Interesting read of a card scammer
Pittfan
Posts: 476
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Pittfan
Posts: 476
Pittfan
Posts: 476
Comments
Mark
Raw: Tony Gonzalez (low #'d cards, and especially 1/1's) and Steve Young.
Too bad this didn't get national news coverage...then it might have been worth the dollar spent.
What the lady did was totally wrong and she should be punished for it. However, spending this type of money for a non-violent crime when our prisons are overcrowded seems more like punishment to us.
Mark
Raw: Tony Gonzalez (low #'d cards, and especially 1/1's) and Steve Young.
It's not like this snippet in the back of a local newspaper is gonna put the fear of the big guy upstairs in the rest of the ebay scammers. The only way that'll happen is if they start a task force and do a big sweep of all the ebay scammers for a year or two.
Woman sentenced in baseball, football card scams
By Aaron Lee
alee@newsadvance.com
August 8, 2007
An Evington woman who scammed sports memorabilia collectors out of roughly $3,000 was sentenced Tuesday to four years in prison.
Authorities said Rachel Ann Trent, 30, put baseball and football cards up for bid on online auction giant eBay - saying they were rare. But when the cards were purchased, Trent would send the buyer a worthless or different card in its place - or sometimes no card at all - authorities said.
The Central Virginia Computer Crimes Task Force - a program run by local, state and federal agencies - arrested Trent after receiving complaints about the scam from victims in Virginia, Ohio and Pennsylvania.
Judge Samuel Johnson accepted Trent's plea in Campbell County Circuit Court on Tuesday.
Trent pleaded guilty in 2005 to running a similar scam and was sentenced to one year and three months in prison.
Trent was on probation when she was arrested in March for the most recent scams.
<< <i>Crazy part is they likely spent $5-6,000 to prosecute her and investigate the case, and will spend around $100,000 plus to keep her in jail. Not sure it is even wise to go after the small fish when the pond is full of big fish.
Too bad this didn't get national news coverage...then it might have been worth the dollar spent.
What the lady did was totally wrong and she should be punished for it. However, spending this type of money for a non-violent crime when our prisons are overcrowded seems more like punishment to us.
Mark >>
This post is one of the most bizarre things I have ever read.
<< <i>What the lady did was totally wrong and she should be punished for it. However, spending this type of money for a non-violent crime when our prisons are overcrowded seems more like punishment to us. >>
So, do you give a pass to all the small-time crooks then?
WTB: 2001 Leaf Rookies & Stars Longevity: Ryan Jensen #/25
Fine her the amount of her prison stay, the court costs, and reimburse the ones she screwed over.
I guess you either do not read much or do not understand our prison system problems (funding, lack of space).
"So, do you give a pass to all the small-time crooks then?"
No, and don't ignore the part where I said she should be punished. I would rather see her get more in the line of what CDsNuts suggested, heavy fines and probation. Or perhaps send her to a work release prison, where the inmates have to work and pay for the right to be there. Maybe, give her a home bracelet and lock her in her house. There are other options then what was given.
We have a prison overcrowding problems, and we do not have the jail cells to lock up everyone committing crimes. Sending her to jail might let some violent crime offender out of jail. I don't know about other states but here in Kansas the top 10 most wanted are almost never violent crimes.
An option to fix this might be to raise taxes and build more prisons....anyone for more taxes? We tried that here but everyone was like, no more taxes and not in my neighborhood. Until there is some solution with crowded jails, I would rather see violent crime offenders locked up then non-violent.
The questions here is, would you rather see her locked up or a violent crime person, and is this a good use of $100,000?
Mind you, her sentence is not that much lighter then if she had killed someone (~6 years). So yes, I do think the verdict was harsh.
Mark
Raw: Tony Gonzalez (low #'d cards, and especially 1/1's) and Steve Young.
I had taken action myself and did the samething 8 years ago who scammed me out of $3500. filed small claims court, I won and guy never coughed up the money, and next thing you know 6 years later trys and contact me asking me to remove the small claims court order, his credit has been flagged and can't buy a house. He was getting married,
now he's broke and has no wife or a life...
That scumbag got lucky, he should have went to prison.
"spending this type of money for a non-violent crime when our prisons are overcrowded seems more like punishment to us."
I agree - they should've cut off one of her hands the first time, and the other hand the second time she was convicted.
THAT would be an example to others....