Made payment but cannot now contact seller

[tomyoung90]

I paid for an ipad which I found through Gumtree by direct bank transfer yesterday, however I cannot now get in contact with the seller. I have his name, address, phone number, bank details and email address but cannot contact him. He is not answering text or email.

I fear that he may simply have taken the money and has no intention of sending the ipad or if any ipad even exists, but I'm not sure as he knows I have all his details, and can't comprehend why he would give me all the details if his intention was to steal the money. What should I do?

[daffy654]

If you cannot contact him within the next 24 hours you should consider reporting the matter to your bank to see if they can recall the payment.

[Beswad]

Sorry to say you've been scammed. There are numerous ads popping up on Gumtree and Craigslist on iPads and high spec laptops being listed very cheaply but scammers only prefer method of payment is either by Paypal or bank transfer. There is little you can do except reported to the police which I doubt they will do anything. NEVER, NEVER do bank transfers as I've also lost abit of money by doing bank transfer for a laptop didn't materalised.

[Beswad]

@daffy654 As I experienced before, once a bank transfer has been done the bank your bank can do little to reverse it.

[ojread2]

why on earth did you do that?

You're fear has a 99.999999999999999% chance of being an absolute

[NOX]

Google his email address and see if anything shows on that which is negative, likewise his phone number, keep trying to ring him and if after 24 you either don't have an ipad or an answer contact the police. Really a daft thing to do doing a bank transfer to someone you don't know and you got in touch with through Gumtree. Really sorry this has happened to you.

[deggers316]

sorry fella you've been had
only go to uk stores at least then you can get warranty's seen to and a refund if not satisfied etc may cost a bit more than "gumtree" and the like as you have found out not worth the savings,

[deggers316]

my friend a while ago paid on line to a private person for a leather jacket "stupidly" he gave his bank details to him
a week later while checking his on line bank he saw £500 had come out of it besides the jacket money
he went to see nationwide (his bank) they saw it was taken out from an american on line betting comp,and more had been taken out on the few hours between him calling to nationwide . luckily he was refunded by nationwide in total ,but it learned him a lesson
.

[scraggy55]

I had a problem on Gumtree recently. Reported it to them and they were very good at sorting out, but no money had changed hands. My friend was scammed through them with regard to some tickets to Bangkok! Oh dear, yes it seems to be the scammers favourite place! Direct Bank Transfer may well mean that you can discuss with your Bank and they might be able to do something! Oh and by the way, the lady that sold my friend the air tickets, gave her all her personal details too - so that is no guarantee against you dealing with Scum!