[OT] fraud, lying, and stealing.. need help!

[Scion]

I wasnt sure how else to be concise above.. effectively here is the situation.

a friend of mine wants to go to the nhl game this weekend.. she advertised that she was looking for tickets, she got some replies, she took one up because it sounded like a decent deal.. they talked over the phone and worked out arrangements to exchange money for tickets

now here are the problems ;/ (wish I had known what was going on ahead of time)

-sent a money order to location
-the number given for follow up calls apparently is to the wrong place (some random spanish speaker answers)
-the tickets did not come
-the money order was picked up and cashed imediately (apparently no id required)

is there anything that we can do? I dont know, find the guy, something.. the address that he gave apparently doesnt exist (if it does it isnt in the white pages, it is in a different state so hard to check directly)

It was a pretty good amount of money.. and I am pretty sure that there isnt much of a chance for anything can anyone help though?? any suggestions would be appreciated, thanks!

edit: adjusted subject line

 

[EricNoah]

I don't think there's much you can do about it. Sounds like an expensive lesson in human nature...

 

[jgbrowning]

yep. most of the time you go outside of the system you lose the ability to recourse. sorry to hear about it. try to be more careful next time.

joe b.

 

[Barendd Nobeard]

If it happened through the U.S. mail, it may be mail fraud.

Also, was it a U.S. Post Office money order? Don't know if that makes it worse (in the Post Office's eyes), but it might.

Anyway, contact your local post office about mail fraud. They can tell you if they'll even investigate (there may be a minimum amount involved before they'll investigate). Even if they do investigate, it could take a while.

 

[tarchon]

yep. most of the time you go outside of the system you lose the ability to recourse. sorry to hear about it. try to be more careful next time.

Scalping is legal in some localities, though I agree that the chances of recovering anything are slim.

I'm kind of disappointed. I thought the thread was asking for advice on fraud, lying, and stealing.