Flames Season Ticket Holder - Jason Fillion scams me out of $3K+ - BEYOND CSI HELP
Hi everyone - Just thought I would share a little ordeal I had have to deal with over the past few weeks and was wondering what my next steps should be. I apologize in advance if this is a little long winded...
Back in March, I had answered an ad on Kijiji for Flames Season tickets for the upcoming year. Normally I am very skeptical of most ads on there, but as it turns out, I had dealt with this guy before when I had purchased a few pairs off of him in 2008. I had met him in person at his office in Kensington and he seemed to be legit as at the time he was a mortgage broker. I had also talked to his wife at the time and as it turned out the tickets were legit and I didn't have any problems.
So... fast forward to this past March and Jason agreed to sell me the full season for $6,500. The seats were in Section 213 Row 22 so I thought it was a decent price. He wanted half of the amount upfront ($3,250) which I thought was reasonable, given that was when the first payment was due to the Flames for renewal according to some of my friends that have season tickets. He seemed to be in a huge rush to get the cash off of me which should have been a warning sign at the time, but again, given my dealings with him before I gave him the benefit of the doubt. I got him to sign an agreement and I paid via check which was cashed right away.
Starting about a month ago, I sent him an email asking if he had the tickets in yet with no response. I tried calling both his cell and office numbers, both of which were disconnected which was the first thing that started to get me worried. I was able to track down a home number from an old email back in 2008 and was relieved to find it was still active. I left several voicemail messages over the next week or so and even talked to his kids a couple of times... each time I was told that both Jason and his wife were not home.
The week before the preseason was about to begin... I tried calling again on a Saturday afternoon, but this time I used my girlfriend's cell and lo and behold he answers! He tells me that he was meaning to call me but has been really busy with work... I ask him if he has the tickets and he replies no... then he says that he has company over and he will call me back at 7pm that evening... of course...I never received a call. I continued to call and leave voicemails and emailed both him and his wife and still no response.
Last week after three weeks of not being able to get a hold of either of them and the first preseason game just around the corner, I begin to realize that I am officially being scammed. I tried calling the Flames sales office to see if they could give me any information but they said they can't because of Canadian privacy laws.... they say the only way they can give info if the cops get involved. ..so I call the cops and surprising enough, they can charge him with fraud so they took a report, but who knows how long that will take and whether I will ever see anything from it.
So, now I'm out $3,250 and dont' really know what my next steps should be. Who knows if he did this to others or if it was just me. It wasn't exactly a sophisticated fraud given I paid him by check and he signed an agreement so there is definitely a paper trail, especially given I know that they were his season tickets in the past! I have found 3 different potential home addresses online for him all in the South, but who knows if he actually still lives at any of these addresses. At this point, I don't even care about the tickets... I just want my cash back.
Here's the information I have on him:
Name - Jason Fillion
Wife - Lanie Fillion
Former employer - mortgage broker - Mortgage Alliance
Current employer - President, Lucrative Timing - well most current I have
Vehicle - Silver/Grey Nissan Armada - what he was driving when I paid him in March
I know hindsight is 20/20, but I always got a bit of a bad vibe off this guy. He was always talking a big game. He even actually called me out of the blue a couple of times after not having talked to him the first time after a year trying to get me to invest in this or that and that it was a once in a lifetime opportunity blah blah blah.
I guess the lesson learned from this is to trust my own intuition.. I'm still hoping that I can get this cash back somehow...just not sure how... if he claims to be the entrepreneur/institutional investor that he is...surely, anyone trying to google him will come across this thread and steer clear.
If anyone else has any suggestions on what to do next, they would be more than welcome!
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