This is going to be fairly long and drawn out, so please just bear with me. Before I get started, I'd like to give everyone a heads up that I'm not exactly computer savvy, so I'm not real sure how to post some of the information that's going to be asked for. I am, however, more than happy to forward anything I have to someone who has a clue what they're doing so it can be properly posted.
As some of you are already aware, I have had a very up and down relationship over the past couple of years with Mike Shoemaker, which has always been more down than up. This thread goes into way too much detail about parts of that relationship, but much of it is relevant to what has recently occurred.
At the beginning of this year, there was yet another incident that occurred in which I specifically told Mike to never contact me again. Because I haven't been able to locate that thread as of yet, I don't know the exact date. Mike had not contacted me since that thread until November 11, at which time I received the following email. This is one of those things I'm not so sure about how to post. I can get the body of the email, but don’t know how to do the header.
Tere,
I know this email may not be welcome but I really need to talk to you. It has nothing to do with dragons, reptiles, our past drama or anything like that. I just really need to talk to you. I could easily classify this as 911 situation. I can't find your phone # for the life of me or I would call. If I can find it I will try to call you.
Please call me if you can,
Mike XXX XXX XXXX
Thinking this was truly a 911 situation, I did contact Mike. I am not going into detail about what actually occurred because it's entirely too much information, and is not, in my opinion, relevant to this post. Suffice it to say, I got re-involved with Mike, as well as totally wrapped up in a situation I had no desire to be in. Since November 11th, my life, as well as the lives of many other individuals, has been a complete nightmare because of Mike's "911 situation".
So...moving on to what brought me here. On the Friday after Thanksgiving, Mike contacted me and informed me that he had $2,300 (this particular amount will be important shortly) in his Paypal account, and that he needed to do some shopping. One of the things Mike said he wanted to purchase was a computer desk, but that he couldn't get it home, since he has no transportation. I picked Mike up and took him around to a few stores to do his shopping.
Later that evening, after getting back home, I received an email from Expedia.com regarding a travel confirmation. I have never used Expedia. I opened the email, and saw it was a confirmation for Mike's younger brother, who had been staying with Mike. I contacted Mike about this, and was told that his printer was not operational, and that he needed me to print the email out and bring it to him. When I asked Mike why it came to my email address directly from Expedia, rather than being forwarded from Mike, he informed me that he set the account up with Expedia using my email address. I do have the email, but am not sure I should post it because it includes Mike's brother's name, and, to my knowledge, he is NOT involved in any of this. Anyway, I was not exactly comfortable with someone setting up an account using my email address, but figured I couldn't change what had already been done.
Saturday morning, I received a phone call from Mike stating that Paypal had frozen his account, that every dime he had to his name was in that account, and he was in a total and complete panic. I asked Mike why Paypal would do that, and Mike stated that Paypal had told him that the purchase of the plane ticket the night before had sent up a red flag for suspicious use. Through the weekend, I spoke with Mike several times, and he stuck to this story. Mike stated that he was working with Paypal to prove he is who he says he is to get them to unfreeze is account, but that the account was still frozen.
Sunday evening, I received another phone call from Mike, informing me that Paypal had unfrozen a small amount of his money, and that he sent it to me. Mike explained that his Paypal debit card was still frozen, and instructed me to go to the ATM, draw the money that he sent and bring it to him. When I checked my email, this is what I found:
PayPal – The safer, easier way to pay
• Use your credit card without exposing your card number to merchants.
• Speed through checkout without stopping to enter your card number or address.
• Send money to family and friends for free.
Fight fake emails
• Forward suspicious emails to
spoof@paypal.com.
• Make sure you’re using the latest internet browser.
• Visit the PayPal Security Center.
Dear Teresa Salazar,
sherry shoemaker just sent you money with PayPal.
sherry shoemaker is a Verified buyer.
________________________________________
Payment Details
Amount: $376.14 USD
Transaction ID: 3TL355853V468354Y
View the details of this transaction online
It may take a few moments for this transaction to appear in the Recent Activity list on your Account Overview.
________________________________________
Have you lifted your withdrawal and receiving limits? Just log in to your PayPal account and click View Limits on the Account Overview page.
Thank you for using PayPal!
