I need advice from someone in Law Enforcement.?

Question

I was scammed for $20,000 by a guy who used a fake name and said he was from a company that he wasn't associated with. He had an e-mail address that looked like it came from the real company, phone number the works. I wired the money to a B of A account which he setup with a stolen ID and has since moved the funds to one of those offshore gold accounts. I even looked up his IP address from his e-mails he used something called a proxy server to make it look like he was in different cities.

My lawyer wants a fortune to go after him and doesn't think he will catch up with him. I have contacted the FBI and they don't investigate crimes this small and referred me to my local police department.

Is it worth going to my local police? I am wondering if they will investigate something like this if it involves other states and countries? Is it worth the effort and what are his likely consequences ff caught.

Any advice is greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

Go to your local police, they may or may or may not help you.

Otherwise I think your screwed and must be more vigilant to avoid this happening again.

Or if you have the money you could pay your lawyer to chase him otherwise just forget it.

Answer 2

Yes goto your local police. They can get you into touch with your state Department of Criminal Investigations (DCI). You should also look at getting into touch with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) they do a of investigations of internet based crimes.

Answer 3

Contact your counties DA office, and also your states' Attorney Generals' office.

It is always worth it. Because even if they maybe can't get your money back, it might help to stop someone else from being scammed.

Sorry for your ordeal.

Answer 4

I'd call the attorney general's office of your state if for no other reason than giving them the details of what happened to you can help them alert others to the scam.  Unfortunately, even IF you were to overcome the hurdle of identifying and locating the person (which would be very time consuming and costly and would probably be impossible), at the end of the day you'd be involved in attempting to litigate through various countries - perhaps he's a citizen of country X but sent the emails from country Y and you live in country Z - which country would have jurisdiction?  And if that's not enough, at the end of the day how would you enforce any judgment across borders?  It probably makes more sense to consider it a very expensive lesson learned.

Answer 5

go to court

Answer 6

Go to the State Police...However, how do you know he took the money to an offshore account?  This sounds very familiar to a movie plot...Anyways, its pretty much a wash, you were an idiot for investing with a guy because his e-mail address looked legit.  You're out $20,000, even if they catch the guy it would be years before you even saw a nickel of that money.

Sorry.

Answer 7

You have a very complicated situation. Your local police department can initiate a report about the case, but it is very unlikely that they will be able do much for you.

What a lot of people don't know, however, is that the United States Secret Service is the agency that specializes in "Electronic Crimes".  They may or may not be able to take your case, but it couldn't hurt to contact them for their opinion.