News - I'm ashamed to say it, but I got scammed.

I had created an advertisement on Craigslist.org, AFTER I failed to find a buyer on ebay, to sell my video camera equipment. I had decided that since I wasn't using the equipment in any profitable way I should sell it while it still held a lot of it's original value. Of course, being able to catch up on a couple of mortgage payments was a big plus.

I had been contacted by 'John Webb' who said he saw my ad on craigslist.

He called me from 510-467-4462 (a number which conveniently became no longer in service, reverse lookup tells me: "We did not find a listing for the phone number you entered. The phone number "(510) 467-4462" is a Okld Frtville, CA based phone number and the registered carrier is Time Warner Telecom Of California, L.p. dditional information for this number is not available."

He indicated that he had been 'burned' by internet transactions before and would not pay in advance, I suggested an escrow account and he said it wasn't necessary, that from talking to me felt that we could do business. If I hadn't been in a hurry to sell my equipment (had two back mortgage payments to contend with), I would have insisted on payment in advance or waited until I had a local buyer with cash, but stupidly agreed to use COD via UPS (his suggestion that UPS has COD Guaranteed Funds). Of course, the reality which i found out after the fact is tha UPS doesn't guarantee anything and their insurance, which I paid for, doesn't cover anything. Note these links which describe their policy, which plays nicely into the scammers plans, because it gives you a false sense of security:

Click here to read this cleverly hidden document on UPS website which tells you that basically the insurance doesn't cover anything.

Click here to read about their so called guaranteed funds COD.

NOTE: I currently am pursuing legal action against ups/ups store because I am contending that they should have delivered to the address, not to the individual waiting outside the appartment. The individual that resides there would have denied expecting a package which probably would have tipped off the driver. It was too much to ask that the driver question the cheezy looking 'bank draft' from the TrustMark bank - these people must love their tongue in cheek cleverness - a 'Mark' is a victim of a con, who usually get's to be a victim because of the 'trust' they establish.

The address which the package was shipped to I did a reverse lookup on whitepages.com and I called the # listed. The lady there confirmed that she was unit B. I asked her if she knew anyone with the name of ther person who had signed for my shipment, she said 'I don't know any guy named Marshall'. So either she was just someone picked out whose address someone could use to wait for UPS and intercept my delivery or she was working with them, but I suspect that the address was just some poor schmoe who they figured they could wait in front of for UPS to gift them with $7000 of video equipment.

The checks I finally received on 5/27/2004 was suspcious looking, so I called directory assistance in San Francisco, CA and they could not give me a number for that bank, "TrustMark Bank". I talked to my bank branch (JP Morgan Chase in Milford, CT) when I made the deposit and related my concerns, the teller placed it under a scanner and told me that it looked good. The funds were deposited, and within a few days the bank undeposited the money and took out the larger amount ($3216.71) which caused my mortgage payments to bounce, and the remaining amount came out on 6/8/2004 for $1065.78. So far, I am out $4282.49, which specifically was to have been my asking price of $3900 plus shipping and insurance charges. Of course, other damages are happening to me such as Insufficient fund charges, attorney fees - if I can every afford their retainer, and time I missed from work to deal with this mess.

I learned of the problem I was facing some ten days or so AFTER the bank took the money back out of my account - by a letter which included the counterfeit bank draft from chase. They didn't even call me. I did not notice that my accounts shortfall of $3200 was due to this process because I had expected a similar amount to come out from my mortgage.

I contacted my bank, the local police, filed a report with them, the FBI and I of course, contacted UPS and UPS Store and they are categorically refusing to even file a claim, so I'm having to see about sueing them.

Then I did some searching and ha! on the same craigslist.org forum where I had advertised my equipment, these cocky con-artists advertised a setup that was painfully identical to my own. They did so anomynously but when I contacted craigslist.org admin they recognized them as a bogus group that had been scamming their patrons - so yeah, this has got to be my equipment. They gave me the aol email address and I quickly found the same ad on their 'instant' free website, with another throwaway cell phone. So hopefully law enforcment and justice will prevail and they will bust these yahoo's, but I suspect I'm on my own here.

I've tracked their IP's, I'm albe to look at their website right now, but I can't call them without possibly tipping them off.

All in all, a very lousy situation. Financial disaster, very demoralizing. But we'll see. I will get my equipment back, just watch and see. "John Webb" I'm watching for you, your life is going to get very complicated.

Joel