Internet Fraud Help

djfattony2000

Ok I'm not sure where I should have put this, so I put it here anyway.

About a year ago I was looking to buy an mp3 player off ebay. An itallian man was selling one, I enquired how much shipping would be to Ireland. The auction ended out of my price range and I did not buy it. A few days later he writes to me saying that he has a few more of these and if would be interested in buying one. I (stupidly) said yes. So I (stupidly) wired him 400 euros and gave him my address. After not recieving the player after a week or two, I begain emailing him. He said that the person he had bought them off in America did not send them correctly and that he would have to pay tax on them. He now sated that he wanted me to pay the extra money. I said no and for him to wire the money back to me. This went on for around 4 months. Now he doesnt respond at all.

Is there any way I can get my money back. I have kept all the emails between us and I have the reciept of the bank transfer I wired into his account.

Any help would be greatly appriciated.

Cheers

pickarooney

"Didn't send them correctly" - unsuccessfully attempted to circumvent VAT laws. He's admitting to fraud with this, if that's any help.

WizZard

Short answer: No;

Long answer: I doubt it...

MojoMaker

What did Ebay say when you told them?

seamus

Not really.

Your money is gone. You happily wired money into his account, there has been no theft, you have little or no comeback unless he's an actual trader.

Chances are, your money was moved to another account, so it's all but untraceable at this point. Next time take receipt of the goods before you pay.

Mr E

Its outside eBay, so they will have nothing (and want nothing) to do with it. Is he still selling on eBay? What was his feedback rating at the time?

smidgy

To be honest I dont like your chances. You can request his contact details and real name through e-bay, however they may not give them to you since the transaction did not go through ebay.Have a look at the boards over on ebay and post your question over there, the community over there may be able to help you further. I experienced something like this before but I had gone through e-bay, you will probably end up having to go to the gardai on this.

dudara

It's sad that this has happened but this is why eBay recommend that you only deal with traders through them and to ignore all other contacts from traders.

I don't think that you have any recourse, but I'm not sure.

Did you wire the money, or did it come from your credit card?

djfattony2000

Ok,

First of all cheers for the quick responses,

Yeh its nothing to do with ebay at all since it was done outside their site.

The money was wired from my account not from my credit card.

Is there not something in contract law about this? I have all the emails including
the ones where an agreement was reached over price etc...

I heard a radio show over the summer about an organisation that deals with Irish consumers being ripped off when they go on holidays. Maybe these guys could do something. Unfortunetly I didnt get their name as I was in work at the time.

BuffyBot

The money was wired from my account not from my credit card.

You're pretty screwed it seems. Plus, he's in a different legal jurisdiction so good luck trying to chase it up via any legal channels.

D!ve^Bomb!

you won't see a penny, lesson learned.. do you remember his eBay user id?

seamus

djfattony2000 wrote:

Is there not something in contract law about this? I have all the emails including
the ones where an agreement was reached over price etc...

Not really. If he's a private seller, then the same contract law doesn't apply as if you were buying from a registered trader.

At most you could get him on fraud, but it'd be a lot of heartache, effort, and ultimately could prove fruitless.

djfattony2000

Yeh its nowhere.mlk , I have his email address and I know he lives in Napoli and his name also. So with all that info I went to the italian online phone directory and I think I now have his address and phone number. Havent rung it yet, just incase im totally wrong.

koneko

You sent money through wire transfer to someone you don't know. That money is pretty much gone.

If you'd gone through your credit card/paypal then you would have some options, but you pretty much just NEVER send money through wire transfer to people, unless they're family or something.

But.. wow... 400 euro? For an Mp3 player? From someone you didn't know? Consider it a lesson learned. Ebay can't and won't do anything because the transaction happened outside Ebay.

masterK

I noticed that he is currently selling an item on eBay, it's item number 6369093711 , why don't you bid on it and then give him the run around. It may be a way to force him to contact you as which time you can bring up your previous transaction.

Even better try and get a telephone number from him and say you need to ask him some questions. I'd set up a new eBay account. It says he accepts postal orders so you could get his address to send it to.

Don't send the postal order and pretend to eBay that you sent it to see if you can get him shut down.

I might be worthwhile setting up a few eBay accounts to bid on any future items he has, leaving negative feedback each time.

You could also try a mass e-mail program and bombard him with thousands of mails.

I know this is all very childish, hey but it at least you might get some revenge.

D!ve^Bomb!

in all fairness, even though the original item was being sold by 'nowhere.mlk'.. that doesn't mean the guy who contacted you about the extra mp3 players is the same person

masterK

D!ve^Bomb! wrote:

in all fairness, even though the original item was being sold by 'nowhere.mlk'.. that doesn't mean the guy who contacted you about the extra mp3 players is the same person

I think he said it was. If he used the same email address as was used on eBay then he can assume it was the same person.

D!ve^Bomb!

masterK wrote:

I think he said it was. If he used the same email address as was used on eBay then he can assume it was the same person.

the same email address as what? that was the first time he contacted him... unless the OP was communicating with the actual seller then how would he know the email address

djfattony2000

No the first time I contacted him was to ask him about shipping on the original item. All replies were from the same address including the ones about selling me a new player.

masterK

D!ve^Bomb! wrote:

the same email address as what? that was the first time he contacted him... unless the OP was communicating with the actual seller then how would he know the email address

I mean if he was contacted from the same e-mail address a few days after the auction that he used to query shipping etc. when the auction was still active.

D!ve^Bomb!

well if you want to be guaranteed his phone no. bid on his items and make sure you win then go here:

http://cgi3.ebay.co.uk/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?MemberSearchShow

you can only request contact info when you are openly trading with each other, eg. when you have won an item of his..

you won't get his full address but you will get his ph no.

PADDYPOKER

If he was on the fiddle, why would he use the same e-mail address?
Surely he would change it?

djfattony2000

Ok

I just emailed him through ebay (ask seller question). He just got back to me saying he offered me the money back but I had refused.

I returned him a mail saying that I didnt and I will take it back now. I await his response...........

D!ve^Bomb!

keep all his replies

idontknowmyname

was it ur first time on ebay? if so its a lesson learnt....the first time i bought on ebay i was niave and ended up getin fake goods which were crap quality, seller wouldn't give me my money back. was only 60 euro -bad experience but i learnt from it

djfattony2000

I'm officially banning the phrase "lesson learnt" from this thread. I realise this, it happened a year ago.

Although somone did try a similar trick on me resently but I ignored it, maybe it was a "you no what" after all.