MacAddict Tracks Down eBay Scam Artist

OS24Ever writes "A future high school history teacher, Jason Eric Smith, sold an 867MHz PowerBook G4 on eBay right before finals. He found out the hard way that people are out there to rip you off, and he went to great lengths to catch this guy with the help of Mac heads everywhere. A great read and agreat way for us little guys to get back at these scammers."

Comments

something's rotten

[Anonymous Coward]

there's a lot of rotten apples on ebay.

Re:something's rotten

[Oliver Wendell Jones]

I've never sent anything COD, but wouldn't FedEx be partly to blame for accepting a phony/counterfeit cashier's check?

Re:something's rotten

[ShdwStkr]

No.

From FedEx's COD Policy (here)

quote

D. Checks (including cashier's, official, certified, business and personal checks) and money orders for the C.O.D. Amount will be collected at the shipper's sole risk, including, but not limited to, all risk of nonpayment, fraud and forgery. FedEx has no liability with respect to any such instrument.

end quote.

Re:something's rotten

[Oliver Wendell Jones]

Note to self: Never rely on FedEx for a C.O.D.

Seriously though, you mean if I wrote "Sertifyed Chek" on a piece of brown paper with a crayon and handed it to the delivery guy, it would still be the original shipper's fault for getting screwed?

Hopefully at the very least, FedEx and UPS keep a database of names/addresses when people report crap like this so they don't keep accepting bad checks from the same guy day after day and then claiming no responsibility... of course they probably don't keep a database for that very reason, they can just claim ignorance and point to their disclaimer...

Re:something's rotten

[derch]

The article's slashdotted, so I'm replying under the assumption the fake certified funds looks legit on first glance.

First, it's a question of reasonably expectations. If the Fedex guy accepted your "Sertifyed Chek," you'd probably have a case of incompetance against the delivery man.

On the other hand, if it looks like certified check, what do you really expect Fedex to do? To verify that it was valid, you'd have to get the funds and then call the issuer before handing over the package. That's going to add several minutes per COD package. In the case of some businesses, Fedex would have to schedule 15 - 45 minutes for delivery.

I worked for a company that was burned by a fake cashier's check once. The check looked real. Our bank accepted the check without problems. It wasn't till several days later that the bank found out it was a fake. In our case, the receiver had called his Fedex station and asked them to hold the package at the station, and he picked it up there. The address he had given us was actually a vacant lot.

Essentially, the carrier acts as your agent when collecting the funds. It'd be the same as if someone walked up to the counter and passed you a bad cashier's check or counterfiet money.

Re:something's rotten

[kesuki]

I guess they should start requiring a quick Scan of a Valid state driver license for CODs -- when payment is not by cash. At least then they'd have a scan of all the data on the drivers license/State ID Card (for people who don't drive) to turn over to the victims/police.

Re:something's rotten

[Joe5678]

From the same page:

E. The maximum C.O.D. Amount is $9,999,999.99 per shipment. THE C.O.D. AMOUNT IS NOT THE SAME AS, AND SHOULD NOT BE CONFUSED WITH, DECLARED VALUE. (See "Declared Value and Limits of Liability" section.)

Why do I get the feeling that their maxiumum amount is based on some entry field that only takes 9 characters?

Re:something's rotten

[FuegoFuerte]

I guess they should start requiring a quick Scan of a Valid state driver license for CODs -- when payment is not by cash. At least then they'd have a scan of all the data on the drivers license/State ID Card (for people who don't drive) to turn over to the victims/police.

This in no way gaurantees that the check is not counterfeit. The business I work for, and many of the other stores in our chain, have recently gotten several counterfeit checks all from the same person. Every time, they have been for a significantly large amount that store policy says we must check 2 pieces of ID and verify funds with the bank. However, the guy is good enough that he has matching (counterfeit) state drivers licenses and second form of ID, and he uses a different name every time. He also steals account numbers to put on the checks, so when we call the bank to verify funds, everything seems alright. By the time the check actually tries to clear, the person has realized their account has been compromised, and the check comes back as stolen. So if the scammer is sufficiently careful/advanced, no amount of ID checking will do you any good.

Re:something's rotten

[kesuki]

True, but you make it harder for less sophisticated scamers. As it is now, some sophisticated criminal could take advantage of less intelligent ones, by having them run this relatively simple E-bay COD scam. They'd take a percentage, and if the patsy got caught they wouldn't know enough about you (maybe) to finger you... If you don't even need a fake ID it's far too simple. At least requiring a Good fake-id adds perhaps a hundred dollar fee to get one that doesn't look fake. if they have to use a new one for every crime, they'd have a hard time making any money at all!
Remember, if they're liquidating the Laptop same-day they're probablly getting $600 at most, especially if they're using some place that doesn't care if they really own it. yes, it can still be done. but it still would make a minor improvement.

Re:something's rotten

[lemkebeth]

unless the bidder can't be there to pay in person then your COD requirment for biddrs falls through.

I had a farfetched thought...

[Dimensio]

...how about, when shipping something, trying to hide a GPS transponder somewhere in the object. Make it well-hidden, but also give it a limited-lifetime battery so that it won't be traceable after about a week.

If you get ripped, just follow the signal or keep track of where it last vanished (perhaps it went into a basement where it couldn't be tracked any further). Meet the crook at his/her door with a .45.

Well, okay, maybe not a .45 but be ready to inflict physical violence, since the feds are rarely helpful.

Re:I had a farfetched thought...

[Denito]

What a fantastic idea. Instead of losing your money to scams, you can instead use it all buying GPS devices that you ship away and never get again.

I haven't heard such great idea since my meeting with accounting 10 minutes ago.

Re:I had a farfetched thought...

[mgs1000]

The problem is that GPS receivers don't work to well indoors. (They can't see the satellites)

Re:I had a farfetched thought...

[capnjack41]

Wait, let's see. That "violence idea" is making me think. If it's ok for feds to draw guns on people who steal cable, then it's certainly ok to meet the laptop-stealin' crook at his/her door with a .45. Right??

Re:I had a farfetched thought...

[N3WBI3]

I think he is suggesting you use it after someone rips you off (ala put up a similar item and hope he bites again..

Re:I had a farfetched thought...

[iocat]

Commercially GPS receivers don't work indoors, or when hidden in boxes. And they cost a lot. Instead of a GPS receiver, you could try using an escrow service or PayPal to get the money upfront.

Re:I had a farfetched thought...

[Dimensio]

Well, since I'm discussing preventative measures, it would do to make it a temporary solution. Perhaps have it run for only a month, then delete itself.

Re:I had a farfetched thought...

[spike hay]

Better yet, why not just password-protect the bios? Once they pay you, tell them the password.

Re:I had a farfetched thought...

[ceejayoz]

It works about the same way as Capital Punishment for crimes.

You mean like in Illinois, where half of death row got off because of DNA evidence?

Re:I had a farfetched thought...

[EvanED]

Well, considering you can't start either Windows or Linux on my box without my 10-character, dictionary-attack impervous, mixed alpha-numeric password, anyone who stole my system wouldn't have much of a choice but to reinstall...

Re:I had a farfetched thought...

[Kissing Crimson]

Wire Fraud: Class 3 Felony (probably federal if you cross state lines.)
Mail Fraud: Class 3 Felony (definitely federal)
Defense: good luck.

B&E: Avoidable, just knock.

Assault and Battery: reducible to a single misdemeanor.
Defense: extenuating circumstances.

Of course, IANAL.

My Favorite quote is.....

[neurostar]

"That night I dreamed of Mr. Christmas and a baseball bat, some duct tape, and roofing nails."

neurostar

Re:My Favorite quote is.....

[Dimensio]

Honestly, that would have been my method, especially since there was little chance of recovering the stolen goods. I prefer the kind of vengence where I can take personal satisfaction with the feeling of hard metal or wood repeatedly slamming against flesh. I like to hear the crook whimper and beg and sob like a small child as I crush his legs.

Of course, fun as it would be to let them live and leave them crippled for life, I would know the importance of ending it so that I could not be identified by them later.

Yes, I am a very disturbed person, but I'm not that bad if you haven't tried to screw me over.

Re:My Favorite quote is.....

[dillon_rinker]

Never turn your back on an enemy who is still alive...words to live by.

Re:My Favorite quote is.....

[Anonymous Coward]

Wow, you're pretty scary in text! I can imagine what you'd be like in real life... hmm... better roll a D6 for charisma...

Re:My Favorite quote is.....

[fidget42]

This was best described in "The Princess Bride" with the definition of "To the pain."

Re:My Favorite quote is.....

[GreyPoopon]

Is this the correct spot to insert an inappropriate comment about correctional facilities and large men named "Bubba?"

* Please note that this is not intended as any form of discrimination against anyone with the name of "Bubba."

Re:My Favorite quote is.....

[kmellis]

"That night I dreamed of Mr. Christmas and a baseball bat, some duct tape, and roofing nails."

I have this recurring dream every year about this time. Weird.

Re:My Favorite quote is.....

[Dimensio]

Possibly, but do keep in mind that I addressed the issue of why the person should be killed with the intended implication that there would be an evasion of law-enforcement implied (mind you, I don't think that law enforcement should get involved when it comes to someone taking action against a scammer after the police have refuse to investigate).

A smart mob / posse?

[certron]

I think this is interesting for the sole fact that a whole lot of people who owe no direct kinship to each other elected to cooperate for a common cause.

I was listening to a presentation about different pagan holidays, and one component of one of the rituals was to honor / remember your ancestors. What made me remember this was that the presenter said that the ancestors didn't have to be biological, instead could be cultural, intellectual, or spiritual ancestors.

In this case, it seems that these 'artificial' families are willing to stick together and cooperate on a common goal, even if they themselves will not directly benefit. I suppose this is just a regular community, with enough people in it that a few would be motivated to assist. Then again, I could just be amazed by my own insight, marvelling at a fact that others have known for ages, and so think that I am smarter than I actually am. :-)

Re:A smart mob / posse?

[bricriu]

There's a Vonnegut novel, "Slapstick," that involves the plot point of the President of the US giving everyone new randomly-from-amongst-a-certain-set-of-words-and-n umbers-assigned middle names. The idea was exactly what you say -- that now everyone has a new "family". Typically loopy Vonnegut, but ultimately an interesting idea (which is also typical Vonnegut behavior).

Re:A smart mob / posse?

[lysander]

I had just finished reading some Vonnegut and remembered this same book.

Here's choice quote from another Vonnegut book about a similar sort of "family":

... I learned the joke at the core of American self-improvement: knowledge was so much junk to be processed one way or another at great universities. The real treasure the great universities offered was a lifelong membership in a respected artificial extended family.
--Rabo Karabekian, protagonist of Bluebeard

Re:A smart mob / posse?

[Draoi]

The discovery that Apple is in fact a religion is fairly recent.

And of those of us who work there?

Priesthood (and all its hierarchy)??

Devoted, brainwashed lackeys??

(I'm thinking the latter! It's 10:30pm where I am & I'm still here ... :-)

Re:A smart mob / posse?

[Genoxide]

Well, I live in Denmark, and while I would never consider danes to be pagan in any way, we do do celebrate a national holiday called "Sankt Hans", which means "Saint Hans" (isn't danish easy) :) well.. this day is celebrated each year on the 23rd of June, which is usually the day after summer solstice. And on this evening we light BIG fires on all our beaches.

Furthermore, it is custum that every fire has a mock witch on top (real live witches are surprisingly hard to come by these days). We say that we, by doing this, are sending all the witches to a town called "bloksbjerg" which is actually a place in germany where we believed that the witches would have a sabbat and meet with the devil on this very night! We then congregate around these massive fires and sing songs about the time when we were vikings, and how much we were able to eat and drink, and how many people we killed, how proud we are of all those things, and how we will still fight back any intruder (with swords, mind you), and at the same time honor our warriors of the past!...

Now in the communications era, we don't have relatives of that kind around the world, but many of us still have one thing in common. Not the past, but the now! We all share our common interest in computers, and my experience tells me that 99% of all nerds are really friendly and helpful, as opposed to many other "normal" people, and most of us would gladly help out a fellow nerd who was ripped off/cheated/decieved etc.

I think it's a good and comforting message a story like this is sending out in todays world that can, at times, be a horrifying and cruel place, with little to no fellowship among men. "Nerds of the world, unite!" :)

Re:A smart mob / posse?

[Wyatt Earp]

Hell no the American Indians would not band togeather across Tribal boundries, except for a few notable exceptions to drive off a common enemy.

Little Bighorn was one of the few times tribes hooked up to take out Whitey.

The Aztecs were taken down by a mix of other native tribes (names of which I don't recall and can't spell) fighting WITH the Spanish.

Hell the Spanish in Mexico had more problems with other Spanish coming to take out Cortez than the Spanish had with the Aztecs.

If you look at the Inidan Wars, tribes would go to the French or English/American side in the same division which marked the intertribal warfare that exsisted before the Europeans settled in the Americas.

Some have argued that the US-Plains Indians Treaties should be voided because the agreements to stop fighting between the tribes were broken when the Tribes would go at it within weeks of returning from the Treaty signing.

Even today, there is alot of mistrust between bands of Lakota and the Crows sure don't like the Lakota.

If you are from Cheyenne River Reservation, you are not always welcome on Standing Rock or Pine Ridge, and you really don't want to go over to the Crow Reservation.

Re:A smart mob / posse?

[Planesdragon]

Something those pagan redskins would never do, or what?

The native americans in upstate NY did indeed work together as one nation. But, AFAIK, it was something that the leaders of the five tribe-nations organized, and not something the "common folk" suggested and implemented. I could be wrong--I've only got at most 1/8th native blood and (sadly) little cultural interaction, and the details are so sparse as to be irrelevant.

Democracy--that is, the concept of people working together for a common good and a common purpose not decreed by "the wise" or "the noble"--is something whose earliest-continous (and most famous) example is the people of the Untied States of America.

The "pagan redskins", to use your slurs, were all "kin" within a tribe and so naturally worked together. The best examples to the historical nature of the orignal parent's noted "discovery" are periods of either high mobility or sudden shift in geographic location. Something that, thanks to the relatively peaceful life (compared to Europe, anyway) of the native americans made a rare event.

The parent post was propably posted in a hurry, but this thing really pisses me off. And yes I'm a european (swedish) and a lawyer and seen this exact argument used against our aborigines (the sápmi) to which we 'brung' law and order. As if they didn't hav any...

Am I missing something, or is Sweden one of those country's who's "civlization_by_conquest" events were so far back in time that they're either prehistorical or, at least, solidly the Romans' fault?

You're reading a statement into my post that I simply isn't there. I never stated anything about any of the native american tribes, nor would I intend to.

Allow me to clarify...

I was listening to a presentation about different pagan holidays, and one component of one of the rituals was to honor / remember your ancestors. What made me remember this was that the presenter said that the ancestors didn't have to be biological, instead could be cultural, intellectual, or spiritual ancestors.
Must... resist... urge to... point out... self-intersted religion...

The only people in the world who refer to themselves as "pagans"* are the largely american polytheists, who can also very often be mixed in with the same general religious morass as wiccans or "druids." (Some of my best friends are wiccans, though we disagree on their historical peroggative.)

Now, these "pagans" have a tendency to claim a historical background that, allegedly, predates my own faith (non-denominational Christian). As far as I can see it, those that make the claim essentially take a history of religious rebellions and historical interest in the occult and prop it up as "historical proof." (Which, of course, ignores the fact that even if they DID stretch back to the time of the pre-roman druids, the jewish roots of Christianity would still have a few thousand years on them.)

Given this viewpoint I have, I'm sure that you can see why a discourse on "pagan" holidays that eliminates the definition of "relative", leaving the concept as "anyone you looked up to", could be called "self-interested."

Were I the sort of Christian who runs around damning pagans**, I'd probably damn these polytheists for being too mob-minded to use proper words for themselves and their holidays.

NOTES:
*: "Pagan" is derived from a Latin word that does roughly mean "people of the wild", and no doubt got its meaning as a reference to those outside of the Roman city-states who worshipped different gods.

But we're not speaking Latin, we're speaking English--and up until the 60s, "pagan" was an equivalent term to "gentile" and meant "not christian" rather than any specific religion. It strikes me as rather insulting to the finite dieties that they worship to name themselves as "not Christian."

**: The only people who use the word "pagan" properly anymore are overly-zealous ministers of my own religion (see why I'm non-denominational?). I only use it here to emphasisize a joke.

Re:A smart mob / posse?

[SensitiveMale]

I think this is interesting for the sole fact that a whole lot of people who owe no direct kinship to each other elected to cooperate for a common cause.

What a cool idea.

What if we got a bunch of people on the common cause of processing SETI information?

Or possibly processing information to cure cancer?

Just imagine the possiblities?

Nah, it would never work.

Re:A smart mob / posse?

