Around four years ago, I was defrauded out of over $1000 by someone on Craigslist claiming I traded him defective goods, demanding I reimburse him for a repair. About two years ago (two years after being defrauded), I found the item I traded him, and it turned out he traded it on shortly after I traded it to him, never having had the repair in the first place. I bought the item from the third party, called my scammer out in a Facebook buy/sell/trade group, and the scammer contacted me under a new fake name trying to defend himself. Having found his address, I took him to small claims court and won by default. I contacted him after the judgment in my favor, only for him to refuse to pay, threaten me, block me, and disappear. I thought the trail had gone cold. Well, just for fun, I searched on Facebook again, and it seems he has resurfaced elsewhere (different state) with the same fake name, with a marketplace profile selling expensive items in the same category that I traded him.
What would be my best course of action at this point? Do I contact a collections lawyer? If so, do I do it in my home state (the debtor's home state) or the debtor's new state? I only know his general area from the Facebook account. Or would I be better off just selling the debt to an agency for cheap?
Options to collect on a debt after finding my debtor’s new location a while after he disappeared?
byu/S100hedake inpersonalfinance
Posted by S100hedake
8 Comments
A lawyer isn’t even going to waste their time with this. And collection agencies don’t buy debt from individuals.
You’re going to have to let this one go.
How much *more* money… over-and-above what you could collect… are you willing to spend to collect?
Some things are done on principal, that’s fine, just decide how much you’re willing to spend on the principal first.
You might be able to get a judgement on any property he owns, if he has anything.
Check with the county recorders office to see if they can record a lien against any property they own. It could take years, but they would have to satisfy the judgement before selling the property.
I agree with others that there is nothing you can do to stop them from scamming others. Until and unless he breaks a criminal law the police are not going to pay any attention.
$1000, 4 years ago… I would just let it go.
In CA at least, you go back to court with all the evidence that he’s refused to pay and get a garnishment order. Then you provide that order to his employer and garnish his wages for the total amount plus 10% APR interest (again in CA). Your state may have different rules around this, but in CA the court will issue the garnishment order and the maximum legal interest rate for judgments is 10%.
You already won the judgment, so you would then have to obtain a writ of garnishment on the debtor. Then, you have to legally serve their employer. An attorney can help you draft the document, and a skip tracer can help you serve.
You’re probably going to pay more in professional services than your judgment is worth, but that’s about the extent of it
over $1000 and four years later, that’s probably dead paper. the trap is chasing a judgment after the statute clock already ran. i’d check your state’s small claims limit and statute before paying filing fees. did you save texts or the craigslist thread?
I don’t know how this would play out, but here’s a possibility…
If he happens to have any unclaimed property sitting with the state, you might be able to convince a court to have the state turn that property over to you (probably in the form of a check). So check with your state’s unclaimed property office (usually a quick web search will get you to an online tool where you can search records for yourself).