Nz bank payment

No Lego, buyer protection offered by Trademe is only when you pay on the Trademe site via Ping or Afterpay. You can still open a dispute on Trademe though and an email prompt from Trademe to the seller might get action from the seller, or not. Last choice is the Disputes Tribunal.

Kia Ora Lego,

Purchases paid by Bank transfer &/Or cash are not covered by the Buyer Protection policy which is only available to eligible purchases paid through Ping or Afterpay. - However you can request TradeMe's involvement if a Dispute Resolution report is filed within the first 45 days of the Listing closing - A staff member will contact your Seller on your behalf in attempt to get the Trade back on track for you.

What has happened in your situation?

What's the probability of getting a refund in case I got scammed?

Hello Lego. Sometimes, depending on the circumstances and value of the trade Trade Me might help you out. But you are more likely to get retribution through other legal avenues. It is nearly impossible to open a bank account in New Zealand using false credentials. So those  details will lead to a real person. It is relatively straight forward for the Police to obtain the identification of the person who owns the account.

Trade Me will probably suggest you try the Disputes Tribunal. You can go down that route, or instead make a Police complaint. It can be difficult to get the Police interested because these things can be deemed civil matters, rather than criminal.

Don't forget to do some basic sleuthing yourself. . Some simple searches on google and socials can reveal quite a lot. When you made the bank payment did the account name match the number? This is a handy extra security measure that banks have implemented recently.