DoneDeal Scam

Sono

Have contacted them there to see if it’s still available, will update if they reply.

Hope you get sorted OP.

belfe

My opinion is similar to the opinion of other posters. With proof that you've been scammed and the AIB bank account, you can report it to the gardai (or maybe talk to a solicitor?).

But it has been only three days, it may be just a problem with the post. Did the seller send a tracking number or a way for you to check that there is a parcel on its way? Can you contact them and ask for it?

Killarney2988

belfe wrote: »

My opinion is similar to the opinion of other posters. With proof that you've been scammed and the AIB bank account, you can report it to the gardai (or maybe talk to a solicitor?).

But it has been only three days, it may be just a problem with the post. Did the seller send a tracking number or a way for you to check that there is a parcel on its way? Can you contact them and ask for it?

They haven't been logged into DoneDeal for the last two days. And they never gave any tracking number.

Killarney2988

Sono wrote: »

Have contacted them there to see if it’s still available, will update if they reply.

Hope you get sorted OP.

Thanks, even though they haven't been replying to any of my messages or even reading them so I'd guess that they've gone off the grid.

yosser hughes

Killarney2988 wrote: »

I'm fully convinced that the phone doesnt even exist though. The address given was for a holiday village and the number was ripped off another random donedeal ad.

Report this to your bank immediately. They will send a Section 19 report to the Gardai. In the meantime the bank will start gathering evidence to handover to the Guards when they request it from the bank with a warrant.
The bank will be able to at least gather account opening documents and CCTV footage of any withdrawals from the account. Time is important here.
So call your bank immediately and also notify the guards.

Killarney2988

yosser hughes wrote: »

Report this to your bank immediately. They will send a Section 19 report to the Gardai. In the meantime the bank will start gathering evidence to handover to the Guards when they request it from the bank with a warrant.
The bank will be able to at least gather account opening documents and CCTV footage of any withdrawals from the account. Time is important here.
So call your bank immediately and also notify the guards.

How much proof will I need if AIB are to investigate though?

Sono

Not that it’s much use to you now but I personally hate done deal, for the very fact you’ve no way of knowing what/who you are dealing with, at least adverts you can spot time wasters straight away with their feedback.

Anyway not very helpful to the OP but if others are reading this just avoid donedeal it’s full of scammers.

I notice they’ve another fancy iPhone up for sale too which probably doesn’t exist either, scumbags.

yosser hughes

Killarney2988 wrote: »

How much proof will I need if AIB are to investigate though?

Just explain your story to them. They will take a closer look at this account and the transactions on it. There's a chance it's a mule account or that at least it's not the first time they have pulled this. The bank will recognise a pattern of activity. They will advise you to report it to the Gardai. However under Section 19 of the Criminal Justice Act they also have a legal requirement to report any suspected fraud.
Give them any details you have of the ad, screenshots, reference numbers etc.

Edward M

Sorry to hear that Killarney.
It doesent help much, but I had a similar experience once upon a time on the buy and sell magazine.
I contacted the gardai and my bank, the perpetrator was caught too, but I never got my money back, 200 euro at the time.
But at least I had the satisfaction of knowing who it was and that they were put through some discomfort for their trouble.
Though it was only a fine and a suspended sentence.
There were 15 cases resulting from the same ad.

drunkmonkey

Killarney2988 wrote: »

I'm fully convinced that the phone doesnt even exist though. The address given was for a holiday village and the number was ripped off another random donedeal ad.

There's nothing you can do that will get your money back.
AIB will not give it back to you. There is no evidence you can produce to the Guards that can't be countered with it got lost in the post.
You will not get the name of the person who owns the bank account and their address.

Saying that though
The local Guards close to where she is might be interested though as some times these little cases can lead to bigger things once they arrive. Thieves are stupid in my experience, get someones else's number and message them and play them along, tell them you don't have a bank account could you send them cash in an envelope and they post you the phone. If they bite get the guards involved.

Cee-Jay-Cee

Contact the Gardamake a statement of complaint and insist that it is investigated. It is theft by deception and so a criminal offence.

Seve OB

A classic scam. I can't understand how people fall for this kind of thing.

Spending that kind of money you should at the very least speak to the people on the phone, have verified contact details and pay by PayPal. Even then I wouldn't!

OP, hope you get some joy with the bank and guards. Also report to done deal.

Don't think that you will get any joy, but I do think they will take this seriously and investigate. These fkers have to be hunted..... Maybe get Liam Neeson after them

Mantis Toboggan

Sorry to hear that OP, it's sickening. Unfortunately The gards will have a big laugh and do nothing they're completely useless. Bank definitely your best bet. Best of luck.

drunkmonkey

Cee-Jay-Cee wrote: »

Contact the Gardamake a statement of complaint and insist that it is investigated. It is theft by deception and so a criminal offence.

On what basis, there is no proof of any theft or deception. All they need to say is it got lost in the post.
The only hope they'll do something is if he can give them a name and address. Hence get the address of where to post the cash.

Seve OB

drunkmonkey wrote: »

On what basis, there is no proof of any theft or deception. All they need to say is it got lost in the post.
The only hope they'll do something is if he can give them a name and address. Hence get the address of where to post the cash.

