Do not pay the person. Paying is an admission of guilt and if you do, it can be used against you in a court of law. Police are known to lie to get convicts and the detective already lied about the FBI so if you pay $165 then you might be in more trouble by doing so. The detective called you instead of going to your home and bringing you to the police office for questioning so that could mean he doubts you are guilty.
Also PayPal always claims to offer buyers complete protection so it's possible the buyer got the money from paypal and if not then that's PayPal frauding the buyer through false advertising -- make sure the detective knows both of these things.
Call the police department, not the detective if it's some private detective or ⊗⊗⊗⊗, and try to contact the department or detective through it. If the detective does not exist, then inform them of the ⊗⊗⊗⊗ detective as it could even be some debt collector posing as a detective. Else contact the detective. Either way, explain your story and how the buyer scammed you, even if no proof, give your story and try to get the detective to investigate the buyer. It's possible the buyer scammed others and try to persuade the detective to investigate the buyer.
Buyer paid paypal, then said don't ship to my confirmed address but elsewhere.
You did so and have tracking.
Buyer filed fraudulent paypal dispute.
Buyer filed fraudulent police report, which is probably a felony or some such.
At the very least the buyer can go to jail for the fraudulent police report or get probation at the very least. Also, the police can get the details of who owns the address you shipped to even if it's a PO Box as long as it is in the USA and see if it does in fact belong to the buyer as if so that is evidence.
Last edited by Jonas; 08-07-2008 at 08:21 PM.
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