I've been delaying posting anything here, since I'd been holding out hope my issue would be easily resolved through my bank's fraud claims department, and with cooperation from the board seller. I also don't really like drama. As is, the seller has gone completely silent over the past 2-3 weeks, ignoring both my emails and direct correspondence from my bank. For now, I am choosing not to out this seller, however if I see he posts anything new for sale, that will probably change.
Here's a quick summary.
Oct 2013- I bought an item from him off BST. Seller requests check or MO. I mail check.
Nov 2013- seller says check has not arrived. Rather than send another check, I pay via Paypal and ask that he void/destroy the check if it arrives.
Nov 2013- I receive the item
Dec 2014- 14 months after the "lost check" is written, it is cashed or deposited.
Immediately after discovering this transaction has gone through, I contacted my bank and the seller. He responded 4-5 times to my initial email, claiming not to have known anything about the check, claiming to be totally trustworthy... however saying he was not at all surprised this had happened, saying his actual sig would not look like the one on the back of the check (no one had even told him the check had been endorsed), and that it was completely my responsibility for not "cancelling" the check.
His responses were strange to me, especially his not being surprised. I know if I had sold a large dollar item, I'd very surprised and worried that someone had ended up with my mail and cashed a check in my name over a year later. Being innocent, I'd go out of my way to cooperate. I was also annoyed by his pushing any/all responsibility on to me, since he'd requested payment by check and since my bank Wells Fargo doesn't really allow me to cancel checks. You pay $32 for a 6 month renewable hold, but it does not actually cancel the check. I've also since learned (and was surprised) checks do not technically expire over time. Some banks may choose not to accept checks that are 6 months old as being "stale", however it seems many, if not most will accept years old checks indefinitely. In this case, Citizen's Bank happily accepted a 14 month old check without question. After the 6 month, $32 hold expires, you owe another $32 if you want the hold to continue for 6 more months, and this can go on forever. It would have cost $96 to protect myself for the 14 months. Knowing what I know now, I will probably never again consider a seller (BST or AH) that requests a check in lieu of an instant Paypal, Wire or CC payment.
My honest, initial reaction to all this was that it seemed far far more likely that the payee/seller was involved, since he has access to his own bank cards, IDs, account numbers... whereas if a random person had received this check, they'd likely need to falsify and/or steal all that info. That said, I tried to consider the possibility he was not involved, and if he were to have shown good communication/cooperation, it would have probably made me give him benefit of the doubt.
Since those initial 4-5 emails however, I think he's responded to 1 or 2 of my 10+ emails and been silent for nearly 3 weeks. With that, I've become fairly certain he's involved given how uncooperative and plain shady he's been--- ex: I sent him an affidavit for check fraud that he needed to sign and mail in. I sent the form with a pre-addressed and stamped evenlope so it would be easy, but he told me his lawyer and a Wells banker had told him this form should never have been sent to him, and that the bank took it from him and "destroyed" it! WTF?!?!?
My bank's fraud investigator said a branch teller should have never said or done anything like this and asked me to get the branch's location from him. He did not respond to that question, nor has he responded since. This was 3 weeks ago. My bank has since sent him the same form directly, but as far as I can tell he's ignoring the process.
I don't want to get into much more detail, including steps I'm currently and will be taking, as this process is ongoing... however I want to get others' feedback, mainly- would you think the seller is likely involved... and has anyone experienced a similar form of theft and/or fraud, if so, how did it turn out? I don't want to broadcast too much to this guy, so if there are any specific tactics you think I should take, etc, feel free to email me directly at
itjclarke@yahoo.com
In posting, I would also like to compel this seller to do what he should be doing here and actually respond and do what the bank is asking. His silence is definitely not the way to earn benefit of the doubt IMO.