posted on April 13, 2001 06:35:05 PM new
Here's the story:
On 9/16/00, I sold a lot of old G.I. Joe action figures and vehicles to an eBay buyer for $102.50. With shipping, the total price was $145.95. I received a personal check signed by him from a store he worked at and deposited the check into my checking account on 10/6/00. On 10/13/00, I sent the lot of toys to him, insured and with delivery confirmation through the U.S. Postal Service. On 10/19/00, I found out there were insufficient funds from the account and the check bounced. I was out the $145.95 plus a $5 service charge from my bank. That same day
I both e-mailed the guy and called him at his place of business. I requested that he send me a money order to make up for the funds, since I would not accept another check, and he seemed to comply. On 10/28/00, he asked me to send the check back to him as a precaution, because of another incident he claimed happened to him, which I did within the next few days. He said he would send me a money order after he received the check. I sent the check back to him and e-mail him on 11/5/00 and 11/7/00 asking if the check arrived and received no response. On 11/11/00, I e-mailed him again and the e-mail
message was returned to me with the subject "user unknown". I tried calling him at the store where he worked and the phone number was disconnected. On 11/25/00, I mailed a certified letter to the store address (since the only other address I had for him was a P.O. Box) asking him to pay me back or I would contact the authorities. The letter was returned to me as undeliverable. At the time, I contacted Virginia Court Services, which specializes in bad checks, to try and find this person and get my money back for me, and I recently filed a complaint at www.fbi.gov.
Recently, I did some investigating on eBay based on a suspicion that the guy was doing illegal shill bidding. It's a long, complicated story, but I found a dealer that I believed was him. I set up a second eBay account (so he couldn't figure out it was me), won an auction he had running, and just got an e-mail with guess who's name as the person to send payment to. And now
I have an address for him. The problem is I'm afraid to confront him for fear he'll lead me on again or deny everything or, a slim possibility, might just split. So how should I handle this? Should I press charges (I guess I have to press charges with local police) and give them the new address, or should I just report his new address to the people I've already reported him to?
posted on April 15, 2001 08:13:36 AM new
I hope you made a copy of the check. I would never return a bad check to anyone until I had the money to cover it in hand.
