SVTP LEO's catch an internet scammer! Link inside...

martyo said:
Can someone give me the Cliff Notes version? I have to work for a living and if I read all that I would feel obligated to bill someone.
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Here you go Martin:

To Whom It May Concern:

My name is Travis Hill. I am the owner of an automotive enthusiast’s webforum called SVTPerformance (www.svtperformance.com). Recently one of our members, Steve Prusak (“sprusak1”) a police officer from KY, was taken advantage of by an online scam artists. In his search for relief he sought help in a forum on our site that is dedicated to helping people with minor legal problems. Many of the posters in this forum are law enforcement officers (“LEOs”), and they attempt to help the other members as much as possible.

So when the victim posted his problem, along with what little information he had about the scammer, other LEOs were quick to help. In short order members had found the scammer’s name, address, telephone number, date of birth, driver’s license number, social security number, and pictures of him. Some members even drove by his house to take pictures of it and his car. It was also discovered that there is a warrant issued for his arrest (in his home state of NJ) and it appears a local police officer lives on the same street as him. The local police have been made aware of his activities as it appears that he has scammed others recently as well.

Other members also found the scammer’s MySpace page and sent him messages along with a link to the thread discussing his alleged crimes. The scammer then joined our site and posted what amounts to an admission of guilt. He eventually begged the person he scammed to call off the other members and ask them to stop posting his information. However, new information is still being discovered and updates are continuously being made.

Since then the link to this thread has spread to hundreds of other forums across the internet and it is quickly becoming an online phenomenon. People are basically tired of seeing online scam artists take advantage of others and this thread seems to give them a sense of justice being served. I am proud and honored to see the online community come together in a common pursuit of justice. In this situation the predator truly has become the prey.

I suggest you read through the thread for yourselves. It has been growing quite rapidly and is becoming longer by the minute. In less than four days this story has been viewed over 46,000 times as of 11:00am EST. If you have any questions I would be more than happy to answer them or provide any further information I can.
 
heh its over 140K and 53 pages now,
and new from the front is this:

EVERYONE GO AND REGISTER ON DIGG.COM AND GIVE "dig", or thumb up review to the "scammed in NJ thread", we need A LOT of exposure to make it to the front page, ONCE IT DOES, THIS THREAD AND THE SITE, TOGETHER WITH ITS MEMBERS WILL GO DOWN IN HISTORY AS THE GREATEST PWNAGE EVER. It takes a min to register.:thumbsup:

Linky.

http://digg.com/comedy/Don_t_Screw_Over_Someone_on_a_Car_Forum
 
SID210SA said:
Here you go:

I would be more than happy to answer them or provide any further information I can.
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Congratulations to you and the members of the SVT website for a job well done, Sid. :trophy1::trophy1::trophy1:

I'd also like to take this opportunity to congratulate you on your moderation style and patience in dealing with such a large and active group, and maintaining civility among such diverse membership. In that respect, our two websites share the same exclusivity, due in part, I think, to the rarity and value of the cars, which, in my opinion draw the very best in the enthusiast community.

In other words, for you folks in Rio Linda, we don't got no ricers to deal with.:D
 
Feeding Frenzy

Pretty disturbing. Someone makes what appears to be an unsubstansiated allegation , not to the police, but to a bunch of guys on line. Frightening to think that the so called LEOs took matters into their own hands, and how about the "mob mentality"? The posts were vicious. We're talking about some guy who may not have used the best judgement in choosing where to purchase cell phones. At the risk of sounding sexist...... what we have here is a little too much testosterone and not enough common sense. Hoping never to see anything remotely like this lynch mob on this forum.:mad2:
 
miss denmark said:
Pretty disturbing. Someone makes what appears to be an unsubstansiated allegation , not to the police, but to a bunch of guys on line. Frightening to think that the so called LEOs took matters into their own hands, and how about the "mob mentality"? The posts were vicious. We're talking about some guy who may not have used the best judgement in choosing where to purchase cell phones. At the risk of sounding sexist...... what we have here is a little too much testosterone and not enough common sense. Hoping never to see anything remotely like this lynch mob on this forum.:mad2:
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How is this disturbing? Had the same thing happened to you, you would blame the police for not protecting you from the scammers. There was no Mob Mentality involved, just LEO's helping a fellow LEO who was scammed. They took a little priority over the situation because the victim is a LEO. A case that would normally sit on a desk for a week or two was picked up and taken care of right away. But, I guess you would reply and say that you would not do business on the internet in fear of situations like this.

A kid tried to scam a cop, he got caught, and is now facing the music for doing so. :argue:
 
Drewstang said:
How is this disturbing? Had the same thing happened to you, you would blame the police for not protecting you from the scammers. There was no Mob Mentality involved, just LEO's helping a fellow LEO who was scammed. They took a little priority over the situation because the victim is a LEO. A case that would normally sit on a desk for a week or two was picked up and taken care of right away. But, I guess you would reply and say that you would not do business on the internet in fear of situations like this.

A kid tried to scam a cop, he got caught, and is now facing the music for doing so. :argue:
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Respectfully have to disagree. Wouldn't blame anyone but myself for being naive/stupid/and or greedy. As for the mob mentality, the posts speak for themselves. Rather see it sit on a desk a couple of weeks. Not exactly an emergency.:wflag::wflag:
 
Drewstang said:
How is this disturbing? Had the same thing happened to you, you would blame the police for not protecting you from the scammers. There was no Mob Mentality involved, just LEO's helping a fellow LEO who was scammed. They took a little priority over the situation because the victim is a LEO. A case that would normally sit on a desk for a week or two was picked up and taken care of right away. But, I guess you would reply and say that you would not do business on the internet in fear of situations like this.

A kid tried to scam a cop, he got caught, and is now facing the music for doing so. :argue:
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OK, you're right this was about a couple LEOs helping out a brother, and in the beginning it was just a handful of cops, if that, giving a hand to a fellow LEO who'd just complained about being ripped off, which most all of us would have done at that point. And that in itself is a great thing.

But now, its going overboard. 99% of the people on there are just guy's who've jumped on the bandwagon, and its all of them who are becoming a mob. Not only that, I'm starting to think they've been going after the wrong home. Not all of the information fits together, and if something starts, someone innocent of this whole thing might get hurt.

P.S. What is with the Schwarzenegger obsession over there?
 
Now we must register to view the thread?

What the heck ever happend.

Was there a darn ending to this.
 
Shora said:
Now we must register to view the thread?

What the heck ever happend.

Was there a darn ending to this.
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Shora,

78 pages of drama, increasing number of deleted quotes by the moderator, thread was locked and closed at 10:35 last night. Bottom line: nothing resolved.

SCCH
 
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