Website scam

Jeffers1308

In 2016 I was scammed

It was for a brand new TV which never arrived

I reported it to actionfraud, who passed it on to police force concerned.

They looked into it, found that I wasn't the only victim, took down website, but informed me because web host was in the USA, they couldn't do anything.

Reported it to bank, but they were useless, no help at all.

Ok your thinking it's only £500 ish that I should forget it, but why should I, it's my money fraudulently taken from me.

This was before 159 was introduced.

Why should I be out of pocket when it's not my fault

Thanks

marcia_

Jeffers1308 said:

In 2016 I was scammed

It was for a brand new TV which never arrived

I reported it to actionfraud, who passed it on to police force concerned.

They looked into it, found that I wasn't the only victim, took down website, but informed me because web host was in the USA, they couldn't do anything.

Reported it to bank, but they were useless, no help at all.

Ok your thinking it's only £500 ish that I should forget it, but why should I, it's my money fraudulently taken from me.

This was before 159 was introduced.

Why should I be out of pocket when it's not my fault

Thanks

not much you can do given the police and bank are not interested, it was many year ago too 

user1977

Jeffers1308 said:

Why should I be out of pocket when it's not my fault

Why should anybody else be out of pocket when it's not their fault either?

powerful_Rogue

159?      

eskbanker

powerful_Rogue said:

159?      

https://stopscamsuk.org.uk/159 - I had to look it up too!

eskbanker

Jeffers1308 said:

Reported it to bank, but they were useless, no help at all.

How did you pay?  Not that it makes any difference now, as it's far too late to do anything about something that happened seven years ago, but for anyone in a similar situation now, paying by card is likely to offer protection via section 75 or chargeback, whereas bank transfers will generally be much riskier....

powerful_Rogue

eskbanker said:

powerful_Rogue said:

159?      

https://stopscamsuk.org.uk/159 - I had to look it up too!

Thanks, never heard of it before! Clearly well publicised.

eskbanker

powerful_Rogue said:

eskbanker said:

powerful_Rogue said:

159?      

https://stopscamsuk.org.uk/159 - I had to look it up too!

Thanks, never heard of it before! Clearly well publicised.

To be fair, it did get some publicity on here at the time:

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/2021/09/stop--hang-up--and-call-159-if-you-re-worried-about-bank-scam-ca/
https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/2021/10/martin-lewis--if-you-need-to-call-your-bank-you-can-just-dial-15/

and is mentioned in the current article:

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/shopping/stop-scams/

but in itself it's not going to recover money, it's just meant to be a relatively quick and easy way of getting through to fraud departments at banks....

MalMonroe

Oh, I'm sorry to hear this and I think £500 is a lot of money. It is to me, anyway. Why didn't your bank do anything? I thought they had an obligation to refund your money if/when you'd been scammed. Unless they hadn't signed the agreement to do so.

I know it's been 7 years (why so long?) but if you still have some record of what happened, would it be worth phoning the relevant bank again and asking them to have another look?  It couldn't hurt.  

But after your bank didn't help in 2016, you could have contacted the Financial Ombudsman, who may have been able to help but unfortunately they have a six year cut-off point.

Nothing to stop you contacting them if you want to but they may not be able to help. More info in the following link -

https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/consumers/expect/time-limits

They say you may be able to claim under 'exceptional circumstances' after 6 years - click on the link within the link.

It's just a big shame that it all happened so long ago. I do hope you are able to recoup something but it's not looking too hopeful, unfortunately.

All the best.

lincroft1710

MalMonroe said:

Oh, I'm sorry to hear this and I think £500 is a lot of money. It is to me, anyway. Why didn't your bank do anything? I thought they had an obligation to refund your money if/when you'd been scammed. Unless they hadn't signed the agreement to do so.

I know it's been 7 years (why so long?) but if you still have some record of what happened, would it be worth phoning the relevant bank again and asking them to have another look?  It couldn't hurt.  

But after your bank didn't help in 2016, you could have contacted the Financial Ombudsman, who may have been able to help but unfortunately they have a six year cut-off point.

Nothing to stop you contacting them if you want to but they may not be able to help. More info in the following link -

https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/consumers/expect/time-limits

They say you may be able to claim under 'exceptional circumstances' after 6 years - click on the link within the link.

It's just a big shame that it all happened so long ago. I do hope you are able to recoup something but it's not looking too hopeful, unfortunately.

All the best.

Please do not give the OP false hopes! The "exceptional circumstances" boat sailed a long, long time ago!