What are my rights? Being conned by overseas buyer

[craigle]

Hi guys

i wonder if i could get some advice please. I sold a limited edition PC game to a member in America

it has been nothing but a nightmare since the listing finished. Alarm bells went off as soon as he paid late. Now ONLY 8 working days later he is demanding that it is lost and has been very rude about me being from the UK and basically enjoying winding me up.

I asked for him to confirm his address, he went mental at this and stated i should already know it. Tried to explain its to see if his details are correct on his acc etc. He lives in Kansas City and this is reg on his account and this is the address i posted to.

He denies he lives in Kansas but wont give me his full address through a message.

Anyway, he has opened a dispute. made up aload of bull about me and now esculated it. so he is going to get his £70 back as ebay never lets the seller have a right to give more info.

my partner posted the item just via 1st class air mail without tracking, and this guy is obsessed about tracking. As he knows i dont have it hes laughing!

i have a recipt though with all details on it, i know ebay wont care about this but could i use this to get some money back of what i am loosing from Royal mail?? i have never had this problem before.

My paypal acc is empty also so dont know if the money will be taken direct from my bank as i know ebay will give him what he wants. Will i get a strike also??

so unfair, 8 days to America from the UK and he can get away with all this :(

[oompaloompa]

you sent to paypal registered address, I hope.

forward any unreasonable emails to eb on the dispute - although, I doubt that is relevant to them.

whats his feedback like?

No, tracking, you are in trouble then. A £70 item should always have tracking, eb should give it longer to arrive from UK than 8 days, if you put normal post down on listing. So if he is just impatient and is honest it will arrive within next week and he will close case.

Royal mail will not give you anything other than basic comp for this eg some first class stamps, unless it was insured.

TBH if you put down normal not tracked post on actual lisiting, you are target for scammers at that level of item value, Higher value items attract scammers, they know, no tracking, no proof..a £5 item fine, you can afford to lose that, plus people tend not to scam those things.

bottom line is if he says it doesnt arrive, probably within next 10 days they will refund him. Make sure you have balance in paypal, or it will come off credit card or possibly from bank, depending on how you set up account, and you do not want that if it is a stealth account.

[craigle]

Yeah this is a stealth account

i only have about £18 in there which wont cover. I myself would have sent it recorded but as my partner did it he didnt realise and thought it would be ok

this guy is a blatent scammer, even when he gets it he will say he hasnt. Only has 10 feedbacks

has a real hate to British people aswell so he is really enjoying this.

how can i get money out of my bank account into my paypal so the balance will be coverd? cant believe this is happening. Such a collectable item aswell. The money is in my bank but will this flag up if there isnt enough actually in paypal?

as for compensation with royal mail, it doesnt seem worth filling out the form if i am only going to get the cost of a stamp back

[GTB]

always go recorded when its an expensive item,especially when its going overseas,
if i was you i would check the royal mail website to see if there is anything you can do,but dont hold your hopes up
live and learn bud,live and learn

[GTB]

to top up your pp account,add a vcc and add funds to cover and keep you out of the red

[stealthmaster]

Basically I don't know whether or not you have been conned but it's a bit strange the buyer not confirming his home address in the USA. And 1st class Air Mail takes between the period you said, but then again it could take longer to the USA. Which carrier did you use? and in the future don't deal with anyone outside the UK, because this is what you will be facing the long waiting times there and some buyers as you know get a bit angry because it's not arrived in the time frame it should have. Although if he's not confirming his address then there's something there definitely not right, why can't the buyer give you his address? I'd follow that up and query the problem with eBay. The transaction may seem OK but when he's making it out he's the victim when it could be you I would follow it up. Hope this helps.

Stealth Master

[craigle]

i have just transferd £70 from my bank into my paypal, but it says it wont clear till the 25th and ebay are saying the verdict will be within 72 hours. So it still wont be in the plus in time, they will take it from my bank raise a flag prob close my account and now loose the £70 i have waiting clearing in paypal.Grrrr!

[GTB]

I agree with stealthmaster,
get onto eb about this,tell them you think the bidder is a conman and you asked for his address and he refused,give them as much info as possible,
hope you get it sorted

[craigle]

is there anyway i can cancel the transaction of the money being transferd into my paypal? seems pointless as it wont clear in time and im scared of loosing double the amount now

what the best route of contacting ebay? everytime i go on the chat i just get a computer talking back to me

[oompaloompa]

no no, like I said - bank transfer is not good for a stealth paypal, why? because the credit may or may not show your real name!!! If you cannot stop it, try not to worry, it probably wont get picked up.

