Lucy Barnett, WGAL TV News
Two Lancaster County, Penn. men are charged with running an online scam that victimized people nationwide through the Internet auction site eBay.
Police identified at least 11 people since June 7 who they said have been victimized by the men. Police estimate Ryan Craig, 20, of Lancaster, and Justin Range, 21, of Maytown, received about $15,000 from the victims.
Police said Craig and Range would post nonexistent items for sale on eBay and the winning buyer would then send money, but would never receive the item.
“They were creating screen names, never giving out the name of the seller, but they did give the legitimate name of Amanda Smith and that’s what helped us pinpoint this and track this down to a location here in Middletown.” Det. David Sweitzer said.
Police said Craig arranged to have the checks made payable to Smith and sent to her address in Middletown. Police said Smith agreed to cash the checks.
On June 17, police searched the Middletown home. They recovered $7,000 in cash from the glove box of a vehicle.
Officers said they were able to prevent two potential victims from being scammed out of nearly $6,000.
Craig and Range were charged with nine counts of theft by deception, criminal conspiracy, deceptive business practices and 1 count of criminal attempt theft.
The FBI and the postal service are involved in the case and Range and Craig could be looking at federal charges.