sonicsbro

Hello,

long story short, I was ripped off on Ebay about a year ago...my own fault i know, but i was naive at the time. Anyway i've been arguing with Western Union for this last year about getting my money back...on the basis that they explicitly told me verbally that the person on the recieving end would not be able to get the money without knowing who it was sent from. I sent the money from my Girlfriends name and the ****** got it anyway. W.U say it is my fault for signing the internet waiver form, but that was only because they told me it was safe.
I have a copy of the form the bloke in Italy used to get the money and he got a near version of my G/F's name (as though someone whispered to him and he spelled it incorrectly) and also he spelt his own name incorrect on the collection sheet. I personally think that the W.U office in Italy is in cahoots with this guy as the 'office only' part of the sheet was in the same identical writing as the rest of the form that the ****** is supposed to fill in.
I intend to take this to the small claims court as I think I have a good case, but does anyone know the cost if I lose this case? I know it is about £30 to start the legal preceedings, but the amount i'm disputing is just £250, so could I end up a lot more out of money or is the £30 part of it all I could lose?
Any help would be appreciated...Watchdog here I come.

*Sonic*

Bro

Im sure I read somewhere you dont need ID to collect the money, and WU say you should only send money to someone you know, as they just give the money to whoever asks for it

If no-one has replied on here the next few days, im back in the Solicitors next week, so I will ask them, or email em tomorrow

S

jods

Did you attempt to buy a telescope by any chance ??

I was offered a Celestar 8 Schmidt-Cassegrain Telescope for £250 from a seller in Italy.

The model was worth around £3000.00

He PM'd me when my bid was beaten saying "Send £250 and it's yours"

I passed as I thought it highly dubious that he had an item(possibly more than one but unlikely) and was willing to sell for less that current budding price.

My guess is this :

A group decide to advertise X on e-bay (high value item)
The group bid amongst themselves till a "Non-Group" bidder appears
They then offline message the Non-Group bidder with a seemingly good offer (Buyer dropped out etc etc)

if there were 10 in the group and they rotate the sales account it would take some time for any one of them to build up a sufficiently high -ve feedback score to be blocked. Even then it would be simple to activate a new account.

sonicsbro

Jods,
I tried to buy a projector, as soon as I bid I got several emails from people offering me one cheaper that current retail prices.
All of the emails were from hijacked Ebay accounts and seemed genuine at the time, but the sale was outside of Ebay.

Bro,
We know now that WU seem to give the money to anyone walking near one of their offices :-). I can give you some of their letters at the w/end to show the solicitors if you like, but WU told us it was safe hence sending the money, and the WU office confirmed with the WU person on the phone making the transfer that it was secure in the method described in my first post....we're trying to get Watchdog involved as well..