Victims applaud Net scam sentence

EBay trader Brian Bell never got the Rolex watches he ordered two years ago, but he is pleased with the Christmas present a judge delivered last week: Michael Deppe was sentenced to 6 1/2 years in federal prison for swindling Bell and others in cyber schemes totaling more than $500,000.

"That accurately reflects the seriousness and longstanding nature of Deppe's conduct," said Adam Bookbinder, the assistant US attorney who prosecuted the case.

Deppe, 22, already has served 13 months, which will be credited toward the sentence.

US District Judge F. Dennis Saylor IV pronounced the sentence in a Worcester courtroom last week, nearly three years after charges in the case were first lodged.

The sentence covers Deppe's conviction on charges stemming from scams dating back to March 2003. He peddled luxury goods, electronic equipment, sports memorabilia, and -- while already under indictment -- $255,000 worth of tickets to the 2005 Super Bowl between the Patriots and the Philadelphia Eagles.

Deppe, who lived in Hudson and neighboring towns, pleaded guilty to some of the charges at the beginning of the year. He was convicted on others in a trial last spring, attended by many of his victims.

The judge ordered him to spend three years in supervised release after his time in federal prison, pay a $12,500 fine, and pay $520,000 in restitution to his victims. Deppe also must forfeit $370,000, including $11,000 in cash found at his residence when he was arrested.

In court, Deppe read a statement apologizing to his victims.

"He made his decisions and now he can pay the price," said Bell, who paid $17,600 for four Rolex watches that Deppe never delivered.

After he was cheated, the Hilton Head, S.C., resident spent numerous hours on the Internet and telephone warning other prospective customers about Deppe. Bell also kept up a running barrage of phone calls to local, state, and federal authorities, alerting them to Deppe's dealings.

Charles Devlin, a Hudson detective who helped solve the case, said he was glad federal authorities have put Deppe behind bars. "He deserves nothing other," Devlin said last week by e - mail.

An author of a book about the Internet said Deppe's sentence was not unusual.

"Courts have been pretty merciless lately with Internet scam artists, and Deppe's sentence was no exception," said Brian McWilliams, author of "Spam Kings," about the people behind the junk e - mail problem.

For example, McWilliams said, a spammer from North Carolina was sentenced in 2005 to nine years in prison. "These criminal convictions have a much bigger deterrent effect against spammers and on line scammers than the civil lawsuits brought by AOL [and others] that result in multi million - dollar judgments that almost always go unpaid," McWilliams said by e - mail.

Still, that's little comfort to Joseph Kavanagh, who paid Deppe $6,000 for Michael Jordan autographs that turned out to be fake.

"The damage to my faith in the goodness of people and Internet business in general will never be repaired," the south Florida resident wrote by e-mail.

"It is still the wild, wild West on the Internet," he added. "Most people are too embarrassed to report these crimes and the criminals get away with it. The only reason why Deppe was caught was because he got greedy and went for the big fish."

Ed Miller, who had flown to Orlando from his home in Willow Grove, Pa., to obtain Super Bowl tickets from Deppe, lost about $12,000 in the scam.

"I'm glad he got jail time," Miller said last week in a telephone interview. "My only thought is he should have gotten the max."

The maximum prison term would have been seven years and three months.

Miller was one of the first in the scam to apply for re imbursement from PayPal, the on line payment center for Internet trading. He got $6,500 back, but was out the rest.

Miller, who talked to Deppe by phone before the Super Bowl and testified at his trial, said he struck him as a person without remorse.

"He has absolutely no feelings" when it comes to fleecing other people, Miller said. "It's actually kind of scary."

Deppe's family and attorney could not be reached for comment.

Connie Paige can be reached at cpaige@globe.com. Internet traders or others who believe they might have been defrauded can get information at abuse.net. The website has links to report Internet abusers and fraud.