Got scammed with a handful of other people what can be done?

A handful of other people and I got scammed from a guy at http://gametz.com/
This guy scammed about $500 between all of us, $250 was the value of my stuff.
I have his address and paypal account. I gifted some money so I'll be out of luck
With paypal.

All the BTR reports came in a few days after I shipped him my stuff grrr...!!
He had 21 positive trades up to that point.

Options I have
1. See if the Phoenixville,PA police can help

2. Small claims court and Drive to his city. Sure I'll win but have no real way to force collections. I am sure the punk has no real assets at risk.

3. Drive to his address and knock on his door. That's about 7hrs from me in Cleveland,OH to him Phoenixville,PA

How have people here dealt with scammers? Is it a lost cause?

You're asking a whole bunch of people that got screwed by Japhei (myself included) what to do? I wish I knew! Good luck!

Enforcing judgments varies from state to state, what you might want to do is see how it's handled in PA. You could try to handle it there, or possibly in your state and have it enforced there.

For example: I'm filing a minor lawsuit against someone in CO, low enough that it wouldn't really be worth it but for that fact that I'm an attorney and can do it all myself (not that a lay person can't --it just takes a little more homework!) --I'm filing in MN but I'm going to need to take it to CO where I'd be using their law for "enforcing alien judgments" (all states have something like that) to have the judgment in MN (where I have "standing") recognized and enforced in CO. Again, this is where things vary by state, but in CO I take the MN judgment to the county clerk where the defendant lives and they process it and it can be then handed to the county sheriff for enforcement. Now how that works in practice is a mystery to me at the moment as I haven't reached that point, but this is an example of how something like this can be done. To be fair, I'm looking at an amount of money that's in the low thousands and is a legal slam dunk in that the other party signed a very good contract (which is required for sales above a certain amount anyway) and I'm looking for an excuse to see my friends in CO. Now it's difficult/expensive when it crosses international borders, so that truly is a caveat emptor situation IMO.

If you're willing to take the effort, though, it would be a great learning experience and you'd get hopefully get some justice (if not a lot of cash) to boot! It may take a little bit of time to learn everything that you need to do, but if it's something you want to do I think you're capable of doing it. It's all about learning when and how to file things properly --but that's the tricky part

Most people aren't willing or able to take the time to do all of that.

what is his name?

norton9478 said:

what is his name?

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Yeah, he's only like 30 minutes from me, I'm not going to knock on his door, but I may know a friend of a friend out of blind luck.

Ralfakick said:

Yeah, he's only like 30 minutes from me, I'm not going to knock on his door, but I may know a friend of a friend out of blind luck.

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Username: GamerGudda88
Aliases: Christiphor Jones Jr.
Email: gamergudda88@gmail.com
Xbox Gamertag: iRep224thGUDDA
Playstation Network ID: iGotDaJuice224th

acem77 said:

Username: GamerGudda88
Aliases: Christiphor Jones Jr.
Email: gamergudda88@gmail.com
Xbox Gamertag: iRep224thGUDDA
Playstation Network ID: iGotDaJuice224th

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This would've tipped me off immediately.. douchey misspelled online handles..

VanillaThunder said:

This would've tipped me off immediately.. douchey misspelled online handles..

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yea a very punk ass thing typically.....

acem77 said:

yea a very punk ass thing typically.....

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Don't take it to mean "nyah nyah, I told you so.." It's not. I just tend to avoid those people with online transactions. They tend to be teenagers or early 20's kids.. and they're mostly the scammers.

I've been drilled in the ass before on deals. More of a tip to others reading the thread.

(Not that I would do it in real life, but it's nice to dream...)

How much money did you gift him?

If you gifted all of it to him no one will be able to help you. This is why i refuse to send paypal gift to anyone as a payment for good. Its against paypal polices for this reason they cant be disputed.

I was scammed around 850 dollars for a paintball gun on another site. I contacted his local police and told them the story and they said the same thing to me. A gift is a gift, you cant ask for it back or dispute it..

$60 gifted

acem77 said:

$60 gifted

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I thought it was $250.00 or was just the estimated value of the items owed. Not sure how that would work in court, wouldnt you just get your $60.00 back?

Really shouldn't gift unless you at least kinda trust the other person.

small part was gifted the rest was hardware

acem77 said:

3. Drive to his address and knock on his door. That's about 7hrs from me in Cleveland,OH to him Phoenixville,PA

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Anything over 5 hours requires a
->P
-->L
--->A
---->N
----->E
------>T
------->I
-------->C
--------->K
---------->E
----------->T

If it was me personally I would just take a friend on a weekend drive to his house and get my money back in some form or another.

arbormatt said:

If it was me personally I would just take a friend on a weekend drive to his house and get my money back in some form or another.

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Yeah.

Fuckin' TonK this guy up already.

Don't listen to Red-Tape Bobak the librul...who's mad that his Bobak Statue came with only two testicles.

Wow, this sucks. I guess I'm lucky that everybody I'll dealt with on N-G.com have been honest people. Of course I know that someday, the gift payment will bite me in the ass.

I did some heavy searching on public sales info for the house at the address.
i have a full name and phone number, must be the guys dads house.
I used that name to find who i think is the sacmmer on facebook.
ill have my friend thats a cop give them a call as part of an investigation.

brentsg said:

Really shouldn't gift unless you at least kinda trust the other person.

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Never gift anyone. Eff that.

Even people trust worthy can break down and screw people seen it many times.

Thats why in all my f/s threads i never ask for gift..it should be a rule on any site and any forum. Dont ask for gift. Just if your that worried about it calucate the paypal fees in your sale price. No one will know the difference.

acem77 said:

I did some heavy searching on public sales info for the house at the address.
i have a full name and phone number, must be the guys dads house.
I used that name to find who i think is the sacmmer on facebook.
ill have my friend thats a cop give them a call as part of an investigation.

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Send me some of your info, I can help.

ObeyMyEgo said:

Never gift anyone. Eff that.

Even people trust worthy can break down and screw people seen it many times.

Thats why in all my f/s threads i never ask for gift..it should be a rule on any site and any forum. Dont ask for gift. Just if your that worried about it calucate the paypal fees in your sale price. No one will know the difference.

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Live in your bubble of safety if you wish. I have a number of folks that I trade with and trust. How is gifting any more risky than trading?

brentsg said:

Live in your bubble of safety if you wish. I have a number of folks that I trade with and trust. How is gifting any more risky than trading?

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I dunno. I wouldn't use the gift option option unless I knew the guy myself. I mean, I've used it before for a few guys here.

But he raises a valid point: why not just include the fees in the payment? There's no reason not to, and you remove all chance of getting screwed that way. There's nothing distrustful about that.

HeartlessNinny said:

I dunno. I wouldn't use the gift option option unless I knew the guy myself. I mean, I've used it before for a few guys here.

But he raises a valid point: why not just include the fees in the payment? There's no reason not to, and you remove all chance of getting screwed that way. There's nothing distrustful about that.

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Because that's not what everyone else does, so your board.. or whatever.. is overpriced. Also, most people would rather their money go for the product and not for the Ebay giant.