Wells Fargo accepted payment into closed account

[pinkjaybird]

Hello,

 

I was the victim of a [problem] on craigslist for a holiday rental in san francisco. I have gone through every fraud form imaginable, my bank and even reported it to the san francisco police but had no solution.

 

I was told by the "owner " of the property to pay the full amount for the rental into a bank account (of which I still have all the details). I did so and upon receipt of my email, the "owner" said that the account was closed and I needed to cancel the payment and pay into a new account which had a different name. This is when alarm bells sounded for me and I started to question the "owner". I paid through an online bank transfer from my bank, Natwest, to the Wells Fargo bank account details I was given.

 

I have been trying to recover my money since August 2013.

 

Natwest are adamant that they cannot do anything as they were following my instructions and paid the money into the account. I made a complaint through the financial ombudsman regarding this and they could not offer a solution either.

 

I decided to call Wells Fargo and speak to them and was happily met with the information from an agent that I would be getting my money back as he could see that the account was closed and my money should not have been accepted. That was on November 1, 2013.

 

As a month had passed and the money had not been returned to my account, I called up Wells Fargo again to be met with several rude customer service agents, all who could not help me and told me that they needed to speak to the account holder.

 

Since then, I have done my own investigative work and found the bank account owner who says he was also a victim of the "owner" and set up the rental pages on craigs list and then had his social security number taken away and bank accounts closed.I have asked him to call teh bank and speak to them about it so they can return my money but he seems rather odd so I'm not sure if he is to be trusted.

 

I have sent all of this information to Wells Fargo and they still will not return my money.

 

I'm not sure what I can do but as it is around £450 that I have lost, I'm not going to walk away.

 

Any advice?

[BRIGADIER2JCS]

Hi,

In my opinion NatWest should immediately make a charge back, if this is paid by a Visa debit card from NW then if you have been the victim of confidence trickery (just another term for a S*am).

The Visa Card should offer the same protection as a credit card if the amount paid is sufficient I think.

[pinkjaybird]

Thanks for the quick response!

 

Unfortunately it was an online bank transfer, not a payment directly through my card (which is a visa debit). but thank you for the advice!

 

It seems odd that money can be accepted into a bank account that has been closed... any knowledge about that?

 

I should also explain that Wells Fargo is an american bank.

[BRIGADIER2JCS]

My personal feeling is that NatWest should recall the payment from the US bank.

I'm familiar with WF and the bank is usually quite cooperrative.

[pinkjaybird]

Neither Bank has been able to help me retrieve my money - is this worth taking to small claims court?