I recently had a fraud case by a seller. He had been selling a bunch of gift card at a very good price. I bought some at ebay with no problem, and started to deal with him directly. At least 10 or more transactions with no problem (I usually paid it by PayPal or C2it, and he sent the codes for the gift card right away, then I immediately verified the number). But, in this case, he asked me to use another payment service (Xcompte) because he moved and had no verfication with C2it and PayPal account was not available. Then, because of our previous history, I agreed and paid (about $1400). Then, he asked me to wait for delivery until the money is transferred to his account and justified it because it is his first time transaction with Xcompte. But, even if the funds transfer was completed one week ago, he didnt' contact me, nor deliver the codes of the gift cards I purchased. Xcompte (online payment service) had a "buyer complaint policy" and I made a claim on this case. They said they tried to recover the fund or have him deliver the item within 30 days, bht that's not guaranteed. I also filed a dispute with my credit card company (Citibank, mastercard). I also joined a credit protection plan for fraud charge, and, according to them, if either one of them couldn't recover the whole funds, they might pay the remaining portion. Given the situation, what would you think about my chargeback or fund recovery? Do I have to file the case a police report, or FBI online fraud? Unfortunately, I don't know his address/phone number. But, Xcompte recently verfied his ID, utility bill (for address), and bank account information before this transaction started (their normal procedure to verify the account). He is probably living in Canada, I guess. According to Xcompte, they wouldn't release the information (Address,phone, etc.) to me because it is their rules. Do I have to do something else (like police report)? I realized that his account is banned on ebay after the incident. Can I request a help to ebay fraud department for getting the information about him and/or for finding other victims? Since It's my first time to have fraud, I am not sure what to do? I would appreciate your valuable advice in advance. Thank you.
I'm sorry to hear about your problem. When you're involved in a transaction with someone you can get his name, address and phone number through ebay, but depending on how long ago your original ebay transaction with him was you might not be able to do this. To try, sign in to ebay, click on Search at the top, then Find Members. Scroll down and fill out the blanks in the 'Contact Info' box. Hopefully it will email you his Name, Address and Phone number. Sometimes just giving the guy a phone call is enough to scare him into sending your items. I doubt the ebay fraud department will be of much help. Ebay pretty much frowns on conducting business outside of ebay because it cuts them out of the loop. As long as your ebay transaction with the guy went OK then they probably won't help you. It might not hurt to contact them, but don't get your hopes up. I don't have any experience with Xcompte (in fact I'd never even heard of them until now) so I really have no idea how their investigation will turn out. I would think the chargeback would work, though. Finally, I would suggest filing a police report. It won't cost you anything but a bit of time and if this does go further and you wind up in court or something you may be very glad you have it. HTH, Brett
Yes KHAN, File a formal report against this guy. For one thing it's an international case, and the only way Interpol can get it is to go through the normal channels. Good luck, and stay on top of your CC disputes.
