Help getting bank transfer made to fraudulent party refunded

studentgti

Hi all

I've been a long time lurker on this forum, and I apologise I've only signed up and posted now when I'm in need of help, but I'm hoping somebody is kind enough to offer me some advice.

Basically, I made an offer on some goods on a forum I frequent, and the buyer responded saying they would meet me in the middle of our two offers. A couple of mins after this, I recieved a private message on the forum from the 'seller' saying they had changed their mind and would accept the offer I made (£100). We exchanged details over the message and I bank transferred him the money (I thought this would be fine as the 'seller' had a long history on the forum and many positive trade feedbacks).

After not receiving a response for a while, I came back on to the forum to check, and it was only then I realised somebody had signed up with an identical username, but just added a fullstop at the end - which stupidly I missed, and it was them that had sent me the message. This user (who had nothing to do with the actual seller) has since unregistered from the forum and done a runner with my money :evil: . I even got an address for peace of mind, but I presume this will prove to be fake.

I contacted Natwest, but their fraud team don't work weekend, and I was advised that a) the payment had already cleared in their account so there wasn't much they could do and that b) it doesn't fall under their definition of fraud as I willingly sent the money, rather than somebody stealing my details.

Not overly impressed with this, I googled the scammers bank sort-code and discovered they also bank with Natwest. Rang the bank back, and they said my best bet is to go to my local branch tomorrow and see if I can get it sorted out. The moderators on the forum are happy to help regarding his IP addresses etc. if needs be.

My questions are :

1) Do Natwest have to/are they likely to be able to reclaim the money from the scammer, as I have details of his account with Natwest and proof from the forum he was impersonating the real seller and is a scammer?
2) When entering ‘his’ details into the transfer option on my online banking, I was asked to input the account name as well as the number/sort code. Should Natwest even have made a transfer to a bank account where the name clearly did not match the bank details (he has used a fake name on the forum), and therefore are the bound to refund it?
3) If Natwest prove useless, what are my options regarding getting the police involved, forcing Natwest to divulge the guys details etc?

Sorry for the lengthy post, but as you can imagine I’m absolutely fuming at the moment, more at my own stupidity than anything else. I’m currently a student so it’s not the sort of money I can just throw away.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

James

4743hudsonj

studentgti wrote: »

Hi all

I've been a long time lurker on this forum, and I apologise I've only signed up and posted now when I'm in need of help, but I'm hoping somebody is kind enough to offer me some advice.

Basically, I made an offer on some goods on a forum I frequent, and the buyer responded saying they would meet me in the middle of our two offers. A couple of mins after this, I recieved a private message on the forum from the 'seller' saying they had changed their mind and would accept the offer I made (£100). We exchanged details over the message and I bank transferred him the money (I thought this would be fine as the 'seller' had a long history on the forum and many positive trade feedbacks).

After not receiving a response for a while, I came back on to the forum to check, and it was only then I realised somebody had signed up with an identical username, but just added a fullstop at the end - which stupidly I missed, and it was them that had sent me the message. This user (who had nothing to do with the actual seller) has since unregistered from the forum and done a runner with my money :evil: . I even got an address for peace of mind, but I presume this will prove to be fake.

I contacted Natwest, but their fraud team don't work weekend, and I was advised that a) the payment had already cleared in their account so there wasn't much they could do and that b) it doesn't fall under their definition of fraud as I willingly sent the money, rather than somebody stealing my details.

Not overly impressed with this, I googled the scammers bank sort-code and discovered they also bank with Natwest. Rang the bank back, and they said my best bet is to go to my local branch tomorrow and see if I can get it sorted out. The moderators on the forum are happy to help regarding his IP addresses etc. if needs be.

My questions are :

1) Do Natwest have to/are they likely to be able to reclaim the money from the scammer, as I have details of his account with Natwest and proof from the forum he was impersonating the real seller and is a scammer?
2) When entering ‘his’ details into the transfer option on my online banking, I was asked to input the account name as well as the number/sort code. Should Natwest even have made a transfer to a bank account where the name clearly did not match the bank details (he has used a fake name on the forum), and therefore are the bound to refund it?
3) If Natwest prove useless, what are my options regarding getting the police involved, forcing Natwest to divulge the guys details etc?

Sorry for the lengthy post, but as you can imagine I’m absolutely fuming at the moment, more at my own stupidity than anything else. I’m currently a student so it’s not the sort of money I can just throw away.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

James

i dont think natwest have to help

i would have thought this will come to small claims court......

hunnycat

when transferring money and being asked for reference its more for your records than anything. It will show up on your account as the name you transferred to. As for the bank its not banking fraud so they wont do anything. You could go to the police with it?

gnaril

Sorry to hear of your circumstances.


1- It is not fraud you willingly transfered money to this person.
2- They would have no avenue to reclaim the funds that were sent to this persons bank account.
3- The name given is completly irrelevant, sort code and acc no is what they are checking to make sure they send it to wherever you ask them to.Nat west will not have checked or needed tocheck the account name where you have asked to send the payment to.
4 - I would assume when all is said and done Natwest fraud squad will tell you to go away. If they money was "taken" from your bank account sure different issue,

You have simply paid for goods and not recieved those goods. aint an issue they will be able to take up.

As said before police would be only way to go, but even then i doubt they going to be able to do much about it.

sorry mate

Purpledaisy_2

Hiya,
Cant offer any advice but sounds like exactly what happened to my OH a few months ago, what forum was it ?

Pm me if you don't want to post it on here.

DVardysShadow

gnaril wrote: »

Sorry to hear of your circumstances.


1- It is not fraud you willingly transfered money to this person.

Don't be so stupid. An identical username to the one the OP was dealing with but for a full stop. That shows intent to take money by deceit.

studentgti

Thanks for all the replies....doesn't look like there's much chance of getting my money back then :mad:.

I thought it might be different as they bank with Natwest, so no other parties to involve. Also thought it might make a difference as it wasn't just me paying for goods and getting nothing, somebody actually immitated the genuine seller to get me to send them funds - surely this is fraudulent activity?

At least it wasn't vast sums of money, still enough to irritate though.

PurpleDaisy - PM coming your way!

studentgti

DVardysShadow wrote: »

Don't be so stupid. An identical username to the one the OP was dealing with but for a full stop. That shows intent to take money by deceit.

Do you think this changes things when I try to get this sorted - surely this makes it a criminal matter rather than a civil matter as it isn't a sale contract that's been breached, I was conned into giving money to somebody pretending to be somebody else?

Hintza

DVardysShadow wrote: »

Don't be so stupid. An identical username to the one the OP was dealing with but for a full stop. That shows intent to take money by deceit.

No but from the bank's point of view; it is not fraud OP transferred the money willingly. Sure the person defrauded (duped) OP but the bank is not responsible for this.

DVardysShadow

Hintza wrote: »

No but from the bank's point of view; it is not fraud OP transferred the money willingly. Sure the person defrauded (duped) OP but the bank is not responsible for this.

Of course the bank is not responsible. The real distinction is that in this case, it is the OP who has been defrauded, rather than the bank. I note that gnaril is associated with a bank - so I can see that he would not regard the bank as being defrauded. But his statement that it is not fraud beggars belief

DVardysShadow

studentgti wrote: »

Do you think this changes things when I try to get this sorted - surely this makes it a criminal matter rather than a civil matter as it isn't a sale contract that's been breached, I was conned into giving money to somebody pretending to be somebody else?

Yes, it does become criminal.