Private sale goods not received

mojo2460

Probably have this in wrong forum but if anyone could help I would be grateful.
Basically bought an item from Preloved site for £360. I did a bank transfer as he sent me his bank details and also confirmed that he had received payment and would be sending the item but I never heard anymore from him. I have tried may times to contact him with no success as has Preloved without sucsess. I know he is still around as he is on facebook. I have his address but on the other end of the country. I spoke to my bank but they can do nothing.
What should I do.
Thanks
Pete

bris

You have been conned, report to action fraud in case he has done it to anyone else and start a small claims procedure against him.

High value items and BT are a recipe for disaster, preloved, gumtree etc should be face to face transactions, there is a lot of conmen out there just waiting for someone to think they are getting the bargain they just cant resist.

soolin

See if preloved have any sort of buyer protection- if not then I suspect your money is long gone.

Just shows how these scams spread (assuming to does turn out to be a scam) - this has more commonly been just a Gumtree/facebook scam.

I'd also let preloved know

soolin

Looking at preloved buyer protection it assumes that sellers are taking paypal:

http://www.preloved.co.uk/safesecondhand/paypal

Further warnings here

http://www.preloved.co.uk/safesecondhand

Alarm Bells
Do not proceed if:

The seller is asking for payment by postal order, Western Union, MoneyGram or other untraceable methods.

which I believe would include bank transfers

If that is not clear enough there is a specific warning about bank transfers on the same page:

If you make a payment to someone by crediting their bank account via Internet banking or BACS, that payment cannot later be reversed.

mojo2460

Yes Preloved were quite helpful and the strange thing is that this guy was a member for sometime with no reported problems before. They have now blocked him from further selling.
Reported to Action Fraud. They have just basically said thanks for helping combat fraud but don't think they actually do anything to get my money back. Probably a silly question but Is basically reporting to Action Fraud the same as going to Police? They gave me a crime number.
Just frustrating that I have this guys bank details, address etc but seemingly cant do anything about it!

frugal_mike

You can do something, you can take him to the small claims court. You may still have a fight on your hands to get any money back though even if you win though (and if what you've told us is true then you'll win).

FOREVER21

mojo2460 wrote: »

Yes Preloved were quite helpful and the strange thing is that this guy was a member for sometime with no reported problems before. They have now blocked him from further selling.
Reported to Action Fraud. They have just basically said thanks for helping combat fraud but don't think they actually do anything to get my money back. Probably a silly question but Is basically reporting to Action Fraud the same as going to Police? They gave me a crime number.
Just frustrating that I have this guys bank details, address etc but seemingly cant do anything about it!

Don't know if you will get a refund, but just a bit of information about Action Fraud.
I had a similar experience and contacted Action Fraud, the investigations are carried out by The City of London police who decide what if any further action is taken.
I was told it depends on the amount involved and the number of complaints they get about an individual/ company.
Like you I reported my complaint to them,was given a crime number, this was in May and I heard no more and thought that was the end of it.
However last week I got an e-mail from Action Fraud to say details had been past to my local police service, the next day, I received an e- mail from a detective at our police HQ asking for more details of my case, so keep your hopes up, as they do seem to do some investigation.

soolin

frugal_mike wrote: »

You can do something, you can take him to the small claims court. You may still have a fight on your hands to get any money back though even if you win though (and if what you've told us is true then you'll win).

For the small claims route OP will need a geographic address for the scammer, one they know is correct. OP has not mentioned having that information and that is why this is such a nasty scam- scumbag seller knows they can't be tracked.

frugal_mike

soolin wrote: »

For the small claims route OP will need a geographic address for the scammer, one they know is correct. OP has not mentioned having that information and that is why this is such a nasty scam- scumbag seller knows they can't be tracked.

The OP says they have the address. It may of course be a fake address, but its ever so slightly better than nothing.

soolin

frugal_mike wrote: »

The OP says they have the address. It may of course be a fake address, but its ever so slightly better than nothing.

Apologies, I misread the sentence and thought it mentioned the address was not valid.

OP in that case check out the address online, get as much info as you can and if it looks right then send a letter before action giving seller a time frame to either supply your goods or refund.

mojo2460

Thanks for replies you guys. Yes I do actually have an address for him. Luckily he has a very unusual name (African) so was easy to find. Also as I stated I do have his bank details. and the really strange thing is that he confirmed he received my payment. I have emailed him a few times stating that I would not let this drop but no reply.
Preloved have asked for the crime no. and said they will pass on all details if contacted by the police.
I will now look into the Small Claims route.
Many thanks for your help.
Pete