Catch Me If You Can - The Story Of The Internet's John Dillinger

from the 100%-profit-margin dept

We've followed the saga of Jay Nelson, dubbed the Internet's John Dillinger, over the past few years. He's one of the first guys to sell lots of stuff on eBay and not deliver the goods - a scam he pointed out had "100% profit margin". He is suspected of having scammed people out of over $200,000. He then went on the run and evaded police for quite some time. Fast Company now has the full Jay Nelson story, talking about his time on the run, his scams, and how we eventually tracked down and caught. As the article points out, it's a modern version of the book/movie "Catch Me If You Can" - except that this story is factual, as opposed to just being "based" on a true story. The guy seems like he was absolutely addicted to online auction fraud. In fact, right after authorities came to his house with a search warrant and took all his computers, he built himself a new computer with spare parts, and put up new fraudulent auctions.
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