Legal Question in Criminal Law in California

Re: Indentity Theft

He's probably upset that he thinks you're selling things for profit and having it end up reported as his income. But, that doesn't mean he has a right to keep the proceeds of the sale of your property. It wouldn't make sense for you to steal his identity if the result was going to be the money would be sent to him for property of yours that you sold. True identity theft is where you use somebody else's identity to obtain property with him paying for it, not giving up property to pay the person whose identity was stolen. Perhaps your friend is just freaking out and doesn't understand the law here. This is particularly bad because it involves friendship. Everybody should calm dolwn and realize this was just an innocent mistake. If I can help brokering peace, please feel free for you and your (former and hopefully to be again) friend to both e-mail me at [email protected]. Perhaps I can help getting the two of you dialoging to figure out what really happened and restore mutual trust.

Re: Indentity Theft

Let me get this straight -- while registering on eBay you typed someone else's name and phone number where you were asked for your own and you say it was a mistake? I don't buy it. People don't mistake themselves for someone else just because they are tired.

Even so, I don't see how your friend (probably a former friend by now) has been harmed by your actions. As Mr. Wisong points out, identity theft usually involves using someone else's identity for the benefit of the thief, not the victim. I don't see how he has any legitimate claim to the funds, but I don't envy you the task of convincing eBay or a court that this all happened because of an innocent mistake on your part.

Your friend was well within his rights to complain to eBay and eBay acted properly by suspending your account. This particular transaction may have been a sale, but once you have an account in someone else's name you might also try to use it to make purchases which would likely be billed to him. He has every right to insist that the account be disabled before that can happen, and eBay has the right -- indeed, the duty -- to investigate such allegations and to take appropriate actions to prevent fraud. Neither he nor eBay has to wait silently until a fraud has been committed. This doesn't necessarily mean you actually would have committed a fraud, but having created the means to do so you can't complain when people take preventative measures like this.

If your mistake really was innocent, you can try to persuade them to reinstate the account in your name and with your contact info. You could also try going to court against your friend (you ask about small claims, so I will presume that the sale price was less than the $5,000 small claims limit), but expect some really tough questions from the judge about how your "mistake" happened.

Re: Indentity Theft

Thank you for your posting and your inquiry.

You have two good answers, but I'd add that small claims, or any civil claim in court, is your only remedy if you can't otherwise negotiate this. If you want the value of your work and the item sold on Ebay, you are going to have to sue him for that value, unless you were an employee (in which case you can report his failure to pay you to the labor board).

I hope that this information helps you, but if you have further questions, want more information, or feel that you need legal representation, please feel free to email me directly at [email protected]. It's my pleasure to assist in any way that I can.