Hi,

I purchased a 10179 MF last week from seller JackMcDonald in the UK and transferred
the money via bank. He has plenty of good reviews, so it did not seem risky at
the time. Since transferring the money he does not respond anymore. I gave him
a negative rating to warn other people for him. In return, he gave me a bad review,
which really hurts my three years of positive reviews here. The guy is still
getting positive reviews from a couple of accounts repeatedly, which makes me
think he might have hacked a couple of accounts in order to build a positive
review legacy.

I tried Bricklink to do something about this, but they only cancelled the order.
Since I already paid I'm the one getting hurt here. Anybody has any experience
with something like this? At least I want them to not let the scammer scam other
people and get rid of the negative review. 

What do you guys think?

  

NOTE: I understand in hindsight that Paypal would have been safer, but it was
not available and it is not strange in Europe that someone does ntot have a credit
card to open such an account. This is the first in 50 TXs like this that went wrong.

Edited June 9, 20196 yr by Legojona

You don´t need a credit card to open a paypal account.

How much did you actually pay? What description did you put on the transfer? Do you have documentation about the sale eg. proforma or other with the beneficiary´s name on it? Do you have their actual address? Did you check it on google maps?

If you can match the payment to the sell then simply report it  to the police in both countries as theft as I guess we are talking about more than 500 euros. You could take the person to court as well but being international will make it trickier.

You should also hassle BL to have the seller´s account shut down for fraud/hacked account (once you have the police report) and vote farming if you can prove it. Perhaps contact one of the other happy buyers to see if they can provide any missing data if they are legit.

I see the seller has 2 other UCS falcons for sale - both very cheap whereas all their other listings are turds of no value so you may be right about the hacking/scam. You should contact BL telling them the seller is still selling items they have not shipped.

Also consider contacting the seller giving them a deadline to return the money or ship the item and mention you will pursue the matter with justice if not.

Edited June 9, 20196 yr by Val-E

Thanks @Val-E!

 

It seems Bricklink is really slow in handling these cases:

 

Quote

Non-Shipping Seller Alert and Non-Responding Seller Alert - File a Non-Shipping Seller Alert if payment has been made and you haven't received your order and you are not able to resolve the situation with the seller. File a Non-Responding Seller Alert if no payment has been made and the seller has not responded.These complaints can be filed if at least 7 days have passed from the order date.

• If the problem is not resolved within 2 weeks of submitting an NSS or NRS, you should Cancel the Order which will complete the complaint. If a seller has 3 orders canceled via NSS/NRS combined, their store is shut down and their selling privileges are permanently revoked.
• If the problem is resolved, please remove the complaint on the same page where it was filed.
• If an NSS is filed and the seller contacts BrickLink with proof of shipping then the NSS will be removed. If an NRS is filed and the seller responded to the complaint and contacts BrickLink then the NRS will be removed.

They basically want this to happen three times and they only take problems in when a week has passed and then they wait another two weeks. Easy for the guy to scam a couple more people. Am I missing something here?

Edited June 9, 20196 yr by Legojona

Makes sense. Sometimes buyers take that long to make payment and the banks to process it.

I see they have a neg from another buyer so maybe contact them in the meantime to see if they have got a solution or you are in the same boat. Perhaps check if the payment details are the same.

Did you actually have contact with the seller before paying? For those sums of money it is important to get actual photos of the item and a name and address that can be verified before sending any money.

I got photos of the box and even of the seals to see if they're closed. The name and address are in the order and I also have the bank account number. The thing is, though, that if they hacked an account, they can use all those details of course. 

Check the bank IBAN to see if it corresponds to Northern Ireland and the branch is in the city of the seller´s address. It´s very unlikely to be hacked in that case and more likely to be a scam account in itself.

It starts with GB88ABBY, which would correspond with Great Britain Santander bank. 

The scammer at least retracted the negative feedback so that is nice. Hope I can persuade him to also send the money back.