Extortionist: Jeffrey L. Stevenson, The Karamazov Group

This post concerns the notorious extortion scheme of Jeffrey L. Stevenson,(aka “jxs2151″), against me – Tauhidul Hoque. Jeffrey L. Stevenson is the principal of The Karamazov Group LLC – a Maryland limited liability company located at 317 Ridgepoint Place, Gaithersburg, MD 20878.

Summary

On January 14th, 2007, Jeff Stevenson purchased my IBM Thinkpad T40 laptop through Craigslist. A week later, he e-mailed me claiming that the laptop had began malfunctioning after it had been left on a couch for a week without anyone ever touching it. He wanted a refund. Given the numerous possiblities that could have caused the malfunction, I refused to take liability for damages after the time of sale. E-bay sellers offer return policies since the buyer cannot touch and feel the product. However in this case, Jeff had every opportunity to inspect the laptop, did so himself and bought it after finding it acceptable to his own satisfaction. Also, since private-party sales are not covered by the “implied warranty” of state laws, I cannot be held liable for damages after the time of sale. Thus, I notified him that I could not satisfy his request. Rather than settling the matter in a small claims court, this “senior, highly knowledgeable technologist” decided to blackmail me by publishing his dubious reasonings and incoherent lies about me on his personal website. In response his calumnious writings, I published my rebuttal on a blog. When Jeffrey noticed it had been indexed on Google, he sent e-mails to a former employer to harass me. He had been accumulating my information (including work history)from LinkedIn.com, a social networking website. In addition to being a “cunning ripoff artist who practices the worst kind of moral acrobatics”, according to Jeffrey, I am also a threat to take innocent lives like the Virginia Tech shooter and he threatened to send the campus police after me. These were the actions of the brainless, pitiful Jeffrey L. Stevenson.

Extortion & bullying

Mr. Hoque,
I am not going to argue that it was working for the ten minutes that I inspected it. However, after sitting in the bag for a week it is now not working after being on for extended periods of time. That combined with the fact that all serial numbers have been removed from the machine make me deeply suspicous.
Here’s the deal: You can choose to refund my money and sell it to another sucker, no questions asked, you’ll never hear from me again. If you choose not to take this route I can assure you that you will regret it. As a graduating college student, the first thing a prospective employer is going to do is Google your name. Should that potential employer find in the results a description of you having ripped me off on the sale of a laptop, that would likely impact their decision to hire you.
Think about it- is it worth $500? You do *not* want to mess with me on this.

The options presented by Jeffrey are either taking back the ‘now’ defective laptop, refund him, and be extorted, or become a scammer and sell the ‘now’ defective laptop to someone else. Furthermore, he even tries to frame me as a thief since the serial number stickers had been missing. Little did he know that the serial number is easily readable in the BIOS and verifiable on IBM’s website! Jeffrey had noticed that the serial number stickers were missing during his inspection, but he still chose to buy it. He tried to suggest that I stole the laptop, but then backed off when I mentioned having proof of purchase of the laptop. Clearly, this imaginative 40+ year old is trying to cook up stories.

Not answering the question about the laptop’s condition

Jeff wrote:

Hello,
I was wondering if you happen to have the docking station to go along with this laptop? I could come pick this up today, paying with cash of course. Without the docking station I am afraid that I am only willing to pay $500, providing the laptop is in pristine condition, with only normal wear, no dead pixels, and a verifiable good battery and includes the regular battery charger (not mentioned in the ad).
Thanks for your time,
Jeff

My response:

Sorry I do no have a docking station for it. There are no dead pixels, but there slight area where the protective coating has come off. It is usually not noticeable – it causes that part of the screen to be a little bit brighter. The batter is fine – it’s not one of those that will explode. Holds charge for ~3 hours. I also have the AC adapter and a car adapter for it. $500 was the minimum I would have accepted. Let me know if you are still interested.

Jeff claims that he asked a question about the laptop’s condition. However, he never forms it as a question, but as an underlying condition. I responded with as much detail as I could and even disclosed a cosmetic defect that he had not known about. Any unanswered questions regarding the laptop’s “pristine” condition were fully answered when this “senior, highly knowledgeable technologist” inspected the laptop himself later that afternoon.

Jeff wrote:

Okay, give me a single reply if your conscience will allow it:
“The laptop was in perfect working order. There were no problems and it was working perfectly with no defects. The screen never went dead and it always booted properly”
Can you write those exact words?

This time Jeff attempted a bit of trickery. Disguised as an appeal to the conscience from someone “holier than thou”, he was asking for a signed statement. Ask yourself this question: why would anyone want to provide a signed statement at the request of an extortionist? Answering this question myself, I opted not to reply as he probably had hoped. Also, during his inspection the laptop was booted up several times and none of this happened. According to the Federal Trade Commission, all third party sales are “as-is” unless guaranties are expressed in writing at the time of the deal. Jeff Stevenson had no case. Still, I have mentioned in my blog that the laptop was in working order, but Jeff never found my own words satisfactory.

Sensationalistic lies

Jeff wrote on his website:

“When I met Tauhidul Hoque at the Starbucks he seemed nervous and uninterested in talking about the laptop much.”
“I noticed he had gone and stood next to a car but did not get into it. I walked on and went about my business. In retrospect, I suppose if you are knowingly ripping someone off you don’t want them to know your car and tag number either.”

This is sensationalism at its best. And fabrications as well. I recall the day of our transaction vividly because of two reasons: the Saints lost to the Bears and Northern VA was covered in snow. Jeff and I had a ~30 minute meeting at the Starbucks. This is where I had mentioned to him about my upcoming graduation – information which he later used to try to extort me. We kept talking while he devoted his attention mainly to diagnose the laptop. He tested it to his heart’s content (I never interfered) and he paid me at the conclusion of our meeting. Since it was snowing, I also let him have the laptop sleeve for free. Also interesting is the fact that Jeff had to have walked by my car since it was parked right outside of the Starbucks.

Conclusion

Although there are many more easily refutable contradictions to Jeff’s fabrications I have decided not to disclose all of them here should this matter go to court. All his exaggerated lies are trumped by the single fact that he voluntarily chose to purchase the laptop despite my apparent nervousness and unwillingless to answer his questions. This contradicts all his disgusting sensationalism and whiny hind-sights. Lacking legal ground, he employed threats and trickery to try to blackmail me. Failing at that, he resorted to my character assassination. When his ideas backfired and I retaliated, his stalking went up to a new level on part with his delusion, lunacy, and overinflated ego. Obviously, I cannot speak highly of Jeff Stevenson after this experience. People should be aware of the shady tactics he chose to employ against me based simply on his “belief”/delusion that he has been crossed. To me this seems to be a case of Truthiness. People should know about the Jeffrey L. Stevenson that I came to know. Consider these to be my words of caution.

–Tauhidul Hoque