What to do now - ebay scammer

Ok, so the other day I buy 4gb of ocz ddr2 from a guy on ebay - hes got good feedback, and there are 5 (5x sets of 2x 2gb kits) sets available. So I pay via paypal and wait for monday morning, when I contact the seller and ask if itl ship that day. Well he comes back to me and says some people that bought the ram were trying to scam him and that id have to wait...but when I challenged him he and said he could clearly see he had my money he then went to paypal and sent me an item postage confirmation - but no tracking details. The shipping I paid for included full track and trace details - so I contact him again and ask whats going on, and he says that he was actually selling the goods for his business and that they deal with shipping, then directs me to a random website.

I check the site and its some shoddily made 'private investigation firm' page, which unsurprisingly had a big banner at the top saying " we dont sell our goods on ebay, if anyone trys to sell you goods theyre a scammer"... a quick whois lookup reveals that the website is registered to the same residential address as this guys ebay account.

So I challenge him again and ask him what the hell he's up too - within about 30mins he's suddenly showing up on ebay as 'no longer a registered member'...so now I cant contact him. Iv filed a paypal dispute and theyre saying so far that they cannot contact the seller either...and when I contacted ebay customer support they said theyd investigate him and ban him if they thought he was a scammer!!!

what are they gonna do?? ban him for unregistering anway and running off with my cash? I worked out, with all the stuff he was selling on there (not just ram) that he musta run with £2000 GBP of various folks money, not just mine
Will paypal give me my money back? I paid with credit card, so if they screw me around am I within my rights to have my CC company seize the cash back??

what can I do? Id go to the address but its like 200 miles from me...and the police over here wont give a damn...

Call your credit card company and place a stop payment on that transaction.

Other then that I dunno what to tell you, Im sure SSS will see this thread and give you some insight to what you can do. He is the man for the job when it comes to dealing with scammers, He may even drive to the scammers house and take care of it personally for ya

sadly i think im the wrong side of the atlantic for him to drive over - i called my CC company and they claim they cant stop the payment, only investigate my complaint - surely thats BS?

you should be able to stop payment on anything within 24 hours.

should I call my CC company and have them chargeback the money and let paypal retrieve their money from the scammer?

thats what I would try.

Vrykyl said:

should I call my CC company and have them chargeback the money and let paypal retrieve their money from the scammer?

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Yes

Did the Ebay auction have this logo as well? (If so your better off, but you still should initiate a chargeback if everything you said above is accurate info)

noooooooo - my credit card wont let me do a chargeback - according to them I have to wait 45 days until they can investigate until then they wont take the money back Now im screwed, cos the interest on the amount is gonna be massive and Il have no goods to show for it

what can i do now?

Vrykyl said:

noooooooo - my credit card wont let me do a chargeback - according to them I have to wait 45 days until they can investigate until then they wont take the money back Now im screwed, cos the interest on the amount is gonna be massive and Il have no goods to show for it

what can i do now?

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First rule of credit card companies. Everytime you are told no, ask for someone higher up. Eventually the nos become, "well we dont usually do that, but..."

man_utd said:

First rule of credit card companies. Everytime you are told no, ask for someone higher up. Eventually the nos become, "well we dont usually do that, but..."

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Agreed. Keep going up the manager ranks until you get someone with the power to do something about it.

Silversinksam said:

Yes

Did the Ebay auction have this logo as well? (If so your better off, but you still should initiate a chargeback if everything you said above is accurate info)

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A few days ago, I contacted Sam regarding an e-bay item. This is exactly what he told me. I ended up buying the item from a manufacturer authorized reseller. It was a bit more expensive, but I have peace of mind. Thanks Sam!

What kind of a crap CC company won't allow buyer protection? Mate, as suggested by others, ask for a supervisor. I can't believe that the CC company won't help you out. Which one is it? Is the e-bayer in the US or in the UK? You could try contacting the Police. I'm sure there is an online fraud wing of the local Police.

Super Nade said:

What kind of a crap CC company won't allow buyer protection? Mate, as suggested by others, ask for a supervisor. I can't believe that the CC company won't help you out. Which one is it? Is the e-bayer in the US or in the UK? You could try contacting the Police. I'm sure there is an online fraud wing of the local Police.

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I was wondering the same, I would change banks or the credit card company. Not being able to do a charge back if you know for a fact you are being scammed is outrageous.

Hey maybe after 45 days they will make it right, but that still is absurd m8

Vrykyl said:

noooooooo - my credit card wont let me do a chargeback - according to them I have to wait 45 days until they can investigate until then they wont take the money back Now im screwed, cos the interest on the amount is gonna be massive and Il have no goods to show for it

what can i do now?

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This happened to me with "The Great Canadian JetsGo Scam", wherein the CEO of JetsGo discount airline decided to close his airline at midnight just before march break last year but kept taking thousands of discounted bookings up to the minute before they closed shop. The CC company said that everyone would have to wait until a reasonable period of time to make sure we did in fact get scammed before they would give us a charge back. Their logic was the company might restructure and if so we would get our trip eventually, therefore it was premature to give us a refund. Well we had to wait until after the time we had originally booked our trip for before we got the $$$ back but we did get it back in full. Hopefully your CC company is not stalling but instead just holding off giving refunds until they can investigate the matter properly. Hopefully. Fingers crossed for ya.

By law you have 60 days to dispute the charge. (AFAIR) My understanding is that you have to do this in writing (phone calls don't count).

Robbie said:

By law you have 60 days to dispute the charge. (AFAIR) My understanding is that you have to do this in writing (phone calls don't count).

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With a credit card you can dispute it quicker than that.

Also, any charge under dispute is exempt from interest charges. If the dispute falls through, you will be charged the accruing interest during the disputed time, but if the dispute ends in your favor, the interest accrued from the time the dispute is filed until resolution will not be charged.

Silversinksam said:

With a credit card you can dispute it quicker than that.

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He meant you have UNTIL 60 days from purchase TO dispute..heh

ok well I managed to get through to someone a bit politer at the CC company - he said the best they can do atm is start the investigation early if I send them every piece of detail in writing, so im off to do that now asap...
In the mean time they still wont charge back Jeez I hope i get this sorted before the CC bill comes and I have to pay + interest

ok, so paypal are finally reviewing the case...but I phoned them up and they say that they cant refund me the full amount if the fraudster has withdrawn the money from his account...how the hell does that work??

Sorry about your ordeal.

Did you write the credit card company. Like previous poster said you must notify them in writing. This is the only sure fire way to protect yourself. And the credit card company must stop payment if it is a suspected fraudulant transaction. If they don't they are opening themselves up to liability. Liability = lawsuit. The kind of lawsuit that comes around from a consumer.....WHO NOTIFIES THEM IN WRITING. Which I recommend sending certified. If you follow the rules of the contract and the consumer protections in place for your country, you will have the transaction rolled back.

I wish you luck.