Scam or safe to buy on Bass Chat?

[paul_c2]

On 18/09/2023 at 14:10, theplumber said:

Been a member for a few years on here and have bought and sold without any issues. Either by phone or message I have spoken to the other party either about the item/items,postage and arrangements,etc. About 10 day's ago I made contact with a trusted member on this site....well,let's be honest we are all trusted members I hope! He was selling an item and had reduced the price to £95 so I decided to contact him and make arrangements for payment. I offered to pay using bank transfer or paypal. He opted to ask for a bank transfer. In a private message he gave me his bank details and I asked my wife to do a bank transfer to him and checked after about half an hour to see if he had been paid. He said nothing had come through. We went out shopping and contacted him again after about an hour and a half....still nothing. I thought this was odd as I am sure in the past it has been almost straight away for a bank transfer....anyway later in the day about 4.30pm he contacted me to say it still wasn't through. I asked the wife to check the telephone banking app and sure enough it said payment cleared where earlier it had said pending. Now here is the thing,the payment had been sent to a totally different name,different bank account and sorting code! I double checked the details I had given the wife and sure enough she had entered the correct details. In fact we both seen his name and details at the start on the banking app and it was marked pending at the very start. Anyway I contacted the member and told him to double check that he had not received the money...nothing!! Anyway as most folk will know you have to contact the bank straight away....which is pretty hard on call centres and as they close at 7 we were lucky to speak to someone who froze my wife's card and told us to contact the fraud section next morning which we did.They asked loads of questions and asked about the transaction and where I was buying from. We were off on holiday for a week and heard nothing until this morning.We have been told at no time was our account hacked but that's all they can say at the moment. It was referred to as a authorised push payment scam (google that!!) I know they will refund the money and I know that the item has been sold to someone else (I told the member just to forget selling it to me because of the issues) Now...I am not saying that the member is in anyway at fault as as far as I can tell he has been a member of this forum for a very long time. The conversations we had in private about the item were spot on...I have had conversations with folk on facebook who were scammers and knew nothing and appeared not to even speak basic English!! Sorry about the length of this post but in light of the recent scam attempts on here recently does anyone think that the private message could have been hacked or had anything like this on here or elsewhere happen. I know they say that bank transfer is one if not the safest way to transfer money (within reason as long as you sent it to a trusted person and did a bit of digging) I also know folks thoughts on the pros and cons of Paypal on here and elsewhere. Any ideas folks?

 

A couple of points:

 

1) Banks are required to do "account validation" ie you enter the sort code, account number and accountholder name, it verifies the account num/sort code relate to the entered name. BUT they are not required to block unverified transfers, a lot of banks will allow such a payment to go through, maybe with an additional screen. If you yourself didn't do it, your wife needs to verify if this occurred or not obvs.

2) I am not sure if the details would match if there is a CASS Redirect (Current account switching service) in place - or more than one. It might be that the reported details will legitimately differ to the entered details with no concern for that.

3) You have no way of provably knowing the money DIDN'T arrive in the intended bank account, except for the word of the seller. This is worth bearing in mind

4) The bank's refunded you now, so you don't need to further worry.

5) Not taking Paypal for an online transaction like this, in my eyes, is a big red flag - big enough to halt a prospective purchase.

[mcnach]

7 hours ago, Minininjarob said:

If someone says to me they have a problem with their PayPal account I halt the sale and block them. There is no reason to have a “problem” that isn’t self made and all genuine issues can be sorted in minutes as PayPal are very helpful. 
Been using PayPal for over a decade I think for personal and commercial reasons and if you follow their guides you will never go wrong. 
PayPal goods and services and I pay the fees for any private sales I do without having the item in my hands. 

 

 

I wouldn't be that fast. I've had my account blocked for having the audacity to try to pay for a bass in the UK while on holidays in Spain.

 

It took a while to straighten it out.

 

[Beedster]

1 hour ago, paul_c2 said:

 

A couple of points:

 

1) Banks are required to do "account validation" ie you enter the sort code, account number and accountholder name, it verifies the account num/sort code relate to the entered name. BUT they are not required to block unverified transfers, a lot of banks will allow such a payment to go through, maybe with an additional screen. If you yourself didn't do it, your wife needs to verify if this occurred or not obvs.

2) I am not sure if the details would match if there is a CASS Redirect (Current account switching service) in place - or more than one. It might be that the reported details will legitimately differ to the entered details with no concern for that.

