Being scammed with fake apple products by a random individual

Hey

About 5 days ago I was scammed by a random individual with a fake iPhone product (IPhone 15 pro max) he told me that he is selling that phone in cheap price because he needed to pay his rent and have a kids and we made a deal with £700 but unfortunately I didn’t checked the phone because it looked legit and had a sealed pack so I thought it must be real and wasn’t aware of that sort of scam Btw I bank transferred him £700 and as soon as I came to realise the phone is fake I contact monzo and Action Fraud about the situation and It’s been about a week and haven’t heard from both of them.

Please if anyone knows about this kind of process like how long does it takes and what are the chances of me getting the refund will means a lot too me.

Thank you all.

Stay aware of SCAMMERS!!!

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Monzo will take some time to investigate. I’m not sure on the current codes for reimbursement but I’d have thought that in this case it’s a “buyer beware” situation.

You should have ascertained that it was the correct product before agreeing to pay for it. You had every chance to inspect it, and ascertain that goods are as sold. There tends to be little recourse in these situations.

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It’s highly unlikely you’ll get the money back. From Monzo’s POV, what’s to say you’re not a scammer that has a brand new phone and now wants the money back?

Have you reported this to the police?

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Action Fraud is the police, it’s run by the City of London Police.

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Chances are slim because you received the product you paid for, albeit didn’t check the authenticity of the product before handing over any money to said stranger (assumed) from the web.

Reporting to action fraud is the right thing to do, and I’d be surprised if Monzo do give you a refund; as it’s basically negligent on your part, the bank had no part to play in this.

A hard lesson to be had for anyone reading the topic.

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How did you buy the phone? Facebook? eBay? Try contacting the website as they may have policies to assist.

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Every day is a school day!

As a basic process, Action Fraud that you contact are not police (I think they are employed by Capita, with PwC providing the tech used) but they take the report and then pass to the City of London Police, of which the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau is a part, who assess the report and decide if there is enough evidence to consider it an investigable crime.

That will then be passed to the relevant police force (almost always the case given the City of London Police cover a tiny part of the UK) who will then decide if there is enough evidence to follow up with it or close it pending further evidence or information.

Regardless of what happens after submitting, the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau should tell you within 28 days how they have proceeded.

If not for police then you need to go down the civil route. I would imagine most fraud reports go this way.

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