Vegas Smith
20+ Year Contributor
- 5,190
- 3,106
- Dec 2, 2002
-
Houston,
Texas
I got even with a scammer after 18 years
In 2003 I was right out of school driving around my first car that my big brother gave me. It was a 91 laser with some Dejon Tool mods. It was pretty damn fast but the 14b went out on me after a year. I bought a 16g off of DSMTrader.com for $400. Back then dsmtrader was like a national craig's list for dsm parts and was very popular. There wasn't PayPal or cash apps back then so the only way I knew how to pay for stuff was a money order.
I sent the guy $400 for it (crazy how 16gs are still the same price after 20 years) and long story short he gave me the run-around saying he never got it. After a bunch of emails, he just stopped responding. That was all the money I had at the time and now I had nothing but a broken-down car. I contacted the police station in his area and they told me there was nothing they could do. I'd have to sue him in civil court. I lived a couple thousand miles away and that wasn't happening.
Fast forward to 2021 and my mom texted me that she had a bunch of old documents in a filing cabinet, and she mentioned all the copies we made of turbo incident. She sent them over and there was his name and address back in 2003. I wound up doing a Google search and found the guy's job which was a martial arts gym. Lo and behold it was located 5 minutes from the guy's old address in 2003. He also had a very specific Japanese name. It was one I've never come across since then so I was certain I found him. I thought about calling his work and outing him etc etc but it just wasn't worth the negative energy. I can be f***in petty, and I can hold grudges but at this point in my life I just don't care as much. I looked the guy up on Facebook and there he was with martial arts gym pics etc. It was him.
I messaged him, as shown in the pics, and tricked him into thinking I was an old friend. He admitted he was an old DSMer and that's when I hit em with the info. He tried to act like he sent the money back blah blah but he didn't. I had the money order company confirm that he cashed the money order to his account. If he did send it back, why didn't he ever tell me? On top of that, he was scamming a lot of people. Every week some new person would post on dsmtrader about getting scammed by him. He'd change a letter in his name for every new scam. I must have seen 5 or 6 people get scammed. All 16gs he claimed to be selling.
He surprisingly wanted to refund me and did eventually. He sent the money back in the 5 payments over 2 months or so. I'm pretty sure he's broke but honestly it seemed like it might be cathartic for the guy. I really think he felt ashamed for what he did based on our later conversations which I won't post. All-in-all the guy made things right and I bought some nice shiny pieces for the Talon with the money he sent back. It took 18 years but at least I got my money back.
In 2003 I was right out of school driving around my first car that my big brother gave me. It was a 91 laser with some Dejon Tool mods. It was pretty damn fast but the 14b went out on me after a year. I bought a 16g off of DSMTrader.com for $400. Back then dsmtrader was like a national craig's list for dsm parts and was very popular. There wasn't PayPal or cash apps back then so the only way I knew how to pay for stuff was a money order.
I sent the guy $400 for it (crazy how 16gs are still the same price after 20 years) and long story short he gave me the run-around saying he never got it. After a bunch of emails, he just stopped responding. That was all the money I had at the time and now I had nothing but a broken-down car. I contacted the police station in his area and they told me there was nothing they could do. I'd have to sue him in civil court. I lived a couple thousand miles away and that wasn't happening.
Fast forward to 2021 and my mom texted me that she had a bunch of old documents in a filing cabinet, and she mentioned all the copies we made of turbo incident. She sent them over and there was his name and address back in 2003. I wound up doing a Google search and found the guy's job which was a martial arts gym. Lo and behold it was located 5 minutes from the guy's old address in 2003. He also had a very specific Japanese name. It was one I've never come across since then so I was certain I found him. I thought about calling his work and outing him etc etc but it just wasn't worth the negative energy. I can be f***in petty, and I can hold grudges but at this point in my life I just don't care as much. I looked the guy up on Facebook and there he was with martial arts gym pics etc. It was him.
I messaged him, as shown in the pics, and tricked him into thinking I was an old friend. He admitted he was an old DSMer and that's when I hit em with the info. He tried to act like he sent the money back blah blah but he didn't. I had the money order company confirm that he cashed the money order to his account. If he did send it back, why didn't he ever tell me? On top of that, he was scamming a lot of people. Every week some new person would post on dsmtrader about getting scammed by him. He'd change a letter in his name for every new scam. I must have seen 5 or 6 people get scammed. All 16gs he claimed to be selling.
He surprisingly wanted to refund me and did eventually. He sent the money back in the 5 payments over 2 months or so. I'm pretty sure he's broke but honestly it seemed like it might be cathartic for the guy. I really think he felt ashamed for what he did based on our later conversations which I won't post. All-in-all the guy made things right and I bought some nice shiny pieces for the Talon with the money he sent back. It took 18 years but at least I got my money back.
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