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Does this qualify as mail fraud, though? The items weren't in good condition, and there were omissions in the description, but he did send them.

If this were through ebay, you'd have buyer protection, but I don't think this qualifies as mail fraud through the U.S. Postal Service, and I also don't think that the police would be willing to do anything about this.

I think your best course of action is to see if you can get in touch with someone in that area (via PM... another good way to find people would be to look through the "schedule a game" forum).

If he does resurface, I would also just cut your losses and "un-swap" as it were, rather than asking for a check... he is probably a minor and may not have the money to send, which could just make him disappear again.

I hope you can resolve it...
Steve / RiTides

Depending on whether or not you want the hassel, you could take him to small claims court (scc). Ask for court costs and damages; in most states the cap is around $5000 for SCC.

That's true, but the court fees alone almost make it not worth it for this small of a trade... also since it is technically an international trade for LunaHound, I don't know if small claims court would be a viable option.

And the hassle would be unreal...

I'd just like to state here that Deffskullz is 14 years old. His father has been contacted whereupon the father became verbally offensive and refused to accept any responsibility or liability.

Ketara wrote:I'd just like to state here that Deffskullz is 14 years old. His father has been contacted whereupon the father became verbally offensive and refused to accept any responsibility or liability.

I am not sure about US law in this case, but in some countries the father/parents would be liable whether he likes it or not. If so, mail fraud should/could still apply.

Otherwise, and this is only my logic at the moment, it would be possible for adults to commit (mail) fraud by using children to do so.

Childern in the US are not 100% liable in contracts till the age of 18. That is why childern can not enter into cell phone contracts, get loans, and this does go into online purchese such as ebay and dakka. If a child decides to he or she can break the contract at anytime as long as a crime as out right fraud wasn't committed.

Taking this issue to small claims court would hard to prove since items were exchanged as agreed upon. The father can in most states, claim that his child had no permission to make any trades online and the case is dead.That is why there is in US law a Caveat Emptor idea when it comes to online purcheses.

Now if there was money or items exchanged and only one party recieved such items or funds then there would a case for mail fraud but since items were exchanged I do not see possiblity of a successful case.

I am sorry, it does suck but that is risks of online trading in a hobby that does have childern in it.

Now, Dakka can instute a rule that each party must disclose their age (not DOB) only to the party they are dealing with in the first PM. That way a person can make the choice on if they want to trade with the person. Also, if the person lies about their age then it gives the other party a legal foot to stand on when it comes to incidents such as this.

Any luck with contacting his house carmachu?