What to do if I've been scammed online?

First of all I'd like to say I didn't know what section to post this in so I thought I'd post it here.

Okay so, a while back, starting from 13th July 2013 I found a listing for a used iPhone 5 on Gumtree, contacted the seller to negotiate and he accepted my offer of £240 for it.

He requested that I should send the payment as an Amazon gift card voucher, so I did. I paid for the gift card voucher directly with my debit card and sent it to him via e-mail, on the 16th July. Now, before I sent him the payment, we had very good communication, he replied almost instantly to my emails, sent me SMS texts a few times and even called me once. I still have those emails and SMS messages saved. After sending the payment, he sent a single email saying he'll have it dispatched the following morning. After this, not a single word from him!

Contacted Gumtree, Amazon and the Action Fraud police about this. Gumtree and Amazon did not help at all, Amazon even ignored a few of the emails I sent to them.

I know this situation happened a while back but I've had no luck in getting my money back so I thought I would post this thread now. If anyone has experienced something like this or know how to handle a situation like this, please give me some advice. Thanks!

You will not like this answer, but it's unlikely you'll ever see your money back. Amazon simply doesn't care, they have their money. The police doesn't care either because it has a very low priority (since it's just scamming and we're talking 240 pounds which means nothing to them). Unless you get a court order that submits Amazon into handing you over the customer data linked to the Amazon gift card voucher, you won't be able to do anything.

I guess it's an expensive lesson learned.

This is why they create legal documents for items, such as a Bill of Sale or a Title of Ownership; Emails and SMS simply won't hold up in court. Next time use an online purchasing service like ebay or fill out the correct paperwork that guarantees both parties are obligated to give the agreed amount or object, but this time, you have just found yourself £240 poorer.

*Note: He probably did that whole "buy me an Amazon Card" thing in order to lower his chances of getting caught. I never accept any other payment besides Western Union or Cash, with a rare exception of Paypal if I know the guy. It is simply too hard to catch fraudulent people with other services.

I had the same with ordering a mobile phone over a Dutch site, marktplaats. As they said above, the police and Amazon aren't going to make a big deal out of it, because for them it isn't such a big problem. The only thing Amazon might do is close down the frauds account, but I highly doubt they'll do anything else.

Well I guess I've learnt from my mistakes, I need to be more cautious with websites like Gumtree. The listings are almost anonymous and there is no feedback system like eBay. Thank you all for your posts

Move on. You waste more time and money while you try to recover what you've lost.

So I just checked my emails and Amazon have responded to me. Here's what they said:

http://gyazo.com/dd280abba882aeaa9def9b0e48ca97a6.png

So I'm guessing I should go and speak to my bank about this?

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Originally Posted by PixelPro123

So I just checked my emails and Amazon have responded to me. Here's what they said:

http://gyazo.com/dd280abba882aeaa9def9b0e48ca97a6.png

So I'm guessing I should go and speak to my bank about this?

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I'm not sure how it works in the UK, but if you can get your money back by filling some paperwork, go ahead, give them a call.

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Originally Posted by Solaire

I'm not sure how it works in the UK, but if you can get your money back by filling some paperwork, go ahead, give them a call.

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I'm not really sure how it works either as this is the first time I have ever been in a situation like this. Amazon are saying it was an unauthorised payment, so therefore I should go and tell my bank about this and fill out some paperwork and maybe get my money back, but I don't know. I'll go and speak to them in the morning

Quote:

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Originally Posted by PixelPro123

I'm not really sure how it works either as this is the first time I have ever been in a situation like this. Amazon are saying it was an unauthorised payment, so therefore I should go and tell my bank about this and fill out some paperwork and maybe get my money back, but I don't know. I'll go and speak to them in the morning

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But it wasn't an unauthorised payment as you bought that gift card yourself and then sent it to him.

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Originally Posted by Solaire

But it wasn't an unauthorised payment as you bought that gift card yourself and then sent it to him.

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Yeah I know, so now what... tell the bank that I sent the payment myself and expect no refund or tell them it was unauthorised and show the Amazon email as proof and possibly get a refund.. hmm

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Originally Posted by PixelPro123

Yeah I know, so now what... tell the bank that I sent the payment myself and expect no refund or tell them it was unauthorised and show the Amazon email as proof and possibly get a refund.. hmm

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I don't think they'll buy it when you tell them it was unauthorized, they could probably track the payment down to your computer.

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Originally Posted by Solaire

I don't think they'll buy it when you tell them it was unauthorized, they could probably track the payment down to your computer.

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Why would they track it? After all the money went to Amazon if I'm correct, and they already said it was unauthorized. No need for the bank to track it down, if he just shows the mail from Amazon. Not sure though.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Solaire

I don't think they'll buy it when you tell them it was unauthorized, they could probably track the payment down to your computer.

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After I go and talk to the bank tomorrow I'll post on this thread again about what's happening

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Originally Posted by Grolsch

Why would they track it? After all the money went to Amazon if I'm correct, and they already said it was unauthorized. No need for the bank to track it down, if he just shows the mail from Amazon. Not sure though.

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Because if they refund it, it's their loss. They won't be getting it back from Amazon.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by PixelPro123

After I go and talk to the bank tomorrow I'll post on this thread again about what's happening

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All right, good luck.