Fraud and online sales... What can you do?
 

So, you are surfing the classifieds and you find something you've been looking for for a while. You contact the seller via PM, agree to a price and send off the payment with the understanding that the seller will send you a PM with a tracking number the next day.

One day goes by, and another, and you start to get nervous so you send a PM asking what the hold up is.

Silence....

What can you do?

Well, if you want to protect yourself you have to be proactive. You should ask the seller for personal details (name, address, phone number) before you send a penny, and verify those details online using Canada411.ca or a similar service. If you get a phone number that doesn't show up in the directory, call the seller to confirm it is their phone. You owe it to yourself to cover your ass from the get-go.

OK, so a week has gone by and you got nothing, no response at all...

Pick up the phone and call... If you get voicemail, leave a message each time you call. Try to get ahold of the person for a couple days. Remind the person that they have accepted funds for goods sold and are refusing to ship. Send PMs and/or emails. Make notes of when you called and what you said. DO NOT threaten them with anything stronger than referring them to the autorities.

Give them a set date by which you expect to receive confirmation of shipment and inform them of this date and time by email, PM, voicemail, phonecall, whatever.

Remind them that non-delivery of goods or services IS FRAUD

Remind them again, 24 hours before the deadline is up.

Once the deadline is up, report the seller to the RCMP if you do not get a tracking number.

If once the package arrives you find the box is full of rocks, blocks of wood, whatever, then you have been defrauded. Report the seller to the RCMP.

Reporting is simple as there is a website for this purpose

Just surf over to the RECOL.CA website and follow the instructions.

Here are some other online resources:

https://recol.ca/intro.aspx?lang=en
http://www.rcmp-grc.gc.ca/scams-frau...fraude-eng.htm
http://www.rcmp-grc.gc.ca/scams-fraudes/recol-eng.htm

Good post Agit, a lot of people have no clue what to do when they get ripped or how to prevent it! Definitely worth stickying.

this will be set up as an announcement in a few days.

Also, I believe the mods here such as Lisa will be nice enough to provide you with an IP address, that actually helped with a dispute that happened last year with someone selling the same item to multiple people.

I'm guessing this person is Bush Master we're talking about at the moment?

This is one of the reasons I love Direct Deposit so much.

I ask Agit to write something up because with the past issues of people taking funds and not delivering everyone says call the police but no one ever does because they are too lazy to look on how to report it.

I also wish to remind people that fraud (including mail fraud) is punishable by jail time. http://www.crimes-of-persuasion.com/...minal_laws.htm

What about EMT? Oh yeah how's that G18C?

EMT is a secure method for sending money, but does not protect you from fraud. That is your own responsibility.

thanks agit, the websites are helpfuil and should deter people from fraud, and encourage people to do something about it, i think this should definatly be sticky'd

holy fuck agit prop is still alive ??
thought he dissapeared from the forums for like 2 years



good post btw very informative for first time buyers

Direct Deposit could be a good method, because then you have a name, bank account, location. Someone would have to go to alot to get you with their own personal bank.

Agit -prop is like the archangel, now that the holy trinity has receeded to the far corners of the web he has perched and been vigilant but not vacated. Again swooping in to save the minions from the evil doers on the inter web.
Cheers

No, this is entirely self serving... I'm sending a message.

and FAQed

I guess you can say that you have your sights on him.