Possible scam - need advice - ebuy4u.com

duboisier

Grrrr2011 wrote: »

Yes, looks like site has been taken down. What happens now though. I paid by credit card thinking I would be safe but now looking at the posts above we may not get our money back because it went through Google Checkout. Surely the law can't let people get scammed like this without taking some serious action and at least giving some compensation back to the victims.

I guess we all have to go through due process on refunds with Google Checkout and our banks or credit card providers. This will take a week or 2 (at least) until we find out what they say. Can I suggest that eveyone continues to post how they are getting on so we can compare notes. If nothing happens then we will start a media campaign.

CyberSecurity

All,

You should be all able to obtain a refund provided your claim has not yet reached its time limit.

How:

Regardless of section 75 or the value of goods, you have consumer protection for your purchases in the form of a 'chargeback.' In general a chargeback is incurred by a merchant (website) when a fraudulent/compromised credit card is used to purchase good through their website. Once the true card holder is aware of the purchse that they of course did not make they are able to claim a refund. It is the responsibility of the merchant to ensure that fraudulent cards are not used. This is done by having 3D secure implemted on their website and advanced fraud screenning tools for payment service providers such as paypal, sagepay and cybersource.

Chargeback can also occur when a merchant behaves in a fraudulent manner. i.e. taking payment and not shipping the goods. In this case (which is the case for this thread) you the customer must contact your card issuer. In the case of credit cards this can be capital one (mastercard), for debit cards you may have a visa card for example but the issuer will be your bank i.e. barclays.

The issuer will have time limits on how long you have to claim. These can range from 30 - 180 days. For those of you with claims a little older then this post finds you a bit late. However if you are a recent victim of ebuy4u please contact your card issuer and ask for a dispute resolution form. The resolution can take 90 days but you should get your money back.

I hope this helps. I work in the fraud industry and am confident you will get your money back.

thanks

lil_Princess

For more info on above, this is useful:
(can't post links as a new user, which is annoying!)

But Google:

"Which - your rights when paying by credit card"

Then click on the first site and select "Chargeback on credit and debit cards"

....Helps if you are not covered by Section 75.

As the company are totally fraudulent we should be ok, fingers crossed!

lorrainemer

Grrrr2011 wrote: »

Yes, looks like site has been taken down. What happens now though. I paid by credit card thinking I would be safe but now looking at the posts above we may not get our money back because it went through Google Checkout. Surely the law can't let people get scammed like this without taking some serious action and at least giving some compensation back to the victims.

I wonder if they will still call this thread a scam ....dont see any apologises - funny that

However well done us for getting it stopped and now hopefully the banks will move faster as this isn't going to be resolved if the company doesnt exist ?

Def agree with staying in touch and thank you for all the help

duboisier

Perhaps not so simple. On the Which site:

"Watch out if you use your credit or debit card to load money into your PayPal, or other online payment account as it is the loading of the money that is considered to be the card transaction.
If anything goes wrong with the loading of your account, you could use the chargeback rules. However, if the money that you load into your account is then subsequently used to buy goods and services, that transaction is not classed as a card transaction and is unlikely to be covered by chargeback.
If you want to ensure that chargeback will apply to a PayPal transaction, it's best to empty your PayPal account regularly so there is no credit balance. That way, when you make a purchase using PayPal the same amount will be debited from your bank account or credit card at the same moment you pay, making it easier for your bank or credit card provider to match the purchase with the debit."

lorrainemer

just called bank again and this applys to those who , like me , used a debit card. I updated saying that site now down and a fraudulant case and that I required a chargeback ...but they say that it will only work if the company exists to give the money back and in this case I would be very unlikely although they will still try

Not good news

pmduk

duboisier wrote: »

it's best to empty your [...] account regularly so there is no credit balance. That way, when you make a purchase using [...] the same amount will be debited from your bank account or credit card at the same moment you pay, making it easier for your bank or credit card provider to match the purchase with the debit."

I suspect that is what will apply with Google checkout, I've always used it to pay a specific bill or invoice.
It's probably worth warning people that any company that can't take payment directly needs caution. They've obviously not been able to persuade a bank of their bona fides.

Grrrr2011

I'm wondering whether to go to the police with this. It's fraud after all. The website has been taken down, Google Checkout will most likely wash their hands of it and the Credit Card companies will probably say you can't have money back cos the payment is not covered using statement 75 due to the third party processor. All in all it means innocent folk like us who bought stuff off ebuy4u will be out of pocket - that can't be right surely.

surfingsaver1

Hi everyone i was scamed aswell and posted earlier,

I have some experience with the banking system and creditcard merchants.

you really should stop worrying about if google affects your claim, it is more important that you contact your bank or credit card company and get the paperwork sent to you, fill it in and return it so that you can log the payment as fraud within the time allowed,

In many cases the banks and card companies will not refuse claims if it is the first time you have ever claimed, it is not in their intrests to lose customers worth many thousands of pounds over there life time for one few hundred pound claim.

secondly when you pay by credit card the system does not pay the retailer straight away, many retailers have to wait between 14 - 28 days before they are paid, this is to restrict this type of fraud, as many of us have spotted this fraud so quickly , it is likely that a lot of payments did not even get to the fraudsters and will be sitting in the now frozen credit card merchant account for that company.

If you paid by creditcard it should be fine and it will take up to 90 days for them to sort it out, however debit cards are different they have a much shorter clearence period similar to cheques and as such many banks do not have the same protection for the customers on them as creditcards.

if you paid by debit card you may have a harder time making a claim, but eaither way get the claim in asap or you will receive nothing.

westhecat

I too am waiting for a games console from ebuy4u that I ordered and paid for over 2 weeks ago. I wasn't particularly impressed by the site as I thought it looked amateurish, but the fact that it was endorsed by Google Checkout made me trust it. It was only when I got my receipt from Google Checkout that I saw that the registered company name is totally different from the on-line retailer name, which made me worry somewhat.

It seems these worries were justified and also that Google Checkout does not guarantee any sort of security.

This is a genuine post from someone who just wants a games console to play on .