I have been buying advertising, fanpage promotions from people, and a guy in India offered me to advertise on his facebook page, for $500 a link (7 million fans, very active page). So I western union him $500 after several hours of conversation with him. I have done similar deals before and he seems legitimate, and provided me with his phone number, address, email, and bank address. He shared the link after the western union check cleared and I got what I paid for for the $500 transaction. Then, after a few more days, he contacted me, offering me 5 ad links on his fanpage for $1100 and asked me to western union again. I did, and then he simply blocked me on facebook. I have facebook chat records and skype chat records. My question is, what does it take for me to goto court with him in India? And if there is any chance for me to win? It's not a huge amount of money, but I am sicked and tired of scammers, and willing to pay even more than $1100 to take him to court to make him pay. Anyone know any lawyers in India I can contact? What course of actions can I take? Anyway I can reach him?
Sorry to hear you got scammed. Lawyers in India? I don't know, but maybe @kingofking can give his views on your experience and what you can do (if anything at else). Actually tracking him down, especially as you went via Western Union, won't be easy, I imagine. Whilst ID is required, he could always have a fake one, seem as though he is a scammer. Suggestions for the future: 1) use Escrow; 2) try using Facebook's advertising instead? It's much cheaper.
India, a country that i have never successfully made a transaction through. As @ryan_uk said, use escrow next time. 1100 USD really is a big amount. But now use his provided information to track him down. sometime they could be fake as well. Did he do anything to proof that the 7m page is his page ?
Why didn't you use PayPal or any escrow service? Can you send me some details? I may try to help you. Also you can talk about this problem at this forum http://www.inforum.in I think there you can get some solution.
Tracking someone down from India would be difficult. Have you tried contacting the police? This is fraud, while they probably won't go to a lot of effort to find for $1100, if enough people report these spammers perhaps eventually more will be done to stop them. As others here have said you really shouldn't use Western Union for these deals. It is one of the least secure ways to send money, with almost no hope of tracking the fraudster.
You can contact Western Union regarding this when someone collect money from Western Union agent or office they ask for id card copy for records. id card copy is something police can track him easily.
If you know his address, complaining to the cyber crime cells is a smart idea. It will be more effective than hiring an attorney. here is a link to the cyber crime cells http://cybercrimecomplaints.com/cyber-crime-cells-india. I know it is a link just like others are sending but believe me, cyber crime cell can do a lot more than the regular police.
If you could post the username on this thread, we can help you to identify the 'real' person that scammed you. Moreover other people can also take a note of him and be alert.
Thank you for looping me in @ryan_uk . @Jihoy , You now have so many details about that scammer. Right from his FB Profile to his bank account details. Can you just drop me a PM with the details of all those? I am from the state of TamilNadu in India. If he is from the same state, I can give you more details as well. Also, please let me know where you are from. It might not be a huge money for you. But, if you disregard these guys just like that, definitely they are going to continue. Lets try to put an end. lets try!!!!
It's not fraud, it's not even illegal, the OP himself acted in an illegal manner of sorts or at least one that breaches FB terms of service & use. So on a legal front you have no grounds to pursue the case & I doubt anyone would even touch this. That's why scammers use such services & scam on social networks, because you are also breaking the TOS of such sites & that forfeits your legal standing. I too have been scammed, not that large of scale - just small pages that I have sold... even using Paypal as the seller you stand no chance, they'll pay you the cash, you'll pass on the page & bam - they'll reverse payment/declare that the transaction was unauthorised, Paypal wont care because you sold something that didn't legally belong to oyu & that's even if you provide a strong case.
Yup, thats a good point. The OP should have paid a little first to check if the guy did what he said. He should have not transferred a big amount to a person in India. Especially in India, where the amount is huge as for their currency.
But ToS is something between the OP and FB. How can I third person take an undue advantage of that and do a scam?
Yeah, that's the best way, pay after the service is complete, or in parts, if they're posting on FB for example pay after each post - don't fork it out in one lump sum. They have little to lose, a post costs them nothing - so if they're legit - they should have no issues doing this.
OP should have not paid someone else for advertising in facebook which is a scam. He should have paid facebook directly for advertising. this is against fb rules. Promoting themselves by paying others. the third person was just genius enough to make use of this chance. And the payment method he chose is exactly something that we can't use to track him down.
Because they're both in the wrong... if I sold a page (I have before) & the buyer reverses payment/fraudulent claim, who do i go to? facebook? they'll say the page wasn't mine to sell in the first place. Paypal doesn't care about digital goods. You're screwed & you've broken a rule/the written terms that you abide - by using FB. It's like robbing a bank with a partner, the partner does a runner & wont split the cash... who do you turn to? You can't because you broke the law. In short, you're not covered if you broke the rules in the first place.
Thats a great example. the only way now that OP can get back his cash legally is to do illegal things. He has to somehow manage to say that the money was paid for something else and show fake proofs of it. It will be good if he can say that it was paid for a physical product which he did not receive. But even though, no one can assure that he can get back his money.