Facebook Buy & Sell > Bank Transfer > Seller Disappears

Matthew87

Hi Guys,

Hoping for some help...

To cut an extremely long story short, I bought something off a guy on Facebook, I stupidly sent him the money via bank transfer and then he disappeared. I obviously didn't get my item, or a refund.

I sent him a LBA two weeks ago, and am now in the process of filling in the Money Claim Online.

When it comes to my Particulars of Claim, can anyone suggest anything better than what I have so far:

The claimant's claim is for the sum of £XXX,
being monies owed by the Defendant for
non-delivery of a XXX, bought via an
advert on Facebook in July 2017.

The claimant claims interest under Section 69
of the County Courts Act 1984 at the rate of
8 per cent a year from XX/XX/XX to 23/10/17
of £XX.XX. And also interest at the same rate
up to the date of judgment or earlier payment
at a daily rate of £0.XX.

I'm obviously short for space, but don't want to miss anything important.

Cheers!

KeithP

Do you have a good name and address for this seller?

soolin

KeithP wrote: »

Do you have a good name and address for this seller?

That was my initial thought as it seems a poor sort of scammer who allows a buyer to have that, yet OP says they have sent a LBA.

Matthew87

I do - managed to track him down and paid him a visit.

He made his excuses, and promised to sort it.

He didn't - and now says that as soon as he received the money, he spent it and can't refund me.

steampowered

The POC is fine for a simple claim like this.

I would add a reference to the fact that you have paid this amount of money to the Defendant.

Gavin83

Matthew87 wrote: »

I do - managed to track him down and paid him a visit.

He made his excuses, and promised to sort it.

He didn't - and now says that as soon as he received the money, he spent it and can't refund me.

Did you visit him at home? How well off/poor did he seem?

How's his feedback? If he's repeatedly done this it might also be worth reporting him to the police as this could well be classed as fraud.

Matthew87

Gavin83 wrote: »

Did you visit him at home? How well off/poor did he seem?

How's his feedback? If he's repeatedly done this it might also be worth reporting him to the police as this could well be classed as fraud.

Yes, his/his fiance's house - I wouldn't say well off, but I'd imagine there'd be enough to recover to satisfy my debt. He has a vehicle etc.

Feedback-wise, this was on a Facebook buy and sell group, not eBay - so there's no 'feedback'.

I know he's ripped others off (one victim said circa £50k!) and the Police were my first port of call, via ActionFraud. But 3 months down the line and ActionFraud have yet to do anything (they're busy!)

The police didn't do anything about the £50k, so they're not going to do anything about my money - hence why I'm dealing with it this way.

dj1471

Don't forget to claim for the court fees too.

Matthew87

dj1471 wrote: »

Don't forget to claim for the court fees too.

Thanks, that gets added on automatically (when filling it in online!)

Warwick_Hunt

Matthew87 wrote: »

Yes, his/his fiance's house - I wouldn't say well off, but I'd imagine there'd be enough to recover to satisfy my debt. He has a vehicle etc.

Feedback-wise, this was on a Facebook buy and sell group, not eBay - so there's no 'feedback'.

I know he's ripped others off (one victim said circa £50k!) and the Police were my first port of call, via ActionFraud. But 3 months down the line and ActionFraud have yet to do anything (they're busy!)

The police didn't do anything about the £50k, so they're not going to do anything about my money - hence why I'm dealing with it this way.

All ActionFraud will do is assess the evidence, if it scores enough points it will be passed to the police for investigation.

Matthew87

Warwick_Hunt wrote: »

All ActionFraud will do is assess the evidence, if it scores enough points it will be passed to the police for investigation.

Trust me, the evidence was/is substantial. It only had to land on a local officer's desk and I had done all the hard work for them.

But I understand their workload/constraints etc - hence why I've given up on that front and am pursuing this one.