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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.
Just by reading all the emails from the previous story and then reading this...you can tell it is the same person typing.
Honestly why have the police not taken care of this guy already?
======== In the future, everything will be artificial. ========
Poor guy... This Vince charcter sounds like a real jerk. They should put him away for a long time, he's a career criminal who probably will never reform. He knows what he is doing, tring to spread the blame around to someone who is either fictional or not related, most likely, and now it's catching up with him. About time someone dealt with theses internet scams, but I'd rather see the government get a bunch of them at once.
SAILING MISHAP
... that this might not be a scam at all, and poor Sal is being harrassed to the point of suicide?
To say nothing of his family, including newborn.
Okay, so it's unlikely given the text so far, but not impossible. Vince might have the wrong guy.
"Nine times out of ten, starting a fire is not the best way to solve the problem." - my wife
I live in Philadelphia, and work downtown. I am posting AC to avoid being a karma whore and to avoid getting killed by this Sal guy. Last week or so after work I walked down to his address because its not too far from center city. Let me tell you that this guy lives in a crumby crumby neighborhood. And even worse, in a very crumby house. I didn't even think it was livable at first. Its a very small row home damn near falling apart. It has a basement window flush to the ground that is completely kicked in and just has a little fence in plastic fence in front of it. The whole house looks horrible, but in particular the front door is all screwed up. When I checked this place out there was a shitty car in front of the house (not a lexus, so I don't know who's lexus he got pictues of) and he lives across from a deli and about 2 blocks from a local hospital. The neighborhood is one of the worst in Philly. I didn't stay long and didnt dare take out my digital camera for obvious reasons. Anyway, the money that he's scammed people out of could probably pay his rent for over a year in the piece of junk that he lives in. Judging from his neighbors (I didn't actually see Sal, just his house) he is a low life and probably on welfare too. Everyone in that neighborhood seemed sleazy and the crime rate is either the highest in the city or in the top 3, or so associates have informed me. Anyway, I am certain that this guy is scum. And its getting out of control. Me and Justin have been in communication and I would like to think that I have helped him out and I intend to continue helping him out. Also everything me and Justin discussed, he fowarded on to the other victims so I'm trying my best to help out everyone involved. This Sal guy needs to get taken down.
-Me
Does 'Vince" truly exist?
/.ing so well?!?
Is the attrocious grammar, spelling, and sentence structure merely due to poor linguistic skills or is he trying to draw sympathy by protraying himself as a fairly unintelligent person that was taken advantage of?
If his name is Sam Wise (yeah like that sounds real) then why is his comcast page mich617?
But perhaps the most puzzling question of all,
How in the heck is his page standing up to a
I think there's more to this fellow than meets the eye...
I stole this Sig
Although Sal apparently nearly successfully trick members of an on-line forum into believing he was dead and buried to raise "funds for his widow and children," he won't see a dime of it. Thanks to Justin Spence and Slashdotters, the people running the collection for the forum were notified in time before giving it to "Sal's grieving family" and are in the process of returning the money to the donaters.
It is actually possible that Vince was lying to the reporter to fuck over Sal. Just because he's a business man, doesn't mean he's not a crook
do not read this line twice.
I can't say I blame you. If I weren't involved in it first-hand I'd probably feel the same way. As I posted on Justin's online forum a couple days ago, the stranger this gets, the more I feel like this whole story is in a Robert Anton Wilson novel, and I'm just one of the minor characters...
This is the part I don't understand. Actually, I can see telling Justin to cancel the check to try to divert suspicion, but why would Sal wait until Justin told him he canceled the check to try to cash it? Why no cash it right off? Wasn't Sal running the risk of having the whole scam fail? Any theories? What am I missing? Sadly, this is the single most interesting thing in my life right now.
I liked his replies when he was uncovered... "I never posted anything saying I died."
:)
That's pretty hard to do when you're dead, Sal.
"Hi I'm dead! Give me^H^H my wife some money. I really am dead!"
I love people. They're so amuzing
My other car is first.
How does talking on the phone make you any safer? In order to snare a $4,200 prize do you think someone could come up with a prepaid cell phone, VoIP line, or something similar to use to scam you?
You missed my point completely though: Pointing out what a savvy shopper you are, then mentioning how you paid via one of the least secure methods doesn't really support your case.
A credit card user would simply email their credit card company and have the money back within minutes.
