When a Flippa buyer contacts me looking for help recovering his funds from a potential scammer I never know what to expect.  Some times it is just the buyer being anxious, sometimes it is a misunderstanding, and some times — the buyer has indeed been scammed.

That is the case here.

I was contacted to look into a case regarding this Flippa auction.  The buyer claimed that the seller had essentially taken his $4200 payment and not delivered the website promised.  After some basic investigation into the matter I found the buyer’s claims to be true.  I verified the payment had been made and even talked with the seller who had STILL been trying to sell hotsportsplays.com to yet another buyer.

The seller eventually admitted the issue and even revealed that there had been another victim.  Although the seller, George Pappas Jr., didn’t take personal responsibility for the scam, he did knowingly (and unknowingly) reveal a bunch of useful information.  And, again, he did admit to taking payment from these victims without delivering the site or refunding their money.

I talked to Mr. Pappas about coming clean on the scam and refunding those who had been burned.  In working with the victims I was sure they would be willing to work out payment arrangements to recover their lost funds, but Mr. Pappas seemed to have no interest in returning the money, only in protecting himself.

George Pappas Jr. still has not returned any of the funds to the victims and he eventually did resell (the already 2x sold-and-paid-for) www.hotsportsplays.com to this guy.  The sale was made on June 14th for $690…  Mr. Pappas was nice enough to post a screenshot himself — which was found in his latest Flippa listing.

HERE IS A SCREENSHOT OF THE PAYMENT FOR THE SITE ($690) ON JUNE 14:

3rd Payment for HotSportsPlays.com
(Click for Larger View)

HERE IS A SCREENSHOT OF THE TWO PREVIOUS PAYMENTS FOR THE SITE ($4200, $1800):

First Two Payments for HotSportsPlays.com
(Click for Larger View)

These were collected from Mr. Pappas’ own listing on Flippa.  But, in case he makes changes they have been archived online.

An IC3 complaint (I#1006111710133181?) has been filled on George Pappas Jr and over 40 pages of documentation has been obtained in the case.  I do hope Mr. Pappas (and Ms. Briddes) will come clean and make restitution on the victims of this scam.  If they wish to contact me I will help them get on the right track — making restitution and heading in a direction away from online scams and into online success.

More info can also be found at Experienced-People.