DAILY MAIL STAFF
Faced with crushing debt, Vernon Derl Bell of Charleston turned tothe Internet as a salvation.
But what at first seemed like a profitable pastime came to destroythe 48-year-old accountant's life, as he slowly slipped and beganripping off the people buying sports cards from him over theInternet.
On Thursday, the bearded man stood in a nearly empty federalcourtroom in Charleston, fighting back tears as U.S. District JudgeJohn Copenhaver sent him to prison for 15 months for taking more than$150,000 from his Internet customers.
Bell, a married father of two, said that for a long time, hedidn't know that what he had done was a crime. 'I spent 46 yearstrying to do everything right, working hard to provide for myfamily,' he said. 'And those last two years haven't been easy,everything has been bad.'
Using the auction house eBay, Bell was able to reach millions, andeventually took money from 186 people scattered across the country.And his victims aren't alone: In the first six months of this year,Americans lost more than $7 million to Internet fraud, according tothe National Fraud Information Center.
Bell says he got onto eBay to sell sports cards, not defraudpeople. And, for many months before November 2000, that's what hedid, said his lawyer, Henry Wood. For a while, his two Internetbusinesses, Homeplate Cards and Touchdown Cards, were so profitablethat he decided to close his Charleston store and focus on eBay, Woodsaid.
But around November 2000, things began to go sour, according tocourt documents. Bell says he and his wife still try to figure outwhy he crossed the line and began taking money from customers.
'I mean, what went wrong?' he asked. 'I had no intention ofdefrauding anybody.'
As things went bad, though, he found that he didn't have the moneyto buy the cards he promised to send to his customers. From Januaryto April 2001, he was cashing checks and taking payments withoutsending out the card editions he sold over the Internet, according tocourt documents.
In those four months, Bell took more than $153,000 from 186people, according to court documents. 'That business operation that Ihad went bad, it went very bad,' he said.
With customers clamoring for refunds and threatening to turn himover to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Bell decided to go tofederal authorities himself. In April, he gave the U.S. Attorney'soffice in Charleston a list naming every single person he ripped offand detailing how much he took, Wood said.
'I think he was remorseful,' said assistant U.S. Attorney AnnaCrawford. 'But he also realized the boom was about to be lowered.'
On Thursday, Bell promised to repay his victims 'over a period ofthe rest of my lifetime, if necessary.'
Copenhaver said federal authorities will hold him to that promise:The terms of his plea agreement require him to fully compensate all186 people he ripped off.
Writer Toby Coleman can be reached at 348-4886 or e-mail attobycoleman@dailymail.com