(Well, my bank lets me email, most require a minimum of a phone call, or in some cases signed paperwork)
Once a money order is out of your hands, it's all but gone. Once it's cashed it IS gone. Since it's as good as cash you can cash it at money mart or cheque cashing places, not a bank.
Give a man a fish, he'll eat for a day, but teach a man to phish...
Has anyone ever heard of Jack Campbell and MacMice? This guy does the same thing. He says one thing in a forum, then says something completely different in another forum concerning his actions and his companies actions.
He's been caught on the internet several times misrepresenting an attorney, stealing patented products, and making claims about his products that are just insane.
If any of you are interested and like this kind of story. I've done two stories on my website about this kind of scammer.
One story is similar to this one and is about eBay. (Titled: Scamming Scammers & The Scheming Scammers Who Scam Them Back)
The other is about Jack Campbell as mentioned above. (Titled: Catch Me If You Can Part II: The True Story Behind MacMice)
I think it's interesting to read stories like this and I wish more people read or were interested in them. If you can understand how pathological narcissitic people work - you can learn to avoid them.
Yell & scream & rant & rave... it's no use... you need a shaaaave ~ Bugs Bunny
I was really surprised to hear about this bombing, so I looked it up. Here is a cnn article about it.
This is one of the letters people have sent Justin. I copied it since I think it makes some cogent points ( from http://justinspence.com/slashdot.htm)
----------- --------
You got slashdotted and managed to make Sal a world celebrity,
so here are three comments from the other side of the pond; a
Freudian one, a legal one and a general one.
Freudian
Your good manners and wish to be fair is what got you suckered.
This happened:
- After the buy, your intuition warned you that something was
amiss.
- You over-reacted by telling Sal openly that you didn't trust
him.
- Sal came up with a plausible explanation and you felt guilty
for your open distrust, therefore trusted him more than you
should have.
- Sal got bingo.
If you had been just a tad more tactful, not cancelled the
deal straight away and explained why on top of it, but only
"requested additional information" while keeping up your garde,
chances are that you would have ended up cancelling the deal
anyway before sending that cheque. Sal is retarded, just as
you say on your site, but he does have a skill for playing
on other people's guilt and for creating it when need be.
That's exactly where he got you.
Ironically, that wouldn't work with a mafioso; it only works
with decent people. Because of this, Sal has an implicit
guarantee built into his scam method, that he won't piss off
people who would go after him with guns; he will only piss off
decent people who will frustrate themselves with an unwilling
police and a slow and ineffiecient judiciary. Retarded or not,
Sal surely has his targets right.
Legal
Beware of the evidence chain and beware of more lies yet
not uncovered. Sal is good at his job; he keeps building
deniability where you'd think none is possible, and he knows
damn well how to shift between objective and subjective
innocence. He is not alone; someone with legal knowledge
and time in jail has been instructing him on the fineties
of deniability. Consider:
- He told you to cancel the cheque. In order to prove fraud
at the time of the sale, you must prove either (a) that
he had no laptop to sell in the first place or (b) that
he intended to cash on it and never ship it. Based on
his mails you can prove neither.
- Being unable to fullfill a business agreement after it
has been entered into is not fraud; only tort. If you
can't prove fraud (intent+act) at the time of the sale,
a decent lawyer could probably keep Sal out of jail
unless other offences can be proven, e.g. fraud at the
time of cashing your cheque or at the time of writing out
the bounced refund cheque. On both these counts he claims
it wasn't him.
- The father story is a good one too: it creates a circular
fifth amendment case in which Sal can blame his father,
yet refuse to testify against him, while he can also
refuse to answer control questions that would incriminate
himself. It covers everything, from mails to matching
signatures on Fedex receipt and cheque. What's best in
this is that Sal's father, if he exists and is alive, can
use the very same fifth amendment to refuse to testify
against his son. You end up in an impasse where it is
plain and clear that one of Sal or the father is guilty
and lying, but there is no way to prove whether it is
the one or the other, so both get acquitted.
All in all, the only weak point in all this is the United
Check Cashing Co. videos, if there are any. If you really
plan to keep going, you should subpoena those videos asap,
to make sure they don't get rutinely destroyed after the
lapse of their shelf time.
General
It is my strong impression that Sal owes money to many
more people than just ebayers; I would expect him to
be in the red with his local drug dealer and at the pub
too, while his car is being repossesed and the landlord
has given him final notice about the rent. Sal seems to
be a person that opens a hole