-mail]. She's the one who's covering this check for me right now, so I guess she should get this. I'm still not entirely sure about this, but you've insisted. Thanks again.

Last update Wednesday, December 12th 13:49 PM CST

Copyright 2002 Jason Eric Smith

Re:here goes

[ubrayj02]

It sure seems a shame that after all of that work, and hassle, the guy is still out over 3000$ I'm not sure what sort of implications this would have for our legal institutions - but shouldn't someone who has stolen or ripped someone else off, has gotten arrested, and is convicted of that crime pay back the people who were robbed? Maybe just an equal amount of money as the stolen goods, or with some extra for pain and suffering, or something.
I realize that making people pay for their crimes with currency, or goods, or services, might seem strange (and maybe un-American too)but there are lots of instances of this in other parts of the world.
Just off the top of my head, in Iraq when you murder someone, you owe their family a certain fixed amount of "blood money" (heard this on NPR a month ago). In Morrocco the theft of sheep could (circa the 1930's - from a paper by Clifford Geertz on "thick description") be re-imbursed from the thiefs family's flocks. These are obviously just random snippets from around the world, but I wonder if they might work in certain cases - like this one.

Re:Bike stealers! GRRR!

[interociter]

I must admit that I stole a few bikes when I was in college. Wait, don't damn me yet. Hear me out.

Sometimes, when in the midst of a night at the bars, me and my freinds would steal bikes from the racks by various dorms. We'd pick bikes with shitty locks that were easily picked, and go off on a joy ride. We always treated the bikes well, and always returned them the same evening in the same condition as when we stole them. We never cut locks, bent rims, or anything. Although I know it was theft, you could make a case for "borrowing without permission". As far as I can tell, the owners never found out.

Except once.

On one occasion, "my" bike was really shitty. The tires were half-flat, the chain was rusty and skipped, and the handlebars were dangerously loose. I'm still not sure why I did this, but I bailed on my drinking buddies, took the bike home, and fixed it. My roommates were all hardcore road racers, and had all the right tools. I filled the tires, tightened the bars, tightened and oiled the chain, and took it back.

In retrospect, I think there was a little "Charlie Brown Christmas" working. "It's not such a bad bike. All it needs is a little love." On the other hand, I got an evil thrill out of thinking that the owner wasn't going to know what to make of their bike healing itself. "Some asshole stole my bike! And...fixed...it. Guh?"

Morons are modding parent down

[doc_traig]

Cut it out. The guy's server is a smoking corpse right now. If it weren't for this guy, I wouldn't have been able to read the story.

Please, go find something good and MOD IT UP for a change.

- DDT

Re:here goes

[LegendOfLink]

When will criminals learn? You just shouldn't mess with Mac people.

Man, forget using police officers and government agents to keep order among society, just put Mac users on patrol.

Remember boys and girls, Mac users are our FRIEND.

Sarcasm aside, I'm glad Jason found this jerkass. However, I do think it'd be funny to see a group of angry Mac users chucking IMacs through the scammer's window.

Re:Seems like the Feds Should have Stepped In

[misterye]

Yes, it did fail. The FBI and the Secret Service work out of field offices. If they had more tha $5k in my field area, they would have gone after it. The Secret Service in L.A. (where another one of the victims lives) said they'd take the case after I called them, but that since the perp lived in Chicago they had to get the Chicago SS involved. The Chicago SS had a long conference call w/ me in which they grilled me about the case and then concluded that they needed at least $50k in damages before they could take it. Welcome to the nightmare of interstate criminal investigation.

It's like another poster said, the real lesson I learned was that as long as you keep it under $5k per victim, you can do this all your life and no one is ever going to come after you. Well, no one but geeks like me anyway.

Thanks to everyone again, this has gotten *way* bigger than I could have imagined, the Chicago Tribune just called me. I don't know whether to be proud or find a corner to hide in.

Re:Seems like the Feds Should have Stepped In

[B.D.Mills]

The Chicago Tribune just called me

Sell them an exclusive for $5000. They get a cheap exclusive, and you get to recoup your losses, and even come out ahead. Heck, you might as well start the negotiations at $10,000.

Good luck.

All would've been different...

[Anonymous Cowtard]

...if this guy had just waited to ship the item until the payment had cleared. If the buyer wasn't interested in that, then wait for another buyer who *is* willing.

Would've saved him a lot more trouble and money in the long run.

