Legal Question in Credit and Debt Law in Georgia
I was using a "friends" eBay & paypal account. She was okay with this (I have yahoo and text conversations to prove it). I sold roughly $1,000 worth of items, and today I told her I'll need her to withdraw the money and to send to me. She asked how, I said, I'll do it for you, asked her to confirm her Bank name and last 4 digits of her account #. She said yes, that's it. Then I noticed a $500 max withdrawal a month, so I said you know what I'll just send the money to my mother's paypal so I can get it sooner. She said ok.
I then went out, and didn't come back till now. At which point I asked my mom what her paypal email was. Got the information, and was going to log into my friends paypal. Password didn't work. Tried again, once again didn't work. I texted her asking if she was around. No response. Look for her on facebook, noticed she deleted me. So obviously now I know what she's up to. Go to her eBay to see if I can get some of her information just in case. Luckily I was still logged in, and I see there is a message in her inbox "eBay Change Password Confirmation".
So she changed her passwords for everything, right before I was going to get my money out. I called her, told her she needs to call me asap.
What I have done in the mean time is, I went on eBay and got her address. I took screen shots of all the items I sold, how much I made. Under each item is the tracking number, which I also have on a print out receipt from when I shipped the items.
She is in Georgia, I am in Connecticut.
1 Answer from Attorneys
Let me get this straight. You committed a series of crimes and now want to know what you can do.
Logging into someone else's eBay or PayPal account is (1) a clear violation of their terms of service, and (2) may be both a crime in Georgia and under federal law. The fact you claim "permission" may noit save you. You could face felony prosecution.
Assuming arguendo that you can choose to violate the terms of service for eBay and PayPal and not get prosecuted, you probably will get no help from either because the posted termns of service clearly barred you from doing what you did. (They may also get your friend kicked off both sites).
If you are willing to take a chance on criminal prosecution, you could fly to Georgia and try to sue her. You'll have the expense of travel and no guarantee of recovery. (Since email and text messages are easily forged they may also not help you much in court).
You'll find the Georgia criminal statute at http://www.spsu.edu/infotech/policies/iii.html . Note that while having authority to use someone's password may be a defense, your last access on her account after she changed passowrds was unauthorized. There is a possibility of up to 15 years in jail and a large fine.
Perhaps you should chalk this up to experience, and the next time comply with the law and not fraudently conceal your identity on ebay.
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