Item not received + user now unregistered = Out of pocket

codger

Zebedee69 wrote: »

You have been duped....... Sorry mate! Did you get an address or anything from the seller? That would make tracking this guy down and shaking him upside down for the money easier!

Woo id be well impressed if this happened to me (Not!) I hope you have some way of tracking him down though..... Thats half the battle......

Not the most constructive eBay advice I've read.

powertron

I thought ebay had a protection policy in place that refunds you but takes £15 in admin fees?

I once got ripped off becuase a seller failed to send me goods to the value of £10 but ebay told me it has to be over £15 for me to get compensation.

frivolous_fay

powertron wrote: »

I thought ebay had a protection policy in place that refunds you but takes £15 in admin fees?

I once got ripped off becuase a seller failed to send me goods to the value of £10 but ebay told me it has to be over £15 for me to get compensation.

That would be Standard Protection - which doesn't exist anymore.

HOUSEQUAKE

Just an update for those of you that may be interested - I have reported this to the police who have a special crimes section set up for this kind of fraud/defraud.

They can get the sellers details from eBay/Paypal and will pass these on the the relevant county so they can put a case together, the joys of long distance selling.

It looks like I willhave to take the seller to court to get my money back.

Also, sadly I hadn't funded this purchase from credit card, which I had set up but neglected to make it my primary funding source (fek), instead the monies came off my switch/maestro account for my bank.

I think the phrase rhymes with 'clucking bell'

codger

Housequake:

Easily done -- I used to have my bank and Switch card details on file with PayPal but then noticed that every time I wanted to purchase anything, PayPal defaulted to my Switch card. So the money came straight out of my bank.

My credit card was hidden away in "other funding" or something.

So I deleted my Switch card and now the PayPal screen only comes up with my credit card as the funding method.

I can't help but think PayPal prefers its users NOT to fund via a credit card because that way, PayPal doesn't have to bother about cc company interventions / chargebacks.

Re police: make sure you get a Crime Number, OK?

And, well, my sympathies again for your dreadful experience.

HOUSEQUAKE

Thanks Codger...it gets worse!

I have followed wendym and bromleys advice (thanks guys) and managed to get a phone which...is dead, no surprise.

I trawled the users previous activity and mailed sellers and buyers that had dealt with the seller, asking them for any information they could give me.

I have had a reply that basically says they know who the user ID belongs to, but their identity was stolen several months ago and that they asked eBay to close the account.

It seems I have not only been duped, I have been duped by someone using a stolen identity

catz1ct

I thought it might be that.

Bromley86

PayPal must have records on how the money left their system, so that's the trail to follow. Whether they'll release the information to you . . .

codger

HOUSEQUAKE wrote: »

Thanks Codger...it gets worse!

I have followed wendym and bromleys advice (thanks guys) and managed to get a phone which...is dead, no surprise.

I trawled the users previous activity and mailed sellers and buyers that had dealt with the seller, asking them for any information they could give me.

I have had a reply that basically says they know who the user ID belongs to, but their identity was stolen several months ago and that they asked eBay to close the account.

It seems I have not only been duped, I have been duped by someone using a stolen identity

Oh, Gawd. A hijacked account. As you say: even worse.

And the problem with this is that although you have been told that eBay was made aware of the hijacking several months ago, yet has seemingly done nothing about it and thus left you vulnerable to fraud, eBay will accept no responsibility: it is "only a venue".

That said, I'm surprised to learn of eBay's failure to act here: every hijacked account I've ever reported has been frozen within 24 hours. So either I've been lucky and in your case, something has gone seriously wrong, or my experience has not been a reliable indicator of eBay's response in this regard.

Although PayPal, and eBay (which owns PayPal anyway) are understandably reluctant to divulge account and payment processing information to individuals, they do have an established system for dealing with investigations by law enforcement agencies.

Hopefully, the police with whom you are dealing are aware of this link (and have already used it):

http://pages.ebay.co.uk/safetycentre/law_enforcement.html

A hijacked account almost inevitably harvests several victims. If you are able to identify any others, then you should ask them to contact their local police station -- not your local police station -- as soon as possible, and then let your own police contact know that you have confirmed the existence of other victims of what is obviously a sustained and deliberate criminal fraud.

Do not seek to do the police's job by attempting to collect evidence from other complainants; the police can only regard this as hear-say, so you'll be wasting your time as well as theirs. The only information your officer would appreciate would be in the form of the Crime Numbers of the cases of other victims and their geographic location.

Meantime: hopefully, someone with more first-hand knowledge of these matters than I have will come on here with specific, practical guidance.

But also meantime: don't neglect to keep this thread updated; people here are genuinely sympathetic, and genuinely supportive.

spinning_hamster_wheel

Have you tried contacting your bank to see if they could refund the payment? I KNOW its not a CC but I know some banks have different fraud policies in place.