Need some advice, any advice on how to try and get my money back would be appreciated.

Bought a camera lens of another forum and eventually agreed a price of £975 inc postage.

Initially, I thought I could collect so asked the seller if meeting him with the cash was ok, he agreed – but given he's 250 miles away I decided post would be better.

Made a payment of £975 via direct bank transfer to his bank details on Monday 2 August. he has since said that the money is not in his account.

My bank says the money has been transferred successfully to his account and that its there.

I've got his postal address – well the one he gave me anyway, and his mobile nimber – which he doesn't answer.

What can I do?

Pay him a visit, if you've got his address.

Sorry to hear that. Hmm not sure really – how much info do you need for a small claims court action? I spose you need to find out if it's really his address.

What forum was it btw?

Ask the bank if they can reverse the transfer. Mistakes do get made.
Then go visiting!

I've asked the bank to reverse the payment, but they're not allowed to do this. I made the request to pay him the money, and they have no legal power to refund the money I sent him.

Small claims court looks to be the only way here, but I'd be interested in other opinions.

Won't be using the direct money transfer or cheque route ever again with an individual.

I was asking what forum mainly because I was wondering if it was talk photography where they have the feedback system? I'd be dubious of transferring £950 to someone who didn't have a pretty decent feedback rating.

Sorry I know this doesn't help you now…

grum

It wasn't Talk Photography, it was the Canon EOS forum.

Initially I contacted the seller with less than his selling price and he refused the offer. About 5 days later he said that he'd take £975 – so I said fine , where can we meet. He agreed to meeting and sounded very genuine.

Had lots of detail about the lens and knows about photography – it a 70-200f2.8 IS. Good images of the lens and case / box etc.

Got his mobile number – he even rang me last Saturday – got his address.

Seems he thinks he can get away with this though.

what area of the country is he in?

Are you 100% sure it was his bank account?

What I've done before when I've done this is got the other persons bank account number and names the account was in, then gone to the nearest branch of the other persons bank and paid in directly into their account after confirming with the cashier that the account number and names match up and got a receipt. That way you know it's gone to the right place and you don't get to pay any charges for the transfer.

He doesn't live in Plymouth does he?

I paid the money into the bank account details that he gave me – I asked him to double check the sort code and account numbers were correct.

I've asked him to chase up the money from his bank, but as I said won't answer his mobile and seems to have stopped replying to my emails.

He's in Preston.

Doesn't sound like the usual scammer, does he post regularly on that site especially away from the classifieds

Must admit I do tend to use the talk photography classifieds because of the feedback system mentioned earlier.

Sold a camera recently and the transfer took a few days, kept in contact with the buyer, he mentioned not being worried because of my good feedback history

Hope this all works out ok, think it might and could just be the chap has had something happen his end

Could be a scam but from the details you've given, doesn't seem like it apart from you not actually getting the lens. Check if he's pinched the images he sent you. The computer geeks might know a better way but you can upload them to flickr or photobucket, do a google search that will find the photo then ask google to find similar images (I think this works, am I right?).
250 miles is not a long way for me to get £950 !!!!!!

My bank says the money has been transferred successfully to his account and that its there.

I asked him to double check the sort code and account numbers were correct.

I've asked him to chase up the money from his bank, but as I said won't answer his mobile and seems to have stopped replying to my emails

I'm not sure what good it will do- the Police might say this is 'Civil' however you have had fraud committed against you/defrauded out of money.

You were to buy goods that possibly did not exist. This bit is key. Hence if the Police officer says its civil ask to speak to someone higher up.

Inform the person that unless he transfers the money back asap you are going to involve the Police. The fact hes avoiding you now says to me that he cant be genuine. IF he is genuine the threat of Police will make him speak to his bank ASAP at the very least and get him concerned.

As a lesson- NEVER buy something that much unless you can collect. There are scammers on here from time to time as well.

All the best.

I think there's still time for the money to show up

on another note: I sent someone money by direct transfer for some parts off the classifieds here
that 'disappeared' for around 2 weeks before the receiving bank found it

I think its fair for the OP to nudge the otherside with a Police involvement message.

At least then it'd shake him/her into being more helpful. Yes the seller maybe thinking 'I havent got the money- is this fella trying it on'? but after almost 2 weeks I think its fair to step up a gear now.

Is it time for the angry mob of justice yet?

The bank have a duty to provide you with proof of payment, they will send a letter of confirmation to you. Then its cops/small claims.

I'm in Lancaster which is not too far from Preston. I don't have any bombers to own him with though.

I'm in Lancaster which is not too far from Preston. I don't have any bombers to own him with though

I'm sure a crusty pair of Lyrics or Domains will suffice, but would obviously be less stylish.

i wouldn't go round and start making any accusations, difficult to see a good outcome from that. Getting violent would mean you get in trouble with the police.

i'd get written evidence from the bank as to where the money has actually gone, without that you can't do anything.

