Hello. I have no idea if this is in the correct place but if not please advise and I will move it (if I can, if not I will ask a mod). This is quite a long story but I will try to keep it as short as possible..
On 13th Feb I logged onto my online banking to see a transaction for just under £350 had disappeared from my bank. Obviously I called barclays immediately who told me that it was sent via 'pingit'. After a little research on this pingit as I had never heard of the thing, it turned out that you basically need to put someones phone number into an app and it deducts the amount from your bank balance. I called the fraud team again to ask for the phone number of the recipient, but they said they couldn't tell me due to data protection (a slight joke when you read on and find out what info they DID release eventually)
They placed my account on lockdown as they said it was likely the person could get into my online banking and such at will, I had to go into the bank with ID to do anything at all. I had to physically take cash put and put it into my partners bank account just to pay bills and such as even my DDs were cancelled. My home internet was cut off days after this fraud as the bill had been due but obviously with losing that much cash, I couldn't afford to pay it (I am currently not working due to ill health). I called them pretty much every day for updates and was palmed off, then finally got a call yesterday saying they had looked into it, admit that the pingit registered number is not mine, yet waffled on about how secure pingit is (!) and a transfer is the same as sending cash so they can do nothing at their end..also that the company recieving the payment seemed legitimate to them and that they sold mobile phones. They then told me they could release the name of the business this payment went to and the name of the director, who was also the recipient of my cash. At this point I was quite hopeful, as if the company sold mobiles and someone had bought one with my bank, then they would have details about where the phone had gone to. At the very least a delivery address.
I searched up on this company and it just didn't seem legit to me at all. Basically it was registered to what looks like a very small storage facility on baker st in london, and 53 other companies turned out to be registered to the exact same address. I called Barclays back explaining this and that it was not a phone shop or anything but it looked like somewhere that people just register as their business address rather than actually having one (with so many companies being registered to the same place) and after a lot of being passed around and attempting palming off, eventually they decided that they could release the recipients bank details (! but earlier they couldn't release a phone number...) and that I should call lloyds (who the account was registered with) and explain everything to them, as apparently sometimes transfers can be recalled if there has been fraud.
Now, I felt slightly wrong having this persons bank details even though in my head they had scammed me so I just pretty much sat on them for a day. My partner mentioned that maybe the recipient of the funds wasn't actually doing anything wrong..and funnily enough barclays had never mentioned that possibility. I had never thought about it either in all of my rage. Our internet was reconnected this morning due to a loan from a family member. The first thing I did was try to check facebook and my emails. Password didn't work on either. I have spent a lot of the day talking to various hotmail reps and such and did eventually get into my account. It turned out I had a load of 'password changed' emails from many sites. The person did not redirect my mail though on any (that I have checked so far, theres still a load of silly gaming sites etc to check though) so I regained control of my FB (which had had nothing done except a virus link sent to a few of my mates) and started going through the emails. I got back into my localbitcoins account...which tbh I had forgot I had in the first place, I had bought like £20 of btc a few months or so ago and not touched it since then..and had a kinda eureka moment when I saw past activity. There was a pingit payment sent to an account for 2.23BTC. The payment amount was EXACTLY the amount of the fraudulent transfer. I looked on the history of the btc seller and its clear that it wasnt them who scammed me just from the sheer amount of good feedback that they have, which has continued long after the transfer with my account, someone must have bought them and sent them to themselves. I don't know what to do really. I contacted the seller and told them all of this and they are online but appear to be ignoring me. I know if I do contact lloyds about this there is a chance the sellers account will be closed as this happened to my dad about a year ago and that was just for buying btc, not selling them. I may be ruining a business. I know it doesn't sound like a lot to some people but on benefits, it kinda is and I can't afford to lose that much. If theres even a chance lloyds can recover my funds then I will take it. I know this makes me seem a shitty person potentially ruining a business that has nothing to do with this whole thing because some scammer got my details and bought something off someone else..so there isn't need to point this out though I expect it :p
I was just wondering basically, and this is the point of the thread, I know the whole point of BTC is that they are anonymous, but is there even a slight chance of tracking where the stolen btc went? I asked the seller if they asked for ID documents and such for the transaction, as when I bought my previous ones I had to show photo ID and stuff before they would sell, but as I said the seller is ignoring me so I don't know. If they did ask for ID it will be a lot easier to find the person who did it. My bank told me 9 times out of 10 its someone you know who commits fraud, and this is worrying me a lot.
I have already wrote this post out and its so long that editing it all now will be a pain in the ass but the seller has got back to me saying now that basically they don't believe me and tbh it doesn't seem I'm going to get much help from them. I feel slightly less shitty now about calling lloyds tbh.
Still wodnering if its at all possible to track though, as if its been someone I know, I want to know who :/
Sorry it is very hard to read. Maybe you could make clear introduction and conclusion. You are trying to track someone you sold btc to ?