Re:All would've been different...

[ScuzzMonkey]

And then we would have got the story from the [i]buyer[/i] about how he sent this check off and it got cashed and WHOOPS! the PowerBook never showed up and he then had to track down the seller and threaten him with a baseball bat. :)

FedEX Responsibility

[rjstanford]

Doesn't FedEX have some responsibility in this case? After all, if you ship something COD and they accept a counterfit check, why is that completely your fault?

I'm not saying that it isn't legally your problem, just that in an ideal world it shouldn't be. After all, presumably it would be FedEX's fault if they accepted something written in crayon on a brown paper sack ... where do you draw the line? Any ideas?

Re:FedEX Responsibility

[Mandi Walls]

I dunno, man.

Cashier's checks look different at every bank. You can't expect the FedEx guy to whip out his cel phone and call the bank right at the guy's doorstep to check out the legitimacy of the paperwork.

He's just the messenger.

's almost as bad as relying on the manager at McDonald's to catch counterfeit $20s.

Mac users are a posse, man. They're like one big inbred family. They trust other Mac users 'cause they have some bizarre kinship for being on the short end of the tech stick.

Like us here, only with the social stick...

--mandi

Find

[Anonymous Coward]

try catching him by his mac address

Naughty

[Superfreaker]

"It's hard to sleep comfortably knowing some asshole has your Mac and is doing god knows what with it."

If he's a normal user, he's probably filling the various ports and orafices with various..uh..plug-like devices.

Note to self

[eclectric]

Don't fuck with the Mac Heads.

this reminds me of an episode of South Park where a kid sold Cartman some pubic hair, and cartman got the kid back by tricking the kid into eating the kid's parents.

Every group has the zealots

[clutch110]

It's sad that, even to all the great lengths he went to, all PC users to him are bad guys. Congrats on getting the guy who stole your Mac, but maybe you will find time to realize it's the community your in and it has nothing to do the type of computer you use.

Re:Every group has the zealots

[wolfgang_spangler]

" I know in my heart that Mr. Christmas is really a PC guy. "

that line from the article is a pretty big clue. And his other rantings about how stupid pc users are. This from a guy that sent a $2900 computer to someone. And HE is calling people stupid. Wow.

He needs to be hit with a Clue-by-Four.

Go against ebay rules, get burned

[Nefrayu]

Ok, so it sounds like from this article the guy listed his system on eBay, but then sold it to a guy who "saw his ad" on eBay, but didn't actually bid on the item. This is 1. Against eBay rules for selling, and 2. Stupid. There's no way to get any kind of verification on who it was he was talking with (as he found out), no way to check out the guy's prior habits (via feedback), and no way to get back at the guy without a lot of effort. Every sale on eBay is insured up to a certain amount, with fraud protection offered through PayPal and through credit cards, COD is also the worst way to go.
I tell everyone who contacts me in this manner to bid on my auctions. Period. There's a reason eBay has these rules, and this is one of them.
But, no one ever said Mac users were the shiniest apples in the barrel.

The broken window theory

[Fished]

One of the things he mentions is tha tthe FBI and Secret Service were not interested in anything less than $5000. Chicago police just weren't interested... This brings up something called "the broken window theory." It goes like this: some socioligists whose names escape me observed that, as long as no window was broken in a building, they tended to stay unbroken. However, as soon as one was broken, if it was not repaired every window in the building would be broken in a couple of weeks.

The idea here is that, by ignoring small crimes, the police miss chances to prevent big crimes. The funny thing is that the people wanted for "small" (I don't think of $3000 as small, but that's just me) crimes are often pulling the same scam again and again - but no one ever turns them in. These "small" scams can add up to really large amounts of money and become big ones.

A few years ago, we had a homeless man who we gave a household job to steal a check out of my wife's checkbook. We only found out when we got a call from the grocery store, asking if we had actually written the check. Of course we hadn't -- the reason the grocery store had called us was that the guy had pulled the same stunt, at the same grocery store, seven times before. No one ever pressed charges. Well, we pressed charges, and it turned out the guy was also wanted for 10 counts of car theft, forging, fraud, etc. etc. ad nauseam. The really nauseating part? The police never followed through on our theft and forgery complaints, even though this guy had dozens of similar complaints against him.

So, the bottom line in my not so humble opinion is that, if you want to prevent crime, you don't need to outlaw guns or anything: just start enforcing the laws you already have.

