Been a victim of fraud

Hi

I’ve been a victim of fraud. Saw an item advertised on Facebook market place and paid a deposit of £100 for the item, the balance being paid when I received it. I transferred the money from my monzo account into his bank account with the reference being the item name. No cash exchanged hands.

A week had passed, the item didn’t arrive and I realised I had been scammed.

Something similar had happened to me in the past (when I was with Natwest) on that occasion I notified Natwest two weeks after the bank transfer and they refunded me within 24 hours via some sort of charge back and then recovered their funds at a later date.

My question is, is there anything I can do to get my money back?

I have told monzo help in the app but not getting very far, I’m not sure that monzo have the same powers that traditional high street banks do?

Any help would be much appreciated

Would you expect the bank to refund you if you met a stranger in a pub car park and paid them £100 on the promise they come back next week with the goods?

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Natwest bank did refund me, almost the same situation, but the other item was advertised on gumtree.

If I paid via bank transfer, yes.

I don’t know why you’re asking me about cash payments. I paid via bank transfer.

You can contact Action Fraud if you need any help or advice: www.actionfraud.police.uk.

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Thank you I will definitely report it to action fraud

This seems like victim blaming… OP the only way to find out is to contact Monzo customer service and flag it with them. Banks have different policies and they may be able to notify the receiving bank to freeze the funds and recover them (however it has probably already been withdrawn). It’s a shame more banks don’t have a fraud guarantee like TSB that covers authorised payments.

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Do you happen to know if monzo has anything like that in place similar to TSB?

I don’t think they do I’m afraid.

A person leaving their door unlocked is a victim of burglary if someone enters and steals regardless.

The blame lies with the criminal in a case.

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True but their insurance wont pay out.

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If OP believes he is in the right, he can initiate a chargeback through Monzo and don’t buy items listed at presumably a massive “discount” via Facebook in future. Nothing good ever comes from there.

"Sorry to hear you’ve been a victim of a crime. I’m not sure/don’t think Monzo would repay this, but you can still contact them to be sure.

Meantime I would report this to the relevant authorities.

It’s always best to go through reputable companies, since you’re likely to be more protected should anything happen.

Best of luck"

Fixed it for you.

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Don’t have to be rude to him, this is the kind of attitude that this forum is riddled with.

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Bank transfers are the equivalent of cash transfers, though. So, in a manner of speaking, cash did indeed change hands.

I’m surprised that Natwest refunded you in similar circumstances the past, I’ve not heard of them doing that before.

Reporting to Monzo is the right thing to do, but whatever action they can take (if any) will not be a chargeback, as that doesn’t apply to bank transfers.

I believe paying through PayPal for things like this and tagging the payment as “good and services” can provide recourse when something like this happens.

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It can, but in this case, it was a direct bank transfer for some reason and those shouldn’t really be done unless you really trust who you’re paying, imo

Natwest gave me the impression that cash carries the most risk, with bank transfers having some protection, debit card epos payments having higher protection and credit card payments being the most secure of them. And I’ve always thought that’s why we’re all going cashless, cos it’s more secure, traceable and reversible, even more so now when you can’t pay cash into someone’s account, it has to be done via transfer :s

Thank you for your help, I’m filling out the action fraud form right now, I don’t want this person to do this to other people