Charles Whitehorne busted!!

[kevin s]

For all you who bought a parts CD on ebay and never received it, here is an email I just got from a Detective Brown in NC:

I am Det. R.B. Brown with the Raleigh, NC Police Dept. I am currently investigating a Raleigh resident named Charles Whitehorne, who failed to deliver products or refund payment to each of you for items you purchased from him on eBay. Most of these items were parts list CDs,and your loss was less than $15.00.

The eBay account names he has used are listed below:

Alright_yeah
Autoowl
Charlie40
Charlie4x4j0i
Gbrooks00
Horryfor3
Jeepfan4life
Ronniemexico
Tetranorth
Zebra_lounge

Mr. Whitehorne has been conducting business properly on eBay for several years, and explains to me that he just got behind. Unfortunately, once his accounts were disabled he made few attempts, if any, to make restitution. Since Mr. Whitehorne realizes that his actions could be considered fraudulent activity, has already reimbursed PayPal, and is now willing to reimburse each of you.

Since the local DA’s office finds this acceptable (instead of having each one of you come to court in NC on a $15.00 or less charge), I will try to assist you in getting your money back.

I am forwarding this e-mail list to Mr. Whitehorne as well, and he’ll be contacting you to make arrangements for repayment.

Now for the important part. Please contact me as soon as you get this and let me know what your loss is, as well as the best way for Mr. Whitehorne to reach you. Also, let me know if you have already been reimbursed by anyone (Mr. Whitehorne, PayPal, credit card company, etc.) so I will know how best to help you. If you are suffering a substantial loss and wish to pursue charges against Mr. Whitehorne in North Carolina, please call me at the number below so I can assist you.

In addition, once Mr. Whitehorne satisfies his debt to you, please let me know so I can check you off of my list. You can reach me by responding to this e-mail address, to my other e-mail address ([email protected]), or you can call me at the number below.

So that I can resolve this matter as quickly as possible, I am asking that you contact me no later than May 1st if you are interested in repayment. If I haven’t heard from you within this next two weeks, I’ll assume that your claim has been satisfied.

Please reference Raleigh Police case# P05-145593

Thank you for your help, and feel free to contact me if you have any questions.

Detective R.B. Brown
Raleigh Police Dept.
Cyber Crimes Unit

Office: 919-831-6599
Fax: 919-832-8261

 

[Eagle]

Now why would someone who is legitimate need so many aliases?

 

[RichP]

Now why would someone who is legitimate need so many aliases?

You know the old saying 'once you discover that you've dug your self into a hole the FIRST thing you have to remember is STOP DIGGING', I think he kept digging while trying to juggle...a difficult feat at best...

 

[seanR]

Ronniemexico

Thats funny!

 

[dmillion]

Uh... Why do I suspect that when you contact "Dectective Brown" he's going to end up needing your SSN, bank account number, credit card number, or something else like that? I mean, what police department uses gmail accounts!?!

 

[Wil Badger]

none!!!!!!!

i would have to say any police department that would have a Cyber-Crime departent would have thier own mail server.i would hit up the internet and find the actual phone number to the department he mentions and see if they match.then ask if there is really a detective Brown at said station which i would have to seriously doubt.

 

[woody]

Uh... Why do I suspect that when you contact "Dectective Brown" he's going to end up needing your SSN, bank account number, credit card number, or something else like that? I mean, what police department uses gmail accounts!?!

You would be suspecting incorrectly.

I just got off the phone with the Raleigh NC PD Investigative Division... that is a valid case # and that contact info is for Detective RB Brown.

 

[Dirt]

You would be suspecting incorrectly.

I just got off the phone with the Raleigh NC PD Investigative Division... that is a valid case # and that contact info is for Detective RB Brown.

Well done Woody.

 

[djblade311]

I've always been tempted to buy those CDs from ebay but held back. Good thing I waited in case I might have ordered from that guy.

Anyone have copies? lol

 

[non-stick]

Anyone have copies? lol

Yeah, but only a few hundred.


Get 'em while they're HOT...

 

[kevin s]

What I didn't include in the original post was the "to" list. There must have been 200 email addresses of people he sold to.

I recognized "jeepfan4life" and "tetranorth". I bought one from him, but when it didn't come, I bought from another eBayer and filed a complaint on him. (I eventually got my CD). I looked up his feedback on paypal and discovered that he had bought HIS original CD from my vendor #2, then cracked it into individual years. How's that for ballsy?

BTW here is my vendor #2, highly recommended.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/JEEP...34224QQitemZ8057543397QQrdZ1QQsspagenameZWDVW

 

[dmillion]

Well, I'm surprised that dective Brown legitimately uses a gmail account.

One other comment that I feel compelled to make, though, is that we all know that these CDs being sold on e-bay are bootleg copies. The seller is in violation of copyright laws by selling them. Everybody knows that. I also realize that everybody wants to save a buck, so I'm not criticizing anyone for making the decision to buy one of these. What some of you may not know, however, is that you are also in violation of copyright laws when you buy them.

Two points related to this. First, detective Brown is going after the seller now, but he may very well come after the buyers later. Or he may just turn his information over to someone else (like Daimler-Chrysler) who will then go after the buyers. Don't be too surprised down the road if you get follow-up questions about the illegal copy you have in your possession.

Second, I would hope that no one is particularly surprised that this Charles Whitehorne tried to cheat his customers. I mean, I can understand you being annoyed, but you really had to expect it. The man is in the business of violating the copyright laws and thereby cheating the legitimate copyright holder. You certainly can't be surprised that he is also willing to cheat his customers. You deal with a cheat, you ought to expect to be cheated.

 

[kevin s]

...just to clear up the email address business, the email was sent from Det. Brown's official email address: [email protected].
He also added the Gmail address in the body of the message as an alternate address.

 

[RichP]

The old saw 'you can't cheat an honest man' holds very true in most cases, you can swindle one, rob em, but it's very difficult to cheat one...