OK - Another sob story...

To make a long story short... this guy, lets call him "John Cheaney". Now, he rents a dedicated server from us. First he pays with postal money orders, thats fine. Then he tells us to use his partners credit card (City and state are the same on the card as is his personal info - AVS verified that) - now a few months later we have the owner call us asking about $1000 in charges hes charged. The person claims not to know This JC Cheaney. OK - so we call JC on Thursday, tells us hes activating his Paypal account (You have to verify the # of cents put in the bank account) and it should be done monday. Comes tuesday (today) no word from him.

I did some snooping and traced people hes contacted in the past. Long story short, hes ripped people off for 1000's before - ive spoken to a handfull of people/companies so far. THen i see an order confirmation from Bell that he's getting a t1 installed (NOW, this person blamed our servers for not working right because he only uploaded .html files not the image files - he thought the images were "built into" the html - now he wants a t1?)

I found some flight reservation confirmation under his name, he flew from Florida to the west cost on Sat then is coming back tomorrow (Wed)

Another interesting email is from the Florida Gov. with incorporation receipt for a new company of his he incorporated as of Sept-Oct.

The authorities, credit card company and the card owner (who lives 10 minutes away from this guy - goes do the same gym (dont ask how i know) but doesnt know the guy) all have his contact information.

My question is, Elite Hosts, Inc is incorporated in Deleware - can we sue him in small claims court or any other way? Can we all file claims against him? What can we do?

Thanks.

Hmm as crazy as this may sound I think this guy also host's with us.:eek: Yes you can always sue someone but is it worth it? How much $$ does he owe you, how much are you looking at for a laywer, do you have proof, etc. :)

We have proof, as well as the owner of the CC and other companies hes ripped off, as well as his email records (i dont know if thats court admissable?) - but i still have the support of people hes ripped off in the past

he owes us ~$1000 in stolen card charges

You may host him, his main domain is bodydr.net or thebodydr.net - the address (if you do a whois) matches most of his domains - if you host him turn him off asap

meow

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I happen to know 2 people (including the real owner of the cc) live very very close to him and goto the same gym.......

The real owner of the CC hasnt been on the internet till 3 weeks ago and hes never used it online so its safe to assume Cheaney stole the CC info from a card reader or something like that

Look, talk to a lawyer. I would normally say go ahead and get some advice here before talking, but you went into his email account, that isent something I would post. If you ended up doing anything, I dont know how this would hold up, but admitting to that is not a good thing.


Was the password info given to you by him? If so, then snooping around his accounts isn't that big of a deal I wouldn't think.

Yes, it was given to me he gave me permissions to access his email account to authorize the changes for his DNS.

This issue aside, what legal action can i take? We are incorporated in Deleware, so if we sue them and they don't show up don't we automatically win? Whats the story with small claims court :)?

I don't know - but my advice, talk to a lawyer. Many of them will give you a free initial consult (where you explain the details of the case to them and they tell you if you have a case; so you wouldn't have any out-of-pocket expenses until you know that you have a case.

If this person is charged with anything and found guilty of it - then come back and warn folks. Otherwise, you go on your own, get details, report back to the others who have grievances with this guy. I don't know for sure, but if you all use the same lawyer / legal group, you may be able to do something.

But definitely, talk to a legal professional.

Originally posted by MaB
. . . . . what legal action can i take? We are incorporated in Deleware, so if we sue them and they don't show up don't we automatically win? Whats the story with small claims court :)? IMNAL (But I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night)

Talk to a lawyer. Talk to a lawyer. Talk to a lawyer.

I'm sure, if you tried to sue me in Delaware, I'd say, Nope, you come here. And the court would agree.

Talk to a lawyer. Talk to a lawyer. Talk to a lawyer.

Have I mentioned to seek the adivce of a qualified attorney?

Talk to a lawyer. Talk to a lawyer. Talk to a lawyer.

No lawyers here :)?
I was just hoping for some advice before i spoke to the lawyer (which will hopefully happen later this week)

Ripping off a credit card is a crime. I'd suggest calling the police in the area and talk to the fraud division or maybe the district attorney's office. They might be very interested in hearing about this.

Probably your TOS says that you can terminate an account for any reason within a short time of giving notice. As has been said, and unless you don't wish to tip him off although I imagine he knows that you know by now - block his account immediately. It might also be tempting to put a message on all his web pages saying "I AM A FRAUDSTER" and then block his account, but that may not be quite legit :)

Good luck with the legal advice.

your TOS does have a clause specifying that any and all legal proceedings in relation to customer accounts will be brought in your local jurisdiction, right?

thats a standard clause and should be in any TOS. ours reads:


(a) Client agrees that Contract shall be governed by the laws of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the United States of America. Any arbitration and/or claims must be brought in the courts of the Lower Merion County, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.


good luck,
paul

as a sidenote, anyone who is not a member of the bar can not give you any legal advice - it is illegal to practice law, medicine etc without a proper license.

If you own the servers, you have every right to access anything on his account. Check your TOS and see what it says. This includes email. He's essenatially leasing equipment from you, so it still belongs to you. If it was a colocation deal you wouldn't have as much right because you didn't own the server.

And as far as legal advice goes, it's ok to ask for input, but it is illegal to ask someone who is not a member of the bar to consult on legal issues. That's my two cents.

I beleive it's only illegal to pay someone to consult you on legal issues.

But what do I know? I'm not a lawyer. :)

Brian

ask a lawyer, and DO NOT LEAVE ANYTHING OUT when you consult with him about the issue.

I wouldn't suggest doing anything to his account until you do. you could ruin your case.