What would you do if you knew someone was scamming?

1. 80

   sunstreeksposted 15 years ago

   I found this guys website(don't worry not a hubber) from a post made by one of his aliases. I went to the website, read his sob story of redemption and almost felt have bad.
   
   Then I was just reading at a few webmaster forums tonight and something stunk.. I realized that the guy who owned the sob story website and the first alias were the same person, then I looked closer and came across other different alias. I have 5 counted right now.. He is easy to spot because he never dots his i's and always puts punctuation a space after like this
   
   this guy , thinks he is so cool !
   
   Under normal circumstances I wouldn't even care and would move on. But here is what I'm seeing
   
   his sob story website is convincing enough that people are feeling bad and donating to him. Because of paid links he is featured on front page of some of the BIG blogs. In fact, one of the most well known.
   
   one of his alias owns a shady looking poorly structured credit card processing website..
   
   other of his alias ask how to get e-gold fast with out cc verification. Then another alias comes on and says "do it here and provides websites."
   
   his alias promote each other and you would think people would catch on but I have only seen one mention of it and it was just that the person realized the guy was self promoting.
   
   His website mentions that his living situation now stems from being a hacker in the past (some of you may know who I'm talking about now.) He claims he can't do hacks now.
   
   but his other alias appear to know about hacking.
   
   So.. What would you do.. I do not want to get myself in any trouble by posting his actual screen names anywhere. And I really don't want him to know that I have all this info (I've done some documenting) because I really do think he knows a lot about hacking.
   
   is there somewhere specific to report this kind of thing? What would you do?

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2. 59

   Mark Knowlesposted 15 years ago

   Write a hub about him.
   
   I don't see how you can get in trouble by pointing these things out and calling him on it publicly.

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3. 71

   Inspirepubposted 15 years ago

   Report him to PayPal - what he is doing is fraud, which is against PayPal's TOS.

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4. 60

   Eric Graudinsposted 15 years ago

   Digital Point forums have a well trafficed legal issues forum where things like this are discussed.
   http://forums.digitalpoint.com/forumdisplay.php?f=44
   
   Posting some information and links there could produce some worthwile suggestions
   
   This thread may also make interesting reading for you.
   http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=601812
   
   Also, write about him to the owner of the "big blogs".
   they'd probably be keen to generate some controversy.

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5. 80

   sunstreeksposted 15 years ago

   Thank you guys for your responses. I discussed this with my mom and she thinks I should contact the FBI. Yes it is that serious if he is truly doing what I think he is with some of his other websites. I do not want to make any claims to anything until I can gather more info and have it be presentable so that nothing is missed(he gets around). Having one of his alias post in a message board that he has a way that he can get passwords for paypal and steals from them all the time just because he can is not "proof" that he can actually do it "though I really do think he can"
   
   With the same note, I feel like only contacting the FBI would not be enough. The FBI would shut his sites down but they would probably not make this fraud public. What about the people he cheated? If I do find a safe way to create attention from him then those that he is scamming maybe able to protect themselves and if he really is scamming paypal, maybe they could get their money back. It is also, not just Paypal that I think he is scamming with. I'm pretty sure he's got his hands in E-gold using it maliciously and I know that he has tried to sell websites for $1000's with forged pank rank and stats.
   
   Inspire: This goes much further than just paypal fraud. I want to report everything at once. But yes, I will be talking to paypal soon.
   
   Mark, I worry about publicly outing him because I do believe he knows a great deal about hacking and I don't want to draw attention to myself. But I feel people should know so somehow I'm going to do this. With that said writing a hub of this nature that is making such claims about a person may not be in the best interest of Hubpages.. If the hub team gives me the OK I will do it, they can review my hub first, view my reserach and give the approval if they wish. I would not put ANYTHING in that I could not support with evidence. I will NOT make claims that I can't back up but I think that with the evidence I have, people will easily spot what's going on and make that assumptions themselves.
   
   I looked to Squidoo first because I felt Hubpages wasn't the right place but they do not allow this sort of thing either.
   
   There is so much more to this story as I am unraveling it.. I have been able to match up IP addresses with his websites. The sob story one is in complete contradiction to one of his message boards. The message board (his administrator alias appears to be a "great person") one promotes another website he owns that I believe is shady. Another message board he owns is in the blackhat niche. 
   
   Thank you Eric Graudins for those links I read a few of the posts and I definetly think I maybe able to get some help here through the posts. Because Digital Point is the main webmasters forum he uses, I do not feel I could post there yet without him seeing. What really gets me is that Digital Point has banned some of his previous alias, yet he continues to post under others. Unless he is using an anonymous proxy they should be banning his IP altogether. I am looking today to see if I can search up why he was banned and if there was a public problem.
   
   I do not want to spook this guy until I can put everything together and then report him but to the community and possibly to the authorities.
   
   I am also keeping this story here and asking for your guys help because I do not believe he has any idea about Hubpages. 
   
   Stephanie

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6. 80

   sunstreeksposted 15 years ago

   Oh ya, and as far as telling the owners of the big blogs, One in particular is way to self absorbed and selfish to handle this. He would take this information and make it his own and because he has one of the most popular blogs people would think he made it.
   
   I do not have a problem letting another big blog report the story, in fact that would be the fastest way to generate attention. But I am not going to let it be some weasel who is only out for himself. hell I should make him a offer.. I'll write a complete report on something his readers would love to see, he can take ownership rights and in return provide compensation.. He charges people hundreds to write reviews about their websites or products.. wouldn't it be just the same but switched

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7. 69

   dobsc400posted 15 years ago

   Who are you talking about?

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