Scammed on Ebay

humphrer

Unfortunately I have been scammed on ebay. I am normally pretty protective over ebay and for once I let my guard down.
I paid by bank transfer (schoolboy error I know) for a pram costing £350. Since sending the money the seller has left the country and moved to India. Closing ebay account etc..
I have filed dispute etc with ebay.. but what I do have is the lady's name, address, account number and sort code.

Now I am tempted to set up a direct debit from her account onto my credit card to repay the amount she has taken. How much trouble could I end up in if I did this??

smartie1976

humphrer wrote:

Now I am tempted to set up a direct debit from her account onto my credit card to repay the amount she has taken. How much trouble could I end up in if I did this??

Quite simply, you can't.
The DD won't work that way.

Edit/ to elaborate:
In the United Kingdom, Direct Debit requires the customer to instruct the bank first, although this task may be carried out via the originator (payee).

Before a company can set up direct debits from its customers (you cannot have direct debits paid to individuals), it has to be vetted by its bank. This is to stop it defrauding customers.

You are neither the customer, nor a vetted company.
Also, it is very likely the bank account is closed anyway.

syanide

how do you know the person has left the county? that may be part of the scam. have you been to the address in question?

humphrer

I have spoke to previous buyers (with 2000+ feedback) who collected items from her about a week before mine. Agreed it could be part of the scam. Problem is she lives 300 miles away.

It looks like she sold the pram and then offered a few other bidders second chance offers, collected the money and ran off to india.

soolin

Unfortunately I think you are completely stuck. Bank transfers are often used by scammers purely because they are quick and the buyer can't get their rmoney back if it all goes wrong.

I know sammers are scum, but to do it on baby equipment is just downright nasty.

FloFlo

Inform police she has obtained money by deception - speak to the police in her local area if she is known by them they maybe willing to look into it.

manhattan

im pretty sure that the police wont take much of an interest in it sadly enough.

i would not advise anybody to do this,but if i was scammed and had their address and bank details i would sign them upto as many online direct debit contracts that i could find .

please dont do this though! you could end up in big trouble.

soolin

manhattan wrote:

im pretty sure that the police wont take much of an interest in it sadly enough.

i would not advise anybody to do this,but if i was scammed and had their address and bank details i would sign them upto as many online direct debit contracts that i could find .

please dont do this though! you could end up in big trouble.

I think post number 2 on this thread by smartie1976 covered this very well, basically you can't.

I would also strongly caution all posters to be careful about recommending breaking the law by making fraudulent statements. We want to catch these scammers, not end up in court ourselves.

Soo

manhattan

thats why i said do not do it. i did not "recommend" anyone to do anything fraudulent.

Kirstyshaw

try googling her name/ebay name, there may be others out there scammed by her. If there is enough people the police will take action.

steve1905

humphrer wrote:

I paid by bank transfer (schoolboy error I know) for a pram costing £350. Since sending the money the seller has left the country and moved to India. Closing ebay account etc..
I have filed dispute etc with ebay.. but what I do have is the lady's name, address, account number and sort code.

I'm tempted to say, looks like you've been left holding the baby - but that's not funny in this situation.