Scam or am I paranoid?

bonosbike

Two weeks ago I sold a Bed, just one bidder who wanted to arrange a courier to collect. Paid by Bank Transfer. They also arranged to send Bubble wrap for me to wrap it, which I have.
It then went quite no contact from the buyer, which I thought was odd bearing in mind I have the money. Anyway a couple of days ago I chased to see when it was being collected and he came back within an hour to say he is trying to book for a couple of days and can he have my phone number and email address for courier. I gave mobile but not email address. Since then silence. Yesterday I closed the listing with the reason "problem with buyers address" and messaged him asking him to give me his account details so I can return his money.
So far I have heard nothing.
So has any one else had a similar experiance, am I dealing with some kind of scammer, if so what is the scam ? or is this just simply a clueless buyer, who I might add seemed very knowledable about using Shipley when he brought the ite and sending me bubble wrap.
Many thanks for your thoughts.

soolin

bonosbike wrote: »

Two weeks ago I sold a Bed, just one bidder who wanted to arrange a courier to collect. Paid by Bank Transfer. They also arranged to send Bubble wrap for me to wrap it, which I have.
It then went quite no contact from the buyer, which I thought was odd bearing in mind I have the money. Anyway a couple of days ago I chased to see when it was being collected and he came back within an hour to say he is trying to book for a couple of days and can he have my phone number and email address for courier. I gave mobile but not email address. Since then silence. Yesterday I closed the listing with the reason "problem with buyers address" and messaged him asking him to give me his account details so I can return his money.
So far I have heard nothing.
So has any one else had a similar experiance, am I dealing with some kind of scammer, if so what is the scam ? or is this just simply a clueless buyer, who I might add seemed very knowledable about using Shipley when he brought the ite and sending me bubble wrap.
Many thanks for your thoughts.

I cannot see any possibility here of a scam- you have money that cannot be recalled and you still have the goods, what exactly is worrying you?

bonosbike

It just doesn't feel right that I am getting no contact from the buyer, even though I have the money and Bed.
In my mind I could not see how this was a scam, but just wanted to see if anyone had any similar experiences, to make sure I was not missing anything. Anyway I have cancelled the transaction as I need the item gone, now just waiting to hear where to return his money LOL.

Thank you for your reply.

lindens

some people just go through life slowly and in a disorganised manner - sounds like he is one of these people
or the opposite - he is very busy and doesnt have much time to organise things like this

vbl2447

Couple of years ago I had similar situation. Buyer claimed to their bank after about two months that they could not contact me but gave their bank my incorrect phone number. Bank refunded them the money and about two weeks later, buyer asked me to return them the money but gave different bank account details from the one money came from. I contacted the original bank and the whole thing unravelled from there.

gerdo

You sold a bed, buyer sent you bubble wrap to wrap it in? Bizarre, that's a lot of bubble wrap, and they haven't bothered to collect.

ballisticbrian

Maybe the buyer decided to "sleep on it".

bonosbike

vbl2447 wrote: »

Couple of years ago I had similar situation. Buyer claimed to their bank after about two months that they could not contact me but gave their bank my incorrect phone number. Bank refunded them the money and about two weeks later, buyer asked me to return them the money but gave different bank account details from the one money came from. I contacted the original bank and the whole thing unravelled from there.

This is what my gut feeling is telling me could potentially be a similar move, did the buyer also get your item as well as you having had the money debited from your account, without your permission??

soolin

vbl2447 wrote: »

Couple of years ago I had similar situation. Buyer claimed to their bank after about two months that they could not contact me but gave their bank my incorrect phone number. Bank refunded them the money and about two weeks later, buyer asked me to return them the money but gave different bank account details from the one money came from. I contacted the original bank and the whole thing unravelled from there.

Really, how odd, a bank has no mandate whatsoever to recover funds from a bank transfer made willingly. You seem to have fallen foul of just about every scam going if your posts are accurate, even some that seem impossible. Online selling does carry some risks, as does anything done remotely, but even face to face cash sales can be problematic for some people if they don't use due diligence with checking bank notes .

[Deleted User]

This was a while ago and I don't know how things have changed, we are talking about 5 years back.

I once sold an item and the person paid via bank transfer to me and she tried to claim she did not receive the item.

She went to her bank that made contact with mine and I knew nothing until I tried to use my debit card at the ATM and it sucked it in and then I went into branch to see what was going on and apparently their fraud department put a block on my account.

They told me another bank had been in touch regarding this transfer and they wanted proof of sale. Lucky for me I kept the receipt as well as printed out the delivery confirmation and the bank were satisfied the other person was trying to fraudulently claim they did not receive their goods.

So, it seems, some banks take things like this quite seriously, because if I hadn't of had the proof than I'm not sure what would of happened next but my account had been blocked and I couldn't access online banking or anything.

So be careful still.

I no longer bank with the same organisation after the utter bad customer service I received in the branch.

verybigchris

Maybe the buyer's about to move house and is dragging their feet so it gets delivered to their new place?