1. Who is going to say it's lost in post? Seller is uncontactable.
2. Say they do contact seller, there would be tracking number, so let in the post won't float.
3. IP addresses are traceable.
4. Guards have powers.
5. If this is a serial scammer guards will be very interested.
6. It's quite clear there has been deception here with the goal of stealing. Plenty of proof to be found in the trail of evidence.

yosser hughes

Just to be clear OP. Please report this to your bank and Garda. You may not get your money back but it may prevent someone else from being scammed in the future.
The bank DO have a statutory requirement to report suspicious activity and they will know it when they look at the account.
As Seve said above, there will be a trail here. IP addresses etc. But they cannot act if it's not reported.

micks_address

i almost got caught a few weeks ago with something similar. I posted a wanted add for a watch on US forum. That night I got an email from a seller saying he had one mint and sent me pictures. He said if wanted references to logon to a specific watch forum and message three users there, that he had dealt with them and they'd be happy to provide a reference for him. I did and low and behold they replied saying deal with confidence. They has been forum members for a year or two on this particular site. I was still cautious so emailed him back and said i wasnt sure. He gave me a uk based address and bank account. I asked him if i could pay half up front and he said no.. he would take 2 3rds and balance when i got the watch.

He wasnt at all pushy. I ran it by another person who deals in watches and he suggested as it was an expensive watch why not get a cheap flight over with ryanair and do the deal in person. I suggested this to the seller and while initially they seemed ok with it they very quickly went quiet. After a bit of googling i found the pictures he had sent me on another watch listed on ebay.

Bullet dodged. I contacted the forum where the users had vouched for this guy and they had no interest. Said as it wasn't a sale on their forum they had no responsibility. I just wanted to warn others that some accounts where obviously fake and were being used to con others. The fake accounts even had sales feedback from what looked like a genuine sale.

So i suppose for me, I'll never buy anything with bank transfer- unless i have it in my hand first and im happy with the item. I'd also be slow to take the word of online users as references.

I guess thats one good thing with ebay. You have protection with paypal. If an item doesnt arrive or is fake you can dispute it and get your money back.

Best of luck OP - as others have said, if you have a bank account etc then head to the guards. The seller might be a chancer and when they see legal involvement might get scared and refund. At least they are in the same country as you hopefully?

Cheers,
Mick

drunkmonkey

Your watching way too much TV if you think the Guards are going to be tracing ip addresses over a civil matter.

Banatamon

Got scammed 2 years ago, same kind of thing. Bank transfer for concert tickets and realized my mistake too late. Reported it to the guards who said they could give me no guarantees. Few months later got a call from the fraud dept of Bank of Ireland to tell me the money was being returned to my account! Money back and thank god I didn't have to learn my lesson the hard way.

miamee

Report it to DoneDeal as well OP so they can shut down this person's account and any other's they might have. Maybe wait for it to turn up in the post first though - when are they supposed to have posted it? It does sound fairly dodgy but I'd imagine DD and AGS will want a reasonable time to have passed before accepting that it was a scam.

yosser hughes

drunkmonkey wrote: »

Your watching way too much TV if you think the Guards are going to be tracing ip addresses over a civil matter.

The Bank do and will trace IP addresses on foot of a Section 52 court order.
The Guards do follow up.

drunkmonkey

yosser hughes wrote: »

The Bank do and will trace IP addresses on foot of a Section 52 court order.
The Guards do follow up.

Again where's the proof of theft. Op handed over cash on goodwill that an item would be posted. That item never arrived. I'm not seeing any crime your going to be granted a court order for.

yosser hughes

drunkmonkey wrote: »

Again where's the proof of theft. Op handed over cash on goodwill that an item would be posted. That item never arrived. I'm not seeing any crime your going to be granted a court order for.

Are you familiar with the Criminal Justice Act and also the fiduciary responsibilities of financial institutions?

TerrorFirmer

It's worth at least trying, people do appear in court over these scams occassionally.

bcklschaps

OP, you have been scammed .... but out of revenge why not pass on the Account number and Sort Code to one of those African 'Princes' who's looking to liquidate his kingdoms gold ;-)

Seve OB

Drunk monkey you are starting to sound like a scanner yourself with your persistence that fraud should not be reported. The only people who don't want laws are the ones who break them

drunkmonkey

yosser hughes wrote: »

Are you familiar with the Criminal Justice Act and also the fiduciary responsibilities of financial institutions?

Yes and it's all time and money for what them to claim they've no money at the end of it all. A waste of time. I can't see the Guards acting on what I've heard so far.

murpho999

Killarney2988 wrote: »

How much proof will I need if AIB are to investigate though?

I don't understand why you are asking here when your bank and the gardai can answer all your questions.

Don't mean to be harsh, but this has happened before and will happen again and they will know exactly what to do.

yosser hughes

drunkmonkey wrote: »

Yes and it's all time and money for what them to claim they've no money at the end of it all. A waste of time. I can't see the Guards acting on what I've heard so far.

You'd be surprised what investigations take place and how they tie in with larger cases.
If there's a suspicion of fraudulent activity, then orders are issued to gather evidence and they go on from there.
Anyway OP, you've got your advice.

LollipopJimmy

Killarney2988 wrote: »

A long drawn out process providing loads of ev8dence only to be told "Sorry we don't think that you have overwhelming evidence". I can think if better ways to spend my time

I sold a guitar on donedeal to a man in Longford, he paid me on the Friday afternoon via transfer and I said I would get it out ASAP, I foolishly assumed he would realise this would be Monday. So I rang the courier company Monday and they sent a lad Tuesday morning, on Wednesday morning he rang me and I missed the call being in work and about 3hours later I had Longford Gardai ringing me, I had tracking number etc and they were happy enough when I explained the chain of events and yer man's guitar arrived on the Wednesday evening.

So, don't assume they'll do nothing