Advice wanted to help a friend - items bought via another forum and not recevied.

[MatWoods]

I have a friend who is a keen kite surfer and has recently, via one of the kite surfing forums he visits, paid for and not recevied goods to the value of around ?800.

The 'seller' was new to the forum and the transfer was done via debit card directly into the sellers bank account, so all that he knows of is the name of the individual, his bank account nuymber and the sort code.

Whilst pm's and emails have since been ignored, the seller has been active on the forum since the money was sent.

I am after any advice of how he should best proceed - wokring closely with trading standards, i have access to civil advice and he has reproted the matter via the police to action fraud, but any personal advice or hlep would be much appreciated.

I apprecaited any advice may be from somone who has had a similar problem, not a great expereicnce to have gone through for anyone, but again advice would be much appreciated.

[fuse]

If the seller's still active on the forums then your pal should be onto the site staffers to let them know, and see if there's anything they can do to help - both in terms of other info, and also preventing them from ripping anyone else off in the interim. It doesn't sound good though - large payments via debit card to a new user is perhaps putting a little bit too much faith in humanity

[MatWoods]

Thanks Fuse. He's already contacted the moderator, but he if off travelling at the mo so his resources are limited. Someone has highlighted the user as possibly fraudulent so that may help other users. The moderator has said he may be able to help more when he has full computer access though.

Just going to have to see how it pans out but any help from someone in the banking business as what it the best thing to do would be of particular use.

Know what you mean about tthe trustt thing - a tough way to learn i guess...

[Adrock]

Surely with those bank details the police could look into it? Its fraud, isn't it?

[EvilBoris]

From what I gather, as a private transaction you are only covered under contract law. You could actually take them to court under breach of contract, with the details that you have possibly the the Police can provide you with enough information to help you do this.

[zeroboo]

Went through something similar a good few years back. Ended up just reporting the incident to the police. With the bank details, should not be an issue tracking the dude down.

[ETC]

His sort code will tell you where he lives it's easy to track from there

This should apply as it was via debit card

http://whatconsumer.co.uk/visa-debit-chargeback/

[MatWoods]

Evil, that may just have been the ticket, he is going to speak to his bank this pm and raise it with them. Thanks very much.