[Hard_Code]

Like "karas"s and "granfaloons" in Cat's Cradle. Ahh...Bokononism :)

Re: A smart mob / posse?

[Antity]

my experience tells me that 99% of all nerds are really friendly and helpful, as opposed to many other "normal" people, and most of us would gladly help out a fellow nerd who was ripped off/cheated/decieved etc.

Yeah, Just like this.

(SCNR, but there's always the Dark Side. I can't stand such assholes in online games, too and against all reason I felt better after reading about this incident.)

I'm sorry - but he was an idiot in the first place

[Dark Paladin]

I sell things on Ebay as well (usually old games that I'm done with) - and I don't do COD. Paypal - sure. Checks and money orders, but I wait until they clear before they ship.

I know we should be more trusting of people, but I've become convinced that 20% of the population is made of Assholes that can be trusted only as far as they can be shot.

Still, I have to admire his spirit tracking the guy down - if nothing else, that's one less asshole to worry about. Only 1 billion to go!

The importance of a 'P'

[Mr Guy]

If he was a spammer and not a scammer, he could have just posted it here and had the guy in hours.

All would've been different...

[Anonymous Cowtard]

...if this guy had just waited to ship the item until the payment had cleared. If the buyer wasn't interested in that, then wait for another buyer who *is* willing.

Would've saved him a lot more trouble and money in the long run.

Re:All would've been different...

[ScuzzMonkey]

And then we would have got the story from the [i]buyer[/i] about how he sent this check off and it got cashed and WHOOPS! the PowerBook never showed up and he then had to track down the seller and threaten him with a baseball bat. :)

Re:All would've been different...

[Danse]

Like he said. That was dumb. Handing a check to the UPS man doesn't get him paid. He should have made the guy send the check and then waited for it to clear, and THEN sent the puter to the guy. COD is a bad idea.

Re:All would've been different...

[sporty]

Ah, but it was done via cheque that the UPS took, in good faith, to be a payment. It wasn't cleared until he tried to deposit it.

Re:All would've been different...

[b1t r0t]

Not to mention that mailing the check (via USPS rather than having Fedex/UPS deliver the COD check) brings the mail fraud statutes into play. You don't fuck with the USPS.

Re:All would've been different...

[LVWolfman]

That is why anyone who does this on a regular basis uses one of the escrow services for items of that amount. I've done it, the escrow service doesn't tell the seller that it is ok to ship until the check clears.

The buyer is protected because the the escrow company doesn't release the money to the seller until the buyer says the item arrived as advertised or until a certain time period has passed if the buyer doesn't respond.

In my book, anyone who wants to buy or sell an item for more than $1,000 and who won't do it through an escrow service isn't to be trusted in the first place.

Re:All would've been different...

[silverhalide]

One word: PayPal. I know it's not terribly popular with some folks, but you have several layers of protection... If you send the money off your credit card directly, you can easily file a dispute with the credit card company and then PayPal will freeze said scumbag's account since the CC stiffed them of the money....

Also, theoretically, you have some protection from Paypal itself, but I've heard that they don't always come through on that.

Either way, be smart about your transactions, especially when big $$$ are involved!

Re:All would've been different...

[Emmettfish]

Yup. That is why for EBay I only accept USPS Money Orders, sent through the USPS, with USPS priority shipping. Oddly enough, for a government organization, they never fuck around.

The United States Postal Service is not a governmental or federal organization, and they haven't been since July 1st, 1971. Prior to this date they were a government agency (known as The Post Office Department), but now they're an independent agency.

Operational authority of the USPS rests with a Board of Governors and Postal Service management, instead of Congress. The US President is responsible to appoint nine of those Governors. So, there are still ties to the US Government, but they're independent.

No one's gonna read this, but them's the facts. More information is available at http://www.usps.com/history/his3.htm. Enjoy.

Emmett Plant
Use Vorbis to listen to my music!

Re:All would've been different...

[emptybody]

Yeah right...

seller has positive feedback
you put in max bid on auction.
go away for long weekend.(don't watch auction pages)
you win auction.
email back and forth -
"want paypal?"
"yes please."

user *HAD* positive feedback so you send paypal payment
seller receives it. (now it is non-cancellable.)

Seller drops off face of earth.

You see that negative feedbacks started showing up the same day your auction ended.

seller gets booted from ebay
you try to get money back.

ebay says scams from sellers with neg feedback are not covered.

Get contact info from ebay - phone number and addresses from ebay, paypal, and post-sale email don't match and are all are now bogus.

Buyer is screwed.

ebay has a credit card and address that was used when they validated the seller.
paypal has a bank account and address that was used to validate the seller.

ebay owns paypal.

neither company will work together to help.

Ebay has a "verified user" service.
(hidden deep in their pages) that verifies via equifax.com the person's identity.

Ebay has an escrow system.

use of both systems are optional AND must be negotiated before you win the auction.
There is no way to list only verified sellers or escrow-able auctions.

FedEX Responsibility

[rjstanford]

Doesn't FedEX have some responsibility in this case? After all, if you ship something COD and they accept a counterfit check, why is that completely your fault?

I'm not saying that it isn't legally your problem, just that in an ideal world it shouldn't be. After all, presumably it would be FedEX's fault if they accepted something written in crayon on a brown paper sack ... where do you draw the line? Any ideas?

Re:FedEX Responsibility

[Mandi Walls]

I dunno, man.

Cashier's checks look different at every bank. You can't expect the FedEx guy to whip out his cel phone and call the bank right at the guy's doorstep to check out the legitimacy of the paperwork.

He's just the messenger.

's almost as bad as relying on the manager at McDonald's to catch counterfeit $20s.

Mac users are a posse, man. They're like one big inbred family. They trust other Mac users 'cause they have some bizarre kinship for being on the short end of the tech stick.

Like us here, only with the social stick...

--mandi

Re:FedEX Responsibility

[DoNotTauntHappyFunBa]

---
Funny, I didn't see a swarm of orange ninjas...
---
They wouldn't be very good ninjas if you could see them!

Re:FedEX Responsibility

[mstyne]

No, he explicitly asks for money at the *bottom* of the article, when he says "ooh, please, don't send me money -- well, if you feel you HAVE to..."

Re:You can stop payment on a cashier's check?

[zer0vector]

I think the guy was forging the cashier's checks, which is why he tried to get the Secret Service involved.

Find

[Anonymous Coward]

try catching him by his mac address

Re:I'm sorry - but he was an idiot in the first pl

[oyenstikker]

Surely you're not trying to say that there is only one asshole in every 7 people.

Naughty

[Superfreaker]

"It's hard to sleep comfortably knowing some asshole has your Mac and is doing god knows what with it."

If he's a normal user, he's probably filling the various ports and orafices with various..uh..plug-like devices.

Re:You can stop payment on a cashier's check?

[.sig]

I think the point was that they were counterfeit cashiers checks, which is why the secret service was involved. It was implied in the article, but nevere flat out said.

Note to self

[eclectric]

Don't fuck with the Mac Heads.

this reminds me of an episode of South Park where a kid sold Cartman some pubic hair, and cartman got the kid back by tricking the kid into eating the kid's parents.

Every group has the zealots

[clutch110]

It's sad that, even to all the great lengths he went to, all PC users to him are bad guys. Congrats on getting the guy who stole your Mac, but maybe you will find time to realize it's the community your in and it has nothing to do the type of computer you use.

Re:Every group has the zealots

[MoneyT]

Where in the article did you get the impression he thought all PC users were bad?

Re:Every group has the zealots

[wolfgang_spangler]

" I know in my heart that Mr. Christmas is really a PC guy. "

that line from the article is a pretty big clue. And his other rantings about how stupid pc users are. This from a guy that sent a $2900 computer to someone. And HE is calling people stupid. Wow.

He needs to be hit with a Clue-by-Four.

Re:You can stop payment on a cashier's check?

[PinkStainlessTail]

The cashiers checks were counterfeit. SO the scammer either made 'em himself or acquired them from another crook. No actual bank was involved.

Schizophrenic

[Superfreaker]

"My girlfriend and I decided we would use the extra money to donate to some charities for Christmas"

"but I'm not someone you want to have that happen to. I will get you. I will hunt you down, and I will bring a baseball bat with me."

Re:Schizophrenic

[soulsteal]

How can you call him schizophrenic? I'm sure that if the orphans had slighted him after he donated to their charity, he'd have tracked them down and removed their nasal columellas (skin between their nostrils) with dull scissors and rusty pliers.

Go against ebay rules, get burned

[Nefrayu]

Ok, so it sounds like from this article the guy listed his system on eBay, but then sold it to a guy who "saw his ad" on eBay, but didn't actually bid on the item. This is 1. Against eBay rules for selling, and 2. Stupid. There's no way to get any kind of verification on who it was he was talking with (as he found out), no way to check out the guy's prior habits (via feedback), and no way to get back at the guy without a lot of effort. Every sale on eBay is insured up to a certain amount, with fraud protection offered through PayPal and through credit cards, COD is also the worst way to go.
I tell everyone who contacts me in this manner to bid on my auctions. Period. There's a reason eBay has these rules, and this is one of them.
But, no one ever said Mac users were the shiniest apples in the barrel.

Re:Go against ebay rules, get burned

[Monkelectric]

I think the real rule he violated was the "too good to be true" rule. Some guy offers him 600$ more then he paid for his computer -- THAT should have made him suspiscious.

I'm not saying hes right, but the guy used his own greed against him.

Re:Go against ebay rules, get burned

[Lars T.]

1. Not if he used "Buy It Now"; 2. You trust in feedback? This should be fun. Oh well, you also trust in eBay actually playing by their own rules.

Re:Go against ebay rules, get burned

[jred]

I know he said the "buy it now" was gone, so it wasn't that. What I wasn't clear on was if the auction was over, and didn't meet the reserve, or if he cancelled the auction to sell to the guy.

Johnny Cash doing Personal Jesus. That old guy rocks. (I know it's off-topic, but it's on my jukebox right now)

Re:Go against ebay rules, get burned

[Nefrayu]

Ah yes, but if you read the article, he clearly states that the Buy it Now option was not used.
Reading is fundamental.

Re:Go against ebay rules, get burned

[Lars T.]

Reading is fundamental.

So is slashdotting.

Re:Go against ebay rules, get burned

[Pedrito]

Send me your address, and I'll e-mail you a book on sarcasm and how to identify it.

Re:You can stop payment on a cashier's check?

[4iedBandit]

True to /. form.

RTFL. (Read The F***ing Link)

Then you might know what happend. Meet Mr. Clue stick. (WHAM!) The cashiers check was counterfit.

How do I know that? Because I RTFL.

If I were ekrout...

[Anonymous Coward]

Here's more links on ebay scammers from my personal links (not google!)!!! These ought to be informative! +5 Informative if you ask me! Give me karma! Give me friends! I guess the magic number of characters per line is 40! I can do that because I'm ekrout! I'm starting to sound like Frank Grimes berating Homer Simpson! Wow!

Confessions of a scam artist
... Confessions of a scam artist. Before his 16th birthday, Hue had stolen
$5,000 running auction scams on Yahoo and eBay. It was child's play, ...
www.msnbc.com/news/790212.asp - 75k - Cached - Similar pages

Charges filed in alleged eBay scam
... Click Here. Charges filed in alleged eBay scam. LA man charged with
26 counts of grand theft. LOS ANGELES, Dec. 4 -- A Los Angeles ...
www.msnbc.com/news/843312.asp?0si=- - 48k - Dec. 12, 2002 - Cached - Similar pages
[ More results from www.msnbc.com ]

Fool.com: Fools Team to Fight eBay Scam [News] May 2, 2001
... This way, every time a scam artist tries to take advantage of a seller ... eBay's response
eBay spokesman Kevin Pursglove says this particular scam pops up from ...
www.fool.com/news/2001/ebay010502.htm - 30k - Cached - Similar pages

TechTV | Source of EBay Scam Found
... Ebay wants to protect its trademark, but says it's tough to find
criminals like the email scam artist. It's very hard to track ...
www.techtv.com/news/security/story/ 0,24195,3408892,00.html - 38k - Dec. 12, 2002 - Cached - Similar pages

TechTV | EBay Spam Scam
... that's it.. Ebay wants to protect its trademark, but says it's tough
to find criminals like the email scam artist. It's very hard ...
www.techtv.com/news/security/story/ 0,24195,3408463,00.html - 39k - Dec. 12, 2002 - Cached - Similar pages

Possible Ebay Scam - www.ezboard.com
... It looks like the scam artist is targeting bigger sellers-not small fry-so if
any of you get an email asking for information-contact ebay about it first. ...
pub131.ezboard.com/ fbliss51092frm48.showMessage?topicID=27.topic - 14k - Cached - Similar pages

Ebay scam artists
... to conferm the info. Scam Artist email, Name, Ebay ID, Offence. mtracker@iland.net,
Mark Campbell, tracker44, sells broken items as new.
www.ctlinx.org/ebay/ - 7k - Cached - Similar pages

A New eBay Bidding Scam?
... Then at the last minute, he writes, the scam-artist could withdraw his high bid ... But
with the eBay system and other Internet bidding systems, that might not be ...
www.auctionbytes.com/pages/abu/y200/m03/abu0009/ s05 - 19k - Cached - Similar pages

Scam artist meets fraud hunter
www.brockmoore.com/Scams/SkylineMovies.html - 7k - Cached - Similar pages

PayPal - Internet Info for Real People
... a correction had to be added as MSNBC incorrectly reported the scam artist could
access credit card and bank account information. The eBay community quickly ...
www.thebee.com/bweb/iinfo217.htm - 18k - Cached - Similar pages

The broken window theory

[Fished]

One of the things he mentions is tha tthe FBI and Secret Service were not interested in anything less than $5000. Chicago police just weren't interested... This brings up something called "the broken window theory." It goes like this: some socioligists whose names escape me observed that, as long as no window was broken in a building, they tended to stay unbroken. However, as soon as one was broken, if it was not repaired every window in the building would be broken in a couple of weeks.

The idea here is that, by ignoring small crimes, the police miss chances to prevent big crimes. The funny thing is that the people wanted for "small" (I don't think of $3000 as small, but that's just me) crimes are often pulling the same scam again and again - but no one ever turns them in. These "small" scams can add up to really large amounts of money and become big ones.

A few years ago, we had a homeless man who we gave a household job to steal a check out of my wife's checkbook. We only found out when we got a call from the grocery store, asking if we had actually written the check. Of course we hadn't -- the reason the grocery store had called us was that the guy had pulled the same stunt, at the same grocery store, seven times before. No one ever pressed charges. Well, we pressed charges, and it turned out the guy was also wanted for 10 counts of car theft, forging, fraud, etc. etc. ad nauseam. The really nauseating part? The police never followed through on our theft and forgery complaints, even though this guy had dozens of similar complaints against him.

So, the bottom line in my not so humble opinion is that, if you want to prevent crime, you don't need to outlaw guns or anything: just start enforcing the laws you already have.

Re:The broken window theory

[Anonymous Coward]

you should have planted a joint on him before calling the cops, that would have got them interested.

Re:The broken window theory

[psxndc]

This is also know as the tipping point. There is X point in a relationship where going just beyond that point causes a dramatic shift in that relationship. Example: Say crime in CityX is 5%. 6% is the tipping point such that if crime stays at 5% it will remain 5% indefinitely. By inching that percentage up 1% to 6% for some reason the reality is that crime will jump to say 12% the year after it hit 6%. It's just a weird phenomenom that has to do with people's perception of a reality becoming a self fulfilling prophecy. More info can be found here

psxndc

Re:The broken window theory

[mgs1000]

or complained that he was downloading mp3s, had removed the bandwidth cap from your cable modem, and linking to a site with the DeCSS code.

Re:Would a Windows User?

[MoneyT]

Mac users are very protective of their computers, and will go to great lengths to ensure that people don't steal them. Theres a similar story floating about how one person had their mac stolen from thier house and used tibuktu and some funky apple scripts to trace the mac to a house. Long story short, police show up, find stolen computers, guy gets his computer back.

Just cause PC users are accustomed to losing money in bad investments doesn't mean that mac users are.

[Yes, that last statement is a troll]

They were counterfeit.

[Gordonjcp]

Hate to say "RTFA", but RTFA.

Macs and baseball bats...

[Wee]

No doubt. Between the fixation on baseball bats and how evil "PC" (I assume his loathing extends to Linux and *BSD x86 users as well) that was a hard article to read. The guy's practically foaming at the mouth with his rabid Mac-ness...

Get a grip, pal. It's only an operating system.

-B

Re:Macs and baseball bats...

[KirkH]

The guy's practically foaming at the mouth with his rabid Mac-ness...

Get a grip, pal. It's only an operating system.

One might say the same about the way all the /. Linux geeks feel about their OS. To many Mac and Linux users it is certainly much more than just an OS.

