When a Vinted purchase goes wrong, the loss falls legally on the person who deceived you, and on nobody else. The seller who takes payment for an item that is never sent, or who ships a replica passed off as genuine, commits fraud under article 248 of the Spanish Criminal Code and answers, beyond the penalty, with the duty to return the money and repair the harm imposed by articles 109 and following of the same Code. Vinted is an intermediary that puts two private individuals in contact and charges for it. Its buyer protection is a contractual service you pay for as a fee on every order and which covers what its terms say it covers, not a legal guarantee. And the bank is only obliged to refund the amount when the transaction was not authorised by you, something the payment services rules provide for a card entered on a cloned website, but not for a transfer or a Bizum payment you voluntarily sent to the scammer’s account.
There is a further point almost nobody explains. A sale between two private individuals is not governed by the Spanish consumer protection law (Royal Legislative Decree 1/2007), because that statute requires the seller to be a business. There is no fourteen-day withdrawal right and no statutory conformity guarantee. There is a contract of sale under the Civil Code, with its actions for deceit and breach, and, where deception is present, there is a criminal offence. Consumer rights only come into play when the seller trades professionally, which on Vinted exists through business accounts.
What buyer protection covers and what it leaves out
Protection is paid on every order, added to the price, and it only applies if payment was made inside the platform. It covers three situations, the item that never arrives, the item that arrives damaged and the item that is significantly different from the listing, and counterfeits fall into that last category. The money is held until you confirm receipt, and that is where the practical problem lies, because the current terms give you two days from delivery to report the issue. Once that window closes the payment is released to the seller and protection ceases to apply even if the item is obviously fake.
Everything that happens outside Vinted is excluded. If the seller persuades you to pay by bank transfer, Bizum or a link sent over WhatsApp, there is no protection to claim, and the platform does not answer for a transaction it did not intermediate. Nor does it cover a matter of taste, a size that does not fit or the normal wear of a second-hand garment. And its decision on a dispute is not a court ruling, so losing on the platform closes neither the criminal route nor the civil one. The scheme resembles PayPal’s, with the difference that here the seller is almost never a company.
The scam patterns and the route each one opens
At the firm we see the same variants over and over. The item that is never shipped, with a seller stalling until the window closes. The parcel that arrives with something else inside, a bargain-bin garment or a filler object to match the weight. The replica sold as genuine, sometimes with an equally fake box, tag and receipt. The external «payment pending» or «confirm payout» link that leads to a copy of the site and captures the full card details. And on the seller’s side, the buyer who asks for an SMS verification code or who reports an empty parcel to obtain a refund and keep the item.
| Situation | Vinted buyer protection | Bank | Criminal route |
|---|---|---|---|
| Item not received, paid inside Vinted | Yes, if reported in time | Not needed | Fraud, article 248 CC |
| Fake or different item, paid inside Vinted | Yes, within two days of delivery | Not needed | Fraud, and possibly article 274 CC |
| Transfer or Bizum outside the platform | No | No, the transaction was authorised | Fraud, the only route to recovery |
| Card entered on a cloned website | No | Yes, unauthorised transaction | Fraud, articles 248 and 249 CC |
| Seller told the parcel arrived empty | Vinted decides on the shipping evidence | No | Fraud, if the buyer is lying |
The table explains why the first question I ask anyone who calls is how they paid. Inside the platform, the seller is identified and the money can be traced. Outside, the amount usually ends up in an account opened in a third party’s name, and the complaint reaches the court with nothing to investigate but that account. At the firm, when payment has left Vinted, the first thing we do from the cybercrime practice is secure the evidence and work on where the money went before the case is shelved for an unknown perpetrator. Where a card was captured on a cloned site, the bank refund has a legal basis, which I explained in Bank refund after phishing. How that claim is framed is the lawyer’s job.
What the Criminal Code says from the side of the person who paid
Article 248 punishes anyone who, for gain, uses sufficient deception to cause error in another and induce them to an act of disposition to their detriment. Listing a garment that does not exist, or a replica as genuine, is that deception. The penalty is six months to three years’ imprisonment if the amount defrauded exceeds 400 euros, and a fine of one to three months if it does not, which is the minor offence. The amount is measured by what you lost, but if the same seller has repeated the scheme with more buyers the sums are aggregated as a continuing offence and, where a large number of people are affected, the aggravation in article 250 applies. Your 60 euros may be one piece of a much larger case, which is why the small complaint makes sense.
