By Bryan Corliss
Herald Writer
A Snohomish County judge has ordered an Everett company accused of Internet fraud to pay more than $264,000 in fines, fees and restitution.
Aliendistribution owners and managers David Buckner, Scott Buckner and Eric Scott failed to mount a defense against charges they bilked at least 75 people of about $500 each through fraudulent sales of computers on the Internet auction site eBay,.
As a result, they were found guilty by default and ordered to pay more than $204,000 in restitution to the victims and civil penalties, plus another $60,000 to cover the state’s costs of investigating and prosecuting the case.
The state now will try to collect the judgment against the men, who have moved to Detroit, said Paula Sellis, the attorney who prosecuted the case.
"We have a judgment, and we certainly can enforce that in another state," she said.
Michigan authorities also are investigating the matter, she said.
Tuan Lam, a California man who says he lost $500 in the scam, said in an e-mail this week he has given up on getting my money back or getting any compensation whatsoever. "However, I would feel much better knowing these individuals are punished."
The suit, when filed in March, was the first Internet fraud case in Washington. A state investigation found that the defendants advertised custom-made, low-cost computers through a Web site, aliendistribution.com. They also held sales over Internet auction sites, primarily eBay.
Typically, they would offer 100 computer systems — processors, hard drives, motherboards, speakers and software, but no monitors — to the highest bidders. Top bidders were allowed to buy as many as they liked, then the next-highest bidder could order, and so on, until all 100 were sold.
Winning bids typically ranged from $455 to $555 per computer, but at least one auction topped out at $792.
About 75 people filed complaints with the state Attorney General’s Office, all but a handful of them from outside Washington. All said they sent money to buy computers that they never received.
The investigators said the defendants started their operation under the name Office PC in March 1998. After a number of customer complaints, eBay suspended their trading activities in September 1999.
But the company already had begun using a new name, Xtranothing, and continued trading until eBay suspended it again in December 1999.
At that point, the company and eBay engaged in a cat-and-mouse game, with the company registering to sell computers under different names and eBay officials shutting it down as soon as they learned it was the same operation. The names it used included Wearasesoftware, Xpressnet, Kids and Computers, and finally, last winter, Aliendistribution.
All the while, investigators said, the defendants misled customers to believe their orders were being processed and delivered and that there would be free technical support for them once the merchandise arrived.
Other times, they entered "shill" bids on eBay, intended to drive sale prices up, investigators said. And they entered false information praising the company’s delivery performance on eBay’s Feedback Forum to reassure doubtful customers.
Along with the fines and penalties, the court order says Scott and the Buckners are not to engage in similar misleading acts. If they do, they’ll face contempt of court charges.
They’re also piling up 12 percent interest charges on their unpaid fines and restitution payments.
The attorney general in September filed a new lawsuit against another Everett man it claims was involved in the original Aliendistribution fraud and then continued on his own after that company shut down following the state’s lawsuit.
The suit against Hans Nelson still is pending, Jarvis said.
You can call Herald Writer Bryan Corliss at 425-339-3454
or send e-mail to corliss@heraldnet.com.
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