To think there must hope. Lost £5,000 ebay scam

[drnoitall]

Ddh bought something on ebay.
Paid bank transfer as alot of money (£5,000)
He received an email from ebay saying account he purchased from had been hacked and listing removed.
Looks increasingly like a scam.
Contacted police fraud department (don't know actual name of it) his bank and recipient bank.
Seller says delivery has been arranged for tomorrow at 9am.
Nothing can be done yet as it could turn up.
But, this is the bad but that has us feeling so miserable and annoyed.
When we put the contact phone number the seller gave into google it was the exact phone number listed on a page for an overseas "adult" service.
I want to cry, I hate seeing my dh so miserable.
Can anyone help with advice, are there some protective rights that we need to know?
This is a very upsetting and a lot of money to us , can our bank demand the money back from the sellers bank? Can ebay do anything?
Thank you in advance, fingers crossed someone can help.

Sorry to hear this drnoitall. Best of luck getting it back

OP - what is the item?

Sorry, op, but eBay's reputation is based on safety is not really applicable here. They advise use of Paypal for just this reason, so publicity of the type of transaction you entered into isn't going to hurt them one whit.
Hope you get your cash back, though.

Thanks everyone.
Yes you are right that until tomorrow it could turn out ok.
Only we rang the mentioned courier company and they have nothing for us on their manifesto.
Ringing bank again now to see if payment can/has been stopped.

I know Molly. I know. But it's no good rubbing dh nose in it.
He is properly fucked off and kicking himself all ready. I just want to help, to see if there is any glimmer of hope . Whilst knowing there isn't really. I've been trying all afternoon, talking to ebay, trading standards as suggested on here.

If it is a scam and the bank are no help, I would go to the financial ombudsman.

If the money is still 'in the bank' I see no reason why it cannot be frozen as there is suspicion of a crime.

With all the checks made when opening a bank account, they should know who has the money, even if it has been withdrawn/moved elsewhere. If your item does not appear tomorrow, then the bank should be able to tell the police whose bank account it is and they can go and investigate?

If the bank do not assist the OP in recovering the money, they are aiding and abetting a criminal and they should not be allowed to get away with it.

Oh dear, how horrible . What was it? A car or something similar?

FWIW, eBay accounts can be genuinely hacked into. This happened to my BIL several years ago - he hadn't even used the account for a while, but randomly got a phone call asking him about the JCB Digger he was selling . Obviously, the scammer hadn't been quite clever enough to change all of the account phone numbers - although a different one was shown on the listing.

On checking his eBay account, there were three different listings for mechanical/farm machinery! Each for thousands & thousands of £s. The "Seller" (i.e. Hacker) was asking for payment via bank transfer for those too - although luckily, no-one parted with any cash as BIL got straight on to eBay & had the account closed down completely before any fake auctions actually ended.

It does happen unfortunately, but hopefully you will get what you paid for. You say the police are not interested - will they be interested tomorrow afternoon if nothing is delivered? I can't see how this is not a criminal matter.

I have no help or advice to add, but have my fingers very firmly crossed for you, OP.

Santa that's what it looks like here.
It was also a piece of machinery.
Thanks piorot.
Trading standards say wait till tomorrow.
Still waiting for banks.

You poor poor things. I really hope you get something back but if you don't then you'll just have to let it go, no point dwelling on it.

Oh dear . You would think that with all of eBay's "clamp downs" over the last few years they would have found a way of stopping this scam - if indeed this does turn out to be a scam. It sounds like it is still the same sorts of items being listed .

It may be they stopped their account as they know they are going outside ebay to trade...

item may still turn up?

You poor things, you must be feeling wretched. Fingers crossed for you.

Oh OP how absolutely gutting for you

I had similar but for a lesser amount (still it was £150!) for some tickets that neverturned up. This seller had 2000+ feedback, 99% positive. He just disappeared. I was gutted.

You're right. Saying "well that was stupid" isn't much use now

I really really hope you either get your money or your item

Check whether the money has left your account ,if it hasn't can you not just clear the account so there is no money for them to send ,sorry if that's just too stupid a suggestion .

What OnIlkley said and maybe Floralnomad. Seems like you are doing a lot of the right things. I am gutted for you that you are left stressing till tomorrow. I really hope this thing turns up and you are right not to make DH feel worse. Thinking of you.

I transferred money in this way for tickets to a festival. Around 300 quid and I did not get my money back. The bank said i had willfully transferred Tue money and they are not authorised to just take money from another person's bank account and especially not if its a different bank to yours.

I hope your bank intervene in time.

Out of interest, did the seller have more than one of the item listed?
Just that when my account got hacked on ebay years back I was suddenly selling several tractors in South Dakota

they link a second email to the account so the account owner never knows what is going on

which means that the person you thought you were dealing with is not the seller
which makes the crime very hard to report

and with FPS that money was probably swept out of the compromised UK bank account within seconds

sorry
but with big things like that, COD is the safest way

This happened to me with a pair of boots on eBay. The seller asked me to pay via bank transfer, but I'd already paid via PayPal. They never arrived. My bank refunded the money.

Also everyone wondering why bank transfer- it's tempting as there's no final value fees or fees to PayPal. I sold a bike once accidentally this way, no bids then a guy phoned me, gave me full asking price in cash.

OP I have everything crossed for you, I so hope you get your money back x

Oh dear god. So sorry op x

I rang my bank about 10 minuutes after the transaction - money was still in the account, didn't leave for about a week actually, but they still said, all they could do was give it a suggested amount of time, and then if nothing arrived or the item was indeed a fake, they could try and get the payment back.

I had a police number and everything...got it that evening, rang bank again, nothing they would do.

To be fair, they did get it back in the end. I just had to provide a load of evidence that it was a fake, which was quite tricky to get hold of.

Really hope you have some luck.

Also if your fakey seller is spooked enough, or their bank is, they may not withdraw/accept the payment anyway.

Oh dear god. So sorry op x

Shona for the boots, PayPal will have refunded the money, not the bank. Seller will still pay FVFs for payment by BT. The bike was an off-eBay deal, cash would have been the only way to go (although the sale breaks the eBay user agreement).

OP's problem is that as far as the bank is concerned, they made the payment requested by the OP to the account details supplied by the OP.

I know it won't help your situation but it might protect others from similar- what made your DH choose to pay via bank transfer when all Ebay listings have to accept Paypal and it doesn't cost the buyer anything? Did they offer some kind of incentive?

Hope you get a lucky break.