Can anyone give me any advice on catching a crook?
I thought I was buying an iPod. I sent the guy 180.00 through iTunes giftcards in exchange for an iPod. He somehow cracked my account and took more money for a total of $500.00. I’ve cancelled the card and changed my iTunes password, but the money is still lost. I called paypal, but on the bill it says it’s a payment to itunes which its, so I contacted iTunes and they said to call my credit card company, and their fraud department would contact iTunes directly. I took almost two hours on the line for them to say we had to fill out a form which we never got. I have the guys phone number, email address, and a name (but I’m not too sure, I got it from a reverse lookup. Someone please give me advice on how I can get my money back, (also he called us and said he was in nigeria, but his area code is from Denver, and when we called the number back, it was a completely diff. person, with no idea whats going on) i just want my money back, someone please help me!!
I think you deserve the loss for making poor decisions.
1. You sent a total stranger money – a gift card that anyone can cash.
2.. You had no clue after 1000’s of TV, newspaper, magazine, and internet published reports about scams and fraud based out of Nigeria?
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=nigeria+scams&btnG=Google+Search&aq=f&oq=
3. He somehow “cracked” or do you mean hacked your account? Either you had some simple password like “password” or you somehow gave him clues or the answer to access it. Guessing passwords is not easy.
4. You will never find this person. All the info you got is most likely fraudulent.
5. I don’t know what kind of ipod you were hoping to get, but most don’t cost 180.00
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ei=ozXeSZ1zjMQzkoGVVQ&sa=X&oi=spell&resnum=0&ct=result&cd=1&q=ipod+cost&spell=1
If you think your were getting something that costs far far less than the average retail store, you deserve it for being greedy and reckless.
You can complain to your bank, credit card company, or pay pal (who will prob do nothing). Was the contra pay pal address a “confirmed” or “unconfirmed” address?
6. Clue – NEVER send money to people you don’t know.
7. Where on earth did you find this person? I’ll bet there is a whole other ridicules story that you are not sharing.
8. I’m not an attorney, but If you made a legit payment directly to itunes you prob have no case. If you handed the guy (electronically) the pre-paid gift card, that is your fault – not pay pal’s fault, not your credit card companies fault, not itunes fault. If you paid for something and gave it away, that it your problemo.
The crooks know that no one is going to aggressively pursue a Nigerian fraud case for $180.00.
I’m not trying to be mean, I’m being hard on you for a reason: To wake you up to the risks you had clearly ignored.