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A scammer stole $500 from me and in the end begged me not to tell his parents

blog.haschek.at

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Re: A scammer stole $500 from me and in the end begged me not to tell his parents

#131

Post by e40 »

overcast wrote: post #125

Sounds a lot like a kid who attempted to scam me out of a GPU. He sent me a bogus Bitcoin transfer email from a well known escrow service. I stupidly did not check header information, as I was in a rush at the time, and shipped without confirming it. All was well, until he sends me a picture of the card, with essentially a HAHAHAHA, various derogatory remarks, name calling, you name it. I was calm, and collective, tr…

His father emails me, and starts tearing into ME, questioning how I could possibly sell to a minor

Ahh, that is certainly expected. The little shit learned his BS from somewhere.

Agree 100% with how you handled it.

Re: A scammer stole $500 from me and in the end begged me not to tell his parents

#132

Post by ryguytilidie »

downandout wrote: post #95
baku-fr wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He wasn't "late on a payment", he definitely tried to scam the author since he deleted his reddit account and lied on eBay.

Any good lawyer would say that the two weren't necessarily connected. All the author knew when he contacted this kid's family was that he was owed $380. He was attempting to collect on that debt by using embarrassment and threats of police involvement.

Wait, so are you under the impression that if you steal from someone you're simply creating some debt...?

Re: A scammer stole $500 from me and in the end begged me not to tell his parents

#134

Post by overcast »

ekiru wrote: post #129
overcast wrote: post #125

Sounds a lot like a kid who attempted to scam me out of a GPU. He sent me a bogus Bitcoin transfer email from a well known escrow service. I stupidly did not check header information, as I was in a rush at the time, and shipped without confirming it. All was well, until he sends me a picture of the card, with essentially a HAHAHAHA, various derogatory remarks, name calling, you name it. I was calm, and collective, tr…

Why did the scammer's mother pay you "far more than the card is worth"?

Because I listed the card for an inflated price to begin with. Since they had no intention of actually paying for it, they "bought" it. Which in the end, backfired on them.

Re: A scammer stole $500 from me and in the end begged me not to tell his parents

#135

Post by ekiru »

overcast wrote: post #134
ekiru wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why did the scammer's mother pay you "far more than the card is worth"?

Because I listed the card for an inflated price to begin with. Since they had no intention of actually paying for it, they "bought" it. Which in the end, backfired on them.

Ah, that makes a lot more sense. Without that detail, it sounded like you were effectively blackmailing the scammer's parents rather than just getting paid the agreed amount.

Re: A scammer stole $500 from me and in the end begged me not to tell his parents

#136

Post by overcast »

ekiru wrote: post #135
overcast wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because I listed the card for an inflated price to begin with. Since they had no intention of actually paying for it, they "bought" it. Which in the end, backfired on them.

Ah, that makes a lot more sense. Without that detail, it sounded like you were effectively blackmailing the scammer's parents rather than just getting paid the agreed amount.

Updated to reflect that. Though to be honest, I could have told his mother twice the amount, when she asked how much does she owe.

Re: A scammer stole $500 from me and in the end begged me not to tell his parents

#137

Post by greenshackle »

dragontamer wrote: post #6
greenshackle wrote: post #4

I don't do these sort of trades but if I did I'd try: Buyer sends 1/4 of the BTC Sellers sends 1st card Buyer sends 1/2 of the BTC Seller sends 2nd card Buyer sends 1/4 of BTC That way the risk is shared, and both parties stand to lose at most 1/4 of the value (if seller defects after receiving the first payment, or buyer defects and fails to make the last payment).

Or use an escrow service / middleman that people trust. Bitcoin transfers aren't the problem here. Its transferring money to a trusted 3rd party, and then that 3rd party transferring the money forward (or back) once the items are confirmed to be transferred. The problem then becomes dispute resolution. Even priority mail can be faked. Close the envelope with fake cards or whatever... so no matter what, dispute resolu…

By 'these sorts of trades' I meant 'trades with strangers without a trusted third party'.

Of course a trusted third party obviates the need for complicated schemes.

Re: A scammer stole $500 from me and in the end begged me not to tell his parents

#138

Post by geek_at »

Symbiote wrote: post #70
nck4222 wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The message he sent to his brother was also sent to his mother, she just hadn't read it yet when the blog post was made. The author wasn't manipulated twice, he didn't let the scammer get away with it. Although he should probably call the police.

It's possible he has access to his mother's account, and has deleted it. I don't think it would be unusual for a 22 year old student to visit home and borrow mum's laptop.

very possible. I checked the mothers account later and I couldn't find it (even though I had the link. He or his brother blocked me on her FB but I think it was his brother because this was before he begged me to delete my message to his mother

Re: A scammer stole $500 from me and in the end begged me not to tell his parents

#139

Post by JadeNB »

jondubois wrote: post #109
Udik wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Downvoted you. It's a big jump from "somebody, 22 yo, scammed somebody else online at least once" to "psychopath". To be frank, I think I wish the word "psychopath" was deleted from the dictionary altogether. It's just a handy label to apply to all sorts of baddies, effectively dehumanizing them (he's a psychopath- he would do anything to you, so you're justified in doing anything to him).

I disagree. It would never have entered my mind to do such a thing at age 22. These people rarely change; if you don't punish them severely, you're giving them an unfair advantage over honest people. We don't want to live in a society dominated by crooks.

> These people rarely change

How do you know? What's for sure is that a regime of severe punishment guarantees that they won't, whereas an opportunity to reform (a carrot appropriately seasoned by a stick if necessary) at least allows that they might.

(Also, who are "these people"? People who do something wrong? Have you never? Your misdeeds have been more minor, assuredly, but what if one of 'us' finds them offensive enough that you suddenly become one of 'them'?)

Re: A scammer stole $500 from me and in the end begged me not to tell his parents

#140

Post by downandout »

ryguytilidie wrote: post #132
downandout wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Any good lawyer would say that the two weren't necessarily connected. All the author knew when he contacted this kid's family was that he was owed $380. He was attempting to collect on that debt by using embarrassment and threats of police involvement.

Wait, so are you under the impression that if you steal from someone you're simply creating some debt...?

No. What I'm saying is that until it has been declared as theft/stealing by a court of law, the author here is probably taking on some liability by notifying his family and publicly relishing in the aftermath via this blog post.

There's a little concept that you may have heard of: innocent until proven guilty. No crime has been committed until a court of competent jurisdiction says it has.

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