My encounter with Jim Welch occurred in 2001. It was just after 9/11 and so I got no help from the FBI at the time. I still kept all my documentation (and registered a complaint with the RCMP and FBI).
The scam was a classic scheme:
I used the classified section of a well known musical instrument forum called Harmony Central to look for a digital mixer. Jim Welch contacted me and offered Digital Mixer (Yamaha 01V) for $1200. I agreed to the terms and after several e-mail exchanges I agreed to send him a bank draft.
After several weeks he claimed the cheque still had not arrived. This is when I realised I had been scammed since the policy with banks is that they will not initiate a trace or cancel the cheque until several months had passed. After this I never received any communication from Jim Welch and he obviously never sent the mixer.
I was naive at the time to make an online purchase this way and have learned my lesson but he still committed international fraud and should be punished.
From time to time I do a google search of his name. I think originally I had made the cheque out to Jim Welch and I believe the house it was mailed too was registered with this name (may have been his parents).
It looks like several other people have been scammed by him through various schemes over the past decade. Most recently I saw a cheque cashing scheme with his name attached to it.
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