eBay scammer gets pwn3d!

[Ponch ®]

One happy camper
Naperville woman crosses country to settle score with con artist

November 2, 2006
By BILL BIRDstaff writer

Say you decide to try your luck selling your family's outdoor camper on a world-renowned Internet auction site, only to have a con man make off with it while sticking you with a rubber check for $10,500.

You could do as local law enforcement officials advise you to do, which is to get all your paperwork in order, file a formal complaint with the Illinois attorney general's office and prepare for perhaps years of litigation that might or might not get you restitution.

When Naperville resident Connie Lang didn't get the $10,500 she was owed by a New Mexico man who bought her camper, she took matters into her own hands. She flew to the buyer's home town and convinced him to pay up.

Or you could work up a lather of righteous indignation, do some amateur detective work, cash in your frequent-flier miles, jet off to the grifter's home in New Mexico and then humiliate him in front of his daughter and bank loan officer, getting all your money back plus another $100 for your aggravation.

Naperville resident Connie Lang opted for the road less traveled. She came home with financial justice and a pretty good story to boot.

Quick turnaround

"Who would expect a suburban housewife to fly all that way?" Lang asked. "Some people have told me I'm crazy, but within 24 hours of going, I had my check back."

Lang does not suffer fools gladly. And her nemesis, a middle-age husband and father from Albuquerque, might have thought twice about tangling with her had he known that.

Lang was in the news locally in January 2005. That was when authorities charged a Lisle man with trying to run over her with his car as she did volunteer traffic control work outside Kennedy Junior High School in Lisle.

A jury earlier this year declared the motorist innocent of a charge of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon but convicted him of reckless driving.

Lang's latest adventure began June 21, when she listed her family's 28-foot-long Aruba camper for sale on eBay. "This was my first selling experience," she said.

Within an hour, Lang received an e-mail from a man expressing interest in the camper, which she had priced at $11,500. (Because no criminal charges were filed in the case, The Sun is referring to the man only by his first name, Ken.)

"He just asked me a million questions and said he was very interested in buying it," Lang said of Ken. He opted to end the auction and close the sale using a special eBay feature.

Ken later that week mailed Lang a $500 deposit. Lang said she was wary of accepting his personal check as partial payment, although her anxiety eased after the check quickly cleared.

Lang later listened by phone as Ken lamented his trouble traveling to Illinois to pick up the camper. "I felt bad for him" and even went so far as to shave $500 from the final cost of the transaction, she said.

Ken promptly mailed her a second personal check for $10,500, He then sent a driver in mid-July to the Lang family's summer home in Sandwich to claim the camper, a visit Lang had not been expecting so soon.

"I called and he said, 'Oh, I forgot to call you, I'm sorry,'" Lang said. Still, Lang ultimately released the camper - and its title - to the driver.

"Two weeks after that, we found out from our bank that the check (for $10,500) had bounced."

Lang said Ken then gave her weeks' worth of run-around. He claimed there were problems with his bank, where he had both personal and business accounts, and assured her a certified check for the full amount would be in the mail to her shortly.

The last straw

"In the meantime, he's calling me from the Grand Canyon" and other Southwest locales where he, his wife and their children were vacationing, Lang said. "They went on and on about how much they loved the camper."

Her patience at last exhausted, Lang turned to Naperville police. She said an officer advised her to contact the Illinois attorney general's office to pursue a fraud case against Ken.

"In my mind I'm thinking, it'll be years before I get my money back," Lang said. "So at that point I thought, if I want to get my money, I'm going to have to physically go and get it."

Lang said she gave Ken his last chance in mid-August, when she called him to ask about the promised certified check. "And he changes his story again," saying he was now in the process of buying a new home and promising to mail her the payment using part of his bank loan, she said.

Ken obligingly mentioned the name of his bank, which has several branches in Albuquerque. Lang later managed to determine which branch was involved in the home loan and the day and time Ken would be there for the closing.

With little time to spare, Lang said she contacted her airline, used all her frequent-flier miles and bought a ticket to Albuquerque. She arrived Aug. 14, the day before the closing.

After renting a car and a motel room, Lang said she discovered Ken had given her a phony home address. She rectified that situation with a call to 411.

"I drove up and sure enough, there is my camper, right in front of his house," Lang said. "And within five minutes, his garage door opens and here he comes, (to pack) boxes inside the camper."

Lang, Connie Lang

Lang returned to her motel, rising the next morning an hour before the loan closing. She staked out the bank branch, awaiting Ken's arrival.

"I waited until 9:05 (a.m.) and there, walking directly between my car and the car parked next to me, came Ken," with his 5-year-old daughter in tow, she said. "That's when I knew I was going to get my money."

Lang said she followed Ken and the girl into the bank and took a seat near them in the waiting area. Because she and Ken had never met, Lang said she was able to strike up a conversation with his daughter, "and I asked her all sorts of personal questions" about her and her family.

A loan officer soon came to the waiting area, calling Ken's name and allowing Lang to move in for the kill.

"I stood up and I said, 'Ken, I've been dying to meet you. I'm Connie Lang.'"

"He was very visibly upset," Lang said. "He turned all red and his jaw started to shake and he just said, 'Oh. You came here?'"

Lang's reply was both honest and disingenuously sweet. "I said, 'Well, we've been having so many problems with the check that I decided that I'd come in person.'"

Lang said she isn't sure whether the loan officer was oblivious to Ken's prior deception or sensed something might be amiss. In any event, the officer asked Ken "if this means you want two checks instead of one," Lang said.

"He said, 'No, I just want one.' So I bent down to the little girl and said, 'Tell your dad he wants two checks, because he doesn't want any more problems.'"

The bank officer then drafted separate checks - one for $15,000 for Ken's loan and the other for $10,500. "And I said, "No, make it for $10,600, for my trouble.'"

Ken at first tried to leave the bank with both checks, claiming he had to get a pen from his car to endorse Lang's payment. Lang whipped out a pen of her own "and he signed the check with my pen in front of me and the loan officer," she said.

Newfound currency

Bank officials, when contacted Wednesday by phone, would not discuss the matter, although the loan officer confirmed Lang had been there that morning with Ken.

Mission accomplished, Lang said she ran to her car and raced to the airport, only to discover the earliest flight to Chicago was eight hours away.

But as luck would have it, Lang said she struck up a conversation with a ticket agent, relating her story in full. The agent "thought it was so great that I got a flight within a half an hour," she said.

Once back in Naperville, Lang immediately deposited the check at her bank, where she was treated like a conquering heroine.

Lang said she hasn't heard from Ken since, though eBay officials warned her several days later someone had tried to access sensitive information from her account with the company. She has since closed the account as a precaution.

"I think he's pretty surprised that I got the money," Lang said of Ken. "But I knew I was going to get it.

"And I would do it again."


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[Charger_Fan]

WOO-HOO!! That's friggin' awesome!! Good for her!

Now if only someone could do something similar to the HLPAG jerks...

[Mean 318]

ha ha... ass hole!

[PocketThunder]

what kind of door knob thinks he can bounce a check for 10g's and think he will get away with it....?  good for her.
Naperville is a nice city btw.

[red72chrgr]

Way to go Connie!!! This lady is righteous!  

[Blown70]

Wow. handled that better than I would have.  I find a louisville slugger always does the trick.  I guess I will have to keep this in mind next time.......

[71bee]

Wow. handled that better than I would have.  I find a louisville slugger always does the trick.  I guess I will have to keep this in mind next time.......

lol!!! I feel you brother! 

good for her though. YOU GO GIRL!

[Old Moparz]

Hey Mojo, cool story, I love it!