Re:The broken window theory

[Anonymous Coward]

you should have planted a joint on him before calling the cops, that would have got them interested.

Mod Parent Up.

[Fished]

You know ... you've really got a point there. Maybe if we weren't putting all our law enforcement dollars into trivial, non-violent drug "crimes" (or would be non-violent if they weren't illegal) we would have time, money and energy to pursue things like theft, fraud, forgery, utterance, grand theft auto, etc.

Never thought I'd see an Insightful AC.

Your logic is faulty

[PaxTech]

if drugs were legal they wouldn't cost NEARLY what they do on the black market. Most of that markup is to cover the risks. If heroin was legal, most addicts would be able to afford it by working at McDonald's.

I think possibly my biggest pet peeve is when people cite the negative effects of prohibition as a reason to keep drugs illegal.

Re:Your logic is faulty

[krlynch]

Not to be contrary or anything, but do you have references to any studies that show this? I imagine that this conclusion is NOT true. My reasoning is the following: pricing on addictive substances is generally highly inelastic (that is, demand and price are only weakly coupled). That is, producers can demand just about any price they want, and the users will continue to pay that high price. The same is true of many currently LEGAL addictive substances: alcohol, tobacco, gasoline, heating oil, food, etc (okay, I admit that I'm using "addictive" a bit loosely here). The demand for these substances has little to do with the current price (when the price of gasoline rises 50%, for instance, you don't drive substantially less ... you suck it up and pay the high price), and the current price has little to do with current end user demand. I don't see any reason that legalization of a currently illegal addictive substance would drive its price down. Nor do I see that driving down the price would greatly increase the number of users (the demand). I know that I, for instance, wouldn't run out and start to ingest cocaine or marijuana if it was suddenly legal...

Please throw me some links if I'm wrong though; I'm quite curious if there is information contrary to my reasoning.

Re:Your logic is faulty

[egburr]

What you say would be true if "supply and demand" were the only force operating there. Competition has a huge effect, too.

For your example about gasoline prices, the prices are directly affected by supply at the origin, but not much by demand at the end consumer. Most gas stations in an area are within a few cents of each other, because they are all maintaining prices as low as they can while still making a slight profit. Why? Competition. They don't get a lot of choice in the price, because (1) they do not determine the price they buy at, and (2) they have lots of competition.

For drugs, the street dealers also generally do not determine the price they buy it at, but they do determine the competition (or lack thereof). In an area with a large organized group of dealers, how long does an upstart independent competitive dealer survive? What happens when two competitive dealers (or organizations of dealers) lay claim to an area? Lower prices or physical violence?

Legalizing drugs may not be the complete solution, but it would go a long way towards lowering prices. When every gas station and grocrey store and drug store has a recreational drug counter, the competition will drive prices down to the point that the retailers are just barely making a profit. Also, a minimum quality of product will be assured. Taxes will be collected. The economy will benefit. (OK, so maybe I'm going a bit overboard there.)

The people who can't handle their addiction will at least be able to get more for a lower price, and maybe overdose themselves out of existence. In the long term, that should cut down on the theft needed to maintain habits.

Re:Your logic is faulty

[swv3752]

Check out the price of caffein. Caffein is more addictive than cocain, though the two used to be mixed together. The difference is that the effects are milder and the withdrawal is not as bad. the majority of headaches that people experience in the US and other Western countries are actually from caffein withdrawal.

Anyways the price of caffein, or coffee, tea, and cola if you will, is kept in check by competition. Alcohol is also kept in check because there is competition. Oil is not a fair comparison as that is held mostly by a Cartel- OPEC anyone?

Make it legal but controlled and most of the crimes associated with it would disappear. Just not overnight.

Re:Then again.....

[White Roses]

Well, (a) casual users aren't the problem. And (b) studies have shown that whether or not drugs are legal, you'll have similar numbers of addicts. An addict is an addict. AA's 12 step program is just a replacement addiction, albiet a safer and more productive one. Besides, drug legislation has historically been used for property seizures for the government, rather than as any kind of real deterrent to drug usage, going back at least to the seizures of opium dens in San Fransisco in the 1800's.

Most crimes committed in the name of drugs are to keep profitable turf and eliminate competition. Make no mistake, drugs are illegal in this country because it keeps wallets fat. Think what the Mafia would be if we never had the 18th Amendment.

