Ive Been Scammed

[Muppet10]

Feel so sorry for you. Can you give us the Ebayer seller name and their phone number so we can avoid them - Mind you I hope they have been banned by Ebay!
How totally gutting.
Pursue Ebay as they are responsible for the listings and as you have proof that they had been informed about the mis-dealings of this seller, get a solicitor involved or at least threaten it.
Put a call out for legal people on this site and someone might take it on for you. x

Hi All
Thanks for the suggestions and am looking in to doing all of them. Mine was themerryberry, however I e-mailed all of the people that she purchased from, one came back with an address and phone number which a friend of mine called. She was a genuine e-bayer whose account had been used to do this. She phoned e-bay to report this and when I called them (after she e-mailed me to apologise and tell me what she had done) they said that yes, they could see that there were some wrong IP addresses on her account, could I e-mail the invoice that I was sent but, basically, tough. It was quite subtle how they got me out of e-bay to get my money (I have been awake most of the night so have had plenty of time to think about the sequence of events). When I said that I was interested in the buy it now price, I was asked, still through e-bay to give my private e-mail address for some photos. When they arrived one of them even had a registration number on it so still no alarm bells. I replied using that e-mail and that's where everything went horribly wrong. When the invoice arrived I never went back to my e-bay account to make sure that it had come back through that way. I am usually so careful to the point of insanity but this seemed so good. What's that saying - 'If it looks too good to be true, it usually is'. This is not something I will ever do again and I won't be so trusting another time. The worst of it is that you expect people to treat you the way that you treat them.
Sorry to have gone on and thanks for the help. Fraud squad, forums, Trading Standards and anyone else I can think of so that people know about this - here I come. At this point I now no longer care how stupid I look, I don't want anyone else to go through this!

 

[robinsbrook]

So lady does not have a company called Smith Catering Ltd registered with Companies House. There is a Smiths Catering in London but not sure it's the same one though.

However her address is a business called Bathrooms By Design and here are the details (Mrs Smith seems to be involved).

Company: Bathrooms By Design
Address: 110 Cherrydown Avenue
Chingford
London
Essex
E4 8DX
Contact: Mrs Smith
Telephone: 0208 523 9002
Email: bbdbtinternet.com

A little stroll down google street view shows it as a residential street really. But this should give you a starting point. Also noted that her Ebay ID has no feedback - alarms bells everytime. I'll dig more if i get a chance later for you. Good luck.

I've already been in touch with these people and they have had their details scammed by the people who have ripped me off, they are absolutely shattered by what is happening and they have informed police their end. They also reported this to EBAy back in February stating what was going on but Ebay didnt do anything about it, that is why i am going after Ebay to try and get my money back as i feel they already knew about this so they surely owe me some responsbility to what has happened.

 

[Amaranta]

Goodness me! Smithcater are STILL a registered seller on eBay! Surely Ebay should take better care of their customers!

I really hope you are successful and get your money back, it is disgusting that they have been told about this seller and still have not blocked their account - beyond belief!

 

[kaiko]

Ok, what other info do you have on them? Emails, contact numbers, bank desposit details etc? Whilst they can hide their ID for most things, generally most people mess up somewhere it's just a case of finding where, plus they would need ID to set up a bank account.

Keep pursuing eBay, but i know how frustrating it is dealing with them and other people. To them your just a number, not a person seriously out of pocket.

In the meantime, get inventive. What else have they sold on ebay? are there common bidders on their other items (ie someone they use to bump the price, look for low ratings). Get friends and family to try the emails and numbers you have, we pretended to be interested customers!!

PM me if you have any info and i'm more than happy to dig for you too. People like this are blantly scum and deserve as much grief as you can give them.

 

[Muppet10]

Do you have the pictures of the trailer that you 'purchased'? I only ask as I have just had a call from the fraud squad outlining what they are going to do. He said that the trailer had probably been for sale legitimately somewhere and that they had scammed these people. He has said that the bank account that I have sent my money to is in Leicester (ties in a bit with yours). Just wondering/hoping we cold attack e-bay together if the trailer is the same. Like you I said to them that they have a duty of care to me but it would appear that they are quite content to play the big bad company squashing the little people. Long shot I know but.............

 

[Tinseltoes]

Am so sorry to hear that you also have been scammed, my scammer was a company called Smithcatering Ltd, and i was supposedly dealing with someone called Catherine Smith, her EBAY name was Smithcater, i am pursuing EBAY but they are so hard to deal with, tried ringing them a couple of times but who ever im talking to just doesnt get how serious this is, im now emailing them and getting some sort of response but its taking a couple of days before i get any replies.

Try talking to them on CHAT. on ebay,they will pit you thru to Trust and Safety. They also have a fraud dept too.

 

[robinsbrook]

Do you have the pictures of the trailer that you 'purchased'? I only ask as I have just had a call from the fraud squad outlining what they are going to do. He said that the trailer had probably been for sale legitimately somewhere and that they had scammed these people. He has said that the bank account that I have sent my money to is in Leicester (ties in a bit with yours). Just wondering/hoping we cold attack e-bay together if the trailer is the same. Like you I said to them that they have a duty of care to me but it would appear that they are quite content to play the big bad company squashing the little people. Long shot I know but.............

Yes i do have pictures i will send them to you, it was a Ifor williams hb510 burgandy in colour.

 

[tinap]

it also happened to me with some show jumps, I had sent a cheque tho. After the cheque was cashed tons of negative feedback started to turn up. EBay were no help, I got the cops involved who went to see the said party. I was told I would be getting the jumps within a month, 2 years later I've given up, but that was only £60 I lost, I would certainly report ur loss to the police. Sorry you got scammed, its a horrible way to learn a lesson, but

 

[Muppet10]

Yes i do have pictures i will send them to you, it was a Ifor williams hb510 burgandy in colour.

Darn, mine was a 2008 Black and Silver 210. I am now at the stage where I am wishing I had a time machine so that I can go back and undo what I have done. It's a very expensive lesson to learn but I have learnt it well. Alarm bells should have been going off all over the place and they probably were I just didn't listen to them! I am really angry at myself. Such a waste!