Scammed on Craigslist

[grawat]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Indiana

I bought a $250 voucher for 2 airline tickets from someone on craigslist. I was staying in Chicago and the seller was in Wisconsin so he said he will mail the tickets to me and asked me to send the payment via Greendot since he did not have Paypal. After a month or so when I did not receive the tickets the seller said that the tickets were lost in the mail and that he would give me a refund and cancel the tickets. I agreed and after that he kept coming up with some excuse or other for why he was unable to pay. He said he was waiting for the tickets to be cancelled, then he said he had issues with his Paypal account, he didn't receive his salary on time, he just didn't have the money, he was sick, he had to attend a cookout, he was busy at work, he said he mailed $100 cash but I received only $20 and then later accepted that he mailed only $20 and claimed it was a mistake and many other such excuses. It's been 7 months since I sent him the payment, I suspect he did not have any voucher to begin with and never mailed anything. After 7 months of emailing, calling and messaging him he paid me $50 and then again stopped. I threatened to file a police complaint and then he paid another $50 and then $50 when I said I will sue him. He still owes me $100 and has stopped replying to my messages. More than getting the money back I would like to see this person being punished for everything he is putting me through. I have his IP address, phone number, email address, copy of State ID (not very clear), What are my legal options for getting the rest of my money back from this person and what can I do to get this person punished ?

 

[swalsh411]

Let it go. Not worth suing for $100. You're lucky you got anything back and aren't out thousands.

 

[antrc170]

Take it as a $100 lesson in life.

Would it be nice to see the person punished for defrauding you? Sure.

Is it going to happen? Not likely.

Even in the event that the person does get charged and go to court, his defense is going to claim that he acted in good faith and attempted to refund your money as quickly as he could. Since you never agreed on a repayment plan timeframe, he was trying to pay you back as quick as he could. He'll likely claim that he did mail the tickets and they were lost. You can't prove that he never did have the tickets and you both agree that he tried to repay the loss. It would be hard to put together a worthwhile fraud case on this.

 

[Proseguru]

That Bret Favre .... at it again !

 

[grawat]

Thanks for the replies. I do realize that it may not be worth my while to try and pursue this. I did however file a complaint at ic3.gov but, it's unlikely I'll receive any response from them.

I did try and ask the guy if he really had the tickets. He told me he got them through a Charity, he also told me that he had to call the airline and make sure that the tickets hadn't been used. To do so he would require some sort of proof that he had the tickets in the first place. I asked him to send me this proof because I did not believe him and I suspected that he did not have any tickets in the first place. To this he replied that he did have proof that he had the tickets but, would not send it to me (I believe he was lying just to get me off his back).

Also, he has been giving me dates for the last 7 months. Every time I ask him for the money he says he will pay either in the next couple of days or by a given day next week. And then when the day comes to pay he comes up with an excuse like he was sick or too busy with work. Also, initially he said he would pay the entire amount but then started asking to pay in installments because he didn't have enough money.

I also believe this person has a past criminal record, I don't know for what but, I think he has been arrested in the past. At the very least I would like it if someone called him up and questioned him on the issue. Would filing a police complaint help ?

 

[Zigner]

You might want to work on your math skills too -the guy doesn't even owe you $100 (per your own numbers.)

$20+$50+$50+$50 = $170. $250-$170=$80 not $100