Re:Mod Parent Up.

[glesga_kiss]

And Budweiser wouldn't be to pleased with any legalisation. They are a primary contributor to Partnership for a Drug Free America.

Isn't it ironic, don't you think? ;-)

Hired to steal checks?

[Osty]

few years ago, we had a homeless man who we gave a household job to steal a check out of my wife's checkbook.

You hired a homeless man to steal checks from your wife? No wonder you got screwed.

(Hint: Next time, try using decent setence structure to not confuse your point.)

Re:The broken window theory

[psxndc]

This is also know as the tipping point. There is X point in a relationship where going just beyond that point causes a dramatic shift in that relationship. Example: Say crime in CityX is 5%. 6% is the tipping point such that if crime stays at 5% it will remain 5% indefinitely. By inching that percentage up 1% to 6% for some reason the reality is that crime will jump to say 12% the year after it hit 6%. It's just a weird phenomenom that has to do with people's perception of a reality becoming a self fulfilling prophecy. More info can be found here [fsbassociates.com]

psxndc

Reminds me of New York

[Dark Paladin]

As I seem to recall (and people from New York feel free to correct me on this), one of the things that Rudy Guiliani [sic] did was have the police start ticketing people who jaywalked.

The result? Overall reduction in crime - since if you were going to be caught for the little things, odds are you were going to be caught for doing a big thing (selling drugs, etc). And it made the police highly visible - and the one thing I remembered from my old criminal law classes (before I ditched law) - the likelyhood of getting caught for a crime is a far greater deterance than the punishment of a crime.

I have to agree - if we have a system that busted people for crimes - regardless of the "level" (no, I'm not suggesting death penalties for jaywalking, calm down, or a police state - just if a crime is obviously committed, like a bike theft **cough**like I went through once**cough**), go after it. Odds are, it would do more good in the long run by nipping these "small time" crooks in the bud before they ever become "big time".

Re:Reminds me of New York

[lysurgon]

Actually the Guiliani directive to crack down on "quality of life" crime went way further back than jaywaliking. In fact the aggressive prosecution of jaywalkers (and the outlawying of dancing in unlicensed city bars and clubs) is really where he went over the line.

The basis of the quality of life program was to try to move in and bust kids writing graffitti, homeless people loitering and especially low-level drug dealers. Beat cops had previously been instructed to avoid drug deals for fear of corruption.

The numbers largely speak for themselves (though there's a strong case that improved economic conditions do as much to deter crime as incresed police presence), but because of endemic flaws in the police system (e.g. a certain amount of ingranced racism) the whole campaign caused a lot of acrimony.

People (more often than not minorities) were being stopped and shaken down for guns and drugs illegally, but since these shakedowns seemed effective, the department allowed it to go on. The high-profile beatings and killings of minorities around the city was causing a lot of civil unrest. Thankfully, since 9-11 the relationship between the police and the people of the city seems to be back on track. Too bad it took such a tragedy to set things right.

Re:Reminds me of New York

[neocon]

I'm going to make a wild guess here -- you don't live in New York at all, right?

If you do, you must not get off campus much, eh?

You've just presented a remarkably inaccurate picture of the police program which turned New York around, and had already improved relations between police and communities (including minority communities) long before 9/11.

See, `the minorities' aren't any different than the rest of us. Everyone wants to be safe in their home and neighborhood. By having the police fight crime in minority neighborhoods as well as rich neighborhoods, instead of just giving up on areas like East Harlem and Bed-Stuy, Giuliani did more for police-community relations than any of the hundreds of `outreach programs' ever had.

Los Angeles, too

[clem.dickey]

San Francisco is well-known for tolerance of illegal parking. About 25 years ago the SF police wanted higher wages but were forbidden to strike. One day the police protested by ticketing all illegally parked cars, especially those around City Hall and the local newspaper offices. That night the Chief of Police appeared on local TV to apologize for the unprofessional conduct of his men!

By comparison, there were - and are - Los Angeles suburbs in which police will ticket a car parked facing the wrong direction. The police infer that something illegal must have happened to place the car in that position.

This difference broke the Patty Hearst case. While the Symbionese Liberation Army held Patty Hearst in San Francisco, police and FBI had no luck finding her. Then the SLA moved to Los Angeles - unfamiliar territory for them. They parked a van in a red zone, which would have been no big deal in SF. Police arrived to ticket the van, determined that it was stolen, and caught or killed a large part of the SLA.

