Ever been conned?

No?....... Well I strongly suspect I just have, or rather PG and I.

On Sunday PG purchased an item through Ebay, a cell phone costing a little over £100, on my account and using my credit card I might add but of course with my full agreement. Nothing too startling there, he uses Ebay often and thus far without incident, though he takes the usual precautions. He checks out the sellers history, only purchases from those with 100% positive feedback, rarely orders from overseas and never sends cash or a cheque.

It would appear that for all this on this occasion we have been conned.... Gah!

Within an hour of the auction closing and the vendor receiving payment via Paypal we received an email from said vendor stating that the item belonged to his son who had wanted to sell it to finance the purchase of a Playstation and had now 'changed his mind'.....he would therefore be removing the item from sale and refunding our money. 'Too late sunshine' was the cry from this end, once the item is offered for sale and payment received one is theoretically at least bound by legal contract to complete the transaction. We mailed him back explaining this politely but stating that if he was determined to renege on the deal how we would prefer to receive the refund.

Immediately we received the original email my, hackles rose and my 'security issues' antenna started to buzz. I am ever sceptical in situations where money changes hands and having worked for a while in a security related area and alongside the police my awareness of the possibility of becoming the subject of one scam or another is ever present.

So what happened next? Damn all is what happened, despite repeated emails there has been no response from the vendor thus far. He managed to email us within an hour to tell us he was no longer selling but now seems unable to reply to mail within 48 hours....no surprise there then, I doubt we will hear any more from him at all!

So now the aggravation of trying to recover the monies begins, we have contacted Ebay and reported the issue and the same with Paypal, I have this morning to contact my credit card company and enquire if such a transaction is covered by their purchasers insurance. One way or another I think I will recover a large percentage of the cost though not all but I am steaming.

I can ill afford to throw £100 away but worse still is my anger and frustration at the situation. Once crossed I can be like a terrier with a bone, this guy may think he has scammed us and got away scot free, believe me he hasn't. I will of course operate well within the bounds of the law, it is not my style to do otherwise but we have this individuals name, we know the area he lives, where he works......it's not too far from here, I have access to the electoral roll and one or two other 'helpful' tracing systems and if all else fails I will make sure he at least no longer trades on Ebay.

One thing is for sure, I have the bit between my teeth on this one and he hasn't heard the last of me by a long chalk, he is going to become sick and tired of the sound of my voice and my name in his inbox. He has until Friday to get a cheque to us and if as I expect he continues to do nothing I am set to become a very serious and aggravating thorn in his side!!