Scammed via bank transfer!? Help

DamageCase

So bought a £100 item from gumtree. Long story short, i sent him the money and 3 weeks later no response. I dont have any of his details since gumtree is sort of anonymous. He only gave me his account number, sort code and his [false] name. Is there any thing i can possibly do ? Urgent help ? If i go to my bank and tell them that the money was wrongly transferred to someone else's account since he gave me a false name, can they do anything? Thanks

SeduLOUs

With so much time passing your bank are not going to help - you might have been able to recall the payment had it been the same day you sent it, but not 3 weeks down the line when it's almost certainly already been spent. You sent the money willingly, so the bank aren't going to want to help you out.

The only thing you can do is report it to the police, but I'd probably fall off my chair in shock if they did anything beyond giving you a crime reference number and warning you to be more careful in future.

soolin

DamageCase wrote: »

So bought a £100 item from gumtree. Long story short, i sent him the money and 3 weeks later no response. I dont have any of his details since gumtree is sort of anonymous. He only gave me his account number, sort code and his [false] name. Is there any thing i can possibly do ? Urgent help ? If i go to my bank and tell them that the money was wrongly transferred to someone else's account since he gave me a false name, can they do anything? Thanks

I can only echo the previous response- you have virtually no hope of ever seeing your money again.

Do report it though, auction fraud is a useful place to notify of current scammers out there. You can also notify Gumtree, but they will almost certainly point you o their FAQs which mention this very scam and warn people against using unsafe payment methods.

EDIT; Whether it is just the time of year or what, but both on various boards on MSE and another site I frequent there has been new posters with stories that concern the most obvious of scams. It is almost like someone is going through the FAQ of common scams and reporting them . Perhaps it's just that some people got laptops or tablets for Christmas and have never been online before and don't know how to stay safe, but there is only a couple more of the common scams left to start a thread about.

Flyonthewall

Sadly it's as above. You can maybe stop a payment before it goes out at the end of the day, but after that bank transfers aren't reversed.

Gumtree is meant for cash on collection transactions only. It's also sold as seen, no refunds.

It's highly unlikely you will ever see that money again, especially as you have no details for the person.

In future if you buy from Gumtree pay cash on collection and fully test and inspect the item before paying and taking it away.

theonlywayisup

To add to the above, don't be tempted to say you've sent it to the wrong account......the money has gone.

Give as much info as you can to Action Fraud in the hope it may be the missing part to a jigsaw they've already started to piece together.

soolin

Just in case the OP ever comes back...

http://www.actionfraud.police.uk/fraud-az-auction-fraud

Cuilean

Don't give up on the bank yet. When we were having some building work done, my husband (An accountant!) confused the plumber's sort code with the electrician's, and sent money to entirely the wrong account. We didn't know whose account he'd sent it to, and we didn't even realise he'd done it until the plumber came calling two months later, asking why he hadn't been paid. Husband contacted the bank, who were really good and started tracing it right away. Within a fortnight, the money was back in our account. Perhaps we were just lucky, but I was convinced we were doomed, and was pleasantly surprised at how helpful the bank were.

There's probably the element of honesty though - whoever received our money was probably just your regular Joe Public. Sounds like the person who received your money does not have honestly at the forefront of their mind. In your case, I would definitely get a crime reference number from the police, to protect yourself if nothing else.

DamageCase

theonlywayisup wrote: »

To add to the above, don't be tempted to say you've sent it to the wrong account......the money has gone.

Give as much info as you can to Action Fraud in the hope it may be the missing part to a jigsaw they've already started to piece together.

Why has the money conpletely gone if i said it was sent to a wrong person? Read above post^

lovinituk

DamageCase wrote: »

Why has the money conpletely gone if i said it was sent to a wrong person? Read above post^

Speak to your bank and let us know how you get on!

System

Cuilean wrote: »

Don't give up on the bank yet. When we were having some building work done, my husband (An accountant!) confused the plumber's sort code with the electrician's, and sent money to entirely the wrong account. We didn't know whose account he'd sent it to, and we didn't even realise he'd done it until the plumber came calling two months later, asking why he hadn't been paid. Husband contacted the bank, who were really good and started tracing it right away. Within a fortnight, the money was back in our account. Perhaps we were just lucky, but I was convinced we were doomed, and was pleasantly surprised at how helpful the bank were.

There's probably the element of honesty though - whoever received our money was probably just your regular Joe Public. Sounds like the person who received your money does not have honestly at the forefront of their mind. In your case, I would definitely get a crime reference number from the police, to protect yourself if nothing else.

But there no errors in sort code or account number that the OP is aware of.

Yours is a totally different scenario.

Are you trying to imply that the OP should lie to his bank?

soolin

Cuilean wrote: »

Don't give up on the bank yet. When we were having some building work done, my husband (An accountant!) confused the plumber's sort code with the electrician's, and sent money to entirely the wrong account. We didn't know whose account he'd sent it to, and we didn't even realise he'd done it until the plumber came calling two months later, asking why he hadn't been paid. Husband contacted the bank, who were really good and started tracing it right away. Within a fortnight, the money was back in our account. Perhaps we were just lucky, but I was convinced we were doomed, and was pleasantly surprised at how helpful the bank were.

There's probably the element of honesty though - whoever received our money was probably just your regular Joe Public. Sounds like the person who received your money does not have honestly at the forefront of their mind. In your case, I would definitely get a crime reference number from the police, to protect yourself if nothing else.

Banks often will trace the money and request the recipient to repay it but that as far as it goes. So in your case the recipient sat on it until he received a request for it to be returned, he could have ignored that request though. The bank did not receive the money, it was repaid.

I don't a scammer is going to return the money just because he is asked.

DamageCase wrote: »

Why has the money conpletely gone if i said it was sent to a wrong person? Read above post^

If you tell the bank you sent it to the wrong person that would be fraud, and you would end up in a very difficult position. It wouldn't matter anyway as banks can still not get it back for you.