Help!

lisajday

I brought a van (Well thought I did) off a reputable garage, paid a small deposit via telephone and arranged to collect in weeks time. As the date got nearer, I hadn't heard from them so sent a query via their website. They responded within an hour with their bank details, collection time etc. The collection was due the next day and we again received emails from them(So we thought) changing the bank details. Throughout the correspondence the email address was the same and continued in the same thread. The transfer was made (£14000) and it wasn't until we received a call from the garage the next morning that we were told they hadn't had the funds! Called bank & police and waiting for the bank to get back to us. In the meantime we had an IT specialist look at the emails and found that THEIR email has been hacked and someone in Africa was intercepting the emails with false information. If the bank don't pay back would the garage be liable and would it be advisable to take them to the Small Claims Court or contact Trading Standards? 

neilmcl

This is something you should be discussing with the Police (Actionfraud etc) and your bank. I'm not sure that the garage would be liable though.

MattMattMattUK

lisajday said:

I brought a van (Well thought I did) off a reputable garage, paid a small deposit via telephone and arranged to collect in weeks time. As the date got nearer, I hadn't heard from them so sent a query via their website. They responded within an hour with their bank details, collection time etc. The collection was due the next day and we again received emails from them(So we thought) changing the bank details. Throughout the correspondence the email address was the same and continued in the same thread. The transfer was made (£14000) and it wasn't until we received a call from the garage the next morning that we were told they hadn't had the funds! Called bank & police and waiting for the bank to get back to us. In the meantime we had an IT specialist look at the emails and found that THEIR email has been hacked and someone in Africa was intercepting the emails with false information. If the bank don't pay back would the garage be liable and would it be advisable to take them to the Small Claims Court or contact Trading Standards? 

The bank will not refund you if they feel that you were responsible, either through deliberate action or negligence. No, the garage would not be liable. You are advised to verify all bank details indecently, usually via a phone call. Also, with the payee verification did it not show a different name to the name you were expecting as the name on the account? You have no grounds to take them to a Small Claims Court nor a referral to Trading Standards. 

George_Michael

MattMattMattUK said:

The bank will not refund you if they feel that you were responsible, either through deliberate action or negligence. No, the garage would not be liable. You are advised to verify all bank details indecently, usually via a phone call. 

Spellcheck or auto-complete problem?

MattMattMattUK

George_Michael said:

MattMattMattUK said:

The bank will not refund you if they feel that you were responsible, either through deliberate action or negligence. No, the garage would not be liable. You are advised to verify all bank details indecently, usually via a phone call. 

Spellcheck or auto-complete problem?

Auto-complete, not sure why that is the word my phone chose though!

unholyangel

Banks were supposed to be confirming the name of the payee matched that on the account, since last year - exactly because of this type of fraud. So I'd maybe start with asking your bank about that. 

Also, if you're a business (which I suspect you may be, given the van purchase) then you really need to be aware of what scams are about. These scams have been around for years and they tend to target solicitors, accountants, estate agents, builders, dealers...basically trades that deal in high value transactions on a daily basis. 

While this may not be your fault, unless the other party was negligent then neither is it their fault. 

Do you have any sort of insurance that may cover the loss, if it comes to worst case scenario? 

lisajday

No I'm not a business just a sole trading trying to make living! Surely the garage should have adequate security on their website/email?
 

lisajday

neilmcl said:

This is something you should be discussing with the Police (Actionfraud etc) and your bank. I'm not sure that the garage would be liable though.

I have done this, so hopefully it won't happen to anyone else using the same garage, who have already told me it's happened several times before!

Spank

Being a sole trader is still a business.

Aylesbury_Duck

lisajday said:

No I'm not a business just a sole trading trying to make living! Surely the garage should have adequate security on their website/email?
 

If you're trading, you're a business. 

I'm afraid it's unreasonable to expect a business to be completely immune to hacking, and that's why you also have a responsibility to check who you're paying.  See what the bank says and take it from there,  but I fear they may take the line that you paying such a large sum to account details that changed at the last minute, was negligent. 

In future, send £1 to any new account or changed account details, call the recipient and only send the remainder when they confirm (not by email) that the £1 has arrived.

pinkshoes

If a company emailed me saying they wanted to pay the £14k balance to a different bank account then the FIRST thing I'd do is phone them up to ask why.  It's just very odd given you paid via phone the first time. 

So it will come down to whether you were deemed to be negligent in making this payment.