JimMIA
There's more to life than mice...
- Joined
- Feb 16, 2005
Naw...there is no criminal fraud here -- you'd have to be able to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the renter knew the card was no good when they presented it. That ain't happening.If it were me, I would call the person and tell them that since they have made no effort to pay for the charges that they incurred, I will be calling the police on them. It would appear that you have been defrauded and even if it's unclear whether or not criminal charges can be brought against them, I would think that the threat alone would light a fire under them to pay up. Tell them they have by the end of the day to pay to your PayPal account and if they don't do it tell them to expect the police to get involved (go ahead and use the word "fraud"). Good luck! Unfortunately, there are such rotten people out there...
Terri
In addition, even if there was criminal fraud involved, when the victim makes other financial arrangements with the renter (i.e. agreeing to wait for the husband's bonus) Florida law looks at that as an extension of credit that wipes away any criminal intent the may have preceded the arrangement being made.
This issue is very, very common in employee theft cases. Some smart attorney offers a repayment schedule and the business owner unknowingly gives up all their criminal alternatives by agreeing. The crook defaults, of course, and then the only avenue the victim has left is civil suit.
OP's only avenue is civil action, which as others have posted, can be very problematic.