Legal or street-legal advice needed: how do I deal with a (hypothetical) crook?

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Posted By: Tim

Hypothetically speaking: say I buy a VERY expensive card sight unseen on ebay for about $400. This was probably foolish, but the description of the card’s condition had a certain plausibility, and the hypothetical seller’s feedback was solid, with no indication that he had been ripping anyone off.

Say I get the package, insured for $400 and securely sealed. All that’s in there is a cracked screwdown holder and two “bonus” items (one of them a Dennis Rodman card!). No expensive item.

Say I complain to the seller and he says he’ll send a refund if I mail back all the parts of the package. I press him to tell me how he’s going to proceed–whether he’s going to file an insurance claim with the USPS, or what. He never gives me a straight answer, just mumbles about “the claim process”. Say he still insists the card was in there when he mailed it, which is not credible.

In this situation, do I lose any control by mailing back the package? I could make a copy or photo of it, of course. Does it have any (hypothetical) value as evidence or leverage? It doesn’t give me any ironclad proof that the card wasn’t in there when I opened it.

He has no proof that it was. But wouldn’t he need to show any hypothetical legal authorities who got involved that the card existed in the first place? Cards like the one I have in mind don’t grow on trees, and it should have a paper trail. Can I use that as leverage?

More seriously, in this situation do I run any risk of being held complicit in an insurance claim that’s almost certain to be fraudulent if he makes one?

This hypothetical guy is already into mail fraud, and may be heading for insurance fraud. All for a lousy $400 !

Any suggestions on what to do from here?

Thanks!