The PayPal Team
________________________________________
PayPal Email ID PP274
Once I noticed that the money had come from Mike's mother, I asked why. Mike stated that he had tried to send the money to his mother, thinking that he had a debit card for his mother's account, to later find he did not. So he forwarded the money from his mother's account to mine. Note: Mike had told me in the past he had complete control over his mother's finances, so this did not surprise me. Anyway, because I was caught so off guard, I said yes. I asked my husband to drive to an ATM, withdraw the money, and deliver it to Mike, which he did. All of this occurred within a 30 minute time span. Again, I didn't know why, but I had this very uncomfortable feeling, but, again, figured I couldn't change something that had already been done.
The next day, Monday, I spoke with someone and discussed what had occurred the night before, and that I was feeling very uncomfortable about it, but didn't quite know what to do. That person advised that I had better contact Paypal and inform them of what had happened. I contacted Paypal that day, and informed them of what had taken place. When I asked Paypal how I could prevent being the recipient of any more money for Mike, I was told I should change the email address on my Paypal account to one that Mike was not familiar with, which is exactly what I did.
A couple of days later, as was expected, Mike contacted me again, stating that Paypal had unfrozen another small amount of his money, and that he was sending it to me so I could, once again, withdraw it and deliver it to him. I admit that I told Mike a lie, when I told him I had closed my Paypal account all together. Mike started to panic again, and said that he would have to find someone else with a Paypal account, who would complete this task for him. When I asked Mike a couple of days after that if he had found someone to do this for him, I was told that he had, and that the money was going to be sent Western Union to him.
Since Mike's Paypal account was frozen, I have been checking with him to see if Paypal had released the remainder of his money. This past Monday, while on the phone with Mike, I asked if he had heard anything about when Paypal was going to release his account. Mike stated that they had already released $700 of the $1,100 that was in the account, so he wasn't too worried. Notice the difference between the $2,300 I was originally told, and the $1,100 figure I had just been told. The difference in the dollar amount left me feeling fairly confident that Mike was lying to me about some aspect of this whole thing.
On Wednesday of this week, I spoke to the same someone that had originally advised me I should contact Paypal. I was telling this person about how Mike had "slipped" and told me a different dollar amount than what he had been stating previously. We were discussing how it was, in the first place, that Mike had this amount of money since he is unemployed. I was informed that Mike had stated to this person that he had sold some things on Ebay, but what exactly he was selling was unknown. I thought I would go check out Mike's Ebay feedback, to see if I could figure it all out. Mike's Ebay account, it is my understanding, is shared with his mother. The user name of the account is matchbox315. I have no idea how to do a screenshot, and I'm hoping someone here can do a screenshot of the feedback for this account.
Upon finding the account, I saw that there were four auctions recently, all four of them for Playstation 3's. There were two sold in the amount of $330, and two sold in the amount of $375, if I remember correctly. The auctions ended right around Thanksgiving, and the feedback appears to have been left at the end of November, beginning of December. The last I checked, two of those feedbacks stated a Paypal claim had been filed.
Wednesday night, I confronted Mike about what I had found on Ebay. I started off asking Mike if he had just ripped off four people on Ebay, to which he acted like he didn't have a clue what I was talking about. I then asked Mike was he not matchbox315 on Ebay, since I already know this as fact. At that time, Mike admitted that matchbox315 is him, and that he had, in fact, been the one who listed the auctions. I found it awfully strange that Mike could auction off four Playstation 3's when, at the time, he had nothing more than his clothes, a broken desk chair, an air mattress, and a brand new computer.
After giving Mike a speech about how wrong this was, and how dare he do this to innocent people, I thought to ask Mike if the money that he had passed through our hands was stolen. Mike stated that it was not, that the money he sent from his mother's account, in fact, was his mother's money. Oh, how comforting that was to hear. I then asked Mike if the money he had sent to the other individual after I had "closed" my Paypal account was money stolen from these people on Ebay, and he replied that, yes, it was. I also asked Mike if this was the real reason Paypal had frozen his account, and he said yes. At that time, I informed Mike, once again, that I never wanted to hear from him again.
Yes, I already know that some of you will come down on me for even speaking to Mike again, and believe me, I have learned my lesson. There's really nothing that can be said that would top what I've already been told by my husband and my parents. What I'm getting at is that what's done is done. I screwed up by allowing this parasite back into my life, and I am paying the price. I am, however, concerned, once again, that Mike is on the prowl for his next victim, and am aware of him doing so in the past couple of weeks. And I am getting ready to email Mike to notify him of this thread.
Okay, folks, fire away.
Threaded Mode
