Ebay Fraud - Help.

Avoriaz

As other have said, get the police involved. This is almost certainly fraud and it is unlikely that you are the only victim.

I also suggest that you ask admin to move this thread to the ebay board.

You will get more advice there.

superscaper

mervyn11 wrote: »

Its not supposed to help
But people just dont seem to use any common sense these days......
Did the person that sent of £400 (!!!!) of Argos Vouchers make a note of their numbers ???
Did he photo copy them ????
No he just send them off !!!!!!!!
Un flamin believable !!!!!!!!

Exactly where has the OP said he didn't do any of those things. And exactly how would it help? I don't think the evidence of him sending the vouchers is the problem. You seemed to have inferred your own story just so you can have a rant.

fwor

Mervyn11: I've gotta agree that this is probably not the best place to be expressing your views on the OP's (perceived) failings.

To the OP: Certainly report it to all of those mentioned above, but be prepared to put this one down to experience. I tried to take on a "pro scammer" through the Small Claims Court, and it achieved nothing other than costing me money in court fees. Be prepared for:

Polite disinterest from the police (this sort of fraud isn't in their targets).
Extreme unhelpfulness from the banks.
The uselessness of a County Court Judgement against someone who is probably already ignoring a dozen previous ones.

Sorry, but that's how it was for me... Hope your experience is better.

isofa

I suppose the only advice for the future, is only accept PayPal for items of such value - not very helpful I know, but at least, in theory there is more protection, and you can see when the money arrives in your account.

Good luck, hope you have better luck with the bank and police than fwor did.

Purple_Sparkles

I'd certainly report it to the police, they actually did help a friend of mine who paid for an item about £50 on Ebay and they never received the item. The person they bought it from didn't respond to any emails etc.... but my friend did eventually receive all of her money from the fraudster. The police simply said if you don't pay up you'll be arrested. It took about 7 days from the police speaking to the Ebayer until my friend got the cash back.

esuhl

Well... I've been a bit sneaky in the past (in response to being conned - so I guess it's not that sneaky)... I added the con-merchant's eBay username to my email alerts, and whenever the guy tried to sell anything I'd bid on it, insist on using the money he already owed as payment, then filed a non-sending complaint when he refused. Eventually I got about 3/4 of my money back from eBay after they investigated him.

Not ideal, but it sort of worked out for me.

Oh, and the bank will take a photocopy of *every* cheque that goes through their system. I used to work for a mail order company and we'd get the bank to send us photocopies of lost cheques... for some reason that I can't quite recall now...

Good luck at recovering your money.

Belnahua

Just a quick thought - I know it's not helpful, but how do you know the cheque book wasn't actually stolen? And this person you send the vouchers off to, was just using the name on the cheque book?

Also if the cheque was genuine, can you not take all the documentation to your bank and show it was a genuine transaction and try to get them on your side?

bookduck

Spend £3 ? and find out if he is the owner of the property, bet he is a tenant and has or on the verge of leaving. May even be ripping his landlord off too. I think his landlord will take an interest - I would!!!