When it comes to scammers you can’t catch ‘em all, but a recent small claims court case in B.C. worked out in favour of two Pokemon card collectors after they were defrauded in an online card selling incident.
Andrew Younes and Jalilzadeh Khiabani made a chancy purchase from Zachary Hall for a set of rare Pokemon cards, according to a court decision. Instead, they received cards worth next to nothing.
Younes’ claim states that he sent $975 to Hall via e-transfer for six rare cards on June 8, 2021. Between June 8 and 15, Younes asked Hall several times if he had sent the cards before the package was delivered on the 15. Younes said he began to grow suspicious after finding Facebook posts where Hall had sold the same cards to other buyers. The claim alleged that when Younes expressed his concerns to Hall, Hall ‘unsent’ much of their message history, including photos of the cards.
The two had done business before and in previous transactions, Hall had sent videos of the cards to Younes. This time around, Hall sent only a photo of a closed box addressed to Younes at the post office. That only heightened Younes’ suspicions.
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When Younes received the package he opened it within 10 minutes of picking it up. Inside, he found only a basketball card and a baseball card.
As for Khiabani’s claim, he sent $260 to Hall for a specific card on June 13. However, when Khiabani received the package, it contained roughly 15 Pokémon cards worth only “a few cents or dollars each,” documents show.
In his defence, Hall said that Younes and Khiabani’s claims were false and that they were out to make “a quick few bucks” and maintained that “sometimes mail gets lost.” However, Hall never directly disputed that he had sent them the wrong cards.
Tribunal member Eric Regehr found Hall’s defence was not very effective.
Regehr wrote that Hall’s submissions were “difficult to follow” and generally failed to address the issue in the dispute. Because of this, Regehr reasoned that Hall knew he sent the wrong cards whether it was on purpose or not.
Hall was ordered to pay Younes $1,115.38, which included $975 in damages. Hall was also ordered to pay Khiabani $260 in damages.
@SchislerCole
cole.schisler@bpdigital.ca
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