Attn: media, attorneys and everybody who might be concerned: I can 100% provide FULL proof of anything said here in this report, albeit with bank transfers, witnesses and copies of checks. I am in no way trying to mislabel or misinterpret facts, the fact is that Kevin Richard Hackenberg, or Kevin Hackenberg, or Richard Hackeberg has committed fraud against me and my customers, and to this day still owes me approximately $30,000.00 Dollars. I am doing this because I know Kevin hackenberg will try to scam someone else, and I want them to know hat happened here so they will stay clear of this horrendous person and con artist.
I met Kevin Hackenberg in January via my eBay seller assistant program ran here from Sugar Land, TX. Basically what I did is I took items from my customers and I sold it for them on eBay. I did what business I could to try to stay afloat during bad times, my mother had recently passed away from leukemia, and as she was the main breadwinner, each of us had to work really hard to pay back bills, including a $300,000.00 bill (approx) from her hospital.
At first sight, Kevin Hackenberg is a really nice, well mannered man, with a very professional sense to him. He told me he was moving to Las Vegas, and had a lot of things to sell, and wanted me to sell them for him. So I did, I started selling things for him, keeping my commission and paying him the rest, minus eBay fees. This went on for a while, and he was pleased with my services, as was I with the way we were conducting business. These transaction continued successfully eventually gaining my trust. (Here was me, a young guy trying to make money, and him, a "sucessful" and wealthy individual with plenty of business experience). Then, one day (sometime in April) he told me he was no longer moving, and also had a business proposition for me. He said he was trying to locate several suppliers of products, so that he can sell them through me. "Awesome" I thought, since he basically explained that it'll be the same business transactions, but just this time will be a steady stream of items.
Some time after, he had located some products to buy in bulk, including cell phones, laptops, cameras, and other items. He asked me to sell them under my name, however, he kept posession of them, since he was going to ship them once the buyer paid (otherwise known as "drop-shipping) Since we had been doing business a while, I had been to his house, had met his family, and he was a very upstanding, serious gentleman, I thought it was a great way to earn money, especially during those hard times. He would send me the listing via email, I would post them under my ebay name, buyers would pay me for them and as soon as they did, I notified Kevin Hackenberg, subtract any cost and my comission and send him payment securely via paypal so he could buy the item, or get reimbursed for it. (if anything went wrong, I thought, I can always make a claim with paypal) WRONG! We started selling little by little, until I gained even more trust in him and this system. He was OK with everything, always comopliementing me on my business and business etiquette, and promising me lots of money. So time went on without a hitch, we were very successfully making a good income with this program.in a couple of weeks, we had sold a gross of $100,000.00 worth of items with no problem. So not only did I trust him, I would look up to him as a role model, and called him a friend. I paid him out with paypal, but sometimes we had sold so much that paypal was maybe not the most effective way for me to pay him. SO i started paying him out in checks from my DBA account.
Then, we started selling professional video cameras, worth upwards of $1200.00 each, which we sold about 30 in less than two weeks. I kept selling them because it utsually took him about 1 week to ship them to the buyer via courier, and I made $40 to $50.00 on each camera sold. I thought that was awesome, so I kept selling them. However, sometime in May, I received a call from him telling me that he had received the cameras, but was sending them all back because they were bad, and not as described. I thought, well, we should start refunding people right away and letting them know what happened, so they will not be mad at me or think I am running a bad business, he thought it was a good idea, and told me he would refund the money as soon as "Best Camera" (the company he supposedly got them from) paid him back. Since I had some funds not paid out to Kevin Richard Hackenberg yet, I went ahead and refunded a few people. (some people had bought up to 6 cameras each) then, when I ran out of money Kevin Hackenberg told me that he should be getting the funds in soon, and would submit them to me as soon as possible.
Days passed. Then, Paypal called me one day, telling me that my account was in heavy investigation because it seemed as if I was committing fraud (selling items, transferring the funds to someone else, then not sending the item to people). I thought that was ludicrous, I had only meant to make an income, not scam people out of their money. However, paypal saw it a different way, so they froze my funds, and cancelled my ebay account and as soon as they did, people started to panic, calling me, and filing claims with paypal. Of course, I was responsible for every penny paid to me, which was upwards of $30,000.00.
Mr. Hackenberg was still responding, however, it seemed his attitude had changed, he didn't show up around my house anymore, didn't call as much, and was harder to get in touch with. He kept on promising me that he will pay next week, or next tuesday, or next thursday, so on and so on. He blamed "Best Camera" for not refunding him quickly, and I believed that he was going to pay me, so I can pay these people back. All of a sudden, I receive this mysterious email from Kevin, saying that he was going to be leaving the state, and to email him no longer at [email protected], but at [email protected]. I called him about it, and he responded saying that he was just trying to organize his business emails from his personal. I started to panic. It had been at least two weeks since my account was frozen, and I did not have a penny to my name. I had given every single penny that I could, even from my personal account, just so I can refund a few more people, and I hear this??? I kept on calling him, emailing him and he kept answering less and less, but answering with positive reponses, even offeringme an extra $25,000.00 just for my pain. I won't deny, I believed it, and believed in him. Since the pressure was so high (gives me chills thinking about those days) from people for me to refund them, I did what i could to earn money so I can pay back people, borrowing from friends and family, even selling my personal items and maxing out a credit card, but still, I owed.
Kevin Hackenberg told me he was in "the same boat" as me, and he was struggling as well, I remember even one time I called him, he answered finally, and told me that he couldnt tell me where he was because he was with "some people" that din't want him talking. One day i wanted to talk to him in person, so I went to his house, and nobody was home. He had vacated the premises, and there was a note of foreclosure in his front door. He had packed everything up and left. His phones were disconnected, and he provided me one time with a different phone number so I can reach him. I continued my search of him, calling him constantly, trying deperately to get my life back. Suddenly I coulnt afford to go back to school the following semester, have a car, propose to my girlfriend, NOTHING. I had nothing to my name, and was dirt poor, yet I still owed money. I had to go once again to my family, asking my brother to put $4000 in his credit card, and taking out a equity loan for $10,000.00. HE did so, so I can finally get my life back on track.By this time (august-september), Mr. Kevin Hackenberg was nowhere to be found, only answering emails, telling me of some settlement he was going to get, and pay me with that. Sorry, but BULLSHIT! This man is an expert at lying, commiting fraud and abusing your trust.
To this day he has paid me back about $1300.00 from the $30,000.00 originally owed, and I have tried going to the sheriff, going to the police, adn going to attorneys who all tell me pretty much "too bad so sad, you shouldn't have trusted him" What good is that? They also said that in order for me to actually try and start something, I would need incredible amounts of evidence, a private investigator, and many other things, that probably will cost me another 30 thousand.
SO, please let me know if you have heard of this man, know where he is, know what kind of operations he is running, or any other information. Currently I cannot file charges against him because "I need to prove that he meant to commit fraud from the start" what kind of crewed up system is this? So please help me in at least preventing this to not happen to anyone else, and if this has happened to you, with this person involved, please contact me.
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