Tim Stevens - TallTim - Nelson - Bones - Denis Sold same fake $500 item to 5 different people--delivered to no one. Online Scam, Internet Ripoff, Fraud Kingston Ontario

Note: What appears here is a condensed version of my story. For more information, look here: http://www.scam.com/showthread.php?t=5039

Tim Stevens offered an item for sale (a vintage RCA 77DX polydirectional ribbon microphone) on a free classified posting area on the internet (http://users.pandora.be/oldmicrophones/ ). After agreeing on the details via email (address macguytim@hotmail.com) and phone, I sent a check for $530 ($30 of which was for shipping via FedEx) to Tim Stevens in Kingston Ontario Canada. I sent the check on 07/11/2005. On 7/19/2005 I received an email from Tim confirming that he did indeed receive the check and would be sending the microphone shortly. The funds cleared my bank 7/20/2005. For the next three weeks, I did not receive any communication from Tim (despite a few emails from me). Finally, on 8/11/2005, I received an email from Tim stating that the microphone was badly damaged in shipping, was returned to him, and that I would get my money back at the end of the month.

Since then, I contacted the owner of the website on which Tim's ad appeared and he has confirmed that 4 other people have had a similar story. I have now personally spoken with three of them by phone and/or email and they have exactly the same story as me (sent money to Tim Stevens, several weeks later, Tim reports that the microphone was damaged in the mail so badly that it was returned to him and that he will pay the money back at the end of the month, etc.).

As far as I know, the first check was sent to Tim on 06/14/2005--now it is 8/23/2005 and no one has received anything back yet. I am hoping that pressure from forums such as this as well as law enforcement will encourage him to pay us back.

Thomas
Houston, Texas
U.S.A.