Missing Clothing Theory

[Gimpin]

No, no, no...the broken window theory is untrue. I, with over 1100 hours of 'Cops' logged on my TiVo, am an expert of crimes of the felony rank. The only way for the police to lock up dirtbags is they must either reside in a trailer (aka dirtbag theory) or have a missing article of clothing (excluding shoes).

Awfully dangerous

[interstellar_donkey]

This story should be fowarded to everyone at the Chicago police. It should be an embarassment for them.

The ho hum attitude of law inforcement regarding things done on the Internet is sad, and scary. If the young man hadn't finally been able to contact an agency that actually wanted to do their job (stop crime), who knows where it would have gone.

Being a vigilante is never a good idea, but when the police don't do anything, it leaves the average person little choice.

I suspect we'll start seeing this more and more in the future, as long as law enforcement refuses to act on these things. Why should a person have to spend their own time and money in order to stop criminals? Are we going to reach a point where the only way someone can get an investigation is if they pay somebody to do it? I thought that's what our taxes which paid for police departments were supposed to do.

Just wait.. Withen a few years somebodys going to get killed because the police sat on their hands and a frustrated victim did their footwork and blows the person who scammed them away.

Re:Awfully dangerous

[anonymous loser]

Put simply the average detective's case load is way too high to worry about a $3k fraud. When you have more work to do than you can possibly do, what do you tackle first? The case that gives you the biggest bang for your buck. I.e. cases involving fraud of *large* amounts of money, murder, drugs, etc.

Re:Awfully dangerous

[sweetooth]

This is flawed logic. By going after the big criminal you look good and stop one or two big thefts. If you let the small time fraud cases go you can ultimatly be letting a larger amount be stolen. The fact that it's taken in smaller amounts doesn't make it any less of a crime. In fact if you read the article you would see that the individual committing the fraud in this case was committing $10,000 in fraud that day. How many other times had he done this? Probably quite a bit. Is it worth it to go after one $100,000 fraud case and not 5 $3,000-$6,000 dollar fraud cases that may ultimatly add up to >$100,000? If small time criminals find out that as long as they keep the dollar amount down they won't be investigated by the police, they are basically provided incentive to continue committing the crimes in those small amounts. Over time it can add up to a lot of money. They are also likely to tell other people about it and the trend can increase.

Re:Awfully dangerous

[stratjakt]

>> And in a perfect world, they would have people assigned to this sort of thing, and enough of them to do something about it in a timeful manner.

In a perfect world, there would be no cranks or nutjobs who spend all day having the local cops run errands for them or otherwise bother them with trivial bullshit.

I'm not saying this guy is one, but we have a bitchy old crank down the street who calls the cops every time a kid cuts across her lawn on the way home from school.

I had the cops come to my door 5 nights a row at my old townhouse because the neighbour kept reporting my car as a 'suspicious vehicle parked out in front'. Luckily I work for a company that sells software to police, and my local county in particular, so the problem quickly went away.

Then there's the drunks who go out and pick a fight, get their asses kicked, then show up at the station wanting to 'see the guy locked up'.

And everyone who gets the short end of the stick on a business deal wants the cops to do something for them.

My point is, forget the fact that there's an overwhelming amount of crime for a cop to be able to deal with each incident in a timely manner.. Theres so much bullshit and whining, they never get to the real incidents. And when they do, their hands are so tied with beurocracy and paperwork and bullshit procedures that you aren't going to see your 'eye for an eye' instant gratification.

As I mentioned, I write and support software for the public safety industry. I can dial in to any one of hundreds of our CAD (Computer Automated Dispatching) systems and see the ratio of cranks/whines to actual incidents is literally 100:1.

In a case like this, if you have the evidence of who ripped you off and how, it's much better to get a lawyer and drag it into a civil court.

Disclaimer: Noone has more disrespect for cops than me, I work with 'em every day. There are many incompetent, arrogant, power-tripping douchebags with a gun and a badge out there. But they do have a pretty much impossible job to do. They write so many speeding/seatbelt tickets because thats all the system lets them do effectively.

Re:Awfully dangerous

[djrogers]

But of course, being concerned about that is fashionable in law-enforcement circles these days.

