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Sal Wise, Philly eBay Scammer Strikes Back!
Warlock7 followed up last week's bizarre story of eBay Fraud by noting "The news in Phlly ran with the story and put Sal's picture online with video. Now Sal has decided to direct all blame on his old business partner. He's put up his own site now trying to divert responsibilty away from himself and uses his kids pictures to try and garner support." It's hysterical to read the original log about how everything was his father's fault, but now get to learn about a more powerful evil named 'Vince'. It's like a soap opera that won't let me blink until the commercial.
Here's a link to a story on NBC10 (Philadelphia). Turns out that Vincent Massina is a South Philadelphia businessman who was defrauded of about $13,000 by Sal Wise.
Why am I not surprised that Sal has managed to twist this around?
I know I'm just asking for a brutal slashdotting on this one, but before my server melts, here's a mirror of the video.
Not more than you need, just more than you want
Aw, crap!
I meant Justin.
"Nine times out of ten, starting a fire is not the best way to solve the problem." - my wife
Until, of course, the actual people those pictures belong to come forward and demand they be removed from his site :)
I mean really
Then again, maybe I'm just being overly untrusting. But he reminds me a lot of a few compulsive liars I've known IRL, and I wouldn't put it past them for a moment...
The "real" Sal goes on to explain towards the end that Justin will know he's the "real" one because he'll send all his emails in italics.
I live in philly too. Everything you described and the grandparent about Sal's neighborhood is extremely accurate. I've lived in Philadelphia my whole life. The cops have barely any power in some areas, either because of the mob, or just sheer numbers of gangs. Not all of philadelphia is bad, but there are a few sections that you just don't go to, and when you live here, you know that. Me personally, I live in a great neighborhood in Philly, barely any crime, I go for walks nearly every night and I have no fear in my neighborhood. But honestly in some neighborhoods, once its dark, you stay in. The bombing you were referring to was done by Philadelphia's first black mayor, Wilson Goode. It was to get rid of a radical group called MOVE who had been fighting with the city for years. The naturalists/radicals/ and everything else that composed MOVE got out of hand and seriously started disrupting the city at large. That's when our good ol' mayor decided to literally wage ware upon its citizens. With military aircraft they bombed the block that MOVE lived on, then let it burn for an hour, wiping out 60 houses and killing a few. A few people at city hall got in trouble for it, but the Mayor who actually okayed it was granted immunity. It was quite an incident, I hope I got all the details right.
Regards,
Steve
Obviously the true villiant behind this is Kyser Soze.
"Nimis exaltatus rex sedet in vertice - caveat ruinam!"
Here.
Ok, how about the woman with two kids whose husband was killed in a car accident? is that a lifestyle choice? that's my neighbor. the little pittance she got from his life insurance paid for the funeral and paid off the car and three months' mortgage. had to sell her house and get a second job. moved to where i am (a shitty area, I'm only here to use the maximum of my money for schooling) and is on TANF (temporary assistance for needy families) and food stamps, and when the TANF runs out, she'll have to try to get AFDC (aid to families with dependent children), which is not as easy as people believe.
people down on their luck aren't always "whores". In fact, if you'll consult the 2000 census, you'll see that the majority of welfare recipients are, contrary to what the Republican liars tell you, white rural families, not inner-city black single mothers who "can't keep their legs together".
Damn you unfeeling bastards and your unfair stereotypes.
Actually, I live in a ghetto (Haughville represent!), and have for most of my life (when I was 16, my dad got a good job, but now that i'm on my own, back in the ghetto - for now) and find your statement that people in the ghetto don't trust anyone there to be insulting. Most people in a poor neighborhood know who it is that is bringing the neighborhood down. Usually, at least in the neighborhoods I've lived in, the decent people in that neighborhood trust each other.
However, it is true that no one wants to live in a bad neighborhood, but there's a reason for that: non-residents. It's true. All the elements that make a neighborhood bad are out of that neighborhod's direct control. Namely drug pushers, slumlords, vacant houses, criminals, bad cops (there's a few out there), and unsympathetic people. Most criminals come from a different neighborhood. Drug pushers don't live here, vacant houses and slumlords (guys who won't fix their properties) devalue property, and bad cops perpetuate the ideal that the man doesn't look out for you. When you're black and you get in a dispute with a white store owner, he gets the benefit of the doubt (disclaimer: I'm white, but I've seen this happen).
However, most of the rest of your comment is true.
