A few weeks ago there were numerous posts on the MMD regarding fraud
taking place for mechanical musical instruments on the internet,
particularly on eBay.  I have a contact at the FBI who works
specifically with the Internet fraud division, so I posed the question
to him as to what we can do to help stop this problem.  This is his
response:

  "The best thing to do is to report them to the Internet Crime
  Complaint Center (www.ic3.gov).  They have an on-line report form
  you can fill out.  The IC3 is the best place to report the matters
  because they do a lot of data and trend analyses.  Plus, they can
  often link a single scam to a much larger collection of scams.
  The criminal groups responsible may be under investigation, and
  additional reports provide more incentive and opportunity."

Believe it or not, they really do take the reports seriously at the
ICCC.  My FBI contact, who gave the response above, was the result of
my reporting an email scam to the ICCC.  They actually read my report
and are using it in an investigation of a huge Internet scam based in
Romania.

So please, if you suspect fraud on eBay or elsewhere, especially
involving mechanical musical instruments, place a report at the ICCC,
so we can at least get a few of these criminals put away.  It only
takes a few minutes and can do a lot of good in protecting our mutual
interest in this area.

Thanks,  Charlie Morgan