Consumer Fraud Is This Mail Fraud

[l008com]

So a guy named Jim is selling a legitimate laptop on the internet. A scammer from another continent sends him fake payment for the computer, and a prepaid shipping label to ship the computer away. So Jim put a bunch of rocks in a box and send box to the scammer. Jim was never paid any money for the computer, just a fake email from a payment company saying the money was 'in escrow'. 100% sure buyer was a scammer and there was no money.

Did Jim commit mail fraud?

Jim was never paid for the computer. Shipping was paid by the scammer. "shipping" was provided, but computer was not. Sounds a little too simple, but whats the legality of this?

 

[tpajet]

Well, first of all, it could only be mail fraud if he sent it via US Postal Service. If he sent it via FedEX, UPS, etc then no. Also if he knows that the payment was never sent, then he can't get in trouble for not sending the product. And that's the point of excrow - even if the payment were real, he would have never been sent the money since he only sent rocks. In other words, he hadn't received payment anyway. The big tipoff is if the laptop was to be sent to the escrow company or the buyer directly. If it was sent directly to the buyer, then it's definatly a scam.

But ultimatly I would say no - he never received any money in the first place. His argument would simply be when I get the real money I'll send the real product.