Well, since he never refuted any of Justin's e-mails other than claiming he didn't write the earlier ones (establishing that they were indeed sent from his account), it certainly shows that somebody did indeed scam Justin. Given that there is no loss of credibility to Justin as of yet and the e-mails seem legit, this boils down to 2 likely possibilities which one can choose from:
1. The hospital misinformed Justin as to whether or not Sal was admitted AND the bank staff have misinformed Justin about Sal as well. In this case, it is quite possible this Vince character used Sal's computer and e-mail client. Oh and, Sal and Vince happen to have a matching writing style.
2. The bank staff is not confusing anyone with Sal and the hospital staff correctly informed Justin.
Is scenario #1 possible. Sure.
But, perhaps you ought to read all those e-mails again.
Sigh. Five years of lurking, and now I've got to post about this...hopefully, this will give a little context to people who aren't familar with the incident or aren't from the area or even from the US. In the final analysis, people see in it the things that they want to see, like Koresh and Waco. This posting is long and could use some editting, but if you don't like it you can ask /. for your money back.
IANAME: I Am Not A MOVE Expert.
Quickie Personal Background:
I've lived in or near Philadelphia all of my life.
At the time, my German grandmother did recieve telephone calls from relatives in the old country asking why "the mayor of Philadelphia was bombing the city". This "bombing" is true, in a sense, but not in the way most people would imagine such a bombing.
The May 13th, 1985 incident occurred in the "West Philadelphia" district, which is only a few miles from my school (Drexel University, class of '89) in the city's "University City" district. IIRC, while driving to school that morning (while sitting in traffic on Woodhaven Road, actually) I heard news of a firefight between the police and MOVE. Later that afternoon, while at school, I saw smoke from that area of the city. In other words, this was a day long event and it was the culmination of years of antagonism between MOVE, it's neighbors and the police.
What is MOVE, exactly?
MOVE is essentially a back to nature group. For some reason, they chose to go back to nature in the middle of one of the USA's largest cities. They also had a penchant for annoying their neighbors to the point where the cops would be called in.
There seems to be a reasonable (Though I think that Mumia (yes, *that* Mumia) was convicted in the death of a different police officer, not Ramp. Perhaps I've got my murders mixed up.) synopsis of what MOVE is about here http://religiousmovements.lib.virginia.edu/nrms/Mo ve.html
So, what happened?
An earlier altercation between MOVE and the police occurred in 1978 in an area called "Powelton Village". This incident resulted in the fatal shooting of a police officer named James Ramp. (Incidentally, Powelton is near Drexel's dorms, fraternity houses and student apartments.)
After the 1978 incident, the MOVE house at Powelton Village was razed. It had been heavily damaged but it has been argued that razing the house was mere payback/revenge to/on MOVE. MOVE relocated to Osage Avenue in West Philadelphia and proceeded with the same behaviors that lead up to the first confrontation. I'm not quite old enough to remember the 1978 incident, so I'll leave it at that.
There seems to be a reasonable synopsis of the MOVE incidents here
http://www.campusprogram.com/reference/en/wikipedi a/m/mo/move.html
My recollection of the 1985 incident:
I clearly recall that the TV news had stated that firemen were kept away initially because they were fired on. I don't see why the firemen would be kept away from the fire for several hours. The fire eventually destroyed 60+ homes in the area. That section of the city is densely built, so there are many two- or three-story homes on each block. I don't think that the city government would have been so blinded by MOVE-hatred to purposefully destroy 60+ homes, the majority of which would have been owned by people who where not sympathetic of MOVE.
The "bomb" is alternatively described as designed to destroy a "bunker" or fortification on the roof of the building or as a distraction/ruse. Police today often use "flash-bang" devices to stun or disorient people in siege or hostage situations. This device was much more powerful than a flash-bang and used a military grade explosive (C4 or some similar plastic explosive, IIRC).
I recall that police were present in a building with a wall common to the MOVE house and
I doubt people have delved this far into the thread, but there is at least some corroborating evidence from where I'm standing:
Go look at the ebay feedback forms for the different accounts that Justin and others have linked. The evasions on all of them seem very similar.
Of course, it's possible that the same people set up some dozen accounts just to give each other bad feedback.
Damn. Guess that isn't proof. It's good enough for me though. If you're still wary, maybe you can ask the eBay guys if the fraud reports have really been filed.
Regardless of the 'hoax' status (which I don't buy), I think this has gone far enough that the people responsible will be facing some serious legal problems. And that may be the best proof: Now that it looks like some jail time is coming, why would they continue the hoax?