Besides, I think he was going for humor. He was probably expecting the vast majority of his audience to be Mac users. Don't take it personally.

Re:Macs and baseball bats...

[NDPTAL85]

This coming from someone on a Linux fanatic site

Re:Macs and baseball bats...

[Wee]

One might say the same about the way all the /. Linux geeks feel about their OS

Most of the people who come to Slashdot use Windows, not Linux. That everyone here is a die-hard Linux fanatic is just a misperception. Although I will say that a lot of the younger ones do show some fanaticism. Everyone wants 3l337 bragging rights, I guess.

Don't take it personally.

I think you misunderstood me. I merely said it was hard to read through the close-minded bias, not that I personally cared one way or the other. I happen to use Macs, as well other operating systems; whatever turns out to be the right tool for the job. But my point remains: they are all still just operating systems, not lifestyles.

-B

Re:Macs and baseball bats...

[Wee]

This coming from someone on a Linux fanatic site

First, most people here use Windows.

Second, I'd say the same thing if it was a Linux (or BSD, or Solaris, or Amgia, or ...) guy bashing Macs.

-B

Re:Macs and baseball bats...

[swv3752]

At least me personally, I browse Slashdot from windows because that is what is at work. I use Linux at home. I would use Linux at work if I could get away with it. At least I can get away with browsing /. at work.

Re:This is excellent news

[rock_climbing_guy]

wish I could say the same, I have feedback score 81 with 0 negatives and i've been burned over $200. My money order went to a scammer in Ho-Ho-Kus, NJ.

When I think about why I use eBay, I know that if I get ripped off, eBay won't do anything about it. They say they have fraud insurance, but when I filed a claim several years ago, I got no response. The reason eBay is popular, IMHO, is that it's fun. It's exciting to bid on stuff, and sell stuff, and compulsively check 'My Ebay' 20 times a day to see if anyone else bid on your stuff. Anyone else agree?

Awfully dangerous

[interstellar_donkey]

This story should be fowarded to everyone at the Chicago police. It should be an embarassment for them.

The ho hum attitude of law inforcement regarding things done on the Internet is sad, and scary. If the young man hadn't finally been able to contact an agency that actually wanted to do their job (stop crime), who knows where it would have gone.

Being a vigilante is never a good idea, but when the police don't do anything, it leaves the average person little choice.

I suspect we'll start seeing this more and more in the future, as long as law enforcement refuses to act on these things. Why should a person have to spend their own time and money in order to stop criminals? Are we going to reach a point where the only way someone can get an investigation is if they pay somebody to do it? I thought that's what our taxes which paid for police departments were supposed to do.

Just wait.. Withen a few years somebodys going to get killed because the police sat on their hands and a frustrated victim did their footwork and blows the person who scammed them away.

Re:Awfully dangerous

[hampton]

The police are far too busy performing highway wallet rape^W^W^Wspeed enforcement (because it saves lives!) to worry about this sort of thing.

Re:Awfully dangerous

[Jeffrey Baker]

I don't know where you are from, but here in San Francisco, you can forget law enforcement caring about your little Internet fraud case. They don't even investigate Grand Theft here: when my motorcycle was stolen, I was given a case number and nobody was ever assigned. Oftentimes, they don't investigate rapes, assualts, etc. There was a flap recently when the local paper reported the police department's pathetic record on major crimes including homicide. I think if you approached the SFPD with a minor case like $3000 fraud, you would be dismissed with a chuckle.

Re:Awfully dangerous

[Dimensio]

Withen a few years somebodys going to get killed because the police sat on their hands and a frustrated victim did their footwork and blows the person who scammed them away.

If the person who gets killed is the scammer, I don't see this as a bad thing.

Re:Awfully dangerous

[anonymous loser]

Put simply the average detective's case load is way too high to worry about a $3k fraud. When you have more work to do than you can possibly do, what do you tackle first? The case that gives you the biggest bang for your buck. I.e. cases involving fraud of *large* amounts of money, murder, drugs, etc.

Re:Awfully dangerous

[Anonymous Coward]

I bet you'll find that the police are quite concerned about crime on the Internet if you just hang out in an IRC room and invite a few underage girls to cross state lines to have sex with you. But of course, being concerned about that is fashionable in law-enforcement circles these days.

Re:Awfully dangerous

[interstellar_donkey]

How hard is it to take an address and say 'Oh, this isn't in our city. You should call the detective in the city it's in?'

Sure, as many people have pointed out, police detectives, espically in big cities have an awfully large case load. But this implies that nothing was even looked at, just some guy on the phone who took the report without caring and throwing it in a pile of papers.

The reality is, this wasn't something the Chicago PD should have handled. However, the fact that a very simple thing such as 'This actually isn't in our jouristiction' would take weeks to investigate is a little upsetting.

And in a perfect world, they would have people assigned to this sort of thing, and enough of them to do something about it in a timeful manner.

Re:Awfully dangerous

[stratjakt]

>> And in a perfect world, they would have people assigned to this sort of thing, and enough of them to do something about it in a timeful manner.

In a perfect world, there would be no cranks or nutjobs who spend all day having the local cops run errands for them or otherwise bother them with trivial bullshit.

I'm not saying this guy is one, but we have a bitchy old crank down the street who calls the cops every time a kid cuts across her lawn on the way home from school.

I had the cops come to my door 5 nights a row at my old townhouse because the neighbour kept reporting my car as a 'suspicious vehicle parked out in front'. Luckily I work for a company that sells software to police, and my local county in particular, so the problem quickly went away.

Then there's the drunks who go out and pick a fight, get their asses kicked, then show up at the station wanting to 'see the guy locked up'.

And everyone who gets the short end of the stick on a business deal wants the cops to do something for them.

My point is, forget the fact that there's an overwhelming amount of crime for a cop to be able to deal with each incident in a timely manner.. Theres so much bullshit and whining, they never get to the real incidents. And when they do, their hands are so tied with beurocracy and paperwork and bullshit procedures that you aren't going to see your 'eye for an eye' instant gratification.

As I mentioned, I write and support software for the public safety industry. I can dial in to any one of hundreds of our CAD (Computer Automated Dispatching) systems and see the ratio of cranks/whines to actual incidents is literally 100:1.

In a case like this, if you have the evidence of who ripped you off and how, it's much better to get a lawyer and drag it into a civil court.

Disclaimer: Noone has more disrespect for cops than me, I work with 'em every day. There are many incompetent, arrogant, power-tripping douchebags with a gun and a badge out there. But they do have a pretty much impossible job to do. They write so many speeding/seatbelt tickets because thats all the system lets them do effectively.

Re:Awfully dangerous

[sweetooth]

This is flawed logic. By going after the big criminal you look good and stop one or two big thefts. If you let the small time fraud cases go you can ultimatly be letting a larger amount be stolen. The fact that it's taken in smaller amounts doesn't make it any less of a crime. In fact if you read the article you would see that the individual committing the fraud in this case was committing $10,000 in fraud that day. How many other times had he done this? Probably quite a bit. Is it worth it to go after one $100,000 fraud case and not 5 $3,000-$6,000 dollar fraud cases that may ultimatly add up to >$100,000? If small time criminals find out that as long as they keep the dollar amount down they won't be investigated by the police, they are basically provided incentive to continue committing the crimes in those small amounts. Over time it can add up to a lot of money. They are also likely to tell other people about it and the trend can increase.

Re:Awfully dangerous

[White Roses]

what do you tackle first?

The case that someone else has cracked for you already and all you have to do is show up with a badge? They caught this guy with $10,000 in fraudulent checks and lord knows how many other victims. Just how big is large enough?

Re:Awfully dangerous

[Dimensio]

I didn't say that it warranted the death penalty (where the government would take the role of executioner), but if a jaded person decided to off the crook who ripped him off AFTER the police refused to investigate the matter (remember, that was how the train of thought turned to vigilante killing), I don't see that as a big problem. If the police refuse to go after scammers who are stealing thousands of dollars in merchandise and a pissed off victim gets sick of the lack of justice and takes matters into their own hands, I see it as justifiable homicide.

If someone steals my stereo and I have concrete proof of who did it and the police refuse to act, I'll probably take matters into my own hands and the only 'charges' that I should be facing afterwards are the ones from the laundromat when I need to get the blood out of my shirt.

Re:Awfully dangerous

[geekoid]

You're right. I'm sure the CPD aren't really doing anything....
It is about priorities. If someone was investigating something for you, are they supposed to just stop to take care of another equal or lower priority case?

Yes a protion of are taxes are for the police, but God forbid the the expense of running a police deptartment goes up and taxes need to be raised.

Re:Awfully dangerous

[MoneyT]

It wouldn't have mattered if he went through the ebay process or not. Ebay only insures up to $200 ($170 after fees) and they tell you to take it up with the banks and credit card companies first. Ebay really doesn't offer protection.

Re:Awfully dangerous

[djrogers]

But of course, being concerned about that is fashionable in law-enforcement circles these days.

Umm, ok... I know it's really cool to use daddy's 1337 computer to make fun of cops, but how on earth can you bring yourself to question the motives of someone trying to save a child from rape, torture, murder, or worse?

What gives you the balls to even _think_ that a man who has dedicated his life to protecting innocent children does it because it makes him look good?

Tell you what, you sit in on an interview with a 9 year old girl after the fact, and then come back and tell me that cops just do what's 'fashionable'.

shmuck...

Re:Awfully dangerous

[Fat Casper]

If someone steals my stereo and I have concrete proof of who did it and the police refuse to act, I'll probably take matters into my own hands and the only 'charges' that I should be facing afterwards are the ones from the laundromat when I need to get the blood out of my shirt.

And as an added bonus, you know for certain that the cops won't investigate!

Re:Awfully dangerous

[bryan1945]

I can understand this argument in a case with little info to go on. But the Mac guy handed the cops all the info on a silver platter! It sounds like he gave them enough info that they could easily get a search warrant.

Re:Awfully dangerous

[bryan1945]

So what the hell do the cops do all day?

Re:Awfully dangerous

[John Harrison]

Handing the cops info on a silver platter often seems to annoy them. My sister's purse showed up at a post office a few weeks after it had been stolen. The theives broke the window of the car it had been in and stole everything in the car including several purses (5 people had been in the car), wallets and cellphones. They called the police and a detective came down and said that he was interested in solving the case since it had been happening a lot in that area recently. So sister's purse, cellphone and id turn up at the post office. She brings it home and finds a receipt for gas from a local station with a partial credit card number on it and a timestamp that was about 30 minutes after my sister had discovered her purse was stolen. We checked to make sure that it the number wasn't from her card or any of her friends cards. I called the gas station to verify that they had surveillance tape from that night. They did but would only give it to the polic. I then called the detective and told him that I had a partial cc number and that the gas station would provide him with the complete number and video. He didn't care and seemed surprised that I was incredulous and angry. I just wish I had bothered to track the jerks that did it down myself.

Re:Awfully dangerous

[bryan1945]

I can't even think of a rational way to respond to this. The first thing that popped into my head was "let's go rip the cops nuts off". But no, if you DO annoy them, they will arrest you before the guy who took the purses (yes, personal story- I "interefered with an investigation" by giving them more info then they wanted.

Fuck all you cops out there.b

Re:I'm sorry - but he was an idiot in the first pl

[MalleusEBHC]

Surely you're not trying to say that 20% comes out to 1 in 7 as a fraction.

Read the fucking article

[greygent]

This is hardly insightful. It was a COD order, dipshit.

I'm a Convert!

[neurostar]

Well, you definitely converted me! :D

neurostar

this article is insulting

[heff]

"Mr. Christmas said he didn't even know what email was. Obviously a PC user.

If PC users are so dumb, why are you writing a story about you shipping a $3000 laptop COD.

Moron.

Hired to steal checks?

[Osty]

few years ago, we had a homeless man who we gave a household job to steal a check out of my wife's checkbook.

You hired a homeless man to steal checks from your wife? No wonder you got screwed.

(Hint: Next time, try using decent setence structure to not confuse your point.)

Re:Hired to steal checks?

[overunderunderdone]

LOL, That is EXACTLY the way I read it too. I had to re-read it once before figuring out that he wasn't testing his banks security features or something.

Re:Hired to steal checks?

[Happy Monkey]

People who are confused by split infinitives should just give up reading altogether.

Re:Hired to steal checks?

[alienw]

setence structure?

If you are going to comment on other people's grammar, make damn sure that your post is free of grammatical and spelling errors.

Re:Hired to steal checks?

[Reziac]

Likewise, except I wondered if this was wrt some particularly nasty divorce :)

Re:Hired to steal checks?

[spacefrog]

try using decent setence structure

Only on slashdot does someone who cannot use a spell-checker make comments about the grammar of others.

Some little saying about a pot and kettle comes to mind.....

Mod Parent Up.

[Fished]

You know ... you've really got a point there. Maybe if we weren't putting all our law enforcement dollars into trivial, non-violent drug "crimes" (or would be non-violent if they weren't illegal) we would have time, money and energy to pursue things like theft, fraud, forgery, utterance, grand theft auto, etc.

Never thought I'd see an Insightful AC.

Re:Mod Parent Up.

[b1t r0t]

Maybe if we weren't putting all our law enforcement dollars into trivial, non-violent drug "crimes" (or would be non-violent if they weren't illegal) we would have time, money and energy to pursue things like theft, fraud, forgery, utterance, grand theft auto, etc.

But then law enforcement wouldn't be able to buy themselves as many new toys from all the siezure money that they can generate from the so-called "drug war"!

Re:Mod Parent Up.

[AugstWest]

Well, a major reason for the War on Drugs was to gain reasonable legislation that erodes our privacy rights. Things like FISA warrants and on-the-spot car searches were brought to you by the War on Drugs.

Now that we have an equally open-ended War on Terror, I wonder if the War on Drugs might soften a little....

Re:Mod Parent Up.

[jimmyCarter]

Exactly. Last week's The New Republic had an article on America's Other Drug Problem on how the pharm industry in the US has tightened its grip on politics.

Consumers vs. the pharm companies is the REAL War on Drugs.

Re:Mod Parent Up.

[glesga_kiss]

And Budweiser wouldn't be to pleased with any legalisation. They are a primary contributor to Partnership for a Drug Free America.

Isn't it ironic, don't you think? ;-)

Re:[ Cached Version ]

[Crispin Cowan]

Seriously, since you're the THIRD person posting this, *and* the site is performing fine, I assure you, down moderations are *extremely* necessary for your karma-whoring ass.

Except now the site is not responding, so take your sanctimonious attitude and moderate it. Your post was mostly useful to lead me to the actually useful post with a cached copy of the article :-)

Crispin
----
Crispin Cowan, Ph.D.
Chief Scientist, WireX Communications, Inc.
Immunix: Security Hardened Linux Distribution
Available for purchase

Pretty smart, but simple steps were missed

[ManoMarks]

It is always cool to catch a theif, and particularly someone who preys on people who don't have much money to pursue these things. And while I sympathize with those who say he shouldn't have sent it COD to begin with, we all make mistakes sometimes, and at least he did what he could to correct it. And if he had protected himself, this guy wouldn't have gotten caught. There's a couple of simple things he missed, though: 1) As someone else pointed out, he did have the delivery address. While that could have been a drop, it wasn't, and even if it was, someone lived there and could have been used to trace him. 2) As soon as the second person turned up with a $3,000 item, the total value was over the $5,000 minimum the FBI and Secret Service needed to go after it, so they could have been immediately contacted. Also, when they know there's a pattern, they're more likely to get involved.

Good luck collecting

[billstewart]

The best case is if the crook hasn't fenced your Mac yet so you can get it back. Otherwise good luck collecting. Sometimes crooks actually have money, but often the reason they're crooks is that they have expensive habits, like gambling or cocaine or rent or Mafia loans, that they can't finance legitimately.

This guy probably took the computer (or at least some of the computers from other people he'd ripped off) and sold it for half the price he "bought" it for, maybe less, so even if he hasn't poured the money up his nose, he'd only have $1200, not 2500. Maybe he's got a car, though....

Re:Who care's

[MoneyT]

They would if people would buy it. But mac user won't buy it. Hell they can't even get all the PC users to buy it.

Re:I'm sorry - but he was an idiot in the first pl

[extra88]

As I put on my high school locker (briefly), "'Asshole' is in the eye of the beholder."

Funny

[cheezedawg]

I think its funny that

1) He no longer has his mac
2) He is out $3000
3) He failed his finals
4) He spent a bunch of extra money tracking the guy down (plane ticket, PI, etc)
5) He is still happy about it

I'd guess he is a "Glass is half full" kind of guy.

Re:Funny

[ChaosDiscord]

He may be out time, money, hardware, and grades, but he got revenge. Never underestimate the value of revenge.

