I'm not any kind of lawyer but my guess is you could get a default judgement and then employ some sort of bounty hunter to attempt to collect on them.

As a lawyer, default judgment for sure, but no one is sending out bounty hunters for small claims court. In fact, the courts tend to not get involved at all. You, the plaintiff, would be given the means to prove the judgment has been entered, but then it's kind of up to you to have it enforced. Luckily, you can generally count on the assistance of a Sheriff's office, but often the approach is some sort of wage garnishment (with a number of restrictions), bank levy (also with a number of restrictions), or real estate liens.

Collecting on these sort of judgments can be difficult, time consuming, and frustrating.

Is $2900 even eligible for small claims? Seems like marginally yes, depending on the state. Looks like the photographer is based out of CA and their limit is $7500. FL is $5000. WA is $10,000. Go figure.

> Collecting on these sort of judgments can be difficult, time consuming, and frustrating.

Definitely, and it's quite possible at the end of the day the fraudster doesn't have significant assets to recover. Still, might be worth trying it for $2900 or more, depending on how you value your time.

Yeah, you can small claims any amount... but people usually won't file below cost of filing (around $80 in FL)

> it's quite possible at the end of the day the fraudster doesn't have significant assets to recover.

It's possible they still have the camera, if they weren't just scoring goods for resale.

Wouldn't a default judgement show up when they try to rent something or buy something on credit? I mean if nothing else, at least their life would be a little less comfortable.