3) You have no way of provably knowing the money DIDN'T arrive in the intended bank account, except for the word of the seller. This is worth bearing in mind

4) The bank's refunded you now, so you don't need to further worry.

5) Not taking Paypal for an online transaction like this, in my eyes, is a big red flag - big enough to halt a prospective purchase.

 

Number 5 absolutely reflects my sentiment also. Number 3 is also a fair point. Has 4 happened, I thought not? 

[Reggaebass]

1 hour ago, paul_c2 said:

2) I am not sure if the details would match if there is a CASS Redirect (Current account switching service) in place - or more than one. It might be that the reported details will legitimately differ to the entered details with no concern for that.

3) You have no way of provably knowing the money DIDN'T arrive in the intended bank account, except for the word of the seller. This is worth bearing in mind

I don’t exactly understand number 2,

and with the seller being a trusted member here I find number 3 hard to believe he isn’t telling the truth 

[theplumber]

1 hour ago, paul_c2 said:

 

A couple of points:

 

1) Banks are required to do "account validation" ie you enter the sort code, account number and accountholder name, it verifies the account num/sort code relate to the entered name. BUT they are not required to block unverified transfers, a lot of banks will allow such a payment to go through, maybe with an additional screen. If you yourself didn't do it, your wife needs to verify if this occurred or not obvs.

2) I am not sure if the details would match if there is a CASS Redirect (Current account switching service) in place - or more than one. It might be that the reported details will legitimately differ to the entered details with no concern for that.

3) You have no way of provably knowing the money DIDN'T arrive in the intended bank account, except for the word of the seller. This is worth bearing in mind

4) The bank's refunded you now, so you don't need to further worry.

5) Not taking Paypal for an online transaction like this, in my eyes, is a big red flag - big enough to halt a prospective purchase.

A couple of points...its still ongoing we don't have the money back and the bank know which account it has gone to as they are trying to get it back from said account. It's all documented on their system though the choose not to tell us how it happened as you can imagine. The banks have a system in place to refund the cash if everything stacks up...and even if they don't get the money from the account that it goes to! I think I mentioned erlier in the  thread about losing over £200 at one point to some sort of scam...it just came out our account and purchased goods from Argos at the other end of the country! Who knows how that happened! We got our money back through the bank in about 4 or 5 days..

[theplumber]

Just to be clear this is still ongoing and as far as it looks it's some sort of glitch in the banking system as they say that there is nothing to suggest we have been scammed. The seller is on here and I am sure if he had seen this thread and wanted to comment he would have. But at the end of the day he has done nothing wrong. Some of the info we have received from the bank has been pretty confusing but today my wife spoke with someone who told us not to worry it will be resolved. They have to try and recover the money from the bank that it has ended up in. And I suppose the person has no idea why he is £95 up! You hear of folk getting thousands in their bank...and they start spending it!.....Or was that some film I seen!  Anyway thanks to everyone who has commented and I will let you know when we get the money! And let's never mention this again!....Scam or safe to buy?...That depends lol.

[fleabag]

On 20/09/2023 at 12:26, Minininjarob said:

If someone says to me they have a problem with their PayPal account I halt the sale and block them. There is no reason to have a “problem” that isn’t self made and all genuine issues can be sorted in minutes as PayPal are very helpful. 
 

 

What a load of smug tosh

 

 

On 20/09/2023 at 12:45, warwickhunt said:

 

Personally I feel the polar opposite; I've been screwed over several times and lost goods and money due to paypal's system/decisions... so it has gone wrong!

 

 

 

 

 

Same here - i got right royally stuffed for over a hundred quid using Paypal, but because the courier registered that it was " delivered  "  they wouldnt  accept it was " ITEM NOT RECEIVED "   I saw no proof of signature.  They didnt have one. 

 

I was furious, so i contacted my bank, which were reluctant to help at first, because it was a debit visa card and it was involving Paypal.  Should have used a credit card, but they came good in the end.  I got a rather aggrieved email from Paypal, and i told them in polite words to Foxtrot Oscar.  I dont use Paypal anymore.

 

So if anyone mentions,  quote :   "If someone says to me they have a problem with their PayPal account I halt the sale and block them"   I dont give a hoot, and you lose a sale.

[Cosmo Valdemar]

On 20/09/2023 at 12:26, Minininjarob said:

If someone says to me they have a problem with their PayPal account I halt the sale and block them. There is no reason to have a “problem” that isn’t self made and all genuine issues can be sorted in minutes as PayPal are very helpful. 
Been using PayPal for over a decade I think for personal and commercial reasons and if you follow their guides you will never go wrong. 
PayPal goods and services and I pay the fees for any private sales I do without having the item in my hands. 

