Next steps in extortion case - ideas?

Sat Jul 5 20:02:29 UTC 2014

On Sat, 5 Jul 2014, C. A. Fillekes wrote:

> Furthermore, since the internet is everywhere, I pointed out (or did you
> stop reading after I mentioned that we don't actually know the gender of
> the scammer?) Markus has the option of pursuing this in a jurisdiction
> where the penalties for criminal defamation are the harshest.  It would not
> have to be in the US.

Unless one or more of the plaintiffs is located a country with the harshest 
penalities, or a plaintiff can otherwise demonstrate how people in country 
XYZ are being harmed by the scammer's actions, I don't see that going very 
far.  A plaintiff in Germany trying to bring a case to court in Singapore 
against a defendant in the United States isn't going to work so well.  I 
am not a lawyer, but my guess is that the case would be thrown out because 
the plaintiff would lack standing to bring a case to court in that 
country.

Yes, the global Internet is a global communications tool, but that doesn't 
mean you can cherry-pick which country to use in trying a case just because
the extortion is taking place over the Internet.

> Finally, you fail to address the one very simple way I described to
> determine who this scammer is: follow the money.  Make a small partial
> payment on this supposed "debt" and see who cashes the check.  Much easier
> than trying to follow "him" around on the internet, though that would be
> made easier in the course of negotiating a partial payment.

This is much easier to do once law enforcement agencies are engaged.  They 
can trace the money trail more throughly and effectively than you or I 
can, as civilians.

jms