Hmm, doesn't sound good. Since you went outside of Ebay to attempt this transaction, Ebay probably won't do anything for you. Since you were neither the "official" buyer or seller, you aren't protected under any of Ebay's provisions, such as their fraud policies.

I won a wireless card from some dork on Ebay a couple of weeks ago. I paid right away, and so did the other 2 winners (dutch auction) and of course the item never showed up for any of us. Luckily, I paid though paypal and subsequently registered a complaint.

I got fed up and bought a wireless adaptor (that I'm using now finally!!)

However, your situation sounds much worse. Your transaction with the official winner didn't occur in the official Ebay realm, so you basically gave this guy some money. Sorry to hear about it though, hopefully something will work out.

You can use various search engines to find out more about this guy. I managed to find the phone number of the guy who took my money - and this was without requesting info from Ebay.

Good luck