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Voici un compte d’un de nos membres sur la façon dont il a utilisé Google Street View pour trouver un fraudeur. L’article est seulement disponible en anglais.

It all started with trying to find a replacement phone on Montreal’s classified section of Kijiji. I was on the hunt for a brand new Samsung S5; I ended up finding one fairly priced (420$) and the individual selling it lived 10 minutes away from my house. We ended up setting up a meeting and he agreed to sell me his BRAND NEW: ROGERS Samsung S5 for 400$.

I’m somewhat tech savvy person and I’m fully aware of all these fake replicas and blacklisted IMEI numbers. I did my due diligence and asked him to send me his IMEI number over text message. The IMEI was clean and everything seemed to be in order…

I ended up meeting him at 4:30pm in the West Island of Montreal; he was about 17 years old, had a red t-shirt and came on his yellow bike. He seemed like a nice young man and he was very respectful. I inspected the phone; everything looked new and I verified both IMEI on the box and the phone; they both matched. The smartphone even had the ROGERS bloatware; I put my SIM card in and everything worked flawlessly. I had no doubt that everything about the transaction was kosher.

Then, everything started going downhill from here. Once I got home; I did a factory reset of the phone and got “Invalid IMEI” message. I did some research online and found out that he rooted the phone and replaced the IMEI on the user interface to match the one on the box. He obviously sold me a FAKE, which had no figure print sensor (It didn’t cross my mind to verify that feature). The box and accessories were original and the IMEI on the box was clean; but the phone itself wasn’t an original SAMSUNG S5.

I tried contacting the seller the same night but he wasn’t cooperative. After a few messages; he finally agreed to give me my money back; the next morning 8:30AM at the same location. That same night I did some investigation on the individual: he deleted his kijiji ad and he used an online forwarding service for his phone number.

I started looking in Google street view to find the residential areas around where we meet up. And this is what I saw! The same kid on the bike going into his house! BUSTED!

The next morning, I waited for him at the same location to get my money back like we both agreed. As I expected, it was a NO Show. He ditched last minute and never showed nor did he answer my calls. . I knocked at the house from street view but no answer I decided to drive around the area trying to spot him or find something that would give me a lead. I had no luck and ended up leaving empty handed. BUT I DIDN’T GIVE UP YET!

Fast-forward 1 week, it was Sunday August 17 2014. I drove around the same area and spotted a car waiting in front of that house. I decided to keep my distances and keep an eye out. 15 min goes by and whom do I see…THAT SCUMBAGG walking towards his house with some grocery bags. I quickly get out of my car and confront him. He was VERY surprised to see me but he was very calm. I didn’t get physical but I was following him the whole time giving him his options. #1 he gives me my money back and we both go our separate ways or #2 I call the police and he gets in trouble. The scammer didn’t care and he had no intention to give me my money back.

I followed him into a public bus (I guess he thought he could get away and I wasn’t going to follow him anymore). So I’m in the bus with this scammer not far from me and the cops are on the way. 5 minutes into my bus ride; a cop van stops the entire bus. The cops come in and I pinpoint them to the scumbag. I ended up getting my money back (which was his best option) and they arrested him for possession of stolen goods. His personal phone he had in his pockets was reported stolen.

I consider myself lucky of finding this guy thanks to street view. Be very vigilant out there.

Discussion here: http://montrealracing.com/forums/showthread.php?875064-How-I-got-scammed-and-found-the-kijiji-scammer-thanks-to-Google-Streetview