Goods paid by bank transfer but not goods

easilyconned

Hi all, I am trying to get as much information on how to retrieve my funds from a frauduent seller. He posed as someone on ebay selling pamp suisse gold which I was the winning bidder. We exchanged details and he passed me his bank account screen shot. All looked ok so I made a bank transfer for over 7k GBP, after various emails and him relating problems from my transfer, no gold was sent. I called the bank to see if the funds did go and they told me to contact the police due to fraudulent activity on the receivers account. I did so and this has now been 7 weeks and still no sign of any gold and the seller has cut contact. What I have found out is that he may have hacked an ebay account to list the gold and now using another account to sell the same. I have details of someone who claims their account was hacked and another who provided me information he is selling under another id on ebay.

My bank cannot transfer the funds back and the police cannot locate him based on his address supplied by his bank account. I have been told that Ebay is still liable as it was their listing but cannot find anything from their website to confirm and challenge them. The police are unaware of being able to freeze this persons account until they speak to him and my bank, who I believe were neglegent as they are accepting transfers for gold and advising me to contact the police, must be aware of the scam. Both myself and the seller bank with the same bank.

Is anyone aware of other routes I can take to claim back my funds?

Any help appreciated.

wealdroam

easilyconned wrote: »

Hi all, I am trying to get as much information on how to retrieve my funds from a frauduent seller. He posed as someone on ebay selling pamp suisse gold which I was the winning bidder. We exchanged details and he passed me his bank account screen shot. All looked ok so I made a bank transfer for over 7k GBP, after various emails and him relating problems from my transfer, no gold was sent. I called the bank to see if the funds did go and they told me to contact the police due to fraudulent activity on the receivers account. I did so and this has now been 7 weeks and still no sign of any gold and the seller has cut contact. What I have found out is that he may have hacked an ebay account to list the gold and now using another account to sell the same. I have details of someone who claims their account was hacked and another who provided me information he is selling under another id on ebay.

My bank cannot transfer the funds back and the police cannot locate him based on his address supplied by his bank account. I have been told that Ebay is still liable as it was their listing but cannot find anything from their website to confirm and challenge them. The police are unaware of being able to freeze this persons account until they speak to him and my bank, who I believe were neglegent as they are accepting transfers for gold and advising me to contact the police, must be aware of the scam. Both myself and the seller bank with the same bank.

Is anyone aware of other routes I can take to claim back my funds?

Any help appreciated.

Hi, welcome to MSE.
Btw, like your username.

That bit I highlighted in bold... are you really trying to blame your bank?
All they have done is exactly what you asked them to do... transfer several thousand pounds of your money from your account to another account, the details of which you supplied.

Sorry I cannot help further.

arcon5

Also, ebay aren't liable. They are merely agents bringing seller and buyer together. How did the bank know you was transferring money for gold? How are they to know it's not legitimate? Looking for somebody to blame is going to do nothing but hinder you.

First two posts probably not what you want to hear, but I fail to believe the police can't assist further in trying to track down the fraudster. The bank should hold reasonable data on the customer and verified his ID when the account was opened.

bris

You only have yourself to blame for this one, parting with 7k without seeing the goods is a recipe for disaster. I don't want to sound harsh about it but blaming everyone else is not going to get you anywhere.
It's a classic scam with no protection whatsoever, your only hope is the police can track him down, but even if they do, getting justice for the crime will be the only compensation you will get.

Hintza

Why would you by £7k worth of Gold on EBay? Perhaps becuase it looked cheap? Gold is a commodity and should only sell in very tight price band any variation should be treated suspiciously.

Think you hve been done up like a kipper and if you can't trace this guy you have lost your money (probably still lost it even if you find him).

Dave101t

Gold...bank transfer to stranger...1-post newbie...
lets not waste our time people...

Oliver14

I'm afraid OP this is one of the oldest scams around. If you had spend 5 minutes doing some research on how to safely buy on ebay (and online) you would have realised that anyone asking for a bank transfer needs to be avoided. I'm afrais the responsibilit was totally yours and your bank nor ebay are liable.

All you can do is contact the police and see if you can trace him but I cant see you getting your money back. A very expensive lesson

easilyconned

arcon5 wrote: »

Also, ebay aren't liable. They are merely agents bringing seller and buyer together. How did the bank know you was transferring money for gold? How are they to know it's not legitimate? Looking for somebody to blame is going to do nothing but hinder you.

First two posts probably not what you want to hear, but I fail to believe the police can't assist further in trying to track down the fraudster. The bank should hold reasonable data on the customer and verified his ID when the account was opened.

I highlighted your comments that I feel were exactly why the bank are liable. They advised me to contact the police upon merely checking that the transfer had gone through. So they were aware that transactions were going to this account all referenced "Gold". Unfortunatley these fraudsters seem very organised and I would imagine any details given to the bank were probably false. Again the banks fault.

I supposed what I am looking to do is put as much pressure on Ebay and the banks to do something about this as I am certain it has happened to others.

easilyconned

Dave101t wrote: »

Gold...bank transfer to stranger...1-post newbie...
lets not waste our time people...

Thanks for your assistance. I am only looking for help just like many others on this forum.

Hintza

easilyconned wrote: »

I supposed what I am looking to do is put as much pressure on Ebay and the banks to do something about this as I am certain it has happened to others.

EBay would never sanction pyment via bank transfer.

The banks have done nothing wrong they have followed YOUR instructions.

Your only course of action will be to get the police to tke you seriously.

soolin

easilyconned wrote: »

Thanks for your assistance. I am only looking for help just like many others on this forum.

Then forget blaming ebay they warn against bank transfers and tell buyers it is unsafe;

http://pages.ebay.co.uk/help/pay/methods.html