had been vs Have been, what's the difference?

Question

Is it "I have been robbed" or "I had been robbed" What is the difference between the two sentences?

Thanks in advance

Answer 1

"I have been robbed" (present perfect) defines your status now - somebody robbed you at some unspecified time before now.

"I had been robbed" (past perfect) defines your status at some time in the past - somebody robbed you at some unspecified time before that time in the past. The time in the past must be specified, usually in the same sentence, for example

I went to the police station because I had been robbed.

The time in the past is when you went to the police station, and you had been robbed before you went there.

Note that, if you can use past perfect, you can also use present perfect if it's still true.

I went to the police station because I have been robbed.

This doesn't grammatically indicate that the robbery took place before the visit to the police station, but commonsense should provide that information. You generally only use past perfect if you need to firmly place one past event before another past event.