Ripped off by fraudster?

chris180682

Hi,
I'm just after some advice, not sure if i've posted in correct section. I recently bought £150 worth of Ryanair vouchers for £75 from someone who was selling them on Ebay although i did not buy them through ebay i just sent the money through Paypal after asking the seller several questions by email as they said they would give me them half price that way. The seller said they had a small company based in Poland and Spain and received the vouchers in bulk for employee's. I was rightly suspicious until they said they would send the vouchers in order to book the flights and i could send the money after. The vouchers worked fine and i thought nothing more if it until today when i decided to google whether there had been any scams relating to travel vouchers. I found very little but did find a site which went into detail about latvian fraudsters stealing credit cards and selling Ryanair vouchers and yes the person i bought them from does appear to have a latvian name. I cannot open a dispute on Paypal as it was not for "goods and services" and i've been on the Action Fraud site which states I cannot report this based on the q's i answered. I can just about stomach losing the £75 but i don't want to turn up at the airport to be told we can't fly.
Would i likely be informed of this before my flight?
Who should i refer this to if anyone?
Should i contact Ryanair? (although this is likely to cost a fortune and may not help). Any info/advice appreciated.

charlieann

I'm sure there are others who could advise better than me, but it doesn't sound like you were ripped off.
You bought vouchers, which work and seem legit.
This issue is you are not sure if the vouchers were brought fraudulently using stolen credit card details.
I'm assuming Ryan Air would be able to track the original payment for the vouchers if pressed, but if they think these vouchers were obtained fraudulently they would not accept them as payment towards your flight.

morganedge

I can't see where you've been ripped off? 'Do nothing' is my advice.

chris180682

charlieann wrote: »

I'm sure there are others who could advise better than me, but it doesn't sound like you were ripped off.
You brought vouchers, which work and seem legit.
This issue is you are not sure if the vouchers were brought fraudulently using stolen credit card details.
I'm assuming Ryan Air would be able to track the original payment for the vouchers if pressed, but if they think these vouchers were obtained fraudulently they would not accept them as payment towards your flight.

Thanks. I did think the same but I did read a a US site that this happened to someone over there fir aurline tickets and they were just not allowed to board the flight. I guess theres no way of knowing whether the airline would inform me or whether my booking would be "blacklisted" and we be turned away at the airport although i can check in online 2 weeks before but again don't know if anything "dodgy" would show up at that stage. And there's obviously the point of the person who's details have been stolen if that is the case but i don't have any real evidence of this but i'm pretty sure it's the case the more i think about it.

charlieann

I'd be inclined to 'do nothing' as advised by morganedge.
You bought the tickets in good faith and they were accepted as payment. Maybe take a printout of the sellers details from paypal along with the vouchers.

If your still uneasy about the vouchers and think you may be prevented from boarding then you could ring Ryan Air and offer to pay cash until they can establish the vouchers are legit where you may be able to use them another time. This may risk them cancelling your booking, or even cancelling the vouchers as a precaution.

arcon5

I've read about this scam before.

They find a buyer for vouchers.
They use somebody elses card details and purchase vouchers and have them sent to you.
Receiving them and now not velieving it to be a scam you pay for them.
The card holder reports the transaction as unauthorised thus files a chargeback.
Bank recovers money from retailer.
Retailer disables vouchers and if they have been used is where you come in.

If the flight is important i'd definately not "do nothing". It all depends how long it takes to card holder to notice the transaction and report it. Ryanair may suspect you of obtaining the vouchers fraudulently and give them reason to stop you flying/cancel the flights.

arcon5

morganedge wrote: »

I can't see where you've been ripped off? 'Do nothing' is my advice.

well ops potentially purchased vouchers bought via fraudulent means and therefore the validity of them is in question. I'm sure you can work out the rest.

And doing nothing is a risky strategy if the flight is important.

ThumbRemote

arcon5 wrote: »

well ops potentially purchased vouchers possibly bought via fraudulent means and therefore the validity of them is in question. I'm sure you can work out the rest.

And doing nothing is a risky strategy if the flight is important.

Nothing has been proved so far.

arcon5

ThumbRemote wrote: »

Nothing has been proven so far.

Hence the word "potentially".

mildred1978

charlieann wrote: »

You brought the tickets in good faith .

it's BOUGHT!!!! :mad:

shaun_from_Africa

Nothing has been proved so far.

100% correct, but when would be the best time to find out if something dodgy had taken place?
Now by contacting Ryanair or a couple of hours before the flight when trying to check in?