I sent $600.00 to someone I thought was Frank Baaske for a telescope part, and never received an item or a refund as promised by emails.
I answered an ad for a heavy duty motorized telescope mount on Astromart that was placed by someone named Frank Baaske in Villa Park, IL in January. The mount was listed for $575.00, add $25.00 for shipping.
I called "Frank" before sending any money. He sounded friendly and intelligent, an since Astromart was a niche market-place where everyone was trusted, I sent the man a $600.00 personal check.
The check was cashed on January 14, and it was third party signed "Frank Baaske, pay to the order of Marshall Hagy", and none of the writing was in cursive.
I emailed the security director of Astromart after several weeks of promises and excuses of "being out of town", and the user was banned from the site. The email was forwarded to the user.
A few other members of Astromart had similar issues, and they told me of another email address he was using for paypal, but the paypal account belonged to "Colin Johnson". Several people have complained about this "Colin Johsnon" and his ebay practices under the account "vintagemotorts". The email address I was given matched the account "vintagesparesmidwest".
Vintagemotorts has at least 15 non-delivery complaints, and vintagespares had 19 non delivery complaints.
I googled the name "Marshall Hagy", and found out that there were several people who were ripped off by this guy who had a British bike parts shop in Chicago called "British Cycle Parts Chicago". The shop had a website at the time, and the phone number thet "Frank" gave me was listed on the front page. Marshall's address was the same address that "Frank" told me to send the check to.
I have reported them to both my local police, and the police in Chicago. They will not pursue this. I was advised to take them both to small claims court.
I sent a demand letter to both individuals by certified mail. Frank Baaske was the only one to accept, and his signature was in cursive, and looked nothing like the back of my check.
I tracked down the real Frank C Baaske, and he said he had nothing to do with the transaction, and that it was Marshall who was into telescopes. The voice was completely different.
After several attempts to reach Marshall, he finally answered the phone listed in the white pages. He was very upset with me for implying that he took my money, but it was the same voice that I had heard in January, when he said he was Frank. He claimed he cashed the check for Frank, and that was all.
At least one other member of Astromart sent "Frank" a check for $575.00, and got the same excuses I did. His check was also third party signed to Marshall Hagy.
At this point, I have no recourse, and will likely never see my money.
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