Because I'm sure /biz/ has plenty of experience on dealing with these kind of things, I was hoping I could get some advice to make this situation go over as smoothly as possible.
Splitting into multiple posts because I'm not good at paraphrasing
The situation:
>Looking into getting a parrot for companionship
>After a while a Craigslist ad is posted that's a guy in a different state trying to quickly rehome a parrot (Claims he's moving countries and needs a home for him)
>$350 rehoming fee + $100 if he has to be shipped, not a 'too-good-to-be-true' price but rather a pretty typical one from what I've seen
>Talk to the guy, he seems on the up and up
>I get pictures proving existence of said bird
>End up sending a deposit of $150 over Western Union as a deposit (Seemed reasonable, as I had to wait for some supplies to arrive and the bird would need a vet checkup and a ticket to fly)
>Meanwhile I verified several things about him, like found forum posts about mundane things from his e-mail address (all in Greek), checked his address on Google Maps and used street-view to see that the colors of the walls, blinds, and even the chair the bird was perched on were visible through street-view
>Also the town he lived in had ~500 people for what it's worth
>Once everything's ready, I sent the remaining $300 and he said he'd bring the bird to the airport in the morning
>Next morning get an e-mail from a bogus courier service claiming I need to send them $2100 as a "refundable pet insurance fee required by US law" before shipping the bird
>Immediately realize this shit is a straight up scam, especially since live birds can only be shipped through the big airline companies
>Said US law doesn't exist, company's phone number was a Texas area code while they claimed to be based in Minnesota
>Talk with them on the phone and play dumb, they can't even get a decent phone connection to talk but when questioned claimed they had their own airline service (Which is not shown with any FAA registration)
>They send me payment info to wire money through Western Union to someone, who's apartment complex I located again through Google Maps (I understand why people get paranoid about this stuff now)
>File a fraud report with Western Union, and get a police report number so I can check on the status of what's going on
So, I've already accepted I won't get my money back, but I have a raging justice boner right now because the scammer doesn't realize I'm onto him.
Some additional considerations:
>He knows my name, address, phone number, and e-mail
>I have 3 names and addresses of people involved in this who have or intend to pick up money from Western Union, which means they have a (likely fake) government-issued ID
>Either him or the bogus company is expecting another payment from me through Western Union, and they're unaware that I've caught on as I'm still playing the unaware victim act while leading them around by the nose
>Devilish idea that I could talk to the local PD to see if an officer would like to hang around the place the scammer made the previous pickups and me give him a bogus tracking number
>There is a slight/maybe/probably not chance that the guy is getting played by the courier company as well, but I highly, HIGHLY doubt it
Any other ideas to go about handling this? Going for Lawful Neutral here, I want to make this not worth it for him.
>>1267797
U will never catch him all the info u have is useless and he is laughing at u right now sorry m8
>>1267801
I figured it's mostly useless, but the fact that he's still expecting a payment to be picked up a Western Union location in his city feels like something I can work with,
>>1267797
>>I have 3 names and addresses of people involved in this who have or intend to pick up money from Western Union, which means they have a (likely fake) government-issued ID
Western Union doesn't require any ID, it just requires reciver name and question-answer you dummie.
Why the fuck did you send almost $500 to this guy, jesus christ.
>>1267807
>Western Union doesn't require any ID
What? Hell when one of the transfers failed I had to present my driver's license to pick up my refund and it even says it on their site as a requirement for pickup
>>1267797
You're fucked and they're not going to catch him. When I was a teenager I would make threads on topix saying I would ship people heroin if they sent money to my paypal. I made about 5 grand before paypal shut down my account. Nothing ever happened even though I used my personal information for everything.
>>1267877
To add onto that, western union is much easier to scam people with. He probably used a fake id. You're fucked, it's not big enough for the police to care.
>>1267794
> Getting a pet bird ever
I didn't even read your whole thing, but let me tell you something. I used to work in a petstore. A bird is the single worst pet that you can buy. It's a ton of problems, and birds can live 30 - 80 years.
I could go on, but just Google: why you shouldn't get a bird as a pet.
If you go on a pet rescue site, or bird rescue, you will find hundreds of parrots people are trying to give away. Birds they paid $1,000 for in some cases.
>>1268023
I've done lots of research on the matter, and I really think it's something I want.
Only problem is I live in a small town, and the closest 'local breeder' is a 13 hour drive away
>Looking into getting a parrot for companionship
stopped reading there
kill yourself faggot
>>1267820
He's dumb. WU requires ID for ALL pickups.
Hey man I can help you! Just PayPal [email protected] some money and all your troubles will go away no problem
>>1268099
Sent ;-)
http://www.419eater.com/
This site will teach you all about scambaiting. It's quite entertaining stuff.
You lost your money and you will never serve "justice" to that guy not to mention that you are retarded for paying upfront based on shady story and few pictures you could probably find on google.
The guy probably either used a crackhead address and account or fake docs, proxy for internet connection and probably called you using hiding measures as well. Noone will also expect any kind of payment because you were baited by pro who probably scams a lot of people.
>>1268108
Now that's a good read, and it's giving me some ideas
>>1268144
If it's any consolation, I got him to take time-stamped pictures that weren't found with any reverse image search. For picking up the Western Union transfers though, wouldn't he (Or at least a proxy) have to pick it up in the state I sent the transfer too?
