Musings of an Internet Junkie

In November, I filed a dispute with PayPal since another PayPal user decided to take payment from my for a number of items and never shipped said items. I was awarded a claim on the dispute in December from PayPal, however at that time PayPal would not collect against the user Paul Calabrese, meth8600@hotmail.com due to “insufficient funds” in his account so I was never granted a refund.

I decided to file a fraud claim with my own bank due to PayPal’s lack of resolution. Today PayPal decided to return the money back to my bank by removing it from my own PayPal account thereby causing my PayPal account to have a negative balance. What I do not understand is why this could not have been done to user Paul Calabrese’s account at the time of dispute since PayPal seems so willing to make my account negative to resolve a dispute with my bank and why I am being penalized via my PayPal account instead of the person who committed the fraud. It is my belief that PayPal could have and should have removed the money from Paul Calabrese’s account to resolve this issue and leave him with a negative balance.

Now I am left to dispute the negative balance of my account with PayPal, who created the negative balance to begin with. Most likely they will claim ignorance or it is some policy or procedure and then will attempt to go on to try to collect back the money from me by ruining my credit record. I cannot even close my own account with PayPal at this time to protest since I have a negative balance which they created through their actions. Needless to say, I have been documenting everything from the time the first transaction occured, through the dispute and claim process, and now this new twist. The saga continues….

I am appealing to the Internet community at large to help provide me with information to track down one Paul Calabrese, located in Connecticut. Mr. Calabrese took payment for automotive parts orders from several people on Club Lexus and never delivered the parts, instead opting to take the money and disappear. All of us involved have filed disputes through PayPal who has been less than helpful in recovering our money from Mr. Calabrese. I have also personally filed complaints with the Internet Crime Complaint Center and filed a fraud affidavit with my own bank. I do not expect much help from these entities either.

My ultimate goal would be to locate Mr. Calabrese so I may bring charges against him for fraud and other laws which may have been broken in this failed interstate commerce transaction. I would also like to show that people are not as anonymous on the Internet as they would like to believe seeing as how fraud on the Internet is on the rise which I posit is because people believe they have some sort of anonymity on the Internet so they will not be held accountable for their actions. Club Lexus will not release the last logged IP address of Mr. Calabrese without a subpoena. PayPal will not release Mr. Calabrese’s address without a subpoena.

Here is the information I have collected on Paul Calabrese thus far:

Name: Paul Calabrese
Location: Connecticut (possibly around the Waterbury area, although this has not be verified)
Birth Date: January 14, 1986
Car: 1993 Lexus SC400, silver spruce color
Screen Name: Cal9126
Email: meth8600@hotmail.com

It appears, for the moment, that I will be withdrawing from Baker after this semester is completed. Since I began with Baker back during the Summer semester (2007), I have been asking whether or not the Bachelor of Computer Science degree is considered a Bachelor of Science or a Bachelor of Arts degree because I would like to continue on, or have the change to continue on, to graduate school after I graduate. I finally received my answer from the advisers which stated the degree is considered neither a BS or BA in Computer Science and I would need to check with any graduate schools I am interested in applying to whether the degree would be accepted.

I would much rather attend a school which has a standard degree recognizable by any accredited institution. It appears my search will continue in seeking true, online Bachelor of Science degrees in either Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering or Computer Science. So far the only other school I have found offering this has been University of North Dakota and unfortunately their lack of communication turned me off of them the first time I was accepted and planned to attend. However, if they are still the only ones out there, I may have to re-apply. One would think in this day and age, more schools would be offering accredited engineering and science degrees online.

Back in April, I fell off the wagon and joined back up with millions of other players (addicts?) playing World of Warcraft. Well, I was not able to stay entertained long enough to continue paying the monthly fees to Blizzard. I found myself slowly playing less and less of the game and once again felt it was time to move on.

What have I been doing with all of the extra time I have now? I have finally started catching up on movies I skipped watching to play the game. I have enrolled in Baker College’s Bachelor of Computer Science degree program. I have started getting outside more often, becoming reacquainted with that great blazing orange ball in the sky called the Sun, and I even went to the local West Michigan Fly-In event with my father and wife recently!

After numerous attempts, I took the plunge this year and have returned to school. Since I am currently a full time employee in a job position that requires frequent travel, I have registered with Baker College to seek a Bachelor of Computer Science degree. This not only allows me to take classes on my schedule from any location that has Internet access, but also allows me to gain a four-year degree in something I have always been interested in learning. Now if only more schools would come into the 21st century and open up their four-year programs to online learners.