A Fayette County man already facing a multitude of charges in state court for identity theft -- including attempting to steal the identities of his father-in-law and sister-in-law -- has been indicted in federal court.

Jason D. Joy, 38, of Uniontown, is charged with eight counts of mail fraud, stemming from what prosecutors say was an online scheme from March 2003 to June 2006.

They claim that Mr. Joy, a former math professor at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh and Point Park University, offered numerous items for sale on online auction sites like eBay and Yahoo! Auctions, collected the payments for them, but never provided the merchandise.

The people who bought the items mailed Mr. Joy money orders and checks totaling more than $38,000 but never received the goods.

When the customers contacted Mr. Joy to say they hadn't gotten what they paid for, he told them he'd been a victim of identity theft.

He never refunded any money, prosecutors say.

In the state case, Mr. Joy is accused of opening an eBay account in the name of one of his former students in 2004 and then using that information to sell items online.

According to an affidavit of probable cause, he used his sister-in-law's check card to pay eBay's surcharge on the sold items.

He also used Julie Ann Paull's identity, police say, to open a Dell Preferred credit account and obtain an American Express card.

State troopers said that Mr. Joy also put in a change-of-address form for his father-in-law, James Tressler of Hopwood, and then applied for credit cards in his name.

Postal employees in Hopwood alerted Mr. Tressler to the change in October 2006, and he had it canceled. According to an affidavit in that case, shortly after that, Mr. Tressler received three new credit cards in the mail.

He immediately suspected his son-in-law, the affidavit said, and went to police.

When troopers spoke with Mr. Joy, he denied committing any crimes and instead said he believed someone had stolen his credit information.

"Joy stated that he believes that the actors are either students at the Art Institute or fellow teachers or professors," according to the affidavit of probable cause. "He stated that he is not well-liked there due to him having his Ph.D. And other teachers make less money than him."

But Mr. Joy's wife, Kerry Sue Joy, started to question her husband and went to the FBI, providing two of her husband's computers to analyze.

The investigation spanned four years and resulted in Mr. Joy being charged with four counts of identity theft and three counts each of unlawful use of a computer, criminal use of a communication facility and access device fraud.