(If I had the chance to catch someone who defrauded me, I'd do so in a second. If I knew he had defrauded many other people and would continue to do so, I'd spend a fair amount of time and effort to track him down.)

Re:Funny

[Trogre]

you're on my foes list because apparently you whine about being on foes lists.

d'oh

I'm not making many friends here, am I? :(

Re:I'm sorry - but he was an idiot in the first pl

[angle_slam]

I sell things on Ebay as well (usually old games that I'm done with) - and I don't do COD. Paypal - sure. Checks and money orders, but I wait until they clear before they ship.

That is what I thought when I first read the article. But it was a forged cashier's check. Cashier's checks are usually as good as cash. I won't do COD either, but you can't really blame him for accepting a cashier's check. When I Ebay, if I get a cashier's check, I ship without waiting for the cashier's check to clear because, if legit, it is guaranteed to clear. (Of course, I normally don't sell things worth $2900.)

No, you read it incorrectly

[tswinzig]

"My girlfriend and I decided we would use the extra money to donate to some charities for Christmas"

Clearly he was talking about the guy that stole his Mac.... Melvin Christmas.

On The Internet, Nobody Knows You're A Dog

[The Fun Guy]

... unless you try to screw a Mac addict. Then you'll be hunted down in meatspace like a, like a, like a something-or-other.

Serves the thief right for messing with a Mac type. Everybody knows they're unstable to begin with, and all it takes is a just a little push for them to go postal.

(So, +1 Funny for the first paragraph, -1 Flamebait for the second? Worth the risk.)

Re:On The Internet, Nobody Knows You're A Dog

[Trogre]

Serves the thief right for messing with a Mac type. Everybody knows they're unstable to begin with, and all it takes is a just a little push for them to go postal.

What, the Mac or the Mac user?

Re:On The Internet, Nobody Knows You're A Dog

[Daniel Dvorkin]

My iBook is extremely stable. I, on the other hand ...

My kingdom for a comma

[tswinzig]

we had a homeless man who we gave a household job to steal a check out of my wife's checkbook.

You got some homeless guy to steal a check from your wife? That's pretty low!

Re:[ Cached Version ]

[Trogre]

ERROR
The requested URL could not be retrieved

While trying to retrieve the URL: http://www.remodern.com/caught.html

The following error was encountered:

* Connection Failed

The system returned:

(60) Connection timed out

The remote host or network may be down. Please try the request again.

Your cache administrator is root.

Reminds me of New York

[Dark Paladin]

As I seem to recall (and people from New York feel free to correct me on this), one of the things that Rudy Guiliani [sic] did was have the police start ticketing people who jaywalked.

The result? Overall reduction in crime - since if you were going to be caught for the little things, odds are you were going to be caught for doing a big thing (selling drugs, etc). And it made the police highly visible - and the one thing I remembered from my old criminal law classes (before I ditched law) - the likelyhood of getting caught for a crime is a far greater deterance than the punishment of a crime.

I have to agree - if we have a system that busted people for crimes - regardless of the "level" (no, I'm not suggesting death penalties for jaywalking, calm down, or a police state - just if a crime is obviously committed, like a bike theft **cough**like I went through once**cough**), go after it. Odds are, it would do more good in the long run by nipping these "small time" crooks in the bud before they ever become "big time".

Re:Reminds me of New York

[lysurgon]

Actually the Guiliani directive to crack down on "quality of life" crime went way further back than jaywaliking. In fact the aggressive prosecution of jaywalkers (and the outlawying of dancing in unlicensed city bars and clubs) is really where he went over the line.

The basis of the quality of life program was to try to move in and bust kids writing graffitti, homeless people loitering and especially low-level drug dealers. Beat cops had previously been instructed to avoid drug deals for fear of corruption.

The numbers largely speak for themselves (though there's a strong case that improved economic conditions do as much to deter crime as incresed police presence), but because of endemic flaws in the police system (e.g. a certain amount of ingranced racism) the whole campaign caused a lot of acrimony.

People (more often than not minorities) were being stopped and shaken down for guns and drugs illegally, but since these shakedowns seemed effective, the department allowed it to go on. The high-profile beatings and killings of minorities around the city was causing a lot of civil unrest. Thankfully, since 9-11 the relationship between the police and the people of the city seems to be back on track. Too bad it took such a tragedy to set things right.

Re:Reminds me of New York

[neocon]

Actually no -- crime in New York during the Giuliani years dropped at a substantially higher rate than in the nation as a whole, at a time when other Northeastern cities such as Boston saw slight increases in the crime rate.

Quality of life enforcement was one of the two main components of this drop, the other was the Compstat program of tracking crims statistics on a precinct-by-precinct basis and transferring cops as needed to focus enforcement on emerging high-crime areas.

Re:Reminds me of New York

[wytcld]

The jaywalking thing lasted for about a week. First off, it turned out the law only provided a $3 fine; second, the police felt ridiculous enforcing it. The citizens never stopped jaywalking, didn't even let up.

Re:Reminds me of New York

[neocon]

I'm going to make a wild guess here -- you don't live in New York at all, right?

If you do, you must not get off campus much, eh?

You've just presented a remarkably inaccurate picture of the police program which turned New York around, and had already improved relations between police and communities (including minority communities) long before 9/11.

See, `the minorities' aren't any different than the rest of us. Everyone wants to be safe in their home and neighborhood. By having the police fight crime in minority neighborhoods as well as rich neighborhoods, instead of just giving up on areas like East Harlem and Bed-Stuy, Giuliani did more for police-community relations than any of the hundreds of `outreach programs' ever had.

Re:Reminds me of New York

[jbolden]

Very little evidence argues the death-penalty-as-deterrant to people not in jail. In jail it seems work as an effective threat (i.e. for additional cooperation).

In any case the main advantage of the death penalty is that it drastically reduces fear of crime among the population which creates behaviors (like being on the street) which do in fact reduce crime.

Re:Reminds me of New York

[neocon]

You're making the same mistake the previous poster did -- pretending that `the minorities' are a block who all think the same, and necessarily have the same views.

It used to be well understood that to say you could tell someone's opinions by looking at his skin color was a form of racism. Just because we now call that view `diversity' doesn't make it any less racist.

Hum-de-dum...

[Inoshiro]

Connect failed

Your request for http://www.remodern.com/caught.html could not be fulfilled, because the connection to www.remodern.com (63.111.83.1) could not be established.

This is often a temporary failure, so you might just try again.

So this cached post, which only drew my attention because of your highly moderated post, is the only way I was able to read the story. Granted, people should check to see if someone else has mirrored it first, but it still is useful.

How about this...

[SoSueMe]

Don't send the power supply for the laptop.
That way, "Battery not included".

Re:I'm sorry - but he was an idiot in the first pl

[kliment]

There's a difference between an asshole and a criminal, though.

Yes, a criminal is someone who shares music, or watches DVDs on a non-microsoft system

20% huh?

[kfg]

You're one of those people who think the glass is half full, arn't you?

KFG

Re:20% huh?

[waspleg]

actually i just don't give a fuck about slashdots many and varied totally-worthless-to-me features.. i support what the eff itself does..

Then again.....

[NDPTAL85]

....if we legalized drug use we'd have a lot more users/addicts who would eventually become desperate enough to commit those very crimes so they could afford their new habits.

So as result we'd have a rise in those types of crimes you think are currently being ignored.

Re:Then again.....

[sweetooth]

You are assuming the parent poster was arguing the point of making all drugs legal. It's much more likely that he was refering to the legalization of pot since that was the drug mentioned earlier.

Re:Then again.....

[White Roses]

Well, (a) casual users aren't the problem. And (b) studies have shown that whether or not drugs are legal, you'll have similar numbers of addicts. An addict is an addict. AA's 12 step program is just a replacement addiction, albiet a safer and more productive one. Besides, drug legislation has historically been used for property seizures for the government, rather than as any kind of real deterrent to drug usage, going back at least to the seizures of opium dens in San Fransisco in the 1800's.

Most crimes committed in the name of drugs are to keep profitable turf and eliminate competition. Make no mistake, drugs are illegal in this country because it keeps wallets fat. Think what the Mafia would be if we never had the 18th Amendment.

Re:I'm sorry - but he was an idiot in the first pl

[Boone^]

Always use Delivery Confirmation (preferably FedEx, the USPS is too vague since they only track to city/state/zip) so if a credit card Chargeback is issued on a PayPal/Billpoint payment you should be covered by Paypal/Billpoint.

If you can't prove that it was delivered to the billing address of the credit card, you're out money.

Re:IN SOVIET RUSSIA

[JVert]

./ Enhancement request:
Anything with certain kewords (ex: "in soviet russia") gets automatic -1 karma.
Yes I realize that includes this post right here.
And I'm willing to take the bullet for my country!
In slashdot we flame our own posts!!!

Funny quote about 23 pics of the house..

[cOdEgUru]

Imagine the butthead sitting with his buddy drinkin beeeer outside on the porch (assuming its out in the middle of nowhere) watching black cars and vw minis go by with strange white folk staring out through tinted glasses with cameras in hand snapping pics like crazy :) ..

Had to laugh..

Re:Funny quote about 23 pics of the house..

[Reziac]

...with the circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one telling what each one was, to be used as evidence...

Hey, he even got the holiday right! :)

Re:Awfully dangerous - Already happened

[Havokmon]

Just wait.. Withen a few years somebodys going to get killed because the police sat on their hands and a frustrated victim did their footwork and blows the person who scammed them away.

Not quite what you're referring to, but an example of what happens when 'authorities' don't do their jobs is here.

Re:I'm sorry - but he was an idiot in the first pl

[Golias]

My own observation has been this:

90% of the people in the world are complete idiots, and everybody thinks they are part of the other 10%.

Your logic is faulty

[PaxTech]

if drugs were legal they wouldn't cost NEARLY what they do on the black market. Most of that markup is to cover the risks. If heroin was legal, most addicts would be able to afford it by working at McDonald's.

I think possibly my biggest pet peeve is when people cite the negative effects of prohibition as a reason to keep drugs illegal.

Re:Your logic is faulty

[krlynch]

Not to be contrary or anything, but do you have references to any studies that show this? I imagine that this conclusion is NOT true. My reasoning is the following: pricing on addictive substances is generally highly inelastic (that is, demand and price are only weakly coupled). That is, producers can demand just about any price they want, and the users will continue to pay that high price. The same is true of many currently LEGAL addictive substances: alcohol, tobacco, gasoline, heating oil, food, etc (okay, I admit that I'm using "addictive" a bit loosely here). The demand for these substances has little to do with the current price (when the price of gasoline rises 50%, for instance, you don't drive substantially less ... you suck it up and pay the high price), and the current price has little to do with current end user demand. I don't see any reason that legalization of a currently illegal addictive substance would drive its price down. Nor do I see that driving down the price would greatly increase the number of users (the demand). I know that I, for instance, wouldn't run out and start to ingest cocaine or marijuana if it was suddenly legal...

Please throw me some links if I'm wrong though; I'm quite curious if there is information contrary to my reasoning.

Re:Your logic is faulty

[PissingInTheWind]

if you've ever done a basic microeconomy class you would know that it is probably true. Risk reduce offer, which make the price increase. No risk would probably means price would go down, but the consumption won't go up since demand is inelastical [sp?] in the case of recreative drugs. The phenomenon you describe ("sucking it up") is exactly that, inelasticity.

sorry if I don't make much sense, I feel my English vocabulary about economics quite lacking.

Re:Your logic is faulty

[egburr]

What you say would be true if "supply and demand" were the only force operating there. Competition has a huge effect, too.

For your example about gasoline prices, the prices are directly affected by supply at the origin, but not much by demand at the end consumer. Most gas stations in an area are within a few cents of each other, because they are all maintaining prices as low as they can while still making a slight profit. Why? Competition. They don't get a lot of choice in the price, because (1) they do not determine the price they buy at, and (2) they have lots of competition.

For drugs, the street dealers also generally do not determine the price they buy it at, but they do determine the competition (or lack thereof). In an area with a large organized group of dealers, how long does an upstart independent competitive dealer survive? What happens when two competitive dealers (or organizations of dealers) lay claim to an area? Lower prices or physical violence?

Legalizing drugs may not be the complete solution, but it would go a long way towards lowering prices. When every gas station and grocrey store and drug store has a recreational drug counter, the competition will drive prices down to the point that the retailers are just barely making a profit. Also, a minimum quality of product will be assured. Taxes will be collected. The economy will benefit. (OK, so maybe I'm going a bit overboard there.)

The people who can't handle their addiction will at least be able to get more for a lower price, and maybe overdose themselves out of existence. In the long term, that should cut down on the theft needed to maintain habits.

Re:Your logic is faulty

[swv3752]

Check out the price of caffein. Caffein is more addictive than cocain, though the two used to be mixed together. The difference is that the effects are milder and the withdrawal is not as bad. the majority of headaches that people experience in the US and other Western countries are actually from caffein withdrawal.

Anyways the price of caffein, or coffee, tea, and cola if you will, is kept in check by competition. Alcohol is also kept in check because there is competition. Oil is not a fair comparison as that is held mostly by a Cartel- OPEC anyone?

Make it legal but controlled and most of the crimes associated with it would disappear. Just not overnight.

Re:Your logic is faulty

[swv3752]

Addiction to cocain is more severe than caffein, I will grant you. But the ease of addiction to caffein is far greater.

Re:Your logic is faulty

[mosch]

Well, let's take a drug that's available legally and otherwise: oxycontin.

Oxycontin is available on the street, for prices ranging between $0.50 and $1.00 per milligram. By prescription it costs approximately $0.10 per milligram (at the retail level).

That's a 5 to 10 fold increase in price, due to legality right there. And that's with a product that currently has a high markup due to there being no generic equivalent. Thus, a bag of heroin, if legalized, should be available for significantly under $2 (bags are currently $10 in major metropolitan areas)

Re:Your logic is faulty

[mosch]

What he said is indeed true. Caffeine is more addictive than cocaine, gram for gram. As for cocaine making a person addicted after a single use, you've been DARE educated. It's addictive, but it's not that addictive, unless you're defining 'single use' to mean 'monthlong binge'.

Re:Your logic is faulty

[jred]

Yeah, $10 is pretty cheap. The only problem is it lasts like, what, 10 minutes? "I have a friend" who smokes every day, and if he tried, he might smoke $10 worth of pot in a week. Granted, some people smoke more, some less, and some pot is more (much) expensive.

Not to mention pot isn't addictive in the same manner as crack, crank, or heroin (are crank & h the same thing?). I have lots of friends who have quit pot for one reason or another (usually drug-testing/probation), and they might have been a little bitchy for a while, but they certainly weren't robbing ppl to get cash.

Re:Your logic is faulty

[glesga_kiss]

Physchological addiction can be said for anything. You can be "addicted" in this way to getting out a certain side of bed each day, turning on a television set when you get home, sex (not generally a problem on /.), checking /. every two hours or just about any pleasurable activity

It's hardly a reason to ban it. Hmm, people enjoy rollercoasters. They might get addicted to them...BAN 'EM! THINK OF THE CHILDREN!

Re:Your logic is faulty

[glesga_kiss]

It's far cheaper than getting drunk. Apart from a few braincells, pot doesn't cost us anything at all.

That just pisses me off, all the anti-drugs lies. Pot doesn't cause brain damage whatsoever. Getting drunk regularly can cause brain damage

Research also show that the "memory loss" is only short term. "What was I talking about?", that sort of thing. Again, similar effects exist in alcohol. "I got so drunk last night, I can't remember half of what I did"

Don't get me started of alcohol versus weed in a) teenage pregnacy, b) rape, c) violent assaults & murders, d) marital breakdowns. I could go on, but I got high...(another bull anti-drugs message)

Re:Your logic is faulty

[Muad'Dave]

I seriously doubt that anyone addicted to heroin would be reliable enough and in any shape to hold down a steady job, even at McDonalds. Drug addiction makes for very habit-expensive, non-productive citizens that rely on the generosity (or the theft) of others for survival. That's not something I want to encourage or promote.

SHHH!!!

[ez76]

If you get ripped, just follow the signal or keep track of where it last vanished (perhaps it went into a basement where it couldn't be tracked any further). Meet the crook at his/her door with a .45.

How many times do I have to tell you people?

The first rule of GPS-based loss recovery retribution fight club is:

You don't talk about GPS-based loss recovery retribution fight club!

So what did the criminal do wrong?

[airrage]

Okay, I think we've hammered this guy for making a few minor mistakes, but what if anything did the criminal do wrong (in his MO -- not his legality)?

I would suggest the following:

a) PO BOX, physical address is a dead giveaway.
b) Throw-away hotmail/yahoo account.
c) Complete arsenal of fake documents.
d) Reverse the scam, don't buy stuff sell it and just have to launder the money.

I guess there's probably something I've missed ...

Re:Would a Windows User?

