Florida Police/Any police

[aju5292]

I'm Adam, 19 from Houston, love cars & got taken advantage of by by passion. Lemme start off by sayin I know in hindsight that this wasn't a very good decision ill asure all who read this I've learned my lesson. Starting in about August, maybe a lil earlier I added someone on Facebook whose name is Miguel Mazda (don't know last name, another dumb mistake) who is in the automotive business specifically Mazdas, we began to talk about my 88 Rx7 & the discussion led to parts, skip ahead I send him $630 for something called bridgeported parts, they never came. He told me he put a 1 where he needed a zero & that he'd resend em. Same convo we started talkin about whole motors, he told me he could build me a 20b motor, thus beginning the payment process where I send him a few hundred out my checks every 2 weeks. Skip ahead $3507 later, he's on his way to Houston from Miami to put in the motor & other parts, his story was he was goin to Victoria 1st to tell his fam that their uncle died & was tellin them this in person. He arrived Sunday, Mon he told me his fam was holding him up w/ this prob, said the who time he was translating english to Spanish bc they spoke no english. After that convo I couldn't reach him for a good 2 days, finally he called & assured me he was coming the next day, he didn't. He didn't call again for a while & called on a Wed, he said the same, this was the last time I heard his voice, I am in the process of finding him a gettin my money back. I wanted to be sure that this person could be put in jail & what the police, specifically in Florida, could do to help. All I have planned is to make a trip to Florida go to his address that I get from tracking his number & leave him a message tellin him I'm there, & that he can either give me my money or deal w/ the police. Id LOVE ANY advice, insight, & help please

[aju5292]

He was prob never in Texas & never bought a single part for my motor...he is starting to get more bold by updating his facebook status again, the most recent one saying how he's enjoying life in Orlando

[mcsap]

Never ever send money on line to someone you do not know and met on Facebook , CL etc. You have been officially scammed and you have no idea where he really is.

If the police in TExas would arrest him , they probably wont extradite him back for this level of offense. If he is in Florida and they were to arrest him , would you pay to fly there , stay in a hotel , rent a car and eat on YOUR DIME ?

[aju5292]

I sure would, but I'd drive

[aju5292]

So a phone #, an address from that #, an email address & a 1st name prob isn't enough to find him then or is it?

[Samuel]

Start by contacting your local PD. Then be prepared to wait and wait some more - LAW ENFORCEMENT resources are usually stretched pretty thin. As unfortunate as your situation is, it's very low in priority. Hope you learned something from all this.

[aju5292]

Yea that was the 1st thing I said & realized, & I'm sure its on the bottom of the totum pole of priority

[icu650]

Try some of the other social networks to gain information, like Myspace.

[Citicop]

How did you send the money? Did you mail a check? To what address?

[Samuel]

I italicized "law enforcement" for a reason... Check some of the other online forums, especially the car ones, to see what others have done and get an idea of what can be done in situations like yours...

[aju5292]

I sent it to an account w/ his ladys name on it