Ok so long story made short.... One month ago, I've bought a website in the $xxxx that was selling pc game cd-keys. It was listed on dp, I've talked to the seller, he looked very legit and all. I paid, I've received the website and all the info, host, domain (except for the supplier info...that I figured after doesn't even exist). This is where things get complicated. From the first day, I start receiving emails from extremely mad customers who never received their cd-keys. I checked the email history, and it's full of these emails. The website was a scam... I was scammed, everyone got scammed. But, I found a legit supplier, I've highered the price (to a more standard price, the price were too low, can't imagine a lot of people felt for it, including me lol), changed the website layout and I'm happy to say that I almost made back all the money in one month. HOWEVER! My checkout module is Paypal. The last owner was using "Credit Card (manual)" module. If I look in the history of the order, I can see every buyers credit card info from A to Z !! So i started emailing back the old customers suggesting them to all initiate chargebacks. BUT just today, I thought to myself. WHAT HAPPENS IF THE LAST OWNER USED ALL THESE CC FOR FRAUDULENT PAYMENTS ELSEWHERE??!! I had that idea popping out in my mind when that last owner came to me last day and proposed to sell me very cheap working cd-keys (and they were working indeed, he gave me samples). The only explanation was that he bought these cd-keys somehow with fake credit cards... Now my question is.... If ever that dude is using the credit cards for fradulent payment... Am I the one responsible since I'm the one who owns the website now and have all the info, or not?! WHAT SHOULD I DO? Am i protected somehow? Or should I pack for jail? Or should i commit suicide to protect my family? I don't want to close the website, I get many good reviews lately and it's growing day by day... What am I suppose to do? Please help me (sig removed for privacy :/)
If you did not commit a crime, you are not liable for it. I would suggest you contact a lawyer though to see what your best course of action should be.
I agree with the part of this quote I left intact. Now there are a couple of things you did not mention. Did you takeover the existing PP account? If so change it immediately. If those CC records are stored on the server in an insecure mode, back them up and then delete them. Put a new ownership message on the site somewhere. Get a lawyer when you need one and not before. They are expensive. My liabilty is limited to the price you paid for the advice.
Yes, the statement above are true , you should ask advice from a lawyer and state all things happening in your website in an affidavit , so just in case customers sue you ,there is something you can present to them letting know your not doing such scams. suicidal? i think in every problem there is a solution.I think there is a lawyers forum site ,out there .
Let me remind you that the last owner was only accepting cc payment, I'm the one who started using paypal. Also yes the cc are secured (https). I have added on the website that there was an ownershi changement. For the person who said to watch buyers who might sue me, well I don't think it ever gonna happen because it has been 1month yet nothing, a lot of the customers looks stupid (didn't want to follow my advice about initiating a chargeback, and finnaly the amount paid is nowhere over 20$ so I don't think anyone is gonna sue for this, but I dunno.... Thanks for the advices guys, I somewhat feel releived, I'm gonna tosss the rope I bought from the potential suicide lol
The least you could do for us is out the scammer so he doesn't get the rest of us. I would also check with the original registrar of the domain, explain the situation, and see what kind of contact info you can get on the guy, just in case. As for possible credit card fraud...that is the crime of the person that illegally uses the card numbers.
well his name on dp is "leethacks.com", but the listing of the website was removed because I think it's against dp rules to sell such websites.
Hi, I am feeling sorry for that and I can understand your feelings. Thanks for sharing such a useful information with us. Stella
any - please do keep us updated on this whole situation. WOW! How terrible! At the very least, I would copy all the info you have access to, write a letter detailing everything step by step notarize it ( are you in the USA ? ) and mail a registered copy of everything to yourself and never open it. Maybe even 2 copies and place one ( unopened ) in a bank safe box. Only open these items it IF a lawyer is present. I did this before on a complex web deal that went south and it saved my but BIG time! I saved my info for 8 yrs! Then destroy everything - the CC info and such you currently have access to that you feel you should not have ever had. Oh yes 1 last thing - return the rope
As others have said, you are in the clear. I am curious though, are you getting these CD keys legit? If not, then you still could be in for some legal troubles (more on the civil side than the criminal side). Also, you mention you have credit card numbers on there? There is a thing called PCI compliance that you must have to store credit card numbers. I'd suggest you research that a little bit, theres a lot more to it than merely having an SSL certificate. Its a costly thing to do, which is why most hosts don't maintain credit card information on their servers but accept them through 3rd party merchants such as PayPal. Your good now for all future payments, however, if you still have that information there is a lot of stuff that has to be done. I'd suggest you contact the owners of the credit cards and let them know you are deleting all credit card information from your servers because the previous owner did not have them secured within the law. Then, you need to go to a lawyer and provide a sworn affidavite detailing EVERYTHING from how the previous owner contacted you, anything you remember him saying, how you viewed the previous emails and what they said. Backup those emails and make a hard copy of them as well (print them off) to attach to the affidavit. Have your lawyer maintain the affidavit for you. DETAIL EVERYTHING. This is to protect you. The reason I say for you to send the emails out to every client that has used a credit card is so you can make them aware of thise, as well as cover your bases. Then delete all those records off the server. If you want, make a backup, however, you shouldn't be responsible for taxes before you purchased the business (contact the IRS, they'll be able to give you a definitive answer).
Its the only way to retain honor for the family. Must take a sword/knife/dagger, and slice the stomach in an L, guaranteeing to cause the most pain possible
Did you buy the business or the site? If you bought the business you may be responsible. If you only bought the site and domain name, that's another story. You need to put up a disclaimer that this site is now owned by you as of DD/MM/YYYY and not responsible for purchases prior to that date. It's a very sticky situation. Consult an attorney especially before sending out any more emails.
Omg dude this story is crazy. It's sad to see someboby THAT entreupreunaria-oriented like you getting scammed by a fraudulent webmaster
The first thing you need to do is calm down. Contact a lawyer whose experise is internet -- and he'll tell you what to do. I think you'll be happy to pay him like $400 an hour just to get that stone off of your shoulders.
Well nothing has happened yet. And all your advices are good guys, but seriously this is ridiculous, emailing eveeryone, contacting each CC provider for each customer... this is gonna take years to do, i just prefer refunding everone's money eventhough i never touched that money... I mean there is over 500 sales down there and I'm still a university student, I've got no time ... Anyway for the time being, I've been selling on the website for 1 month and still nothing... Well I'm not sure how am I suppose to get anything, like are the police gonna knock on my door? I mean my address isn't written anywhere. I've never had any legal email on my website inbox nor any phone call. What I'm gonna do though, is gonna take all that cc info from the website and delete them all. That's the first thing I should of done. Oh and one more thing.... When I bought the website, the seller proposed to delete all the cc info... I said yeah do it. But he didn't do it for order before december 2008, I don't know why... Maybe he forgot?
I certainly would not take on the responsibility and expense of refunding money from a transaction that you had nothing to do with until i talked to an attorney, or had a civil action against me ordering me to do so. That's just crazy.
I laughed so hard at this When you said it's a site that sells CD keys, I hope you dont mean illegal keys or cracks for programs...if so, don't even think about getting a lawyer because they will never work on such a case.
No it's not cd-keys form keygen because these don't work on multiplayer (online) hence the need to buy cd-keys that comes out-of-the-box, that's what I sell. Many people think this is illegal. And they were probably right in the past, back when companies didn't use to sell cd-keys on their website. But now that they do (www.blizzard.com/store www.store.steampowered.com www.ea.com/store ), it's hard to tell that it's illegal, it's like reselling a nike shoe you bought from a store.