[IIRCAFAIKIANAL]

Story is right here dude

The biggest scam yet...

[polv0]

This could all be a hoax, meanwhile people are reading the article and sending money to his girlfriend's Paypal account. Some of the things that struck me:

We are set up to empathize with him:
I almost always buy used, so don't get any ideas about me being rich.

In case you didn't feel bad enough yet:
I was already beyond broke, but I figured $85.00 more wouldn't kill me.

Are you heartless???:
all of your student loans for the next semester are going to cover this counterfeit check.

He'd give to charity if he had money:
I urge you to choose a local charity

Make the check payable to:
If you really must, you can send money to my girlfriend's Paypal account, cranberry_coyote@hotmail.com

So now who's the sucker?

Wait At Least 10 Business Days to Be More Sure...

[Ron Bennett]

The check *appeared* to clear. Many people figure that once the deposited funds are made available in their account - typically one or two business days, that the money is theirs...

The problem is that a deposited check, etc can be canceled or not honored for upwards of 10 business days. So for one to be virtually sure that a check, etc is "good", they need to wait at least 10 business days (2+ weeks)...most folks don't wait that long, but they should or they run the risk of being scammed.

Also, even if the check itself is real (lets not even get into forged cashier checks, etc - even a well seasoned banker would have difficulty detecting some forgeries), the account it's associated with may not be and/or lacking any funds.

Bottom line is that waiting for clearing is critical...below is my understanding/experience with these things...not the gospel...

Common payment methods and clearing/dispute time frames:

Wire: Same day and very safe...they're not without risk though, but problems are rare. Some places that accept wires for payment impose a two day waiting period.

Check: 10 business days for personal/business checks. Cashier checks, etc have much shorter clearing times - BUT that assumes they're real...if unsure/concerned, then one should wait 10 business days as with personal checks.

Money Order: At least 10 business days if forged. It's best to wait, then be sorry if unsure.

Direct deposit (ACH): 2 business days. Can be reversed/disputed for upwards of 60 days.

Credit Card: Varies on circumstances and issurer, but can be reversed for upwards of six months later.

The law and procedures are very complicated and full of exceptions, etc...the bank, acting an agent, must make deposited funds available within a short period time as dictated by law/banking procedures...but the point is one should NOT assume just because their bank says funds are available that the funds are truly theirs...because they may not be :-(

Ron Bennett

It seems the site is down! Here's the text ;)

[Graspee_Leemoor]

Mac Addicts to the Rescue

or

How I Caught a Counterfeiter with a Little Help from my Friends

a true story by Jason Eric Smith

in the interest of getting this out, no fancy layout, just hand coding. maybe i'll spruce it up later.
the names of the innocent have been changed, the names of the guilty though...

I am a college student (my second time around). Specifically, I'm studying to become a high school history teacher. I am a student with a lifelong habit though, Macintosh. I got my first Mac in 1986, a used Mac Plus with 1 megabyte of RAM a massive 40 megabyte external hardrive. Since then, I've always had to keep up, first it was the SE, then the IIsi, the Powerbook 140, and from there on, more Macs than you can shake a stick at (I missed the Mac TV). I usually keep my Mac for about 6 months, and then resell it and move up. I almost always buy used, so don't get any ideas about me being rich.

Since I went back to being a student again, I've been selling Macs more regularly, picking up good deals on used Macs locally and then reselling on eBay. I've been doing this for about two years now, its relatively easy, takes about an extra hour of my day, and usually pays the rent. In November when the new Powerbooks came out I decided I was going to buy one for myself, to keep, an early Christmas present that would come in handy for taking notes in class and finishing up a presentation I needed to do on the New Orleans school system. The day they were announced I ordered a nice new Powerbook G4 867 and found it on my doorstep only a few days later.

It was a beautiful machine, if you've never played with one in person, you won't believe it. I played with it for a couple of days, took it to school to take notes and do research on. The more I used it, the more I loved it. But, it was just too much to be carrying around, $2300 in my backpack had a tendency to make me a little nervous. I decided maybe I should turn it around and pick up an iBook. My girlfriend and I decided we would use the extra money to donate to some charities for Christmas. So on November 19th, up on eBay it went, along with an Airport Basestation and a bunch of other knickknacks. I set a buy-it-now price on a whim for $2950.

The next morning I checked my auction, a couple of bids placed, and so the buy-it-now option was gone. Checking my email I got a couple of questions about the computer and much to my surprise, an offer to buy it for $2900 from Steve Matthews, a dad with a lucky son in college who was going to be getting a Powerbook for his birthday. Steve wanted to pay for it COD, no problem, its actually how I usually sell things. I called him on the phone number he gave me to ask a couple of questions and make sure everything was on the up and up.

He reiterated that he was buying it as a last minute present for his son and since it was already setup as a package, he thought it was a good deal. Not to mention the Chicago Apple stores were still out of stock. I got home from school, packed up my Powerbook and accessories, and off they went Fedex overnight to Chicago, never to be seen again.

At 10:21AM on November 21st, a man going by the name of Paul Smith signed for my two packages and gave the driver an official cashier's check from LaSalle Bank for $3052.78 in return. The check made it back to my doorstep the next morning. I went to the bank, deposited the check and withdrew enough to go ahead and pay my rent and pick up a couple of household items. I sent an email to Steve to make sure he got everything ok and to check that nothing had been damaged in shipping. No reply. As the old saying goes, no news is good news, right?

My girlfriend and I went away for Thanksgiving, and when we got back on Friday, I had a message from my bank. The branch manager had called to let me know she had a returned item for $3052.78 and that my account was now in the negative. Seriously in the negative. No problem I thought, I'll just call Steve and see what's up.

So I dialed the number I had. In the back of my mind I expected a "this number has been disconnected message". Instead I got an answer, the voice sounded identical to Steve, so I asked if Steve was there.

"Oh, Steve, yeah, that's my cousin, he's out of town for Thanksgiving you know. He'll be back Tuesday"

"Can I leave a message for him?"

So I left my information and asked that he give me a call. That little voice in the back of my mind let out a sigh and an uh-oh. The voices were the same right? Was I being scammed? Well, if I was, I certainly wasn't going to let the weekend go by without doing a little investigating.

I started off with the information I had. His AOL email address, his phone number, and the address I shipped the computer to. The AOL address didn't yield anything. Doing a reverse lookup on the address (thanks to Whitepages.com) I got three names and phone numbers, none of which matched anything I had. The phone number didn't give me anything. I finally found a way to lookup the exchange on the number to see if it was a cell phone or a landline (Fone Finder). It came back as Nextel and I wanted to scream.

There really isn't anything you can do with a cell phone number. There are no directory services. The cell phone companies won't give out any information. And that's that. I called Nextel and pleaded with them. The customer service rep I spoke with seemed more confused than anything. He kept asking me what my Nextel phone number was and why I suspected someone was fraudulently billing to my account. I calmly explained at least three times that I was not a Nextel customer, that I was just trying to get an address for another customer I suspect has defrauded me, etc, etc. I finally gave up on Chris from Nextel, I've had customer service reps who don't even speak English who were more helpful.

I was at a dead end. I'd just sent my $2300 laptop, my Airport basestation, and a load of stuff to somebody I didn't know and all I had to show for it was a bill from Fedex for overnight shipping and a returned cashier's check. It's hard to sleep comfortably knowing some asshole has your Mac and is doing god knows what with it.

Sunday the first of December, I sprang into action full force. I called for help. I knew I wasn't going to get anywhere with this on my own, so I figured I might be able to get some help from some bulletin boards. I posted my tale of woe and call for assistance on every Mac bulletin board I could think of. I hoped that somebody who worked for Nextel, some fellow Mac addict like myself, might be willing to bend the rules a little. I wanted this guy's address and I wanted it bad. I was already pricing flights to Chicago and putting my professors on notice that I might have to miss a little class. I may have made an error in trusting this person, but I'm not someone you want to have that happen to. I will get you. I will hunt you down, and I will bring a baseball bat with me.

I got more replies than I could keep up with. Everyone wanted to know what they could do to help or at least offer support. Well, everyone except one guy who just wanted to let me know how incredibly stupid he thought I was and that he would never have accepted a counterfeit anything. I think a 102:1 great person to asshole ratio is pretty good. Several people living in Chicago offered their assistance, be it in gathering information or even forming a tough guy squad if necessary.

The most important reply I got was a pointer to an online PI service that does reverse lookups on cell phones. I was already beyond broke, but I figured $85.00 more wouldn't kill me. Twelve hours and $85.00 later, I had a name, an address, and a landline phone number for this guy. The name and his AOL email were eerily close, actually with a last name like Christmas, it would be pretty weird if it didn't match up. I couldn't believe it. A Chicago resident named Melvin Christmas had just ruined my Christmas. I was expecting William Faulkner to come popping out of the pantry at any moment and laugh at me.

I was now ready to call the police. I called the Chicago police department and filed a report. I gave the operator all of my information, including the real name and address I had managed to get. "A detective will contact you within one to two weeks, thank you." One to two weeks?!? I had this guy, I'd done all the work already, all you had to do was go pick him up. I'd even gone ahead and called Fedex and spoken to the Chicago station manager and was assured that the driver would cooperate in identifying the guy if necessary. All they had to do was pick him up. In one to two weeks he could be gone. And all the while my precious Powerbook is sitting god knows where being used by somebody completely undeserving of a Mac. I know in my heart that Mr. Christmas is really a PC guy.

I was furious. Chicago PD weren't going to do anything about this. If they were anything like the New Orleans PD, one to two weeks was likely to turn in to never. I figured I'd call Mr. Christmas myself. Let him know I was going to give him a chance to fix this, and I thought, maybe at least scare him. Let him know he was dealing with someone who would track him down no matter what, even if I had to make a deal with the Prince of Darkness to do it. Mr. Christmas said he didn't even know what email was. Obviously a PC user.

I kept checking the message boards. Maybe someone would have a better idea. I called the local FBI field office. Agent Jones was very understanding, but let me know that even though this crossed state lines, the field office didn't take anything involving less than $5000. "Try the Chicago PD".

I kept everyone on the Mac boards updated as best I could. On Tuesday I got a useful reply, try the Secret Service, counterfeiting is their jurisdiction. I made my way to the under-renovation Federal Building here in New Orleans. After walking many a dark, scary hallway, found myself at the door of Agent Keith Lopola. Keith came out and heard my case. I had brought copies of all the emails between myself and Steve Matthews/Paul Smith/Mr. Christmas, a copy of the check, and the call journal I had started keeping. Agent Lopola told me the same thing the FBI did, "It falls under our jurisdiction, but we can't take the case." He wanted to let me know that he really felt for me. Thanks. I left the office determined to call and bother him and the Chicago PD everyday for the rest of my life or at least until Mr. Christmas was behind bars.

Finals were fast approaching. It's not very easy to concentrate on school when all you can think about all day is the fact that all of your student loans for the next semester are going to cover this counterfeit check. That and some grubby criminal has your Powerbook. It's enough to drive someone to the drink.

Tuesday night I got an email from someone who had seen my story posted on O'Grady's Powerpage, a Powerbook enthusiast site. George Dunbar had seen the story and thought it sounded eerily similar to his. I called him, we compared notes, and turns out it was the same guy. George forwarded me all of his emails. Everything was the same, word for word, it was like Mr. Christmas just copied and pasted and magically made money. George was in it worse than I was though and had completely given up. He was out $6000 and two computers. He also let me know that there were more victims. He'd talked to at least three other people who had been taken by the same guy, all of whom had just given up. I was not going to give up. That night I dreamed of Mr. Christmas and a baseball bat, some duct tape, and roofing nails.

Wednesday morning I decided I was going to Chicago. I set up another eBay auction under my girlfriend's account, this time for same computer, different city. Three hours later, lo and behold I received an email from eBay user videopro55 (the same one) asking me if I'd like to sell the computer right now for $2500. Oh yes, I'd love to sell the computer, I'll even be there when it gets delivered to make sure it gets "setup properly".

He emailed me a new address and phone number, the phone number again traced back to the same address for Mr. Christmas. I called the Secret Service and the Chicago PD, pleading, all they had to do was be there when Fedex dropped off the package. It was a guaranteed hit, he'd have another counterfeit cashier's check, all you'd have to do is arrest him. Like shooting fish in a barrel. "Sorry, Detective McDonaugh will be out until next Wednesday, can I take a message?" Fine, if the cops won't do it, I decided I'd just Priceline a ticket and be waiting next door when it got dropped off. So I'd know what kind of neighborhood I was looking at, I asked for help again in the Mac boards. Two Chicago residents replied, and the next morning, courtesy of Tim, I had 23 pictures of the house, the cars in the driveway (with license plate numbers) and the neighborhood. I'd like to see a Dell user do something like that at 4:30 in the morning for a complete stranger a thousand miles away. I started planning my trip. I decided I'd leave on Saturday, have the package delivered on Monday, and make it back just in time to screw up on all my finals.

On Friday in preparation for flying up I mapped the new address from the one for Mr. Christmas to see how close it was. As I looked at the map, it hit me. The new address wasn't in Chicago. It was in a suburb, Markham. I googled for the Markham police and 5 minutes later was talking to a very enthusiastic Sargeant Knapp. I had hit the jackpot, the new drop was outside of Chicago jurisdiction and therefore outside of their inattentiveness as well. Sargeant Knapp informed me he loved this kind of thing, even had a UPS and Fedex uniform ready. He'd call Fedex and they would set it up for Tuesday. I was certain I was dreaming. After talking to two detectives in Chicago, an FBI field agent, an agent in the New Orleans field office of the Secret Service, an agent with the L.A. Secret Service and having a conference call with a large group of agents from the Chicago Secret Service, I finally was getting somewhere. And I didn't even have to stand on someone's doorstep with a baseball bat to do it.

I spent the entire weekend on pins and needles. What if Mr. Christmas figured something out between now and Tuesday? All would be lost. I wouldn't even get the chance to confront him on my own. On Monday I spoke with Sgt. Knapp to make sure everything was ready to go. I had sent him a package with all of my documentation (he didn't have email), and I tried to explain what all the email stuff meant as best I could. He had worked everything out with Fedex and they were set for the delivery on Tuesday.

I called my brother in Nashville and had him send the package. I had set everything up to be coming from there so that Mr. Christmas wouldn't get suspicious. I could barely sleep Monday night. All I could think about was something going wrong and my only chance at getting this guy being missed. I wanted to update everyone on the Mac boards, but I had to keep it quiet until I knew something was going to happen.

Tuesday afternoon Sgt. Knapp called. They had tried the delivery but no one was home. I just wanted to scream. The board users kept posting how the suspense was driving them nuts. Well, it was going to give me an aneurism. A million possibilities went through my head. Maybe he had somebody working at Fedex who tipped him off, maybe I worded something in one of my email a little off. Sgt. Knapp called me back to let me know they would try the delivery again tomorrow. He also wanted to let me know that they had intercepted another package that was being sent to the same address. Looks like he'd already struck again, thankfully the lady from New York will get her computer back. He also told me that he was definitely going to keep pursuing this, and that oddly enough, the address I'd given him was also related to another fraud case, but this one much bigger (hundreds of thousands) involving a certain Chicago franchise I won't mention. So maybe I had led them to something bigger than just some asshole counterfeiting cashier's checks.

Today I had finals all day. I'm a 4.0 honors student. I've had a 4.0 all semester. I'm not sure if I'll keep that after today. I just couldn't sleep last night. All I could think about was Mr. Christmas and the delivery. I couldn't study either. So I winged it, I'll get my grades tomorrow. I called Sgt. Knapp at 2:45. He told me he was on his way back to the house. They'd already made the delivery and arrested the guy. He had more than $10,000 in counterfeit cashier's checks waiting for deliveries.

*I* got him.

I'm right now waiting on Sgt. Knapp to fax me a copy of his mug shot for posterity. Then I'm going to go celebrate. Sgt. Knapp said the guy was cooperating and he was going to try to recover my laptop. I'm hopeful, but I don't expect it. I might not ever get my computer back, but at least there is one less asshole on the street. When will criminals learn? You just shouldn't mess with Mac people.

For everyone on all the boards who offered their help and encouragement, I thank you. This would have been a lot harder without you. If you're ever in New Orleans, look me up and I'll buy you a beer. I've still got to figure out how I'm paying to college next semester, but I'll keep some beer money set aside for ya'll.

Oh yeah, and if there are any lawyers in the Chicago area who can file a civil suit against this guy for damages (yeah I know I'm not going to collect) please contact me, misterye a t yahoo d o t com

The sites with great users that helped out (you can sign up for the forums and read all about this as it was going on):
MacRumors.com
MacNN
ThinkSecret
O'Grady's PowerPage

Update 12/11/02 18:58 CST: Sgt. Knapp is sending me a copy of Mr. Christmas's mug shot. I'll post it as soon as I get it.

