Just got swindled

[virtuamike]

I'm a fool, I just got swindled in a deal. Met someone to do a trade, I accepted a cashier's check, went to the bank to cash it only to find out that it was a fake. Went to the police to file a report but dunno how long it'll take for them to act on it. Now I'm out $1K, any ideas on what I can do to speed up the process? BTW I got the SOB's plates, so if someone could hook me up with an addy . . .

 

[badluck]

damn...that's all I have to say....sorry

Give the plates to the cops....

 

[Ameesh]

give the plates to the cops, next time if he can give you a cashiers check he can give you cash, take cash!

 

[Burnt]

Man that sucks...was it someone on AT? Nice job grabbing his plate numbers.

 

[Hossenfeffer]

What sort of deal are we talking here? And what types of information do you have about the feller?

 

[virtuamike]

Already gave the plates to the cops. They already have an address, but since it's not local they don't have jurisdiction so they can't do anything right away. Don't want to go into specifics on here, but no it wasn't anyone from AT. Have some phone numbers too, got them to call my cell so I could track them with caller ID, I think they're mostly pay phones though. Any other ideas?

 

[Hossenfeffer]

Did they tell you what local the address is from? Could they just accidentally mention it so you could go to the local authorities there and make some sort of stink about things?

 

[TallBill]

wowsers, that sucks.. nice job on catchin the plates

 

[Burnt]

We'll if you still have the fake cashier's check, and you can track him down (with his plate numbers), you should be able to do something about this situation. You could also probably get him in trouble for counterfeiting cashier's checks.

 

[Red Dawn]

Man that's the ultimate diss. That guy needs to pay for his actions.

 

[virtuamike]

The address tied to the plates is in a neighboring city. Look at my profile, then look on a map. It's not too hard to figure out where I'm talking about (hint: it's the big city). I suggested to my local police that I'd be willing to take it straight up with the other dept, but they said they're backlogged with felony offenses that need to be investigated first. Odd, I though counterfeiting cashier's checks was already a felony offense. If they catch this guy he's going down hard, I'll make sure of it. BTW I gave the police the cashier's check, they're going to run prints off it (it's paper, shouldn't be too hard). I'm also going to make some calls tomorrow. Evidently the prick picked me out from the classified ads, and from what the bank told me I'm just another victim in this scheme, they reported a similar case at another branch not too far away. I'll try and collect all the info I can (other open case numbers etc) and forward everything to the police, give them a hand. I know it's more or less in the hands of the police at the moment but I feel anxious and a little hellpless, is there anything else I can do?

 

[Burnt]

Let us know if you (they) ever catch the guy.

 

[AnthraX101]

If you have his (real) name, then do what we Americans excel at! SUE!

Armani

 

[thomsbrain]

track him down and have "vinne" break both his kneecaps.

but seriously, that's really unfortunate, and i hope everything turns out alright.

 

[BrunoPuntzJones]

my dad had the same thing happen. sold his rolex to a guy, went out to dinner with him and everything, and the guy gave him a wells fargo cashiers check. so my dad deposits it, and 6 months go by. then the bank calls and says the check is no good, takes money out of his personal checking and sells some of his stocks to get their money back. well pop isnt too happy

ended up suing 3 banks (local bank, ag edwards, and wells fargo) and actually won. judge said that 6 months was way outside their limit to act. got his cash back as well as any losses on the stock. stickin it to the man!

my dad should have been more through. he called the guy after he had found out and the guys answering machine said something to the effect of "if you are calling about the porsche, press 1, if you are calling about the jewlery, press 2".

the guy ended up being murdered or something, was dead by the time the police went to serve him.

 

[virtuamike]

The police already have an address and a name so at least the plate numbers I grabbed are legit, they just need to get someone over there to see what they can find. And yes, I took the precaution of jotting down the serial numbers of the items I traded (standard measure on anything that big). The police cautioned me that the only thing they'd be able to do is return whatever merchandise they recover, any other financial damages I'll have to take up in civil / small claims. Anyone have some advice on how that works? I'm trying to get my plan together so I know exactly how to proceed, everything up to now (except me being stupid enough to accept a fake cashier's check) has gone fairly smooth, don't think I've missed anything. If I do end up sueing (which I most likely will do) what do I sue for? Under what grounds etc?

 

[Phunktion]

Take him to Judge Judy.. I can hear it now.. "You sir!"

 

[TallBill]

sheesh.. if that happened to me on a bad day.. i'd just kill the as$hole who did that and spend my time in jail.... good thing i dont have many bad days

 

[The Stigenator]

if you got the guys address, do an stake out and make sure he lives there.

then file a claim in small claims court.. doesnt cost much to do so. Make sure you got your police report and a copy of the cashier check as eveidence.. as well as serial numbers and what not..

then have teh postal dept serve him in small claims court, or better yet (what my parents did cause teh people they sued gave a fake address) have a designated court paper delivery person do it.. it costs about 100 bucks but worth it. My parents had teh suit papers returned to them cause the people didnt live there, then it took them another 4 months to track them down and serve them.. this time they used a company to serve them rather than USPS..

My parents won the case, but the other family declared bankrupcy, so we still dont get anything after all this work.

 

[virtuamike]

Well, I have plates but I don't have an address. The police were able to look up the plates and told me the address was in Sacramento, but that's all they could tell me. So as much as I want to, stake out is not an option at the moment. But if someone here could run plates for me, I'd be more than willing to drive up and ask for my money back. Me and 20 other guys of course. I looked around, looks like there's companies out there that can look up the info for me but it costs around $70. I'm beginning to think it's worth it.

 

[Bozo Galora]

link

 

[StageLeft]

Props for getting his plates. I'm sure he didn't expect that. I would guess you have an excellent chance of getting this guy by the balls. Let us know how it works out.

 

[virtuamike]

I contacted my cell phone carrier to see if they could track the private numbers they guy was calling me from. They said the only way they could do that is under a subpoena from a law enforcement agency, so I let the police know that at least that's a resource available to them. I'll probably call my bank later today too, tell them to get in contact with the police as evidently there's been more than 1 incident of people passing off the same fradulent cashier's checks.

 

[rahvin]

You should really speak to the sacramento DA's office directly about prosecuting the guy for counterfiet checks. The police are often slow about priorities and speaking to the DA's office directly may expidite your case.

 

[virtuamike]

Thank you very much for the suggestion. I just got off the phone with the DA's office. Unfortunately since the transaction took place in Davis, I'm stuck with going through the Davis police. That means the Sacramento DA can't help. Luckily (or unluckily) I was able to track down another fraud victim by calling up some of the listings in the classified ads, and we've scheduled a time when we'll talk. I'll give the Yolo county DA a call next, maybe they can put some pressure on to speed things up.

** UPDATE **
Yolo County DA can't do anything until the police have finished investigating and have forwarded the case, might take up to a week.