What can my friend do?

Paul1590

Hi all,

Hope you are all well today ! Well Im looking for some advice for my friend, she was a target of a scam. She joined an online dating site and started email some chap on their cutting a long story short he asked for money to come and visit her. She paid him first via paypal which she has managed to claim back, he claimed he didn't receive the money so she paid him a further £60 via BACS I think it was a faster payment option, any way she rang the bank later that day they said it had left her account and they cant cancel it or return it.

Is this correct ? Will she just have to cut her losses and accept she needs to be more careful next time?

Thanks

Paul

BASFORDLAD

Paul1590 wrote: »

Hi all,

Hope you are all well today ! Well Im looking for some advice for my friend, she was a target of a scam. She joined an online dating site and started email some chap on their cutting a long story short he asked for money to come and visit her. She paid him first via paypal which she has managed to claim back, he claimed he didn't receive the money so she paid him a further £60 via BACS I think it was a faster payment option, any way she rang the bank later that day they said it had left her account and they cant cancel it or return it.

Is this correct ? Will she just have to cut her losses and accept she needs to be more careful next time?

Thanks

Paul

Yup its gone, and cant be got back its lesson learned which has cost he £60 , but at least it isn't any more

Just hope she is more careful in future

JuicyJesus

Cut her losses and be more careful. Neither the bank nor PayPal are responsible for what you do with money you transfer to another person (outwith the PayPal buyer protection scheme, which doesn't apply here since she wasn't buying anything) and they will not be able to get the money returned.

Get her to report the nice chap to the dating site though, they don't take kindly to scammers. And bear in mind that nobody legit is going to ask you for money to come and see you

Gromitt

Money sent via Paypal doesn't just disappear, so as soon as the other party said it did, it should have rung alarm bells. More so when they asked for BACS, which as you have noticed, is non-refundable.

She'll have to cut her losses and at least she didn't lose all £120. For that much, she probably could have visited them!

Paul1590

Hi all,

I thought this was the case, really annoys me these people out there!

Will let her know thanks

Paul

dalesrider

Paul1590 wrote: »

Hi all,

I thought this was the case, really annoys me these people out there!

Will let her know thanks

Paul

She has been lucky. Many of these run to thousands of pounds.... She could/should report it to the police, as these people will be doing it to more than her.
She should also contact the dating site about this. Perhaps asking if they can put a warning that you should never give money to anyone contacted via their services.....

This is such a old scam I'm surprised she has not heard of it. But really these sites should be warning people about the known scams.

Februarycat

dalesrider wrote: »

She has been lucky. Many of these run to thousands of pounds.... She could/should report it to the police, as these people will be doing it to more than her.
She should also contact the dating site about this. Perhaps asking if they can put a warning that you should never give money to anyone contacted via their services.....

This is such a old scam I'm surprised she has not heard of it. But really these sites should be warning people about the known scams.

Most of the dating sites now have a warning on them now. She should definately report the person to the site as they will delete their account. I had 2 people try the same thing with me a few years ago but luckily I was aware of the scam so reported them and they were removed straight away.

dalesrider

Februarycat wrote: »

Most of the dating sites now have a warning on them now. She should definately report the person to the site as they will delete their account..

I had a feeling they might.

But just like the T/C. People won't read them in their rush to the doors.