online fraud

alan_UK

in 2014, around Christmas time, someone contacted me regarding my eBay account. I had 1700 100% positive feedback and that guy offered me a pound for each feedback= £1700.
I did a research and saw many people selling their accounts for a good money. so decided to sell the account and accept the offer.
we changed all account details, every single detail replaced with his details and I removed PayPal link and he linked his PayPal account to the eBay account. so we were done.
now, after more than two years, Paypal has limited my account and sized £250 credit that I have, plus seBay limited my new account.
spoke to eBay, been to that my current account has a strong link to another eBay account. same email account used to create both account and same name. seems they saved my details when my old account was created.My PayPal account has the same email address and so they limited my access and sized my money.
the Darkside is that the guy who bought my eBay account owes £5700 to eBay and £735 to PayPal. now, he closed the eBay account (saavemore) and cancelled his bank accounts that linked to his PayPal account.
Paypal and eBay, both see me responsible and want me to pay the money, while they have all details included all transactions recorded, name and address and copies of his identities.
I have not contacted the polis fraud service yet. wanted to get some advice and know what shall I do?
please advice. I am a full-time student and have a child and a wife that depends on me and my part-time job. I can effort to pay this huge money.
Thank you in advance

theonlywayisup

You have learned the hard way that you cannot simply change the details on an account and hand it over to a stranger. If you have any other eBay or paypal accounts they will be frozen too.

You need to report this to Action Fraud.

ballisticbrian

I'm not really sure how anyone can help you at this stage as you've broken the terms and conditions of your eBay account. According to what you've posted above you are still in pocket by £1700 minus the £250 credit. You are quite lucky they are not trying to pursue you for the £5700 as you facilitated the fraud.

soolin

As above you cannot sell an ebay account except in very precise circumstances connected with selling businesses and goodwill for which legal advice is recommended. Just selling your account to an obvious scammer was always going to come back to bite you, I'm just surprised it took 2 years.

Yes you have been scammed and one might ask what else you expected when dealing with a scammer? However, despite the fact that you acted in good faith, perhaps naively, you are technically responsible as you were never able to properly pass the account off to someone else, so it remained yours.

You may need legal advice here, trying to sort this out on your own might make it worse. Obviously until this is sorted out and you have legal assurances that you are safe, you MUST NOT try to operate any other ebay or paypal account as they will be suspended as well, plus the funds will be taken against the debt. This will also affect anyone at all that ebay consider associated with you - so anyone sharing a common name, IP address, address , paypal etc.

Seriously get legal advice as this is not something that will just go away without some further input.

robatwork

Crossposted in Budgeting & Bank accounts.

shaun_from_Africa

ballisticbrian wrote: »

According to what you've posted above you are still in pocket by £1700 minus the £250 credit. You are quite lucky they are not trying to pursue you for the £5700 as you facilitated the fraud.

Well, not yet.
If it was £10 or £20 then it would probably get written off but for a figure getting close to £6k, I can't see then simply letting this go.

alan_UK,
In all honesty, did you really think that you were dealing with an honest person?, someone who was willing to buy an ebay account that was in good standing in order to pass off the previous feedback as their own?

soolin

I doubt the OP will come back which is a shame as it would be useful to hear how this all works out and would serve as a warning to anyone else tempted to sell their account.

alan_UK

yes was really sure that he gonna use the eBay account for Christmas selling stuff. When I sold the account, it has 1700 feedback, and when he closed it down, it had nearly 5000 feedback. so it seems he really used the account for two years. But what happened later, I have no idea.
Ebay gave me his name, address and phone number. his phone is switched off.
i am thinling of contacting action fraud service or simply go to local police station

alan_UK

I will post about every step I take and appreciate any help/advice received from you.

soolin

alan_UK wrote: »

yes was really sure that he gonna use the eBay account for Christmas selling stuff. When I sold the account, it has 1700 feedback, and when he closed it down, it had nearly 5000 feedback. so it seems he really used the account for two years. But what happened later, I have no idea.
Ebay gave me his name, address and phone number. his phone is switched off.
i am thinling of contacting action fraud service or simply go to local police station

I would still consider proper legal advice. The fact that you potentially could be seen as participating in something dodgy might mean this isn't just a case of reporting the fraud. Even reporting it won't get you off the hook with paypal either, they can still chase you legally for the money, they tend not to bother - but it means that neither you, nor anyone else ebay consider associated with you can safely use paypal without a risk of funds being held.

DCFC79

alan_UK wrote: »

yes was really sure that he gonna use the eBay account for Christmas selling stuff. When I sold the account, it has 1700 feedback, and when he closed it down, it had nearly 5000 feedback. so it seems he really used the account for two years. But what happened later, I have no idea.
Ebay gave me his name, address and phone number. his phone is switched off.
i am thinling of contacting action fraud service or simply go to local police station

Why contact action fraud or the police?

Would you admit that you broke the T&C's set out by eBay ?

Id say he doesnt live at the address anymore nor will he use the phone number anymore.