Umm, ok... I know it's really cool to use daddy's 1337 computer to make fun of cops, but how on earth can you bring yourself to question the motives of someone trying to save a child from rape, torture, murder, or worse?

What gives you the balls to even _think_ that a man who has dedicated his life to protecting innocent children does it because it makes him look good?

Tell you what, you sit in on an interview with a 9 year old girl after the fact, and then come back and tell me that cops just do what's 'fashionable'.

shmuck...

Funny

[cheezedawg]

I think its funny that

1) He no longer has his mac
2) He is out $3000
3) He failed his finals
4) He spent a bunch of extra money tracking the guy down (plane ticket, PI, etc)
5) He is still happy about it

I'd guess he is a "Glass is half full" kind of guy.

Re:Funny

[ChaosDiscord]

He may be out time, money, hardware, and grades, but he got revenge. Never underestimate the value of revenge.

(If I had the chance to catch someone who defrauded me, I'd do so in a second. If I knew he had defrauded many other people and would continue to do so, I'd spend a fair amount of time and effort to track him down.)

On The Internet, Nobody Knows You're A Dog

[The Fun Guy]

... unless you try to screw a Mac addict. Then you'll be hunted down in meatspace like a, like a, like a something-or-other.

Serves the thief right for messing with a Mac type. Everybody knows they're unstable to begin with, and all it takes is a just a little push for them to go postal.

(So, +1 Funny for the first paragraph, -1 Flamebait for the second? Worth the risk.)

Re:On The Internet, Nobody Knows You're A Dog

[Daniel Dvorkin]

My iBook is extremely stable. I, on the other hand ...

Mirror

[Selanit]

Here is a mirror of the article [atuan.com].

I'll leave it up for a day or two. If it's Saturday 14 Dec 2002 and you're reading this, the mirror has probably gone poof.

I sure hope my server can take it.

Regarding the article -- it's kind of spooky how dedicated Mac fans get. I mean, at one point he talks about the horror of not knowing who was using his mac. Most people would have been more concerned about the thousands of dollars lost due to a counterfeit check. 0_o

Re:Mirror

[EvilStein]

Ah HA! I mirrored YOUR mirror!
Here it is [pbp.net] ;)

Re:Mirror

[Myco]

Thanks; I hate that backwards-text thing.

Escrow

[Malc]

If you can't afford to lose the money, use escrow. This is exactly why the service exists. If the other party doesn't want to use escrow, move on - there are plenty of other fish in the sea. Well, this applies for the buyer as the seller has the control. By going COD, the seller gives control and thus the chance to defraud to the buyer.

I haven't bought anything online since last February, so I'm rather disappointed to see that Escrow.ca has closed shop... they were far cheaper than Escrow.com. The latter's fees almost make it unusable for items of just a couple of hundred dollars. The other good thing with escrow.ca was I could walk 5 mins down the road and deposit cash directly in to the TD bank account and get the item shipped quickly.

What with stupid people commonly bidding stuff up to retail prices or above, plus extortionate shipping charges and escrow fees, eBay isn't very useful to me anymore.

Re:Escrow

[tdrury]

Be careful about escrow scams. escrow.com is a valid site, but there are many, many scam sites. eBay user fenton.smith keeps a database of these and is very quick to spot and catalog them. See fenton's escrow scam page here: sos4auctions [sos4auctions.com]

I maintain a list of scam auction red flags. See my page here [ebay.com].

Funny quote about 23 pics of the house..

[cOdEgUru]

Imagine the butthead sitting with his buddy drinkin beeeer outside on the porch (assuming its out in the middle of nowhere) watching black cars and vw minis go by with strange white folk staring out through tinted glasses with cameras in hand snapping pics like crazy :) ..

Had to laugh..

hahaha

[penguin_punk]

Black cars?

You must have forgotten that these are Mac users. Remeber? These types drive Minis and New Beatles. I'll bet you that no matter what type of car it was, its colour was Aqua. (maybe teal) ;)

Don't circumvent ebay's safeguards!

[cardozo]

Ebay has fraud protection program [ebay.com]. Why didn't this guy go through them. Sure they're not going to go arrest the guy, but they'll certainly close him down on ebay. Even now he can get some of his money back from them... if it was an ebay transaction

For that matter if Mr. Christmas had done this a lot, why didn't the seller look at the buyer's feedback? Certainly if Mr. Christmas has been ripping people off the sellers would leave negative feedback.

