07-3514 U.S. v. Heckel

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Sentencing
Wire fraud; mass-marketing

Where a defendant was convicted of wire fraud based on online auctions, his sentence was properly enhanced for mass marketing.

"Even though an Internet auction results in just one winning bidder and thus only one victim, the sheer scope of the possible bidding drives the price of the item on the virtual auction block. Posting a rare coin for sale on the Internet, as Heckel did in the count to which he pled guilty, invited the vast online public to bid, and those who did so were trying to purchase the item by suggesting a price that they believed no competing online bidder would exceed. That only one such bidder eventually won the online auction does not negate the harm of this method of fraudulent solicitation. Cf. United States v. Blanchett, 41 F. App'x 181, 183 (10th Cir. 2002) ('[The defendant] never intended to provide computers to prospective buyers, and thus did not feel bound to accept only the highest offer, leaving every Internet user who bid on the computers potentially vulnerable.'). Heckel's was exactly the type of 'plan, program, promotion, or campaign' that the mass- marketing enhancement is designed to address. U.S.S.G. 2B1.1 cmt. n.4(A)."

Affirmed.

07-3514 U.S. v. Heckel

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin, Shabaz, J., Sykes, J.

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