Then send it to the guy with a polite letter stating you intend to involve the police/small claims court if it doesn't get resolved.

Have you considered he may be on holiday and hence not replying? Its quite common this time of year.

This happened to me last year – £800 for a holiday let in France. It transpired that the dozy bint had been checking the wrong account for the money. It was a bit of a nervous couple of days, but it came good in the end.

Whenever I pay for anything expensive by bank transfer now, I always send a few pence first and get the respondent to tell me how much it was before sending them the balance. It is far too easy to make errors in entering account numbers and sort codes.

He is probably just on holiday and too idle to check his account. Try calling him from another mobile he wont recognise the number of and see if he answers that.

Good luck.

40mpg

He spoke to me on Saturday and sent me a text on Monday.

Doesn't say anything about not being at home – in fact he said he would post as soon as the money appears in his account.

geoffj

Tried the different mobile – still doesn't answer.

Have you considered he may be on holiday and hence not replying? Its quite common this time of year

Even in America you can pick up emails and answer mobiles 😉

Something similar happened to me – except the other way round.

All I would say is; Don't assume the chap is lying about the money not appearing, he might be telling the truth.

If he hasn't had payment arrive, then his options are limited.

ntreid

Yes, but if he was genuine he would answer the emails and phone / text wouldn't he (wherever he was).

I've got the letter from by bank confirming the bank transaction – off down to his bank now (Nationwide).

It's common courtesy to reply, yes, but not doing so doesn't make him a crook.

I agree with Horatio in that I wouldn't go round making accusations.

JUst a note about nationwide I'm with them and I transferred money from my Yorkshire one to that and although all went thru fine it tool over a week to appear at the other end despite vanishing immediately from my Yorks account. Good luck

Put his address into google street view, and see if the address exists, then BT.com for a neighbours phone number etc, then ring them ask them to put a note through his door.

Easy or what.

Making acusations….

The money has been transferred sucessfully.

He's got my money and the lens.

He's got my address and hasn't sent the lens

He's stopped communicating with me.

Am I just supposed to forget about the fact that I sent him £975 for something that I haven't got.

Its been well over a week now since it should have been with me.

Been in touch with small claims people, another day or two and I'll begin that process.

I thought I'd been pretty patient and trusting up to today.

Denis… what banks were you transfering money from and to? If they aren't part of the Faster Payments system then money could take upto about 10 days to appear in the other persons account.

Me – Royal Bank of Scotland

Him – Nationwide

RBS says the money is in his account.

Nationwide won't do anything for me.

Took the letter of confirmation to them and asked them to confirm that the transaction was successful and without any problems.

They won't do anything for me – customer confidentiality etc.

So, I have to post a copy to him, he takes it to his bank and then they confirm that the money is there.

Good luck.
Just paid £1500 to a complete stranger, and had a nervous few days.
Hopefully a happy outcome.
J.

I believe, and correct me if I'm wrong, that Nationwide still use roll numbers for certain accounts, as opposed to sort code / account number.

Is the account number a memorable number, e.g. 11111111, and you supplied the roll number as the payment reference? If this is the case, there is likely a degree of manual intervention as the payment will not be routed via Straight Through Processing.

Your bank cannot possibly confirm that the funds are in the account, it's just not possible. At no point can they look into an account held at another bank, so this part is incorrect. They can confirm that the funds have been sent to that sort code, but it's up to Nationwide to apply it to an account. If they are unable to apply the funds, they will be bounced back to your bank and may be sitting in a rejections account somewhere. Your bank needs to open an investigation where Nationwide can then look into it there to confirm the location of the funds.

Don't go down the small claims route yet until you have irrefutable proof from both banks as to the location of the funds.

Your bank cannot possibly confirm that the funds are in the account, it's just not possible.

agree.

Ok so he should respond to you, but the time between transfers of non same banks takes longer.

9 days long?

no communication for the last 3 days?

if you were selling something for £975 wouldn't you want the money in your account/.

speaking to RBS now …..again

never, ever again….

As I said earlier, I sold something recently and took a while for the money to appear, showed it leaving the buyers account almost immediately.

Also my wife has a Nationwide account and if she writes me a cheque it has taken an age to show up
Paid in with other bank cheques which clear a lot quicker than the building society one

No excuse for the lack of contact though unless he is having a problem, but a text doesn't exactly take long to send

hora – Member

Have you considered he may be on holiday and hence not replying? Its quite common this time of year

Even in America you can pick up emails and answer mobiles

Maybe he took a proper holiday and left the mobile at home?
I don't always carry mine.