Well, it turns out that videopro55 has no feedback [ebay.com]!

Looking on ebay for the transaction turned up nothing either.

From a more careful reading of the story, I infer that the seller took it off of ebay and sold it privately. This was a bad idea. Yeah, you have to pay ebay a commission, but that's their business, and you wouldn't have sold it without them. It's also against ebay's seller policies [ebay.com] to do this.

So while I'm really very sympathetic about this guy getting ripped off, I think he could have been a little smarter about it.

Lesson to all of us: Don't circumvent ebay's safeguards.

Re:Don't circumvent ebay's safeguards!

[Mitreya]

Ebay has fraud protection program [ebay.com]. Why didn't this guy go through them.

I am definately not going to support avoiding ebay auction fees (isn't that violating the auction? what did he tell to the person who was the highest bidder??). However, to your point I have one thing to answer -- Bullshit! The ebay fraud protection is useless. It does work but with $25 deductable and UP TO $200. So escrow service is your only chance with very expensive items.

ebay's safeguards MY ARSE..

[matt_wilts]

Here's the response I got from Ebay when I thought I detected shill bidding:

To: Matt {matt_wilts}
Subject: Re: Possible shill bidding on auction 1235911285 (KMM28339167C0KM)
From: eBay UK Investigations {[e-mail]}
Reply-To: eBay UK Investigations {[e-mail]}

Hello Matt,

Thank you for writing to us.

I sincerely apologize for the delay of this e-mail and hope that it did not cause you any inconveniences!

I have investigated your report regarding {{ insert user id }}, and can understand how this would be troublesome.

Please be assured, if a violation of eBay policy has occurred, we will take the appropriate action in accordance with our site policies. Such action may include issuing a warning, temporary suspension, indefinite suspension or terminating the membership.

Due to eBay's Privacy policy we are unable to provide information regarding the details of another user's account. We are equally
concerned about violations on the site, and will thoroughly investigate each report we receive. However, the details of our actions cannot be
disclosed with third party members. Please remember that this is for the protection of all eBay users.

We appreciate your assistance in keeping eBay a fun and safe place to trade..

I hope you have a wonderful week!
Regards,
Darcy
eBay UK SafeHarbour
Investigations Team

Must be some new use of the word "safe" that I've not yet come across...

Matt

Eligible for reward?

[Fencepost]

Keep track of the case as much as possible - you may be eligible for a reward from an organization like CrimeStoppers (Canadian?) [crimestoppers.org] or (International "Parent") [c-s-i.org] or something similar. Unfortunately the sites don't seem to be particularly well set up for finding programs, but you've shown that you can be determined.

The sergeant you worked with may be able to tell you if there's a CrimeStoppers or other program that might cover you - particularly if you're just hoping to cover what it cost you track everything down.

Future History??

[JebusIsLord]

Does a future history teacher teach the present?

you got it all wrong, mac

[Hubert_Shrump]

I was not going to give up. That night I dreamed of Mr. Christmas and a baseball bat, some duct tape, and roofing nails.

Look, if you're going to have him retar up there, at least give him a hammer instead of the bat. He'll be up there all week! Jiminy!

More impressive

[harlequinSmurf]

I still think that the story of the guy who tracked down his sisters stolen iMac using timbuktu. here: Mac Thief Caught Thanks To Applescript & Timbuktu [slashdot] [slashdot.org] and here: Turning Macs on Thievery [wired.com] [wired.com]

Re:You can stop payment on a cashier's check?

[zer0vector]

I think the guy was forging the cashier's checks, which is why he tried to get the Secret Service involved.

Re:You can stop payment on a cashier's check?

[.sig]

I think the point was that they were counterfeit cashiers checks, which is why the secret service was involved. It was implied in the article, but nevere flat out said.

Re:Would a Windows User?

[MoneyT]

Mac users are very protective of their computers, and will go to great lengths to ensure that people don't steal them. Theres a similar story floating about how one person had their mac stolen from thier house and used tibuktu and some funky apple scripts to trace the mac to a house. Long story short, police show up, find stolen computers, guy gets his computer back.

Just cause PC users are accustomed to losing money in bad investments doesn't mean that mac users are.

[Yes, that last statement is a troll]

Re:Would a Windows User?

[IIRCAFAIKIANAL]

Story is right here dude [macscripter.net]

Re:Would a Windows User?

