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Contact the USPS for literary fraud

James D. Macdonald

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Postal Fraud

A good point. If the mails were used at any point in a scheme (sending hardcopy books or manuscripts, for example), the United States Postal Service inspectors have jurisdicition on all of it, even if payments were made by PayPal and the correspondence by email.

I do sometimes wonder if that's why Robert Fletcher and Larry Clopper insist on doing almost everything electronically ... but they've both screwed up. There have been some things in both of their schemes that have moved by USPS mail.
 

Jaws

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On Mail Fraud

Mail fraud is governed by 18 U.S.C. § 1341. Wire fraud is governed by 18 U.S.C. § 1343. The difference is primarily that wire fraud must cross state lines (it's a long and confusing bit of constitutional law for why). The key thing to remember is this:

Just because it is a violation doesn't mean the authorities will do anything about it. Both the USPS and FBI have minimum-loss guidelines. For example, the FBI will not take notice of mail fraud less than $250,000 demonstrated loss unless there's another connection (e.g., drug money laundering). The USPS inspectors are generally limited to demonstrated losses in excess of $50,000, although they have more discretion. Let's face it—they have limited resources and are too busy nabbing street-corner dope peddlars.
 

Kevin Yarbrough

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Looking at the postal inspectors website it says that if you ordered anything and have not received it (within a certain time frame) then you can file a mail fraud charge. This also falls under the FTC and DMA guidelines for selling anything over the phone, net, or mail.

I say anybody that ordered anything from PA and never received the books should file a claim. Maybe if enough of us send an email to the postal inspectors maybe they will look into it. After all, the contracts and the books are sent via postal service.