PLATTSBURGH — Looking for some extra money, a Malone man placed an online ad to sell some of his Xbox and PlayStation 3 equipment.

After being contacted about the sale through www.craigslist.org in mid October, Josh VanEss agreed to meet a man, who identified himself only as a Canadian resident, at a local parking lot to sell the $2,000 worth of equipment.

VanEss, 21, made the drive from Malone to Plattsburgh and exchanged the expensive equipment for a $500 traveler’s check.

But a few days later, VanEss realized he was not only out his video-game equipment but the money, too.

The authentic-looking check was a fake.

“It looked so real,” said VanEss’s mom, Patty Supernault. “He was careful about it and looked it over before he gave him the equipment. He thought it was real. It was (allegedly) authorized by a bank in Canada and even had Visa written on the back.

“He was brought up to be honest and wasn’t really expecting anything like that to happen. If my son got taken advantage of, someone else can too.

“We just don’t want this to happen to anyone else.”

ARREST MADE

Less than a week after the fraudulent transaction, State Police brought Dennis Pike, 33, of Plattsburgh into custody in connection with not only VanEss’s complaint but at least three others.

Each of the complaints involved transactions stemming from craigslist’s ads and the fake $500 checks, though VanEss was the only local resident initially believed to have been scammed.

The others traveled from the Albany area and allegedly met Pike in a local Sunoco store parking lot to sell the items they posted online.

One individual suspected the fraud at the time of the transaction and contacted authorities shortly afterward to warn them.

At the time of Pike’s Oct. 18 arrest, he was already on house arrest for violating the terms of his probation.