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How can I track an Internet scammer?

By IBLS Editor

Hi, Here is my story and I would like to know how I should proceed. My nephew Steven wants to open a gaming site on the Internet and since I know a lot about the Internet he asked me if I can help him, and of course I said yes. He met a guy on a gaming site that called himself Jose and he said that he lives in the UK which I don't believe (will explain later). The guy told him that he has designed a site with exactly the code he needs to do that, a payment system..etc. My nephew got excited and asked the guy how can he get the code for his site. Jose (which isn't his real name, his real name is Daniel Rosen) told Steven that he will sell him the code for $150.00. Steven didn't have a PayPal account but I did, so Steven transfered the money into my Paypal account so I can pay the guy. I wanted to protect ourselves because of scammers on the Internet, so I asked Mr. Rosen that I wanted to speak to him over the telephone, he agreed to use Skype, Voip over the Internet, so I agreed. I have a piece of software called Pamela which lets you record a conversation, so I used it and recorded our initial conversation, I have on my computer and I also saved all of our online chat conversations on AIM (AOL Instant Messenger) where he says he will zip up all the files and email them to me. Mr. Rosen told me that he will transfer his domain called phenomgaming.com to Steven who also has a godaddy.com account. I also asked Mr. Rosen about the code, that is what we are interested not the domain, but I agreed to the transfer because it would take people that try to go to his web would be directed to Stevens web site instead. Mr. Rosen said yes I will give you the code and even teach me how to set it up, that he will zip up the code pages and email it me. All of this is on the recording I made. I said fine I will pay you with Paypal, so I did. Mr. Rosen didn't deliver, to this day we are still waiting for the codes, we won't get them. I filed a dispute with Paypal, we lost the dispute because Paypal says they only pay disputes that involve shipping of goods. I did a search on the Internet and came across a forum, in that forum there is a person talking about this same scammer, Mr. Rosen scammed him for $250.00, which he got back from the dispute with Paypal. I joined the forum and told that person my story with this same person. He wrote me back and told me that he is sorry that happed to us. I can use this person as a witness. I don't know where Mr. Rosen lives but I do know that it's not in the UK because Mr. Rosen is on the chat communicating on eastern standard time. Mr. Rosen does tell me on the recording that his name is Jose and that he lives in the UK. Paypal will not give me Mr. Rosen's information, what can I do about this? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Full post as published by IBLS Internet Law Blog on January 17, 2008 (boomark / email).