[Software]

>Mac users are very protective of their computers, and will
>go to great lengths to ensure that people don't steal them.

Fine, I'm with you, BUT this guy wasn't protective of his computer - he sent it to someone else! He was protective of his money.

OK, the Mac heads helped him out, Mac users are all one big team, wonderful. But some of the lines in the article puzzle me: "It's hard to sleep comfortably knowing some asshole has your Mac and is doing god knows what with it."

Was it easier for him to sleep when he thought the cashier's check was good?

No, you read it incorrectly

[tswinzig]

"My girlfriend and I decided we would use the extra money to donate to some charities for Christmas"

Clearly he was talking about the guy that stole his Mac.... Melvin Christmas.

Re:IN SOVIET RUSSIA

[JVert]

./ Enhancement request:
Anything with certain kewords (ex: "in soviet russia") gets automatic -1 karma.
Yes I realize that includes this post right here.
And I'm willing to take the bullet for my country!
In slashdot we flame our own posts!!!

Re:yes!

[misterye]

I am Jason Eric Smith, and I would probably die laughing if I did see a Ellen Feiss peeing on Intel sticker. You should pursue it, you'd sell millions.

Actually, the anti-PC bit was writing to my audience. I never expected this to get outside the Mac bulletin boards. Honestly I don't care what kind of computer you use, they're just tools. Cheers all.

Re:Entrapment?

[asmussen]

This wouldn't have been entrapment [lectlaw.com] even had the police been the ones offering the item for sale on Ebay to begin with. All that happened was that an opportunity was created for him to use one of his counterfeit checks. Nobody even had to suggest to him that he illegally pay for the item with a counterfeit check, and even if somebody were to suggest it to him, including the police, it would not neccessarily be entrapment. (See the above link) He wasn't even approached asking to legally buy the item. He initiated the transaction himself in response to a publicly posted auction, which although admittedly posted as bait, was nothing even remotely resembling entrapment.

50 eggs in one hour?

[soulsteal]

Any man caught talking about Beowulf clusters spends a night in the box.
Any man caught posting Underpants Gnome "Profit!" lists spends a night in the box.
Any man caught imitating Yakov Smirnoff spends a night in the box.
You are given a login. Any man forgets or loses his login spends a night in the box.

Any questions?

Re:Who's the scammer here?

[tdrury]

You are right that it is against eBay policy to sell off eBay - it's categorized as Fee Avoidance.
This often occurs when you list one item on eBay and in the description you claim to have more that you are willing to sell. You are skirting the Listing Fee which is against eBay rules.

However, you are allowed to cancel an auction at anytime - at _any_ time. It seems a little unfair but it does have legitimate uses. Often sellers will list an item locally (paper,signs,etc) as well as on eBay. If the item sells locally they can cancel the eBay auction by cancelling all bids then cancelling the auction (you must cancel the bids first or else the high bid at the time you cancel the auction does win the item).

Remember - no bidder has won the auction until the auction ends. There is no contract until that time.

Come and visit us on the Trust & Safety (Safe Harbor) boards. These sorts of issues get brought up daily.

I am an eBay junkie.

Re:no police force

[moosemoose]

well it was a rant and i do agree that some sort of structured law enforcement is desirable. but i think the two points that i wanted to make were (1) that behavior in our society is for the most part not moderated by the existance of police. in other words, most of us would continue to not murder and rape in the absence of a police force and conversely, those who do murder and rape today do not seem to be particularly deterred by the existence of the police and (2) small local groups (ala the post in question) seem to be more effective than large 'crime fighting' organizations. in the recent case of the theft of credit information of 30,000 people, the thieves were caught not by the police but in effect by the credit reporting agencies (after $2.7 million stolen). according to the news reports they would still be doing this today if they hadn't gotten greedy and started downloading 15,000 reports at a time. i used to practice law and i can tell you from personal experience that the police do not concern themselves with the small victim. steal 50% of a poor person's possessions and you get no police action. steal 1% of a rich person's and you get the crime lab.

Re:Why didn't he HAVE the address already?

[MoneyT]

As said in the story, the phone number he was given went to a cell phone, the adress whent to another phone. Do you have any idea how easy it is to scam fedex? Have an item sent to an adress fed-ex. Track said item. Stand outside of adress pretentding to do yard work during deliviery day. Intercept fed-ex man before he gets to the door. Sign for package. The adress had to be verified another way.