West Trenton, N.J . – New Jersey State Police Detectives working with members of the FBI, Monroe Township ( Gloucester County) Police Department and the East Brunswick Police Departments arrested 12 “cyber-Grinches” in this year’s Operation Holiday Spirit. Task force members worked with information supplied by NC3, a national internet fraud information clearing house, to hunt down local violators and makes arrests in nine counties.

The operation took task force detectives approximately two months to compile and resulted in search warrants and numerous victim and suspect interviews. Value of the fraud is in excess of $50,000 and includes items such as drum sets, plasma TVs, a viscometer (whatever that is, it’s valued at $24,000), and other items. Every fraud to the 34 different victims in this year’s Operation Holiday Spirit was perpetrated on eBay, the online auction website.

Det. Sgt. Stan Field, NJSP Cyber Crimes Unit believes there are ways to reduce your chances of being victimized by auction fraud, although no method will guarantee trouble-free purchases. “There are two primary flags to watch for in online auctions: a weak seller’s rating, as determined by number of transactions, length of time as a seller and positive/negative feedback from previous customers; and buyers who only accept checks, certified checks and money orders,” said Field. Some methods of payment, such as Paypal and many credit cards offer various levels of buyer protection when used under certain conditions.

A list of those arrested, fraud amount and items is included [pdf]

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