Update 12/11/02 21:39 CST: For those interesting in getting in contact with me, my email address is misterye at yahoo dot com, if you think you were also a victim, please call me at 504-894-1243 and I'll put you in touch with the appropriate people.

Update 12/11/02 23:36 CST: I've gone back through and added links where appropriate. I'll try to reformat this tomorrow.

Update 12/12/02 10:36 CST: Ok, so how's this for small world: Apparently this thing is getting posted everywhere. I just got a call from Matt of the Real World Season 9 (the New Orleans Real World). So anyway, the cast of the New Orleans Real World used to all work at 735 Nightclub. I moved down here to actually take-over their marketing right after the show ended. So I never met Matt or any of them until speaking to him today. Small, weird world.

Update 12/12/02 12:03 CST: I've added a forum where everyone can talk about this. Here it is.

Update 12/12/02 13:30 CST: For those of you wanting to donate to my cause, I urge you to choose a local charity. There are a lot of needy people and organizations out there this season, if you can't think of anything local, I'm a big fan of Doctor's Without Borders and Lambda International. If you really must, you can send money to my girlfriend's Paypal account, cranberry_coyote@hotmail.com. She's the one who's covering this check for me right now, so I guess she should get this. I'm still not entirely sure about this, but you've insisted. Thanks again.

Last update Thursday, December 12th 13:49 PM CST

Copyright 2002 Jason Eric Smith

Re:I'm sorry - but he was an idiot in the first pl

[saskboy]

And if you live in Canada, you can neither send nor receive merchandise, and be covered by PayPal's seller protection, because Canadapost is not recognized as a shipper by PayPal.

www.paypalsucks.com and if you use it for anything more than playmoney on the internet, you are a bafoon. PayPal is only for buyers with credit cards, not for sellers who are dumb enough to use it.

There were funnier quotes than that...

[Kafka_Canada]

"I couldn't believe it. A Chicago resident named Melvin Christmas had just ruined my Christmas. I was expecting William Faulkner to come popping out of the pantry at any moment and laugh at me."

"Mr. Christmas said he didn't even know what email was. Obviously a PC user."

Re:There were funnier quotes than that...

[Tim Browse]

"I couldn't believe it. A Chicago resident named Melvin Christmas had just ruined my Christmas."

Well, for goodness' sake, why didn't he call Janie Porche? She saved Christmas!

You'd think a Mac user would know that :-)

Tim

PS. But, by God, the smug "I'm a Mac user - aren't we the coolest?!" wank really annoyed me in that article. I know he probably didn't mean it like that and was just a bit of fun, but I've heard so many Mac zealots beat that tired drum so often that silly comments like "Try getting a Dell user to do that!" wind me up no end now. Oh well, breathe, breathe. At least I'm not out $3000 like the poor guy was - I'll let him off for that reason :-)

PPS. But isn't it funny that the very people who noisily* claim that they 'Think Different' and are somehow better/more creative than anyone else who happens not to use a Mac are the very people demonstrating how foolish, prejudiced and intolerant they are? Hey ho.

* I emphasise that part - there's plenty of people who use Macs who are actually creative, and don't bang on about how great they are because of the computer manufacturer they chose.

Re:There were funnier quotes than that...

[nbvb]

#a) No, it isn't a troll. I watched this whole thing unfold over at the PowerPage (www.powerpage.org) .....

#2) There's no "appeal". In fact, if you read it, he's quite resistant to the whole idea of giving him money. He pleaded to give it to some charities instead!

A good man, in my book.

--NBVB

Repeat article, sort of?

[Greedo]

Sounds a lot like this guy's story.

Basically, stolen iBook has dynamic DNS and Timbuktu (VNC-like app) installed on it. Owner notes when stolen computer is logged into the net, runs Applescript to help track it, recovers it.

I think I read about this on /. back in January.

Re:huh...what a moron

[wolfgang_spangler]

I don't think that mac users are lowbrow monkeys and didn't mean to convey that.

Most mac users I know (and working in the newspaper industry I know quite a few) are not skilled at computer use. That doesn't mean that macs suck however. I believe that the same people on Windows or Linux would be just as clueless. *I* don't like macs at all. I think the OS is ugly, I've never understood why people think it is so great looking.

My biggest argument with macs is that it takes away options. If the mac doesn't provide a way to do it, then it must not need to be done.

The mac OS is not easy to move around in and generally doesn't make a lot of sense. Now maybe you think it makes sense and looks good because you have used them for a while, but a person just sitting down to a computer for the first time will have just as much trouble with a mac as they will with linux as they will with UNIX.

Who's the scammer here?

[cybermace5]

I don't know why everyone here thinks this is SO COOL.

This guy buys and sells laptops...ok.

He buys ~$3000 laptop for himself, and then decides he doesn't want it. He sells it, C.O.D. for crying out loud, to someone with zero completed auctions.

Oh wait, he sold it to this guy yet this guy still has no completed auctions? Yes folks, in the article, our Mac boy states that he sold the laptop to videopro55, who contacted him with an offer for $2900. That's outside of the eBay auction, and directly in violation of eBay policy to sell outside of auction. It's not fair to the people who placed bids (he said there were bids on it already) on the laptop...one of them won it, right? Where's their laptop they rightfully won?

So in summary, we have a story of a guy doing triage work, because he went around eBay policy and essentially defrauded his own legitamate bidders. Remember, the auction is legally binding, and you agree to this when you sign up for an eBay account.

I don't feel sorry for him. And notice how the Paypal donation fund is conveniently mentioned, along with how broke he is after the mean scammer guy took his laptop.

Re:Who's the scammer here?

[tdrury]

You are right that it is against eBay policy to sell off eBay - it's categorized as Fee Avoidance.
This often occurs when you list one item on eBay and in the description you claim to have more that you are willing to sell. You are skirting the Listing Fee which is against eBay rules.

However, you are allowed to cancel an auction at anytime - at _any_ time. It seems a little unfair but it does have legitimate uses. Often sellers will list an item locally (paper,signs,etc) as well as on eBay. If the item sells locally they can cancel the eBay auction by cancelling all bids then cancelling the auction (you must cancel the bids first or else the high bid at the time you cancel the auction does win the item).

Remember - no bidder has won the auction until the auction ends. There is no contract until that time.

Come and visit us on the Trust & Safety (Safe Harbor) boards. These sorts of issues get brought up daily.

I am an eBay junkie.

Re:Who's the scammer here?

[Mike Van Pelt]

Yes folks, in the article, our Mac boy states that he sold the laptop to videopro55, who contacted him with an offer for $2900. That's outside of the eBay auction, and directly in violation of eBay policy to sell outside of auction. It's not fair to the people who placed bids (he said there were bids on it already) on the laptop...one of them won it, right?

I missed that part of it when I read the article. Yeah.... Just goes to show, like the old saying, "You can't cheat an honest man." Like the "419" scams; the people who bite on that think they're involved in smuggling, money laundering, getting a piece of money some third-world kleptocrat robbed from his starving people. What they think they're doing is something they know is illegal. It's hard to feel too sorry for them. (Still, someone does need to whack the scammers.)

Re:You can stop payment on a cashier's check?

[Ron Bennett]

The seller made a common mistake assuming that the funds were truly his because his bank said the funds were available in his bank account.

The cashier check in his case was a forgery and thus the deposited funds were not truly his and so his bank reversed the deposit so to speak and took the funds back.

Without going into detail of clearing procedures, one should wait at least 10 business days when accepting any check regardless of type *unless* they are positive it's "good" *and* is drawn on an account that has sufficient funds to cover.

I had a similar experience with a Sony Clie

[ssstraub]

I didn't use eBay. I used the Anandtech Forums. Kinda like a classified ad. Some guy swindled me out of the equivalent of $450 of PDA goodness and the authorities (Peoria, IL Police, FBI, etc) couldn't care less. Soon after I realized I was taken I found out that this guy had taken other people on other forums in the same way. Car stereos, computer parts, etc.

There was much discussion and nothing happened for about 5 months. Then, out of the blue, I got a call from the scammer himself. It seemed that (Lucky for me!) someone convinced the Attorney General to take on the case and once he got the heat on this guy (we had his real address, obviously) the 23 year old kid made good on all his scams. I got my money and I read about other people getting theirs.

I'm now of the opinion that the *only* way to catch people is if you can find others that they've ripped off and get a group effort rolling. The authorities simply do not care about single indiviuals.

This story seems fishy

[Anonymous Coward]

The whole story seems fishy. The guy claims he was selling to laptop to buy a cheaper one and dontate the extra money to charity. Then he goes on to say how he had to use to cashier check money to pay his rent. And goes on and on about how broke he now was and how being so far in debt made him do poorly on his finals.

Now if he was selling the laptop to get a smaller one and to donate the rest of the money to charity, then why was he relying on the selling of the laptop to pay his rent? How did it make him broke that he was scammed? Yes out a laptop, but how did that make him so broke he suffered in school.

A laptop is a nice thing to have in college, but it is not neccessary. Yes it would suck to be scammed, but it shouldnt have made him miss meals etc.

Either he was out of cash and needed to sell the laptop to pay other bills, or there is no way that this scam made him broke. And WTF did he have to even tell us about how he ws going to give money to charity? The whole story reeks.

I'm sorry, but you didn't read carefully enough.

[uigrad_2000]

Checks and money orders, but I wait until they clear before they ship.

As others said, it was a cashier's check. Normally there's no reason to wait for a cashier's check to clear.

From the article:

I called Sgt. Knapp at 2:45. He told me he was on his way back to the house. They'd already made the delivery and arrested the guy. He had more than $10,000 in counterfeit cashier's checks waiting for deliveries.

Don't circumvent ebay's safeguards!

[cardozo]

Ebay has fraud protection program. Why didn't this guy go through them. Sure they're not going to go arrest the guy, but they'll certainly close him down on ebay. Even now he can get some of his money back from them... if it was an ebay transaction

For that matter if Mr. Christmas had done this a lot, why didn't the seller look at the buyer's feedback? Certainly if Mr. Christmas has been ripping people off the sellers would leave negative feedback.

Well, it turns out that videopro55 has no feedback!

Looking on ebay for the transaction turned up nothing either.

From a more careful reading of the story, I infer that the seller took it off of ebay and sold it privately. This was a bad idea. Yeah, you have to pay ebay a commission, but that's their business, and you wouldn't have sold it without them. It's also against ebay's seller policies to do this.

So while I'm really very sympathetic about this guy getting ripped off, I think he could have been a little smarter about it.

Lesson to all of us: Don't circumvent ebay's safeguards.

Re:Don't circumvent ebay's safeguards!

[Mitreya]

Ebay has fraud protection program [ebay.com]. Why didn't this guy go through them.

I am definately not going to support avoiding ebay auction fees (isn't that violating the auction? what did he tell to the person who was the highest bidder??). However, to your point I have one thing to answer -- Bullshit! The ebay fraud protection is useless. It does work but with $25 deductable and UP TO $200. So escrow service is your only chance with very expensive items.

Re:Entrapment?

[asmussen]

This wouldn't have been entrapment even had the police been the ones offering the item for sale on Ebay to begin with. All that happened was that an opportunity was created for him to use one of his counterfeit checks. Nobody even had to suggest to him that he illegally pay for the item with a counterfeit check, and even if somebody were to suggest it to him, including the police, it would not neccessarily be entrapment. (See the above link) He wasn't even approached asking to legally buy the item. He initiated the transaction himself in response to a publicly posted auction, which although admittedly posted as bait, was nothing even remotely resembling entrapment.

Re:Wait At Least 10 Business Days to Be More Sure.

[GreyPoopon]

Many people figure that once the deposited funds are made available in their account - typically one or two business days, that the money is theirs...

Although I've never assumed this with personal checks, I've usually assumed it to be true with a cashier's check. In this case, the issuing institution has already checked the availability of funds and deducted them from the account. In fact, my own bank treats the checks as though they are guaranteed. When I deposit a personal check, the money doesn't show up in my account until it clears. When I deposit a cashier's check, it always shows up pretty much immediately.

Obviously, we are dealing with forgeries here, so all bets are off. But I would have thought that outside of forgeries, cashier's checks should always be good. Please tell me that I'm not wrong or I won't be able to sleep at night anymore. :-)

Re:Would a Windows User?

[Software]

>Mac users are very protective of their computers, and will
>go to great lengths to ensure that people don't steal them.

Fine, I'm with you, BUT this guy wasn't protective of his computer - he sent it to someone else! He was protective of his money.

OK, the Mac heads helped him out, Mac users are all one big team, wonderful. But some of the lines in the article puzzle me: "It's hard to sleep comfortably knowing some asshole has your Mac and is doing god knows what with it."

Was it easier for him to sleep when he thought the cashier's check was good?

My favourite line

[Splezunk]

"be it in gathering information or even forming a tough guy squad if necessary. "

A bunch of computer guys forming a tough guy squad? Does anybody else see the humour in this?

+1 for balls, -10 for no brains

[freek_daddy]

I had a roommate who had a simliar experience - being a creduluous guy, he bought on eBay, for something like $650, a video tape copy of a Japanese Twin Peaks laser disc that doesn't really exist. Said seller pocketed the cash and abandoned the email addresses. The roommate, driven by a "very agressive" girlfriend made a several hundred mile detour on a road trip, showed up at the seller's house (googled it - the scammer used his real name) and browbeat him into returning the money.

Of course, good for them. When scammed, getting the scammer back is a virtue. But the real virtue is not putting yourself in that position. Don't sell expensive items COD. Don't spend $650 for a tape of a laser disc which the fan community says doesn't exist. I'm happy the Mac guy got his satisfaction but a "4.0 Honor Student" (aside : my father always said - don't trust people who are always the heroes of their stories) should have enough brains to realize that COD is a dumb way to sell computers and he also should've realized that when you deposit a $3000 check from someone you don't know, you wait for it to clear before using the cash.

Eligible for reward?

[Fencepost]

Keep track of the case as much as possible - you may be eligible for a reward from an organization like CrimeStoppers (Canadian?) or (International "Parent") or something similar. Unfortunately the sites don't seem to be particularly well set up for finding programs, but you've shown that you can be determined.

The sergeant you worked with may be able to tell you if there's a CrimeStoppers or other program that might cover you - particularly if you're just hoping to cover what it cost you track everything down.

Only one side of the equation

[Happy Monkey]

There's also competition on the supply side, which forces the price back down. Assuming we don't get a single corporate cartel to replace the various drug 'cartels'.

Re:[ Cached Version ]

[Trogre]

This is the third "cache" post though so it's f**king redundant as hell. STFU.

Awww, somebody needs a hug. Poor widdle anonymussy cowardiddy.

There there, trogre will make all the nasty repeating posts go away.

Another recent eBay fraud scheme: ebayupdates.com

[mkweise]

There's a story in today's Times of India on a newly uncovered scheme involving this fake ebay site.

Future History??

[JebusIsLord]

Does a future history teacher teach the present?

Re:Future History??

[Reziac]

Hmm... makes me wonder how old an ancient history teacher has to be :)

(Answer to your tagline: "Kill you and take it." :)

Wouldn't have happened to a PC user...

[nortcele]

because they don't know enough about graphics to make a counterfit check. Everybody knows the best counterfit checks are made on Macs....

Re:I'm sorry - but he was an idiot in the first pl

[swv3752]

For many things, it sucks to live in Canada. Thanks for bringing that up. Of course FEDEX still ships to Canada...

Re:Wait At Least 10 Business Days to Be More Sure.

[Ron Bennett]

The clearing process involves more than just making the funds available to the depositor...the actual fund transfer and reconcilation process between financial institutions often takes longer than one or two business days; in essance the bank is making the deposits available on a provisional basis in many instances (as required by law) until the complete clearing process has run its course - banks should educate folks on this instead of burying it deep in fineprint.

In regards to depositing a cashier check...if it's "legit", then very likely the financial institution its drawn on will have funds to cover it...the primary concern one should have when accepting cashier checks isn't fund availability, but rather is it real...some forgeries are very difficult to catch before-hand.

On a related topic, even if your bank calls the other financial institution, that doesn't protect you because there are instances where a bank will be told the cashier check is valid or whatnot, but then later turns out it's not - yes, this really happens :-(

If you are dealing with another financial institution or long-time customer who hands you a cashier check, then most likely it's going to be real and the funds are truly yours.

Ultimately, it all comes down to trust of the parties involved in a financial transaction, not the physical check or whatnot.

Ron

you got it all wrong, mac

[Hubert_Shrump]

I was not going to give up. That night I dreamed of Mr. Christmas and a baseball bat, some duct tape, and roofing nails.

Look, if you're going to have him retar up there, at least give him a hammer instead of the bat. He'll be up there all week! Jiminy!

hahaha

[penguin_punk]

Black cars?

