Stolen phone purchased from ebay

flopstocks

Hello, back in December I purchased a Samsung S3 mini from ebay, described as 'New'. Yesterday I discovered that I was unable to text or ring from my mobile. After visiting the O2 shop today it turns out that the phone has been reported stolen and has now been barred.

I have contacted paypal, and they have stated as 45 days have passed there is nothing they can do. I am pretty annoyed about this as the phone cost me £120 and it is now useless. Do I try and file a case via ebay, or can I get any joy from the credit card I purchased the phone with?

Thanks

StuC75

That's a common trick on ebay, the seller sells the handset, waits a few months then reports as stolen\lost and claims on insurance to get a new handset.

can you contact the seller on ebay?

flopstocks

I sent the seller an email last night, saying it could be faulty but no response as of yet.

stebiz

Personally I'd get the police involved. If they've sold you a stolen phone then they need to be brought to task.

K0SS

stebiz wrote: »

Personally I'd get the police involved. If they've sold you a stolen phone then they need to be brought to task.

You really think the police are going to do anything about this? :rotfl:

Poppie68

You are not going to be able to open a case through ebay now, i also don't know if claiming a charge back on your card is possible as you went through paypal..someone can clarify this.
What i would do is contact the seller and tell them you are contacting the police as someone has reported your phone as stolen which means your phone is now blocked and could they please let you know where they bought it from...it may prompt them to refund you (long shot) but if they do reply and ask for you to return it then they will refund you...demand refund before you will send it.
Is there a way to find out who phones are insured with, as i'm sure they would appreciate a call....the amount of money that is made from conmen and mobiles there should be a crime unit set up.

George_Michael

K0SS wrote: »

You really think the police are going to do anything about this? :rotfl:

Probably not, but what if this wasn't the only such phone sold by the person concerned?
If the police have had other reports then they may well act.

Even if the police do nothing, a police report submitted to the OP's credit card issuer might help convince them to attempt to get the money back from the sellers account.

Also, if the seller is advised that the unhappy buyer is going to report the crime to the police, they may just decide to offer a refund themselves.

photome

K0SS wrote: »

You really think the police are going to do anything about this? :rotfl:

Probably not but they should

K0SS

George_Michael wrote: »

Probably not, but what if this wasn't the only such phone sold by the person concerned?
If the police have had other reports then they may well act.

Even if the police do nothing, a police report submitted to the OP's credit card issuer might help convince them to attempt to get the money back from the sellers account.

Also, if the seller is advised that the unhappy buyer is going to report the crime to the police, they may just decide to offer a refund themselves.

It would be too easy for him to get out of it, even if he did do, at this point we don't know. He would get legal aid, waste of police time and taxpayer money for something which isn't even going to materialize in a conviction. The defendant could simply claim he bought the phone legitimately from someone else. Unless if he was stupid enough to have bought the phone in his own name, and then sold it, and then reported it stolen later. It would be an open and shut case, but honestly I highly doubt any convictions will come. Best option is let the fraud department deal with it. I've seen bricks and images of PS4 sold in a PS4 box and the police have not been able to do much.

George_Michael

I very much doubt if any conviction would happen either, but does this mean that the OP should simply write off any chance of getting their money back?

For the sake of a couple of phone calls or e-mails, what possible reason is there not to even try?

K0SS

photome wrote: »

Probably not but they should

They won't not because, they don't want to do it, it's because a criminal conviction would be hard to get. Even less the magistrates/cps see some hardcore evidence they'll just not pursue the case. They get thrown out on lack of incriminating evidence. Also on ebay you can check the reviews of the person you're buying from, if there are alot of negative reviews of similar issues, then I would report it to the police otherwise, bank and report it as fraud, let the fraud team investigate it, and you might get your money back from ebay. If you buy goods that are stolen and you don't know about it, you don't get your money back the goods if found are returned. The onus is on the person making the transaction to verify the veracity of the person they are buying the goods from. Personally, I wouldn't buy expensive items from Ebay I would use Amazon, they have better policies in these sort of situations.