Have I been scammed? What can I do?

Associate
Joined
27 Sep 2012
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157
So whats the betting that the ''son'' he met outside the supermarket and gave the item to for the £25,

Was the guy he was conversing with all the time.

And some little scamp has just bagged himself a Xbox for £25
 
Associate
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26 Mar 2015
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West Midlands
Unfortunately, as has been said, it's unlikely to be resolved in your favour.

Although, it's odd that someone would make a claim that the iPhone 6s didn't arrive, it would have made more sense for them to simply claim someone got into their paypal account.

The problem is, you don't know (and I highly suspect) that the paypal account has /no/ connection to the buyer, it could just be an account stolen from the darkweb/leaked password lists.
 
Soldato
Joined
17 Jul 2008
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7,369
first rule of paypal club DONT ACCEPT PAYPAY ON COLLECTED ITEMS....

money is quite light just carry it,

(also carry an AK47 in case you get mugged while carrying the cash)
 
Soldato
Joined
17 Jul 2008
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7,369
My dad did a cash in hand via Gumtree sale for a Macbook, young chap turned up with the required amount and handed it over.

My dad went to the bank to pay it in and was told it was funny money - he reported it to the Police and they got the CCTV from outside the Sainsburys etc but it the end he had to chalk it up to an expensive lesson.

I think his pride was hurt more than his wallet.


first rule of paypal club DONT ACCEPT PAYPAY ON COLLECTED ITEMS.... or Cash....

ummmm.... wait....
 
Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
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Castle Anthrax
Whilst going through with the transaction in this way was pretty stupid I am interested to see how PayPal will react to the claim. You have evidence of a sale occurring and the buyer has dreamt up a fictitious transaction with presumably no evidence.

It'll be a different buyer.

Scammer advertises an iPhone for sale cheaply, someone offers to buy it.
Scammer also arranges to buy an Xbox for a similar amount.

When the buyer of the phone asks for payment details the scammer sends the paypal address of the seller of the XBox. iPhone buyer pays for the iPhone, XBox seller receives their money.

XBox seller hands over their console because it's been paid for, iphone buyer sits waiting for a phone that will never arrive.

Scammer has a free (or in this case very cheap) Xbox and no transactions tied to any account of theirs...
 
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Soldato
Joined
30 Oct 2008
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South
Sorry to hear this op, good luck with the chase but sadly, you wont get much support from anyone. A friend of mine did something similar to you, sold two ipads, did the deal in person, they paid via paypal in front of him, a few days later in came the chargeback. He had a hand signed receipt from the buyer but paypal weren't interested, they only care about proof of postage, if you cant provide that, you are screwed, they don't believe that you did a deal in person. Nasty lesson learned.
 

fez

fez

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22 Aug 2008
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Location
Tunbridge Wells
It'll be a different buyer.

Scammer advertises an iPhone for sale cheaply, someone offers to buy it.
Scammer also arranges to buy an Xbox for a similar amount.

When the buyer of the phone asks for payment details the scammer sends the paypal address of the seller of the XBox. iPhone buyer pays for the iPhone, XBox seller receives their money.

XBox seller hands over their console because it's been paid for, iphone buyer sits waiting for a phone that will never arrive.

Scammer has a free (or in this case very cheap) Xbox and no transactions tied to any account of theirs...

Its actually quite clever really. They don't even need to go to the trouble of getting a dodgy paypal account or buying access to someone elses.

Just trick 2 innocent people into being both sides of the transaction and you walk away with almost 0 effort involved.
 
Soldato
Joined
19 Jan 2006
Posts
15,992
Never take anything but cash for goods on gumtree.

You used something other than cash in hand on Gumtree. Why did you do that?

Why on earth did you accept paypal for an item which could have been paid with the full amount in cash, why does this keep happening :confused:

This - why people continue to deal with anything but cash in hand from gumtree is beyond me. Buy a note checking pen for about £2 and check the cash when the person hands it to you.

You haven't been scammed - you got £25 for an xbox, you've been naive and silly. Sorry to sound harsh.

You have no "proof" of delivery therefore paypal will always side with the buyer.
 
Caporegime
Joined
8 Sep 2005
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27,421
Location
Utopia
A fool and his xbox are easily parted

Seriously how did no alarm bells start ringing.
You even delivered it to him at a supermarket!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Have to agree with this... it is naivety on a scale rarely seen. There is nothing about this deal that was not dodgy, and the OP needs to seriously clue himself up a little in future.
 
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