m_t_promotions - belated scam warning

stormCat99

Hi,

This is somewhat after the horse has bolted, but I wanted to post on MSE as it is a high profile site, and it may well be of help to others. I've searched on this board and can find no reference.

In short, I purchased event tickets from user m_t_promotions on eBay a few months ago - thousands of feedback, 99.9% positive, PowerSeller, regsitered since 2004. Safe as it gets you would think.

It was only when my tickets didn't turn up for the V Festival this weekend, that I realised there was a problem. Sadly, someone had had their account hijacked and created a load of bogus listings. According to thread on hotukdeals, over £500k has been scammed :mad:

I just wanted to post on here to increase awareness, as I for one would not have got my money back had it not been for searching on Google. eBay were not replying to my messages, and finally in desperation I typed the seller's username into Google, and finally found this:

http://www.hotukdeals.com/forums/showthread.php?t=410406

Had it not been for that, I'd have probably written it off as a bad job. As the purchase was over 90 days ago (only just), which is apparently outside the period you can claim your money back. I didn't know this, but will obviously remember for future purchases after this. Luckily, as it was such a large fraud, eBay have taken the unusual step of refunding everyone. I rang the PowerSeller hotline last night (see hotukdeals thread) and even though I wasn't entitled to their help, under the circumstances they were brilliant, really helpful. Not at all like the eBay I usually have to deal with, I was geniunely surprised and very grateful for their swirft refund.

Many more people might only just be realising they have been scammed, what with more festivals coming up this weekend. So I hope this helps someone.

soolin

The paypal claim period is only 45 days and it is a risk buying advance tickets that you won't get within that time frame.

I know many people do buy successfully, but for me I would not risk any purchase where I had to give up my buyer protection.

Hopefully as there is enough of you on the case in this instance you will be able to hunt down the scammer and get some funds back. Good luck.

stormCat99

Hi soolin,

Yes neither would I, and I know it's entirely my own fault for not reading all the Ts and Cs, but I was totally unaware of the short time limit. I know now though, and will not do the same again!!

Prob didn't make it clear in the above post, but we HAVE all got our money back. I think just because it was such a massive fraud, to avoid adverse publicity, eBay have been refunding without even lodging a formal claim. I just rang up and they did it there and then.

The point of the post though, was to raise awareness, as there are probably hundreds of others like me who would have realised it was outside of the official claim period, and just not pursued it. Hopefully people will see this thread or the one on Hotukdeals, and realise they can easily get their money back on this particular scam with a quick call to eBay.

Good on eBay in this instance