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.

Isnt it the seller who pays the Paypal fees anyway?

Sorry to hear you have not got your money back OP...

You sound a lovely person to be so understanding of your DH... you may be short of £5k but you have riches in other ways!

< goes off to quiet corner to comtemplate how MrWizzler would have got a real ear bashing, and how this would have been the wrong thing to do>

Isnt it the seller who pays the Paypal fees anyway?

Yes it is - and that's why some ask the buyer to send it by another method, especially if the amount is large. Unfortunately, as here, it can all go badly wrong ...

1, first rule of of ebay use Pay pal

1. Rule of face book use pay pal

It never occured to me to be mad at him because he is so mad with himself already. What is there to say? what good would it do? In reality when something shit happens you show and support by understanding and moving on......
For richer, for poorer, I can't judge him, I'm not perfect myself....

I'm repeating all this because I think it is a great definition of an adult and loving relationship.

It helps to pass on these scams as it may stop someone else getting caught. But these people are victims of a crime and deserve sympathy.

I hope that the crooks get caught.

There is only one reason when I recommend NOT using PayPal in regards to being a SELLER on eBay / Facebook and that is when people buy something from you that they will be coming to collect.

A well known scam is that a buyer pays via PayPal, you arrange a collection time, they collect and then a few days later do a chargeback / claim with paypal to say that the item has not arrived. PayPal ask you as the seller for proof of posting and of course you can't provide one! PayPal do not care that you say it's been collected, show them emails etc. You broke the seller protection rules by not obtaining proof of postage and so buyer is refunded. You're out the item and the money. So beware FB sellers as well!

I really, really hope the OP can come back with a positive outcome, her thread I'm sure has been an education to some, it would be lovely if it all turned out ok for her in the end.

I meant to say in my post above regarding not using PayPal for those collecting stuff is that the only way to guarantee not getting a item not arrived claim thrown your way when selling something is to only ever use cash on collection.

floral - that is really interesting! And actually explains something to me I always thought was odd...
I bought something on ebay for collection - told the seller before I bid that I couldn't collect for almost 2 weeks and they said fine.
Won the item and I sent them an email suggesting I pay by Paypal straight away (didn't say but so they knew I wasn't a time waster, any risk would be mine etc). Now I know why their attitude changed!! They thought I was trying to scam them - instead of setting their mind at rest I was definitely going to come, probably made them more worried
And I thought I was up on this stuff- it really should be more widely known ....
I was scammed a few years ago - just a DVD box set and I got my money back. A newish seller and they mentioned it in their spiel, checked their feedback they had sold a few different things (not for a penny) and a few DVD box sets - all with positive feedback. Box set was cheapish - not that (too) cheap. It didn't arrive but without me chasing I got an email apologising for the delay (very charming and believable, slick in retrospect), it would be a couple more days - still didn't arrive I chased it, got a reply another (charming) email. (No feedback received in ebay over this time) Still didn't arrive- chased it and no reply, tried to phone no answer. And then his feedback started filling up with negatives - hundreds of people in the same position as me ...I did report it to ebay (his account was suspended) and made a statement to the police - but even the officer I spoke to said that actually ebay/paypal wouldn't do anything - the guy had maybe got a way with a few thousand pounds...nothing compared to ebay/paypal profits...

Thanks special and floral for your lovely replies.
Thanks to everyone else for sharing your stories, it's interesting but very anger inducing to realise how much this goes on. Especially when the bastards can disappear and reappear without much of a trace.

What an awful shame. I think you're handling it really well and completely agree that giving your DH a hard time would achieve nothing, he can't possibly feel any worse than he already does. I wish more people had your attitude. Good luck for the future.

I hate that online fraud is not taken seriously. It's obvious that the police could easily track down the owner of the bank account. I know they'd have to go through legal channels to do this, but it's doable. How is it right that the CPS can prosecute a shoplifter for stealing goods worth £50 but not be interested in this type of scam? You can be fairly sure your DH isn't the only one these scammers have fooled.

I'd be interested to know how you get on with this so please keep us updated.

And congratulate yourself on being such a lovely wife .