QLD Customer has blocked the bank transfer after receiving goods

[Joshl]

Hi,

I run an online business that sells digital goods and have been caught up in a scam and it seems like we are going to be at a loss.

A customer signed up to our platform, they completed the ID verification process & than used POLI (this is a payment gateway that uses internet banking) to send a payment to us. POLi confirmed the payment and we delivered the goods to the customer.

2 hours later the customer comes onto our live chat and after discussion with them they advised they got caught up in a scam. They had a third party person call them and convince them to create an account on our site, complete our identity verification process and than send us money.

This third party person was promising them if they did this they would get more money. Only after completing the transaction they realised they got scammed. They called the bank and blocked the payment and also advised us what happened via our chat.

I have spoken to POLi before about how this works and it is one of the reasons we have our identity checks in place so if there is ever an issue we can go back to the customer to work it out. This customer realises that we are the ones that are loosing the money because they where naive and got tricked into giving out their id and banking details.

I want to know do we have any recourse at all? I feel terrible that this guy got caught up in a scam but I don't think it is fair that we are the ones that have the loss because he was to naive and got tricked into making the purchase from us.

We have their Name, DOB, Address, Mobile & IP address as well as all of the transaction information. I explained to him that if he blocks the payment we will be at a loss but in the end is not willing to take any responsibility for his action.

 

[Rob Legat - SBPL]

So this person was enticed into running a scam on you, but in turn got scammed themselves (or am I reading this wrong?)

 

[Joshl]

There are three parties involved

Customer a
Scammer a
Our business

Customer a was called by scammer a and was told to sign up to our business. Customer a signed up, completed the ID check with us and than under the instructions of scammer a sent us money from his bank account. Our system processed the order and than a few hours later customer a called his bank and blocked the transfer.

He than told us that he realized after the fact that scammer a was actually a scammer.. So in this situation customer a has sent us money, scammer a has recieved the goods and we are at a loss..

But according to our terms etc our customer is customer a - we don't know for sure that this happened and that customer a is not just making this story up to get their money back. I think what they are saying is true, this scammer a person tricked them in saying if they sign up with us and send him the goods they will pay him more for the goods.....

Hope that is a bit clearer if not let me know and thanks for taking the time to read

 

[Tim W]

And you believe this story, do you?

 

[Joshl]

And you believe this story, do you?

Well I have learnt not to underestimate the stupidity of people.. I am surprised that people do fall for these types of scams but they do, however in saying that scammers are great at making up BS excuses as well..

I have dealt with an instance in the past where someone was the victim of ID take-over and they had their phone ported, and their internet banking taken over and reset. This was some time ago and the scammer was able to send stolen money to us and we ended up loosing it because we released the goods before the payment fully cleared. We used POLI which said the money was sent but the bank was able to block the payment just in time, I was quite shocked at this time but when dealing with the bank they supposedly had all the evidence that they were a victim and it was just too bad for us..

When reaching out to POLI they said its up to you to deal with the customer directly to get the money but in that instance the customer was not involved in the process. Since than we increased our fraud detection and don't allow VPNS etc (which the original person used) but in this latest situation the person has admitted to us that they setup the account and transferred the money under the instruction of this scammer from their own computer.

Am I right to pursue this person for my money? Or can he argue that this transaction was unauthorized and it was not him sending the money but someone stole it from him?

 

[Rob Legat - SBPL]

Consider it this way:

Did Customer intend to sign up with you? Yes
Did Customer intend to buy goods from you? Yes
Did Customer place the order using their particulars? Yes
Did Customer instruct you to send the goods to Scammer? Yes
Did you send the goods to Scammer as instructed? Yes
Did Customer intend that Scammer would pay Customer for the goods? Possibly, but it has nothing to do with you.

Whatever happened between the Scammer and the Customer is no fault of yours, and you had nothing to do with that. As far as you're concerned, you acted exactly as you were requested to do. The Customer, if they're telling the truth, took a gamble and lost. Why should you have to bear the cost of it?

 

[Joshl]

Thanks Rob,

I agree with you on all of those points. We will chase the customer up directly to get our money back.

Josh