Prosecutors charge man in Internet scam

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) -- Cleveland County prosecutors on Wednesday charged a Pottawatomie County man in an Internet scam that started on the auction Web site eBay.

Charles Arland Graham, 34, was charged with two counts of obtaining money under false pretenses.

Graham also was charged with three counts of violating the state's computer crimes act after investigators with the state attorney general's office discovered he had been taking money from bidders on eBay without sending them the merchandise.

Graham's alleged accomplice, Kenneth Ray Howard Jr., 39, of Norman, was arrested on two counts of obtaining money under false pretenses after investigators said he helped Graham steal money from buyers.

Graham was being held late Wednesday in the Cleveland County Detention Center. Howard was released Wednesday on $10,000 bond.

Prosecutors accused Graham of contacting three people via e-mail -- a man in Illinois, a woman in New York and a man in North Carolina -- after they placed bids on eBay.

The three people sent Graham money totaling about $2,500, but investigators said he never sent them the satellite systems they requested. The people said Graham cashed their checks.