The threshold changes two things for the victim. Limitation, which is one year for the minor offence and five years for the rest, under article 131 of the Criminal Code. And the risk of the case being closed, because the Criminal Procedure Act allows the judge, at the prosecutor’s request, to dismiss minor offences of very little gravity with no relevant public interest, and for property offences it presumes that interest is absent when the harm has been repaired and the injured party has not filed a complaint. In both cases, civil liability is claimed within the criminal proceedings themselves, with no need for a separate civil action.
Trademark counterfeiting is a separate matter
Selling a replica as if it were genuine is fraud against you. Selling it without hiding that it is a replica does not deceive you, but it remains an offence against industrial property under article 274 of the Criminal Code, because a product bearing an identical or confusingly similar distinctive sign is being marketed without the trademark owner’s consent. For retail sale the penalty is six months to three years’ imprisonment, and for occasional sale six months to two years, which may be reduced to a fine or community service when the profit obtained is small.
This has two practical consequences. First, buying a counterfeit is not an offence, but reselling it may well be, so do not try to recover your money by listing it again. Second, the item is the main evidence, both of the fraud and of the trademark offence, and brands’ legal departments issue authenticity reports that carry weight in court. An item returned to the seller is evidence destroyed and a garment back on the market.
What to do today with the item and the evidence
Report the issue on the platform within the window even if you are not yet sure what happened, because that report is what keeps the money on hold. Keep the full chat inside the app without deleting anything, and take dated screenshots of the listing, the seller’s profile and their reviews, because the account can vanish within hours. Keep the packaging, the shipping label and the tracking number, and photograph the item with its tag and the details that give it away as fake. Electronic evidence of this kind is what decides these cases, as I set out in Electronic evidence decides cases.
Do not return the item without a record. If the platform asks you to send it back for a refund, do so with tracking and with photographs of the contents before sealing the parcel. And never accept the offer of «send it back and I’ll pay you by Bizum», which is the second phase of the same scam. If you entered your card on a cloned site, block it and tell your bank at once. If you were asked for a verification code, treat the account as compromised and change the password.
Where to report, how long you have and what happens if the case is shelved
The courts apply the ubiquity rule to these frauds, so the offence is deemed committed both where the perpetrator acted and where you made the payment. In practice you can report at your local National Police station or Guardia Civil post, and the A Coruña court has jurisdiction over a payment made from here. You have one year to do so if the amount does not exceed 400 euros and five if it does, but the deadline that really matters is the evidence, which is lost within days.
Provisional closure for an unknown perpetrator is the usual fate of a complaint filed with nothing more than a username. The case can be reopened within the limitation period if the identity emerges, and this is where paying inside the platform matters, because Vinted is in a position to identify the seller and the European digital services rules impose due diligence duties on it regarding professional accounts. If the seller is identified and the criminal route does not succeed, a civil claim for breach of contract remains, which up to 15,000 euros proceeds by the summary verbal procedure.
If you handle this alone, what you risk is letting the two days lapse, returning the garment without a record or filing a complaint that is shelved within weeks because nobody identified the destination account. In a case like this, the firm secures the evidence, identifies who received the payment, frames the complaint with the civil claim inside it and, where the transaction was unauthorised, the claim against the bank. You can call +34 677 841 007 or write through the contact page. Have to hand the proof of payment and the method used, screenshots of the listing, the profile and the chat, the tracking number and photographs of the item and the packaging.
Frequently asked questions
How long do I have to claim on Vinted if the item is fake or never arrives?
Under the platform’s current terms, two days from recorded delivery. If you do not report the problem within that window, the payment is released to the seller and buyer protection no longer applies. The criminal route remains open, with a limitation period of one year if the amount does not exceed 400 euros and five years if it does.
I paid outside Vinted by Bizum or bank transfer, can I get my money back?
Buyer protection does not cover payments made outside the platform, and the bank is not obliged to refund a transaction you voluntarily ordered. The only route is the criminal one, reporting the fraud and claiming civil liability against whoever received the money. Success depends on identifying the holder of the destination account, which is why speed matters.
Do I have to return the counterfeit to the seller to get a refund?
Do not return it without a record, and never return it outside what the platform tells you to do. The item is the main evidence of the fraud and of the trademark offence under article 274 of the Criminal Code. If Vinted requires you to send it back for a refund, do so with tracking and photograph the contents before sealing the parcel. Do not resell it either, because marketing a counterfeit is an offence.
Is it worth reporting and hiring a lawyer over 60 euros?
Reporting is always worthwhile, because it costs little and your complaint may be joined to those of other buyers of the same seller. Hiring a lawyer is not worth it when the amount is small, you paid inside Vinted and the platform has refunded you or is about to. It is worth it when you paid outside the platform, when your card was captured on a cloned site, when the amount is significant or when Vinted has ruled against you and the seller can be identified.