You block people who don't use PayPal? What do you think they're going to do to you?

[neepheid]

I think this is going off the rails.  There's a big difference between someone flat out saying they don't use PayPal and someone referring to some nebulous, undefined "issue" with their PayPal.

 

I'd definitely have issue with the latter.

Edited September 22, 2023 by neepheid

[SurroundedByManatees]

Even if there is no issue with the account, there is no need to write people off as fraude when they don't want to use PayPal business.

 

When I sell something, I am happy to pack well and ship out when a buyer asks me to. Payment has to be completed before I ship out the item, and I don't want to have the risk on my side. I am clear about this on forehand.

 

I do not accept Paypal business because the seller will be paid out only when the parcel tracking says the parcel has been delivered. When the tracking doesn't update correctly, you'll have to wait for 90 days (I think) to clear. Or you'll have to come up with evidence which is very hard to come by... This gives nasty buyers the opportunity to say they haven't received anything and get full refund in the worst case. When you don't have any proof of delivery when a claim has been opened, your item and money are gone.

[itsmedunc]

On 21/09/2023 at 23:23, fleabag said:

 

What a load of smug tosh

 

 

 

 

Same here - i got right royally stuffed for over a hundred quid using Paypal, but because the courier registered that it was " delivered  "  they wouldnt  accept it was " ITEM NOT RECEIVED "   I saw no proof of signature.  They didnt have one. 

 

I was furious, so i contacted my bank, which were reluctant to help at first, because it was a debit visa card and it was involving Paypal.  Should have used a credit card, but they came good in the end.  I got a rather aggrieved email from Paypal, and i told them in polite words to Foxtrot Oscar.  I dont use Paypal anymore.

 

So if anyone mentions,  quote :   "If someone says to me they have a problem with their PayPal account I halt the sale and block them"   I dont give a hoot, and you lose a sale.

I don’t use PayPal anymore. I got stuffed too. Item delivered. Proof of delivery. Signature. Buyer said they hadn’t received it. PayPal took their side and refunded their money. When I pointed out that I had proof of delivery and a signature from the address, I was told that, I could not prove that the person who signed for and took the parcel at that address was the person who bought it. I couldn’t even claim on the insurance as the item was deemed delivered.
I stopped Selling on Ebay and using PayPal after that. Nobody needs to pay for anything if that’s how they are running things.

[theplumber]

Still waiting on refund from the bank. They are dealing with it and have asked the bank that the money seems to have landed at for the cash back! Seems we have to wait 15 days for this to happen. Wife spoke to them last week and they can't tell us any more info at this stage. I know we won't get told why our money went to a different bank to the original one at the start of the transaction! By rights it should be sorted out any day soon. Will let you know the outcome!

[theplumber]

Looks like it was a bank error after all! Got a phone call from our bank,Virgin after several weeks of phone calls and messages and making an official complaint we were told that the money that I sent to the person on this forum that I was buying a bass neck from had indeed went to someone else about 15 seconds after my wife pressed the pay button on the app! It,according to the bank went to someone I had sent money to...5 years ago with the reference ''bass''...The same reference we used for my latest purchase! As someone on this thread had pointed out it was some sort of computer glitch! That said the bank are still saying that it was something we had done wrong sending the money! Which with the app is not possible. I mean when the payee gave me his account details both my self and my wife checked and entered the details and according to what I read online,the bank app checks the details are correct ie proper spelling,correct account details then we press send and the transfer is away! Only after sending at around 10.30am it was marked pending all day and we checked with the seller only to check at around 4.30pm and find it had gone to someone else...someone I had bought something from 5 years ago! We have been told because we had pushed so hard to get to the bottom of this that they believe us and will refund our money whilst trying to get it back from where it ended up! So.....sort of result but as I suspected all along,the bank was at fault and won't admit it also customer service was shocking all the way through!

[pete.young]

@theplumber you should change the thread title, since this is clearly nothing to do with a scam on basschat and it makes precisely no difference to whether it is safe to use the marketplace here or not.

[theplumber]

23 minutes ago, pete.young said:

@theplumber you should change the thread title, since this is clearly nothing to do with a scam on basschat and it makes precisely no difference to whether it is safe to use the marketplace here or not.

Yes.....and no! I won't be changing it as folk have read and commented on it and this is the end of the thread anyway! And it was a rhetorical title as I am sure you know this is a safe place to buy and sell!