Scammed and want justice

Tiger850SP

Hi all, and thank you for letting me join.
Cut a long story short, and I bought an iPhone from a business seller on Facebook Marketplace. Paid but never received it.
I am now taking seller to county court to reclaim my money, but I am unsure her address is correct. If I enter it in the Court papers, and it is incorrect, will the court track her real address down?

DullGreyGuy

Tiger850SP said:

Hi all, and thank you for letting me join.
Cut a long story short, and I bought an iPhone from a business seller on Facebook Marketplace. Paid but never received it.
I am now taking seller to county court to reclaim my money, but I am unsure her address is correct. If I enter it in the Court papers, and it is incorrect, will the court track her real address down?

No, thats your job to do. 

It depends what happens, if it is delivered and the wrong recipient just ignores it then you will get a judgement in default but will struggle to enforce it given you dont know where they are. 

How did you pay for it? 

soolin

How you paid for it is the important question - and also how have you attempted to confirm the sellers geographic address.

Most of these scammers on FB keep it simple, they hide their address carefully, change the name slightly to something untraceable and ask for an unsafe payment method like bank transfer. 

Assuming this was a bank transfer then with the banks being so cautious now with ensuring people aren't being scammed you can have slightly more reassurance that the name you have is right- as otherwise the transfer would have triggered a refusal by the bank, however bank should still have made you confirm you were happy to proceed and were aware of the usual scams - did they do this?

If it wasn't a bank transfer then there may be other options for finding the seller. 

Getting a judgement in small claims requires a full geographic address , and even then a successful claim wouldn't guarantee you get your money back.

El_Torro

If you're buying off Facebook Marketplace (or similar) then you should always pay with Paypal (not the Friends and Family option, that is just as unsafe as a bank transfer). The seller incurs fees by doing this but Paypal generally side with the buyer in disputes and you will get your money back if you don't receive the item. 

There are other services that are not affiliated to Paypal, I'm not saying it's the only option but it does seem to be the most common option which includes protection for buyers.

The above doesn't help the OP very much on this occasion, but hopefully is helpful to someone. I suspect you won't be getting your money back, best of luck though.