Lost lots of money...please help... :(

[BluesSinger]

On February 3 2010, I was contacted by a man named Thomas Castel from Paris, France regarding a diamond ring I had up for auction on Ebay. He offered me $6,000.00USD and asked if I would do the transaction through an online escrow company called Rollmoney-co.com. I went to the website through a google search engine as opposed to the link he provided me to make sure that this was a legit escrow company. There were no red flags whatsoever. I even received emails from the escrow company keeping me informed of the transaction process. I shipped the ring to him through FedEx Express mail on February 4 2010. I tracked the package...as did he and it arrived in Paris on February 8 2010 around 10am Paris time.I had received an email from him the night of February 7 telling me that he would email me immediately after receiving the ring...this was the very last email I received from him. He signed for it using the name Castec..not Castel as originally stated by him. I was still able to visit the RollMoney website right up until 4 days ago. I even received a number of emails from the Rollmoney site telling me that the buyer accepted the goods & that the transaction was in progress. The last email I received from the RollMoney escrow Company was on Feb. 11 2010. I emailed them COUNTLESS times and received no replies after that final email. I have saved every peice of information that I received from both the buyer and RollMoney. The emails that came in from the escrow site are FULL TRANSACTION DETAILS and I absolutely cannot believe that this is happening. When I try to go to the escrow site now...it cannot be found...and when I search for it using a Google search engine...it's listing it in a fake escrow service database. This was not showing up just mere days ago. PLEASE...if there is any way you can help me with advice or if anyone else has encountered anything that seems familiar, please let me know...I would be so very grateful. I am heartbroken and have lost money I needed for my daughter who was born a preemie. I was only selling this ring because I absolutely had to.

[lightfair]

Hello,

I'm deepy saddened to hear about this.

Most cases of escrow fraud we come across here involve a fake "seller"; and the buyer is the victim (in the sense that the buyer sends the money, but the seller and the merchandise don't even exist). Your case is what I call "reverse fake escrow": here the seller is the victim. For obvious reasons, the items in question are usually small and high-priced, like jewelry, expensive watches and similar items.

Also, in many cases the victims were in some sort of financial hardship that forced them to sell. Here are a few more stories:

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=1775
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=1695
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=1582

Now, about rollmoney-co.com: The site was added to our database on February 13th; I believe it was first posted on another forum. This site is part of a longer run of similar sites (in fact I also added a "sister site" to the database the same day: http://insuranceexpert-s.com - but it's also gone now).

Please have a look here: http://escrow-fraud.com/index.php?page= ... layout=192

As you can see there have been numerous similar or identical sites before. This is NOT just a single scammer; this is organized crime, most likely from Romania. You need to go to the police; you need to tell them everything (including the things you've read here). I'm afraid there is little more we can do at the moment; but one of the other regulars might have additional information.

Once again: You need to file a police report right away!

[BluesSinger]

Should I file a report with my local police being that it's an international problem? I already filed a complaint through the FBI site with the internet crime complaint center. What should I do??

[peg]

I would still go through the motions of filing a report with your local law enforcement. At the very least it's proof of your complaint that could be used as "Proof" because (and I know it's little consolation) you can claim the loss on your taxes.

Also the more people that actually file complaints the more visibility that this issue receives.