Kentucky Man will be sentenced March 2014 after trying to defraud Two Internet Companies per PayPal

A Fraudster from Covington, Kentucky, will be sentenced in March 2014 for defrauding two internet companies out of thousands of dollars (He faces a mandatory two year sentence on the aggravated identity theft count and maximum of 20 years on the wire fraud offense). One may wonder how a single man came through with a scheme of defrauding (2!) INTERNET Companies.

He (Melvin Dietz) pleaded guilty on November 19th this year that from January 2011 through December 2011, he arranged a scheme to defraud two online internet companies, WeBuyUsedCisco.com and Teksavers.com, both of which purchase used Cisco computers and equipment for Resell. The guy used 14 different PayPal accounts (each single one with a fake Identity for executing his scheme).

Now, shortly before or after he created an account, he contacted one of the companies and fraudulently offered to sell them certain Cisco items by pretending that he possessed them. Through e-mail, he used then one of his fake IDs, and bargained a price with a representative of one of those mentioned companies for the assumed Cisco equipment. At Dietz's instructions, the respective company transferred the payment for the equipment to one of the "fake" PayPal accounts that Dietz had set up using the same or a different alias identity every time. Right after, Dietz cut off communication and never sent the equipment.

To authorities, Dietz acknowledged he used or attempted to use the money in his PayPal accounts to purchase items online from other various online retail businesses or remove the money from his alias PayPal accounts in some other ways. The amount transferred by WeBuyUsedCisco.com & Teksavers.com to his PayPal account(s) totaled the amount of approximately 70.000 USD.

In committing his felony, Dietz knowingly used, without lawful authority, a means of identification of another person, during and/or in relation to the wire fraud count, in that he used that individual's Social Security number to obtain a prepaid Visa Card. Later Dietz used the card to validate the account with PayPal for the purpose of furthering his scheme to defraud Teksavers.com.