To get this person into trouble?

[Iwishiwereheather]

I was purchasing some furniture a couple of months back through Instagram. I put a deposit down through PayPal and then the person blocked me. I paid through ‘friends and family’ therefore no payment protection.

Very annoyed with myself but learnt from the incident.

Logged into my PayPal last night and saw the person still in my contacts. They have now updated their email address to their work email - think [email protected]

I’m tempted to contacted their place of work seeing as they’ve linked an account that scams people to their work address.

Aibu or should I just leave it?

I’d have found out where they work and gone to ask for my deposit back.

I’d email them saying you are reporting them to the police for fraud and will send you the crime number. If no reply I would ring up their workplace and speak to someone who runs the place.

Hopefully they're just dragging their heels while they are investigating while wfh. A reminder to tell them you're not going away might give them a kick to get on with it. Good luck!

@Thewiseoneincognito

I’d have found out where they work and gone to ask for my deposit back.

They're in Glasgow from what the OP has posted and she's nowhere near.

Huge well done for contacting the company as you did, I really hope they at least get the shit scared out of them or lose their job. I highly doubt you were the only one they stole from, and others could have gone without food for what he did so you did the right thing.

I haven’t read all the messages but regarding the police, many forces have dedicated online buying/selling/eBay teams. I have heard this from 2 sources.

If you were to present the police with everything they need, including the company address, they wouldn’t even need to do any digging themselves, they could just go and speak with him.

It’s fraud/theft. Many police forces still deal with this.
Big companies absolutely do not though in general. H worked for a big company. From time to time, people who had been wronged by employees wrote letters/emails about it to the company. Entire lot binned, nothing to do with them.

I think a decent investigation will take time and would actually say the longer it takes the more likely it is that serious action is being taken.

I'm not sure if the police wouldn't be interested, it's fraudulent and stealing.
If OP was scammed for £250 I'd bet many others were.
The police in Ireland are always picking up young money mules for questioning, to catch the bigger fish.
You've nothing to lose, they may be able to trace IP, cyber crime is still crime.

Report it too the fraud dept online with the police and the bb at least get him into trouble!

Please report to the police. You have evidence, you have a named person, do you have an address other than a work address?

As much as I like the employer being made aware, the police are the right place to report, if others are also getting the same treatment then the police need evidence to convict.

If you have a home address (or can find one via googling) then you could go via the small claims court to get your money and expenses back. MSE has the advice.

Do it. If you approach them at work the chances are they won't want trouble and will pay you back.

I got an email back saying they are still investigating and will update me.

To the people telling me to leave it well no I won’t. I lost a large amount of money for me (realise to the 6 figure earners that it’s literally about 20p to them).

After bills I’m left with approximately £78 that still needs to cover a months worth of petrol and food. So yes I had to keep putting money aside as I didn’t need to use petrol any near as much last year.

Maybe I should just scam another poor person and top up my earnings that way then.

Anyway I won’t be updating on this further.

@Iwishiwereheather keep up the good fight, you are doing a public service for everyone by helping make sure there are consequences for people like him. I wish more people were like you.

@Iwishiwereheather

sounds like they are doing something - good for you for following up

I hope you get somewhere with it

I would report. Depending on how well known the company was, the bigger the more likely to investigate internally.

(Failure to rtft 🤦‍♀️) glad they are looking into

@Littlegoth

OP's already done that, a week ago

@Littlegoth

apologies, cross post

Please don't stop posting! Those of us who actually read the thread would love to see an update if you get one! I'm rooting for you!

agree @otterbaby

I think it’s hopeful and well done. People think they can get away with this sort of thing and the more people catch them out the better.
My mum buys loads off eBay /fb and has been scammed twice in a similar way. Both times she dug around and got recompensed.

Good on you OP.
Have read all your updates and I think you did the right thing.

Why should scammer get away with this unquestioned!? Let's hope he learns his lesson.

In fairness to the op. From experience when I was the victim of a scam despite having the name and address of the person who ordered the goods and delivered to the tune of nearly £700, the police were not remotely interested. Luckily my credit card company reimbursed me.

Re the company, given it reflects badly on them, I suspect they're likely to be grateful for the heads up.

Oh boo. I wanted to see how this ended up. Thanks to the mean posters....humpf.