Fraud by Brendan [removed] and Nikki [removed]

[TeacherBoy23]

I agreed to buy a Garmin device through Facebook Marketplace and after agreeing a price over Facebook Messenger, I initially made a payment to [removed] for £265 as 'paying for goods and services'. I then got a message to say that this would not clear his account for 21 days and he was not willing to proceed at which point he refunded the money and asked me to pay it to [removed] instead, saying this was his daughter's account. He also said I had to do so as 'friends and family' so that the payment would clear his account - I foolishly did this. This chat is saved on Messenger but has anyone else been scammed this way and have any advice on how best to bring these people to justice?

[kernowlass]

@TeacherBoy23 

A friends / family (or gift payment) is intended as a transfer of funds from family or friends to one another. For this reason, there is no processing fee when payment is made with bank or PayPal balance.
However as it is a gift payment, there is also no buyer protection as no goods or services should have been exchanged.

If he was not a close mate or family member you should never use that option as it enables the seller to evade paying his Paypal fees and negates your buyer protection at the same time.

You would also not be able to open a dispute (apart from one citing an unauthorised transaction), which would be automatically closed as you did authorise the initial payment.

Be careful as using that option for purchasing goods is against Paypal rules and can lead to account limitation.

If you funded your Paypal payment via a credit card then contact your card issuer and see if they will help you but unfortunately they may decline as well as it was a gift payment.