Web Can Be a Trackless Wilderness in Scam Cases

Who actually ripped off Louise Aledia and Jet Maniaol, the Pomona Valley teenagers I wrote about two weeks ago, who sent a $460.75 postal money order to an Ohio address for two L.A. concert seats, but never got the tickets?

Information arriving after my column ran brings us a little closer to an answer, but it also points out how victims of scams involving the Internet face tremendous obstacles in finding who is responsible and getting their money back.

You may recall from the previous column that a woman identified only as “Karen,” signing on as BlastMagEditor@aol.com, was the recipient of the money order but, after the tickets--originally listed at $29.75 each--did not appear, notified Aledia’s father, Nonnie Apilado, that he should approach the firm Prime Tickets for a refund, without telling him how Prime Tickets could be contacted.

Neither Apilado nor I could find the right Prime Tickets, although I did contact similarly named firms in Orange, Calif., and Miami. Both said convincingly that they had nothing to do with the matter.

Karen was not responsive to e-mails from me before the column was written, but just one day after it ran, she began contacting me by e-mail, giving me a full name, Karen Berchet, and gradually providing further information.

Berchet didn’t give an address for herself, nor a phone number where I could talk to her. But she did say that the Prime Tickets on whose behalf she dealt with Aledia, Maniaol and an unspecified number of other customers could be contacted at P.O. Box 246, Madison, Wis.

She asserted that she and an associate, Micheal Smith, also had been ripped off--selling the concert tickets for Prime Tickets, sending the cash to the firm at the Wisconsin address, never getting paid themselves for their services.

“I am now thinking that the reason they had us cash the money is so that they would not be in a legal bid [sic] if they got caught,” Berchet wrote. “I feel so bad for these people (Aledia, Maniaol, etc.) and for the fact that Prime Tickets should owe me and [sic] paycheck for the amount of $1,200 and some odd cents. Please if u find out ANYTHING let me know.”

Berchet has still not given me any names at Prime Tickets, which has no listed number in Madison.

I sent a letter to the address, but received no answer. I also contacted the Wisconsin attorney general’s office, which said it had nothing on the firm. U.S. Postal Inspector Lori Groen in Milwaukee said her agency would inquire into possible mail fraud.

There’s still no proof that Berchet actually worked for Blast Magazine, or that Prime Tickets in this case is a firm instead of one or two freelancing individuals.

Nicholas Graham, AOL spokesman, said that for privacy reasons his firm wouldn’t discuss Berchet or tell me where she is located, but would respond to a valid subpoena in any fraud investigation.

I got a note from Aledia, saying, “I have learned the hard way from this incident. I’ll try my best to put this on my mind to avoid repetition. Thank you again for taking the time to help me out.”

But, of course, Aledia and her cousin, Maniaol, don’t have their money back, which came from two years of allowances. Meanwhile, two other persons have also surfaced who said they were victims of this same ticket scam.

I’ve also heard from Dave Andrews, a Temple City businessman who said he had a somewhat similar experience, having sent a $700 business check via priority mail to a Rochester, N.Y. firm, A & D Audio, Inc., for a DAT recorder/player, but six weeks later still not receiving the recorder.

At least, Andrews had a telephone number for A & D Audio, but in weeks of calls there he got no response on the status of his order--only a recorded message.

Andrews said he had first encountered the firm through a Yahoo auction, but “Yahoo basically told me I’m out of luck and they aren’t responsible or won’t even help me track down this person.” He said he had contacted the Rochester police, who talked to the man and quoted him as saying he would send the recorder eventually.

Brian Fitzgerald, producer of Yahoo auctions, pointed out to me that Yahoo has a rating system where a customer can look up online customer comments on sellers.

He guided me, on the Net, to the rating for A & D Audio, which showed 151 customers’ comments in all, including 117 good. 13 neutral and 21 bad. However, over the past six months, the ratio of good to bad has changed. There have been 21 comments, nine good ones, three neutral and nine bad.

Fitzgerald said he felt this recent record should have been a warning to Andrews (who was fairly inexperienced in online auctions). Since the transaction was over $100 and the responses in the last six months to A & D Audio were only 50-50, he thought Andrews should have passed on the transaction.

What would Yahoo do now? Yahoo, it turns out, intervenes to possibly suspend a seller only if the over-all rating is minus 3, and in this case the positive balance on comments was plus 96.

Fitzgerald kept telling me that the huge majority of buys through Yahoo go through without problems, and “less than 1%” have such problems as Andrews reported.

Frankly, though, Andrews’ experience would make me leery of buying merchandise in this way. And it sounds, with Yahoo, as if a firm with recent lack of performance could stay in the auctions a long time, based on earlier good performance.

But maybe Andrews will soon get his money back. I called the number he had and left a message and soon heard back from Everett Baker, who identified himself as president of A & D Audio. He confirmed that he has held Andrews’ money since Aug. 7, but said the reason is that the DAT manufacturer will no longer distribute to his firm because he is undercutting its price. Now, he said, he knows he will not be able to obtain the recorder, and he will refund Andrews’ money in full “within two weeks of Sept. 22.”

Good. But still this is not a reassuring episode of Internet sales. Baker should have communicated with his customer before hearing from me.

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Ken Reich can be contacted with your accounts of true consumer adventure at (213) 237-7060 or by e-mail at ken.reich@latimes.com