Honestly, if I were you and this is happening in real-time, I would read carefully and get this thread deleted, as you have given out too much specific info.

If this person has done it a few times before, they evidence is there and they can get their account taken away from them, so always forward you suspicion, however it still does not mean you will not have to refund him. No tracking = refund or replacement.

The truth is that if he is a scammer and you dont have tracking, he will be refunded, end of..

try and stop the bank transfer, make sure the vcc is the funding source, it is where they will try first to get money.....

[craigle]

i thought VCC was topping up from my bank account!

i havnt got a clue on how i am going to stop this. Grr such a mess, more than before

[oompaloompa]

do you have a real card or vcc attached?

yes real card is funded by your bank, and then in turn funds your paypal, however it many show a real name or just a ref, depends......
vcc is loaded by your real card or bank, seperately and anonymously, no real name shown on credit, just vcc name or ref

sorry what I meant was, the vcc is your primary funding source, you cannot top up with it, monies can be drawn FROM it. If they cannot take from vcc as it is not enough or empty they then think about bank, and depending on how you set up account, they then may go for bank or alternatively leave you with negative balance that they limit you for anyhow....be proactive now.

It was a mistake, you need to save your stealth account and move on having learnt, and given instructions to whoever posts your stuff, and dont be mean to them, they didnt realise and thats ok its not a sin!

[craigle]

its attached to a new account i opened up with natwest under my real name.

so im guessing thats gonna cause problems now, so i will be loosing £140 instead of the £70

seems there is no way i can stop the transfer once it has started

[oompaloompa]

who said you will lose £140?? they will only take what the refund is, not double. We are concerned where it comes from, not how much.......to be honest now the bank transfer is underway just chill, nothing you can do.

log in to paypal and tell me this, are you negative balance?

if you were to have money in balance, £70 of it it would be on hold right now but if you dont have enough, then you are negative....

you are transferring to your paypal balance via your bank, you are simply going to top up your balance and stop it from being negative, thus stopping a limitation and more aggro.

In future, always keep some balance in there to stop this happening, refunds and chargebacks are all reasons for this.

[craigle]

no im just worried that £70 is going to get refunded straight from my bank, which will leave me in the negative (close my account) then the £70 will clear next week and i wont be able to get it as my account is closed down. Does that make sense?

I have £18 in my pp right now

[GreenBean]

Originally Posted by craigle

i have just transferd £70 from my bank into my paypal, but it says it wont clear till the 25th and ebay are saying the verdict will be within 72 hours. So it still wont be in the plus in time, they will take it from my bank raise a flag prob close my account and now loose the £70 i have waiting clearing in paypal.Grrrr!

Then get back on the dog & bone to ebay. (Have all your info). Ask for a supervisor & Get the name. Tell them that you are in the process of making funds available pending their decision. And then say, by the way,I am sedning his responses to me on the matter. I want you,ebay, to have a record.......


Then: phone your bank or race to a branch and get the direct debit stopped for the £70 transaction. Tell the bank you withdraw your permission for paypal to touch your account. Tell the bank the transaction is not valid because the reason has proven to be f alse...... Sometimes those are things to be done to stop losing

[oompaloompa]

you only get negative balance when the money is removed from paypal, not before, so you have time to sort it. Thought you said you could not stop bank transfer? did you talk to bank, what did they say? no it wont refund straight from bank direct to buyer, so dont worry about that.

If you can cancel dd mandate do so, however Ive known it not to stop transfers already in progress, fingers crossed, then when it is all done and dusted you can re-add bank, as long as you have got pp to withdraw refund from your balance and remainder from card, they would try these first in any case before hitting bank, am I right GB?

[craigle]

yes GB. Since my last message alot has happend

1st off he won the case and it gloating! but my pp balance still seems the same?
2nd my bank has no detail of the transfer on there system
3rd i phoned paypal and they said that it is already processing and they cannot stop it, they will have the funding by the end of next week!!

There is nothing else i can do, except be out of pocket probally for both amounts now as most likely my paypal will get closed cos of this transfer

[GreenBean]

Oh rats! What a stinker that buyer is. He set you up no doubt about that.

[craigle]

I am really angry, and wish i left the transfering as i didnt know this was all wrong

i just prey that when the transfer goes through from Natwest that it doesnt mention my name!!!

[GreenBean]

The transfer of the money you borrowed from a freind so as not to have a negative balance? dunno why that would be trouble

[craigle]

exactly from a friend!