You must have forgotten that these are Mac users. Remeber? These types drive Minis and New Beatles. I'll bet you that no matter what type of car it was, its colour was Aqua. (maybe teal) ;)

Re:I'm sorry - but he was an idiot in the first pl

[DaytonCIM]

I have to agree. A $2500+ sale and he accepts COD? Those annoying infomercial companies don't accept COD for $29.95, let alone 2 grand!

That aside, it was nice to hear about so many people coming together to help this one person in need.

Re:Wait At Least 10 Business Days to Be More Sure.

[Ron Bennett]

"What about PayPal - is THAT safe?"

Well if you consider accepting 3rd party starter checks for payment, then maybe :-;

Seriously, PayPal is NOT a bank and thus provides virtually no protection - there are many well documented instances of PayPal freezing funds, withdrawing funds from people's bank accounts, negative balances, issueing refunds and allowing the buyer to keep the product too, etc.

PayPal is a very useful service, but anyone who trusts it for large amounts of money (of course that's going to be relative to one's financial worth, etc) is asking for trouble. They are not a bank and they basically play fast and loose with their policies - and good luck in contacting anyone there.

PayPalSucks.com and PayPalWarning.com shed more light on the darker side of PayPal.

http://www.paypalsucks.com/
http://www.paypalwa rning.com/

Don't get me wrong, PayPal works great and is very convenient for most folks, including myself...but still one should be aware of the risks they take on when using them to transfer money.

Ron

Read the Drama

[digitalgimpus]

http://forums.macnn.com/showthread.php?s=40e4fad22 665478b027629eb71768ab5&threadid=134279&perpage=50 &pagenumber=1

Read as it unfolds.

Advice on cheques/money orders.

[mindstrm]

With regards to certified cheques, anyway...
certified cheques and money orders are widely considered as good as cash.

The best way to deal with these things is NOT to put them in your bank account... but, if you can, to have them cashed on the spot. A postal money order can be cashed at the post office with ID.
A certified cheque (or any cheque. for that matter) can usually be cashed at the bank it was issued from, with proper ID. Some banks will insist they only have to do this if you take it to the branch it was issued from. Some will let you do it at other branches, but will require a small wait for confirmation. This is because, by law, a cheque is simply instructions for a bank to give you money from someone's account. There is no requirement that the receiver must use a bank account.

Re:Advice on cheques/money orders.

[mindstrm]

Please re-read what I said.

I'm talking about cashing a cheque in-person at the bank it is written against, not depositing it into your bank account/cashing it at your bank.

You see, we use banks so much people don't even realize this.

A cheque is a negotiable insturment. It's an instruction for a given bank to give a certain person a certain amount of money from a designated account. They have to honor these.
If I write you a cheque form my account at Bank Four International, you can walk into that bank, with ID, and they will give you cash for that cheque. Thta's what the cheque represents. When you cash it at your bank, it takes a while for them to do what you could have done manually.

A bank cannot refuse to cash a cheque written on that bank because you don't have an account with them.

Saying "We won't cash a cheque unless you have an equal amount in your account" is just twisting words.. even though all banks say it. They deposit the cheque, put the funds on hold, then give you cash from your existing funds. IT's not different than saying "You can't withdraw $X unless you have $X in your account"

Re:Wait At Least 10 Business Days to Be More Sure.

[mindstrm]

That is where the 10 business days come from. After 10 business days, the bank can't backpedal and say the funds aren't yours. They have 10 days to complete their clearing process.

They also have to notify you of NSF issues within 48 hours of finding out about it... not that you have any easy way of finding out if they followed this rule or not.

Re:I'm sorry - but he was an idiot in the first pl

[Cyno]

And those who might be part of that 10% are under constant pressure to conform.

Los Angeles, too

[clem.dickey]

San Francisco is well-known for tolerance of illegal parking. About 25 years ago the SF police wanted higher wages but were forbidden to strike. One day the police protested by ticketing all illegally parked cars, especially those around City Hall and the local newspaper offices. That night the Chief of Police appeared on local TV to apologize for the unprofessional conduct of his men!

By comparison, there were - and are - Los Angeles suburbs in which police will ticket a car parked facing the wrong direction. The police infer that something illegal must have happened to place the car in that position.

This difference broke the Patty Hearst case. While the Symbionese Liberation Army held Patty Hearst in San Francisco, police and FBI had no luck finding her. Then the SLA moved to Los Angeles - unfamiliar territory for them. They parked a van in a red zone, which would have been no big deal in SF. Police arrived to ticket the van, determined that it was stolen, and caught or killed a large part of the SLA.

Why?

[TheRain]

I think the thing that struck me the most was the fact the whole thing read like an ad for apple computers with the community as the major argument for owning one.

Most of this guy's reasonings for his actions seemed contrived as well as many of the events that occured in his story.

It could also be that he just sees people in black in white. Like this story, either they helped him or they didn't and Mac users are good, PC users are bad.

Re:no police force

[moosemoose]

well it was a rant and i do agree that some sort of structured law enforcement is desirable. but i think the two points that i wanted to make were (1) that behavior in our society is for the most part not moderated by the existance of police. in other words, most of us would continue to not murder and rape in the absence of a police force and conversely, those who do murder and rape today do not seem to be particularly deterred by the existence of the police and (2) small local groups (ala the post in question) seem to be more effective than large 'crime fighting' organizations. in the recent case of the theft of credit information of 30,000 people, the thieves were caught not by the police but in effect by the credit reporting agencies (after $2.7 million stolen). according to the news reports they would still be doing this today if they hadn't gotten greedy and started downloading 15,000 reports at a time. i used to practice law and i can tell you from personal experience that the police do not concern themselves with the small victim. steal 50% of a poor person's possessions and you get no police action. steal 1% of a rich person's and you get the crime lab.

ebay's safeguards MY ARSE..

[matt_wilts]

Here's the response I got from Ebay when I thought I detected shill bidding:

To: Matt {matt_wilts}
Subject: Re: Possible shill bidding on auction 1235911285 (KMM28339167C0KM)
From: eBay UK Investigations {ukinvestigations@ebay.com}
Reply-To: eBay UK Investigations {ukinvestigations@ebay.com}

Hello Matt,

Thank you for writing to us.

I sincerely apologize for the delay of this e-mail and hope that it did not cause you any inconveniences!

I have investigated your report regarding {{ insert user id }}, and can understand how this would be troublesome.

Please be assured, if a violation of eBay policy has occurred, we will take the appropriate action in accordance with our site policies. Such action may include issuing a warning, temporary suspension, indefinite suspension or terminating the membership.

Due to eBay's Privacy policy we are unable to provide information regarding the details of another user's account. We are equally
concerned about violations on the site, and will thoroughly investigate each report we receive. However, the details of our actions cannot be
disclosed with third party members. Please remember that this is for the protection of all eBay users.

We appreciate your assistance in keeping eBay a fun and safe place to trade..

I hope you have a wonderful week!
Regards,
Darcy
eBay UK SafeHarbour
Investigations Team

Must be some new use of the word "safe" that I've not yet come across...

Matt

Re:ebay's safeguards MY ARSE..

[matt_wilts]

Wouldn't normally reply to one of my own posts, but...

I don't think I made it quite clear that the {{insert user id}} part was as it came in the email, i.e. it was a total form letter that they'd forgotten to fill in.

Numpties.

Matt

Hard To Sleep

[duck_prime]

Mac users are all one big team, wonderful. But some of the lines in the article puzzle me: "It's hard to sleep comfortably knowing some asshole has your Mac and is doing god knows what with it."

Was it easier for him to sleep when he thought the cashier's check was good?

If some jerk hadn't stolen his money maybe the poor guy could've, I dunno, bought some sleeping pills!

Exactly!

[duck_prime]

Surely you're not trying to say that there is only one asshole in every 7 people.

That's why people are so full of crap.

Re:Exactly!

[oyenstikker]

I kinda feel bad about starting the stupidest thread i've ever read. . .but this one is a gem. Thats got to go on my aim profile. (: kudos to duck_prime

So why don't we pay heroin prices for food?

[Gorimek]

I think you'll find the fault in your logic if you try to figure out why we can buy a days supply of food for well under $10, while heroin costs much, much more.

Food is after all even more addictive than heroin!

Then there is the evidence of legal trade in these drugs (for medical purposes), where what costs $100 on the street can cost $1 on the legal side.

Mark another one up

[NeoSkandranon]

Well, everyone except one guy who just wanted to let me know how incredibly stupid he thought I was and that he would never have accepted a counterfeit anything.

Make it two. I think you're an idiot for mailing anything worth more than five bucks before your payment clears.

Hey, he was thanking the Mac community

[Gorimek]

Yeah, it looks a bit bad out of context. But keep in mind he was writing this as a thanks to all the Mac people all over who went far out of their way to help him with this. Just think of it as a way to say "You guys are the best EVER!!".

repeat? Not really, but who cares?

[tres]

The sad thing is that this is a repeat story; it happens every day to countless people. You've probably had some asshole steal from you, and I know I have.

Fact is, I'd be glad if there were a lot more stories like this on Slashdot. It's a well written first-person account.

Nothing personal, but I'm quite tired of all the little ankle biters complaining about repeat stories. Yes, there's been cases in the past where the same story will be posted twice--big fricking deal. Get over it, move on to the next story, make your own message board, start submitting other stories--do something other than whine.

In this case, to call it a repeat is a long stretch to say the least.

Re:repeat? Not really, but who cares?

[jred]

Get over it, move on to the next story, make your own message board, start submitting other stories--do something other than whine.

First, *I'm* not bitching about repeat stories, ever. Second, I do have a little message board, with very small readership (maybe 5 active, 20-30 lurkers), and I still get bitched at for repeat postings :)

Re:repeat? Not really, but who cares?

[jred]

NP, I was replying to your reply to someone else. I just butted in with my $0.02 :)

But you're right, the original article was interesting, and all the "repeat story!!!" posters just fuck up the signal/noise ratio further.

Re:grammar...

[jerrytcow]

>>Hint: Try not splittig your infinitives, you sound like a moron.
>He didn't split an infinitive. The sentence can be cleared up by changingin "who" to "whom" and adding a couple commas.

Huh? What the f*@# does who or whom have to do with a split infinitive? The post was referring to
(Hint: Next time, try using decent setence structure to not confuse your point.)

I even put it in bold so you can see what a split infinitive is.

now we have to deal with grammar nazis who don't know basic grammar or spelling

Re:Would a Windows User?

[Fat Casper]

"It's hard to sleep comfortably knowing some asshole has your Mac and is doing god knows what with it."

Was it easier for him to sleep when he thought the cashier's check was good?

When the cashier's check was still "good," it wasn't his computer anymore. When the check turned out to be bad, the computer turned out to have been his all along. And it had been boxnapped (is that an appropriate term for a laptop?). You've got to rescue it!

Re:I'm sorry - but he was an idiot in the first pl

[scotch]

I'm pretty sure the asshole-to-people ratio is one-to-one unless there is common kind of birth defect or elective surgery I don't know about.

Re:Wait At Least 10 Business Days to Be More Sure.

[Whatsthiswhatsthis]

If you would like to find out if a cashiers check is real, often you can call a number and punch in the serial number to see if it is valid. I know this is true for American Express cashiers checks.

Also, don't be afraid to call the bank that made the cashiers check to see if it is genuine. All banks keep records of who bought what and for whom.

The above poster is right--something may be "credited" to your account before it has been processed. According to Regulation CC, banks are required to make the funds from cashiers checks available on the next day. That's before they can be processed at the proof department to see if they are valid.

So when you go to the bank, make sure that the check has been posted to your account--don't just ask for your account balance. Your account balance will reflect the check (counterfeit or not), but it will only be posted to your account after it has cleared.

Re:I'm sorry - but he was an idiot in the first pl

[Fat Casper]

Those annoying infomercial companies don't accept COD...

The infomercial audience isn't the most likely group to be certain of having the money on them at any given moment. If you don't have the room on a card, maybe you should put the purchase price toward paying off the card, no? If they don't have the money, the package gets returned- and the seller loses a sale that he thought he had, and has to pay two way shipping to boot.

My company ships UPS a lot, and we'll do COD if you want. We buy things COD if we have to, too. Of course, a company's easier to find than a guy, and less likely to scam on one shipment.

Obvious

[sparkleytone]

I think by now it is glaringly obvious that this story is true. Yes, the author seems to embellish thoughts and emotions. This is more the sign of a competent writer than a hoax. Of course the slashdotters expect a whitepaper on the scientific process of catching a thief. No thank you. It was a good read.

This story has proliferated throughout the web now and made its way onto many well-regarded websites, one of them being the register. Judging by their article, it looks as if the information at the core of the story indeed checks out. So what if the guy is emotional? I would be too. I believe we all would be.

Tracking Projects?

[phorm]

This brings up an interesting idea. Does anyone know of any good projects that implement this, so that the computer, as soon as connecting to the internet - will dial home (or a home server) and instantiate some type of callback script.
It would be great if there were a copy compatible with both win32 and 'nix. Maybe sourceforge or somewhere already has one?

Scenario:
User connects to internet (high speed or dialup)
Computer detects internet connection, connects to equivilent homebase.com
Homebase.com returns an indicator as to whether the computer should be in "theft mode"
Computer, on entering "theft mode" subsequently tried tricks such as
a) Sends owner/etc info to homebase
b) Establishing a PPP/Dialup connection to a monitored line, providing phone # info
c) Sending IP/username info the homebase
d) Sending info on cookies, checking for variables indicating names - to homebase
e) Checks for new email accounts on PC, sends email from them to homebase
f) Pop up forms with "you won" asking for personal info

Eventually, with enough tricks, homebase should be able to gather enough intel to track said computer. If not, then perhaps homebase can send a type of "timed destruction" sequence to the PC, which will result in erasure and whatever damage is necessary to disable it.
Considering the amount of crap that goes into cookies, I wouldn't be surprised if one of these - or situation (f) - turns up personal info enough to track said machine.

Re:Tracking Projects?

[EllF]

And how would this work? If I buy a machine, the *first* thing I do is wipe the hard drives and install *nix; even a non-technical user probably installed antivirus software, and your callback scripts would almost certainly fall under their definitions of what constitutes malicious code.

Remember: given sufficient time and/or resources, hardware control implies complete software control.

Re:Insurance is quite limited

[MoneyT]

It is $200 but there are some funky twists and turns in there that can cut it down a bit. I think the actualy ammount comes out to something like $170. It's not bad but it's still another $30 your'e out. Use a creditcard instead, when they don't deliver the goods, cancel payment.

International - Unverified

[Vagary]

Isn't part of the problem also that Canadian accounts are treated as foreign accounts and therefore not covered by some of PayPal's protections? I think a lot of the problem arises from the fact that PayPal isn't willing to set up country-specific bureaus like eBay or Yahoo! but wants to come up with an one-size-fits-all solution for the world. Obviously financial rules are going to be different in Canada compared to Carjackistan...

Re:International - Unverified

[jafuser]

IIRC, you can have multiple balances on PayPal, each in a different currency. You only get charged when you convert between them.

My suggestion is to leave it in CAD, unless it's a large amount that you need to withdrawl. Then the next time you send money to CA, you won't have to pay again for exchanging USD to CAD.

Re:Why didn't he HAVE the address already?

[MoneyT]

As said in the story, the phone number he was given went to a cell phone, the adress whent to another phone. Do you have any idea how easy it is to scam fedex? Have an item sent to an adress fed-ex. Track said item. Stand outside of adress pretentding to do yard work during deliviery day. Intercept fed-ex man before he gets to the door. Sign for package. The adress had to be verified another way.

Definition of "felony"

[waterbug]

http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=felony

or, from a more legal-sounding website:

http://www.lectlaw.com/def/f021.htm

It is a common fallacy that felony==federal crime.

Re:Definition of "felony"

[zora]

I got one, two actually

"Damaging a tree with a firearm" 16USC551;36CFR261.6(2)

"Careless Shooting with a firearm" 16USC551;36CFR261.10(d)
In short don't hang your targets on trees in a National Forest, It cost me $200 and 10 hours of picking up garbage and digging fence post holes.
It's ironic because the forest I was shooting in burned up last summer so the trees would have been wasted anyways...

Wouldn't work.

[j3ss]

Because all they have to do is pull the CMOS battery or whatver is powering the BIOS long enough so that the BIOS resets.

Re:Wouldn't work.

[Edmund]

Depends on the laptop. IBM laptops are well-known for being notoriously hard to crack. The passwords are stored on a seperate flash RAM chip on the motherboard, which is backed by a CRC checksum. In addition, the password is replicated on the hard drive, and when the BIOS password is set the exact same password is set on the hard drive.

