£800 out of pocket - thanks EE 🤬

[19Darren76]

4 months ago, I spotted a good deal on Facebook market place, an iPhone 12 Pro Max new unopened box £800.

whilst in presence of the seller, I bought a fully clear checkMEND certificate for the device, and called EE to check if this was a safe buy. 
EE assured me the device had no previous owner and not in a contract, and further assured me by logging a note of my concerns onto my account.

4 months later, my device gets blacklisted.

EE are unable to help, confirming to me the previous note of my concerns are still on the system, and now advised me to report to police.

Despite having photographs of the seller, his car and drivers licence. The police logged it as an incident and not a crime, and therefore will not be investigating.

A new check on checkMEND, shows as blacklisted, but not lost or stolen.

I feel like I been robbed, but can’t do anything about it. Is this really fair?

Anyone with constructive advice please do.

many thanks, Darren.

[mikeliuk]

Hi @19Darren76 ,

Your claim would be against the seller in this case as network service providers provide no insurance, warranty, or guarantee when a private person makes a purchase on Facebook market place.

You could check whether you have any claim against Facebook market place.

You could try to contact the seller again as it could be an honest mistake of the seller purchasing at auction.

For such large purchases, I highly recommend buying on a credit card so that you would have a claim against the credit card company under certain circumstances.

Does checkMEND provide any insurance for such a situation?

[Northerner]

Hi @19Darren76 

You were scam by one of the most common scams around, basically your own greed. If an offer is to good to be true then you walk away. 

You need to report this to the police and learn a painful lesson if you didn't pay by credit card. 

Thanks

[XRaySpeX]

There are no bargains to be had on FB! 

[19Darren76]

This person is now gone from Facebook.
The police say it’s an incident not a crime, and therefore free to do this again.

chechMEND provide a certificate, powered my confidence to buy, but hold no responsibility. EE’s assurance and putting a note on computer also help the fraudster.

 I’m out of pocket, and currently considering a new line of work.

[mikeliuk]

Hi @19Darren76 ,

Even though it's judged there's no evidence of a crime, it does appear to be a possible financial fraud perpetrated on both yourself and possibly also wherever the handset was sourced from.

Did the handset have anything to do with EE at all? Was it claimed that it was purchased from EE or network locked to EE?

If the details on the driver's license were correct, you could attempt action in a small claims court but the costs could be higher than the amount to be recovered.

https://www.gov.uk/make-court-claim-for-money

I think we all need to steer clear of such too-good-to-be-true offers as the last victim is required for the scheme to go ahead. The handset is likely blacklisted as a fraud was carried out on another victim, perhaps a network service provider, and demand on Facebook market place is required to perpetuate such a scheme.

EE's good name has also been besmirched in a transaction which it was not a party to and possibly had no involvement in whatsoever.

[BrendonH]

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@19Darren76 wrote:

This person is now gone from Facebook.
The police say it’s an incident not a crime, and therefore free to do this again.

chechMEND provide a certificate, powered my confidence to buy, but hold no responsibility. EE’s assurance and putting a note on computer also help the fraudster.

 I’m out of pocket, and currently considering a new line of work.

---

The fact that the person has deleted his account on Facebook proves he was scamming you.

EE has not done anything wrong. They were right at the time of asking. just like the check MEND report was right at the time of asking.

The person would have made a fake account on Facebook to sell an iPhone or a phone whatever it is. He would then give you the said phone when you pay the money over. These scammers would always insist on money up front or paypal friends and family. Then after few weeks they would report it as lost/stolen to their insurance company. The insurance company will blacklist the phone and then send out a new phone to the scammer.

It's a common scam. It is basically fraud and although the police state its not a crime you can go to Action Fraud and report to them. This is their jurisdiction. 

Always pay by a credit card or always pay by PayPal Services & Goods because then you are protected on things like this. And if you insist on these 2 methods I would guarantee the scammer wouldn't have sold you the phone or kept insisting in other ways to pay because they know these 2 options would get you your money back