I purchased a counterfeit item that was sold to me as legitimate. I contacted the seller after I discovered it was counterfeit. He has said ...

Question

I purchased a counterfeit item that was sold to me as legitimate. I contacted the seller after I discovered it was counterfeit. He has said he would return my money. That was over two weeks ago. He now will not return phone calls. I have his name and DL number.

What legal action can I take? Can I file and arrest warrant? Thanks for your help.

Atty. Mr Glen Ashman replied to my question:

You haven't told us what it was, how much it was worth, why you think it's fake, the method of payment, etc, all of which are necessary for an answer. This is probably NOT a criminal matter. Your remedy, depending on the things you chose to omit, could be a small claims lawsuit in magistrate court, hiring a lawyer, doing a credit card chargeback, making a claim on a site like eBay if it was bought there, etc. Not all of those will be your remedy but one may be, should you chose to give details. Some of your remedies have very short time periods.

My reply to his questions:

I paid $625.00 cash to this person. I had purchased similar items from this person in the past so, I trusted him with this purchase. I inspected the item(guitar) in depth the following day and discovered it was a fake. Like I said, I contacted him and he maintained he did no know it was counterfeit and he said he would return my money. Now, he is ignoring my phone calls.

Thanks for your reply.

Answer

Based on your added information, with a $625 claim, your logical remedy is a small claims suit. You file this in Magistrate's Court in the county where the seller lives. The court has a claims form you use to start a case, and hearings come pretty quickly.