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View Full Version : Putting scammers away



dakkon
07-30-2011, 07:33 PM
About six years ago I was scammed by Amy and David Claxton who resided in La Porte, IN. They advertised on ebay an extensive Beta collection (power, duals, etc), and my naiveté got the best of me and they pulled off a bait and switch, sending me a pile of junk commons and I was out $10K. I reported them to ebay, consumer fraud, the police, and kept every bit of info I have on them. The Indiana Attorney General's office eventually went after them, but it was already too late. They had skipped town. As a result, the case was awarded in my favor and they have the collections agency after them. For those of you interested, I can send you a summary case report from the attorney general office saying they owe the State of Indiana about $30,000 from various scams, including ripping me off and trying to sell fake Rolexes.

I had little confidence that the Claxtons will ever be caught. They had disappeared. Enter Facebook.

I found these bastards on online (http://www.facebook.com/davidclaxton3) and it turns out they fled to Paris, Texas. I notified the collections agency and the consumer fraud department in Texas immediately, but I had little faith in "the investigation" if all I had to do to locate them was a google/facebook search.

I asked the collections agency for updates and they say they are working on the case, but the Claxtons owned no property. They are renting a place, renting a car, and is paying for everything on credit (presumably with help from family and friends). They are self employed and have no assets to seize and to collect.

From their Facebook page, you can see they were in Gencon last year and they plan on attending this year as well. In fact, they'll have a dealer's booth promoting their zombie book/game...

I have little understanding of the law. But if they show up back in Indiana to which they owe the state $30K, even if they can't pay up, I feel like they should at least be taken into custody and they should be asked to leave. I told the collections agency that the Claxtons will be in Indy for a gaming convention, and have not heard back from them. I feel like they just gave up on the case because the Claxtons know how to sidestep the law. I would appreciate any input you guys have to get the authorities involved. They should not be allowed in Gencon and something should be done to apprehend them.

At the very least, I feel like I should fb-message their parents, family, and friends, and show them the case report. Some of their "friends" were involved in the scam but I'm sure their family and newfound friends in Texas are unaware of their troubles. That way, I'm hoping whoever is supporting them financially will be aware of the fact that they are predators.

For those of you who were ripped off by Stasch/mtgchicago, what do you do when you see him at a GP or at Gencon? I feel like I'm done a similar avenue here. Thanks.

Colin

dontbiteitholmes
07-30-2011, 09:06 PM
Perhaps contact the state AG's office, see if they are still wanted for any crimes or investigations, outstanding warrants, stuff like that. It's possible the state is looking to arrest them, just between all the crimes in Indiana the white collar variety probably takes a back seek investigation wise. However if they are wanted by the state it seems likely they would send a police officer to arrest them at GenCon which would be a pretty nice ending to your story. I mean did they get charged with mail fraud?

dakkon
07-30-2011, 11:33 PM
They weren't formally charged nor arrested since they fled and now it's been years and the case is probably buried. There is a $30K judgement against them from various scams. I will contact the AG office again and hopefully they will send somebody out. It just infuriates me that I will be in the same building as these people...

KevinTrudeau
07-31-2011, 01:36 AM
They made a living stealing Magic cards, which is probably the lamest way to make money there is. That's the type of crime mostly associated with ten-twelve year olds, not grown adults. Good luck, and I hope justice gets served (Thetas style).

dontbiteitholmes
07-31-2011, 07:33 AM
If it was me the absolute least I would do is print out some fliers about how they ripped people off for Magic cards and have a collection agency trying to collect on them because of it and find their booth and distribute the fliers about 50 feet away. Then again it's 10k and I probably would have done something worse in the heat of the moment years ago.

birds of paradise2
07-31-2011, 11:09 AM
Lot's of internet tough guys in this thread. Taking the law in your own hands makes you just as bad as them.

sdematt
07-31-2011, 11:36 AM
Well, it's a matter of making back your loss. I think hurting someone isn't worth it if you're trying to get back at them. I think if someone were to want to actually get even, you need to try to break even by recovering the proceeds of crime. I mean, you're basically recovering stolen good/proceeds of crime, and not really being a tough-guy, more of a do-gooder.

-Matt

Hanni
07-31-2011, 12:09 PM
Sometimes the law just doesn't get things done. The only vengeance that's worth doing though, is recouping your $10k. I'm sure if they are going to Gencon, they plan on bringing product to sell.

Nihil Credo
07-31-2011, 12:47 PM
If you want to find a way to get your money back and/or have these people arrested and/or warn as many people as possibile to refuse business with them, feel free to discuss it here.

If you want to masturbate about assaulting people, get the fuck out of this site.

dakkon
07-31-2011, 04:07 PM
I will try to get the authorities involved at gencon but they've been less than helpful so far. Its been years already and I can wait a few more. At least right now they dont know that im onto them. Its not my intention to form a brass knuckle posse. If anyone who has been scammed and has experience with speaking with the AG office or law enforcement, please let me know. So far all i get is 'the collections agency will deal with them' and when i contact them they say they cant do anything.

RainbowPenguin
08-01-2011, 03:10 AM
From their Facebook page, you can see they were in Gencon last year and they plan on attending this year as well. In fact, they'll have a dealer's booth promoting their zombie book/game...


I'm sorry to hear that. Well, I can't help you with the legal part of the case, but if you cannot get law enforcement involved, I would urge you to contact GenCon. I can't imagine they would want know scammers setting up shop under their roof, and they likely reserve themselves the right to throw out whoever, for whatever reason.

Also, it sounds like you have a fairly sound approach to all this, but I would still caution you to not get directly involved with them yourself in any way, if they do show up. Don't think about confronting them or interacting with them in any way, just avoid them. It's been awhile, but your feelings might still get the better of you.

Christian

dontbiteitholmes
08-01-2011, 12:32 PM
Also maybe contacting the people in charge of running GenCon and letting them know that someone renting a booth at their convention has been convicted of ripping off gamers in the past and still has a sizable judgement against them because of it is a good idea. I mean I don't know if this is something that the current owners care about but I'm 99% sure in Gary Gygax was still alive and running the event he would not stand for it.

SpikeyMikey
08-01-2011, 09:41 PM
Also, I would put some pressure on the AG office. $10,000 is a sizeable judgement and if you're telling them when and where they can find the guys that skipped town on that bill and they refuse to do anything about it, I'd take it to the press. Call every paper you can think of. Even if you can't get a story in a major paper, getting it in a couple of small local papers around the area might be enough to make them a little more flexible. Especially if the AG is an elected official (like he is here in WI). He will not want to risk bad PR for being lazy.

oldbsturgeon
08-26-2011, 06:37 PM
instead of creating a new thread, I decided to use this one to share my most recent story.
Unfortunately it involves a higher end player that decided greed would take over.

I had bought an underground sea on ebay from the person that won the legacy KC tournament earlier this year,
Chris Osinski, for 69.99. After waiting a while and him stating it should be arriving soon, especially since the shipping was 7.99, it should have arrived but didn't.
So I filed a claim and got the money back today.
During this process, I found out he was suspended by the DCI for something from May until November, so maybe he got bitter about this, and chose not to send out. I really have no idea, but I did see he ripped up like 9 jaces right after he got suspended and posted on FB.
Chris if you read these forums, please know if you had just talked to me, I would have been much more understanding than I am now.
Luckily I got my money back, as I know many years ago it was not a guarantee via paypal.