If you simply wiped or tamped with the data on the chip, the CRC check would fail and the laptop would refuse to boot. Even if somebody managed to bypass the BIOS password by obtaining a "virgin" password chip (i.e. one that has no password set and a checksum to reflect that), they would still be unable to access the hard drive because they lack the password. If the hard drive was put into another computer, it would come up with a controller failure without the password.

Note that there is a way to circumvent this. You could buy a third party security chip (several companies sell them) and solder it in place of the original one. Then you simply toss out the original hard drive.

Apparantly a talented man from Australia has figured out exactly how the passwords are stored/encrypted on the chip and built a simple serial circuit and program combination to read it. The schematics and software are freely available on his website, and the idea is that you build the circuit, read the contents of the chip, send him the dump and pay him money to recover the password from inside the binary dump. This allows you to keep the hard drive.

Unfortunately, I don't have the URL of his website off-hand. If anybody has used his services, does it actually work? :)

- Ed.

Re:Wouldn't work.

[spike hay]

Because all they have to do is pull the CMOS battery or whatver is powering the BIOS long enough so that the BIOS resets

Never thought of that. On my computer, it's as simple as pulling a jumper. But, what if the theif didn't know much about computers.

More impressive

[harlequinSmurf]

I still think that the story of the guy who tracked down his sisters stolen iMac using timbuktu. here: Mac Thief Caught Thanks To Applescript & Timbuktu [slashdot] and here: Turning Macs on Thievery [wired.com]

For stolen laptops not bought. Geesh

[phorm]

Ummm, first of all...

This has NOTHING to do with buying a machine. At least not from a legit seller. This is to put on your machine, in case it gets stolen, etc.

Given the post about the Mac machine which was found using Timbuktu and some creative hacking, this woudld be a cool idea.

And in this case, the thief was too dumb to format. Also worth mentioning is the fact that - being your hardware - you can put whatever you want on it to track it for theft.

It might not protect you from professionals. For that some hardware can get GPS-type devices to assist in tracking - but they're expensive. And if it's an ebay scammer, it may very well be that he/she is too lazy to immediate wipe the OS (instead booting to see if it works first).

Re:For stolen laptops not bought. Geesh

[EllF]

I wasn't referring to legally purchased laptops, either.

I haven't read the story itself, as I've been unable to get to it all day (slashdotted), so I don't know about the stupidity of the thief. I was pointing out that were *I* to steal a computer, I'd wipe that baby clean immediately.

My other point was that what you described is essentially a virus, and that any system with a virus scanner installed would most likely detect it as such. Sure, it's fine and dandy for YOU to install, but what if someone cracked a machine and installed a piece of software like this? Think of all the machines and information they'd be able to collect. Think of the children.

A GPS solution wouldn't "assist in tracking" against a professional, either. Being professionals, they'd just rip it out, or put it out of commision.

Sorry to be less than clear.

Re:He used a *NIX tracking utility

[GMontag]

It was interesting because the utility was not mentioned in the immediate article does not mean it was not used. Commentors, try looking it (openDK story) up then get a clue!

All of your loans are . . .

[achurch]

Are you heartless???:
all of your student loans for the next semester are [...]

Am I the only one who filled in the end of this as "belong to us"?

Cashier's check

[jbolden]

A cashier's check is precleared. That's why this was such a nasty scam. I'm frankly shocked the banks didn't go nuts on a forged cashier's check.

Man...

[raehl]

If some asshole was doing who knows what with my Mac, I don't think I'd WANT it back. I'd at least make sure to wipe it off good.

Most crimes committed in the name of drugs...

[raehl]

Are "petty" shoplifting, fraud, forgery, breaking and entering, theft, robbery...

To pay for the drugs you're addicted to.

Drugs are not bad because they hurt the user. Drugs are bad because the user hurts people to get their drugs. Legalizing drugs won't stop people from committing other crimes to buy them.

Re:Most crimes committed in the name of drugs...

[DreamerFi]

Legalizing drugs won't stop people from committing other crimes to buy them.

Prices will go down dramatically by legalizing them, folks won't need to steal for them. Also, people do tend to commit crimes to get cocaine, heroin, and the like, pot is relatively cheap and non-addictive. If you're worried about people continuing to steal after legalizing, set up a program where you hand out free drugs or drugs replacements to registered addicts. Worked fine in Switzerland and several other European countries.

Re:Most crimes committed in the name of drugs...

[raehl]

Ah, so we're going to legalize it, and then NOT tax the crap out of it?

Then the users are just stealing from the healthcare system.

Either way, the cost for drugs is rarely born by the user of the drugs.

Re:Most crimes committed in the name of drugs...

[jafuser]

shoplifting, fraud, forgery, breaking and entering, theft, robbery

Don't the desperate addicts do that now? At least if most drugs were legalized, the drug prices would plummet and these crimes would decrease proportionally in frequency.

In Soviet Russia....

[raehl]

Decent sentence structure confuses you!

Well, maybe not if you know Russian.

Re:In Soviet Russia....

[bryan1945]

Could you kindly tell me where this reverse Russian grammar joke started? I must have missed the origin, and it's bugging me.

Thanks.

Re:In Soviet Russia....

[raehl]

Well, it originally started with some russian comedian back in the 80's, whose joke was "In Soviet Russia, TV watches you!"

On Slashdot, someone butcherred the joke in a thread a week or so ago, which of course drew the obligatory "I know more than you" correction, which wasn't entirely correct, which drew the 'I know more than the guy who knows more than you (because I used google)' correction, and now...

Imagine a Beowulf cluster of 'In Soviet Russia' jokes.

Re:In Soviet Russia....

[bryan1945]

Thank you, sir.

You shall recieve 1 billion "thank yous" and zero mod points, since I can't help you here.

Thanks,
Bryan

Columbine et al

[jbolden]

Prior to the last 5 years with the teen shootings the image of geek high schoolers getting back at jocks was seen as funny. These things can change.

Re:I'm sorry - but he was an idiot in the first pl

[DEBEDb]

Then the other person must be trusting you
to ship the thing once the money clears.
Either way, one is a potential sucker.

Can't we all just get along? :)

Actually... no.

[The Tyro]

The law would disagree with you in many jurisdictions.

The distinction between "theft" and "grand theft" is typically determined by amount.

Often there is a scale of theft amounts that garner different levels of legal sanction... fourth degree misdemeanor, third degree, second, and so forth, up to felony theft. Then there are fourth degree felonies, third degree, etc.

Most big-city police departments are so overloaded and undermanned that I'm not at all surprised that this guy's case got the back burner. Honestly... would you rather have violent crimes prosecuted, or a few lower-level property crimes?

As much as it offends the sensibilities of the tech population (you mean computers aren't everything??), there are far more-heinous crimes that go unsolved than an ebay scammer.

I agree that it's wrong... but infinite resources and manpower are not on the radar screen of most police departments.

Re:Actually... no.

[sweetooth]

Ok, we are getting down to the political issues as to why items like this are on the back burner. I'm saying that they shouldn't be and trying to give a reason why. The fact that they are because there isn't enough man power etc is a result of poorly funded police departments and mismanagment of the funds they do have, IMO. If you have the staff to handle all of your crimes (or at least the majority of big and small not just the big) you have a good chance in seeing an overall reduction in crime due to the increased risk. Part of what makes crime appealing, especially small scale crimes, is the low chance of getting caught or prosecuted. If people get busted for the small crimes the feeling that it's not worth it to try a bigger crime may prevail.

Ignoring the small crimes doesn't make crime go away. Yes there are more heinous crimes than fraud, but crime is crime period.

Honestly I would like to see my police department with sufficient funding and manpower. I would also like to see that funding and man power being put to use solving as many crimes as possible big and small.

Re:Actually... no.

[The Tyro]

I agree with you... absolutely and totally.

Crime is funny... it really does snowball. When somebody consciously commits their first crime, they probably are sweating the thought of a blue-clad policeman swooping out of nowhere to make the bust, just like on TV... when it doesn't happen, and they "get away with it," they become encouraged, even emboldened. They realize a fundamental truth... a huge number of crimes go unsolved, and unstopped. As long as they are even halfway careful... they can do whatever they want!

A powerful thought, being able to do whatever you want... and it leads to more crimes, and bigger crimes.

Like you, I think hitting the small crimes is important. Punks will always tell you "why'd you stop me for speeding? Don't you have rapists to catch or sumthin??" Well, yes... and sometimes we catch them by traffic stops.

How'd Timothy McVeigh get caught? Traffic Stop.
How about Son of Sam? Parking ticket (if memory serves)

Stopping a person for a burned-out license plate light may seem like a chicken-shit stop... until you come up to the driver's window and smell the weed, or see the gun and ski mask on the back seat...

Re:Actually... no.

[el_chicano]

Stopping a person for a burned-out license plate light may seem like a chicken-shit stop... until you come up to the driver's window and smell the weed

If all you get is someone smoking weed then that is still a chicken-shit stop. The sad fact is that many cops would rather bust a pothead than go after real criminals, as it is less work for them that way.

And your anecdotes are not enough to prove your point. Unless you have hard statistics proving your point that you catch a substantial number of criminals through traffic stops it is just an opinion based on anecdotal evidence.

Re:Actually... no.

[The Tyro]

"The sad fact is that many cops would rather bust a pothead than go after real criminals, as it is less work for them that way."

You suggest that my "anecdotes" are not enough evidence to prove my point, and then have enough balls to make a sweeping statement like the above about cops? Where, sir, are your "hard statistics?"

Heh... you sound like a troll of the first order... but I'll feed you.

By your post, I'd guess that your only experience with law enforcement is from the wrong side. What's the matter? Angry at that last traffic ticket you got? Think you didn't deserve it?

Let me just make a couple of points:

#1: Don't burn a big fat joint while you are being pulled over by a police officer. A single joint is a minor misdemeanor where I live, but it gives probable cause to search your vehicle. You could probably avoid this hassle by smoking your pot in the privacy of your own home. Since pot is still illegal, it is stupid to smoke it in public... you deserve every fine you get if you insist on being that dumb.

#2: Since pot is illegal, in my experience it is predominately smoked by partying teens, people who use it recreationally, and antisocial types who tend to committ other crimes. Most cops I know are very, very interested in the latter group, since they cause lot of crime, and it's a real "feather in your cap" to put one in prison. Most cops hate traffic duty, small-time pot busts, etc...they would like nothing better than to focus on the bigger crimes. Barney Fife is a fictional TV character.

#3: While it may be cool to hate "the man," most cops are just trying to do their job, which is to enforce the law. If they don't, they get fired, and they have families to feed, just like you. If you don't like the law, get the law changed. Don't bitch at the cop; he's just society's messenger. If society doesn't agree with you... well... what can I say? You pay your money, you take your chances. You can flaunt whatever law you like, but you'd better be prepared to take it like a man when society sanctions you. That's a hard fact of life, but one you'd better understand if you want to stay out of jail.

Re:Would a Windows User?

[10Ghz]

A Mac is more than an image! It is overpriced yet underperforming hardware! It is untweakable hardware! It is a group of people who all suffer from superiority-complex! It is a community that believes Steve Jobs is Jesus reincarnated! That's what Mac is!

Re:I'm sorry - but he was an idiot in the first pl

[MulluskO]

Well, that's just on the forums, I think we would all agree that the counterfeiter is also an asshole, so it's at least 102:2 = 51:1.

Don't you guys have direct money transfers?

[Captain_Chaos]

Here in the Netherlands (and pretty the much the rest of Europe) one can directly transfer money from their account to some other person's account with the same or any other bank. You can give the order by mailing a transfer order or over the Internet, modem or telephone. It's free and it takes from one day (when it's the same bank, sometimes it's even instantaneous) to at most a few days. Once transferred the money is yours and there's nothing the sender can do about it anymore.

It's been as easy and cheap like this here for as long as I can remember. What's the deal in the US that transferring money is so difficult?

Re:Wait At Least 10 Business Days to Be More Sure.

[Lumpy]

actually the BEST thing to do is if you are given a check CASH IT at a bank that is the same as the issuers. I.E. I get a 5/3 bank check I go over to the 5/3 bank and make the cashiere cash it. No they CANNOT charge you a fee, it's funds drawn off of their accounts and they must honor the check if there are funds available. this way you run a lower scam rate. if the check bounces it doesn't hit your accounts.

second... NEVER EVER SEND ANYTHNIG COD. Duh!

Re:I'm sorry, but you didn't read carefully enough

[jdreed1024]

Normally there's no reason to wait for a cashier's check to clear.

Sure there is. It's called counterfeiting. It's a hell of a lot easier to counterfeit a check than cash. Largely because banks don't even look at checks anymore when you deposit them. So you lose, until it comes back as returned and you're overdrawn.

If you think that was a great story....

[eples]

The guy was selling used Macs at a markup to people who didn't know any better. He got taken by a guy who did the same thing - took advantage of someone who didn't know any better. I'd give this creep not a single drop of respect or even a thought of heroism for catching the guy who one-upped him. They're both made of the same stuff.
Plus, who's stupid enough to have their rent riding on a check from an eBay auction?

Re:As Homer Simpson says...

[Pope]

It's "God bless those pagans."

I used the .WAV as my new email sound for a year. Now it's "That's good!"

Re:Slightly misleading title...

[bryan1945]

As opposed to the anti-Mac rhetoric on /.?

Re:Slightly misleading title...

[el_chicano]

As opposed to the anti-Mac rhetoric on /.

Actually, Slashdot has an anti-Microsoft bias, by and large we IGNORE mac users...

Unless they are that stoned 14 year-old chick or that babe that "saved" Christmas! :->

Better than nothing though.

[phorm]

Not much will save you against professionals, unfortunately. But there are an increasing number of amatures out there, people who have figured out that it's easy to scam people... others that simple have light-fingers and snitch somebody's laptop while they're not looking.

The guy in the article was operating on a fairly large basis, but by the sounds it was just one guy who found it's easy to scam people who are foolish (and don't use the ebay internal bidding system properly). A lot of crooks are clever in some ways, dumb in others, so a GPS solution might work.
The software-enabled solution might still work too. , and while it might detect the nuking software it would not necessarily get the call-home. There are a lot of programs that delete files, nuke entries, but don't follow the patterns of virii. Also, if you preinstalled say, Mcafee... then you could probably find ways to make it *not* detect your own virus (is there an ignore list?).

Another thing to think of is that a lot of criminals keep data on PC's so they can sift through. Oh, look, he's his banking info. Oh, he's saved his online banking password. A lot of smart crooks would avoid nukage just to retain this information, which is often worth more than the PC (how about the banking password to somebody's business bank account).

Again, this probably won't work on organized crime, or those smart enough to nuke a hard-drive before ever plugging-it-in or turning it on, but it's better than nothing.

Re:I'm sorry - but he was an idiot in the first pl

[jafuser]

Maybe he should have told the FBI/CIA/SS/NSA/etc that the laptop had mp3's on it. At least then he could have gotten some kind of response from them...

Re:I'm sorry - but he was an idiot in the first pl

[rew]

I'm not from the USA, but "COD" means "cash on delivery", right?

Cash as in "real money"? I thought that this was the way to ensure that you got the money provided that the item gets delivered.

If FedEx doesn't bring you the cash it got for the item, then I'd say that FedEx has a problem. If FedEx is stupid enough to accept bouncable cheques, then that's FedEx's problem.

I have to conclude that FedEx doesn't want to run around with loads of cash, and accepts cheques. But this defeats the whole purpose of COD, so why do this?

Roger.

Re:What an egotistical asshole

[sapporoitchy]

Where do these people get the idea that owning a Mac makes them a superior human being?

The author never said 'superior human beings' but according to this study and CNET article, we're smarter and make more money. I don't suggest you read this, however, since it may just make you angrier and hate us more.

My (short) bad check story

[ke4roh]

In 1997 I sold some memory for about $250 via USENET, and the buyer wanted it shipped C.O.D. I went to the local office of the United States Postal Service to send it off, and explained to the clerk that I only wanted to accept cash for the payment. There were two blanks on the C.O.D. form to enter the amount for cash and for check, and in the check section, he wrote "NO CHECK" for me. The package went on its way, got delivered, and the postal clerk on the other end followed regulations by accepting a check. The check was rubber. The Bexar Co. Texas district attorney's office whose job it is to hunt down bad checks was no help - they just took the bad check and sat on it. The post office was no help - even though it was their clerk who made up regulations on his own.

Moral: If you must ship C.O.D., set the amount for payment by check to the maximum - $10,000. That way, if it's a bad check, the clerk will remember it (to be a witness to the passing of a bad check), and the crime will be substantially worse if you do get a bad check, making it easier to pursue.

Re:Another recent eBay fraud scheme: ebayupdates.c

[hether]

There was a story on this on slashdot last week:
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=02/12/13/033821 9&mode=thread&tid=98
and the story actually broke about Dec. 6.

Re:Another recent eBay fraud scheme: ebayupdates.c

[hether]

No, I just wasn't paying attention to post dates.