Just thought I'd share my 1st (knowingly) scam experience. Writing it now I can't believe how I didn't see the scam sooner. I listed a bike on eBay and got someone message me with the normal sort of questions about the bike, but left his email address to contact him on. So a few emails back and forth and I was happy he agreed to the asking price and that he would get the bike collected as he was at work till late. He then, out of the blue said that he was going to send me extra money to pay the courier. The extra money was £600 (first alarm bell rang) but thought he might use a extra posh courier service. I agreed that I would pay the courier once his funds had cleared. He sent me through his name and address to fill out a receipt that the courier would sign on his behalf. Another hour went past and I received a email from the buyers bank, a online bank "Suits Me". A very official looking email with mine and the buyers details on it. It said for me to reply to the email to confirm that I knew the buyer and to confirm the amount of money to be transferred. I replied saying that I did and the bank the emailed back asking me to set up a transfer to pay the courier and to finalise the transaction, which would release the asking price for my bike. This is when I thought this wasn't right, but feeling nervous that as courier was going to be turning up to my house any moment. Needless to say, no-one turned up and I haven't heard anything more from the buyer. I guess they're not bothered about the bike at all, just to pay a massively inflated courier service. I'm so relieved that I stopped the deal before I lost anything, but still feel stupid for being strung along. The most interesting thing is that a friend of mine told me a while ago about doing online deals on a bank holidays. It seems the scammers like to rely on the banks being closed.
It’s a well known scam, even if the money is deposited it’s then reversed’ once the bike is collected, or otherwise it’s just a way to get you to pay the ‘courier’ fee and they have never really wanted to buy your bike
Have you sent the details to action fraud have the scammers got bank details etc they are very clever and if you need to do anything to secure your details https://www.actionfraud.police.uk/n...d-result-in-ebay-scammers-jailed-for-18-years
My wife has a Vinted account she uses to sell her unworn clothes for less than half price a week after she buys them Stupidly clicked a link, logged in and ten minutes later, was locked out and her balance was gone. Very basic rule - just don't click a link - the sender looked legit, but expanding the address it was a scammer for sure. We may all be scammed at some stage, but the electronic world makes sure it easy for them. Selling sites are the worst, because people get giddy. As for Action Fraud, I found them utterly useless, but yes, report it for the five minutes it takes.
Are banks actually closed on bank holidays anymore? I don't think the 'fintech' banks are ( Monzo, starling etc), but currency exchanges are, or so I believe...
I am sure it is more convincing when you are in the situation, and well done for not getting suckered in, but am I missing something with this scam?- it just doesn’t seem very well thought through. If the (scam) buyer could transfer money electronically to the (real) seller, what could be a plausible reason for not also transferring money to the (scam) courier? Then, why would any legitimate bank ever get involved in any way in the transaction detail -
This scam is tried on Facebook marketplace and gumtree often, when someone messages me with this type of offer I basically tell them to p-ss off, bloody scammers...
Complete and utter waste of time. I don’t understand how any of them have a job as they do nothing. My 85 year old neighbour lost the majority of her entire life savings (mid 6 figure sum). They didn’t warn her about ‘recovery scam’ and she started paying fees as she thought she could get money back. Luckily I stopped her sending any more but the scammers were still contacting her and Action Fraud weren’t even interested.
Thank you DDDD, it's threads like these that help remind everyone to stay on their toes and that this hasn't gone away. Someone tried a small "reverse" on me around five years ago, also on EBay. I can't remember that accurately but the buyer claimed he'd mistakenly paid me twice and could I refund him for one payment. It was only around £80 but I contacted EBay to confirm and they put me straight. It seemed bizarre to me that someone would go to all that trouble for such a small amount.
Just amazing witnessing the very official looking bank emails etc. Always think of scammers as being low lifes with no skills. But they are very clever low lifes. Lesson learnt
I watched the BBC programme about how scammers work and just how much money they scam they prey on vulnerable people Your poor neighbour Hopefully each scammer email is added to investigations to build cases Thank goodness she has you looking out for her
I don’t think they make any attempt to investigate or prosecute cases, I fail to understand what they actually do as it’s nothing helpful or practical
No chance I’m afraid, she got caught by someone on the phone offering her a 8% return for buying ‘carbon credits’. Sadly her financial advisor had passed away and she thought it seemed a good return. She invested a smallish amount to start but they kept coming back and persuaded her to invest more. Very convincing website and the email was ‘almost’ the same as a company that did deal in carbon credits. Once she realised it might be a scam she reported it to the police and action fraud. A year later someone contacted her and offered to ‘sell’ the credits. Of course she had to pay to open a ‘dealer account’ then pay dealing fees and finally US taxes. At this point I saw her in the garden and she was very agitated as the bank had refused to give her a loan to pay the ‘taxes’. That’s when I got involved but it was all too late. She still thinks, in the back of her mind, that the carbon credits are exist somewhere, despite me telling her they don’t. Action fraud were useless
I consider myself tech savvy i worked in IT for years i still got phished though with a fake Ebay email 20 years ago, they used my account to list fraudulent items.
My brother just sold his bike without the buyer seeing it. He said he was in Greece and would send an Irish courier to collect the bike. I thought it sounded well dodgy but apparently he has paid in full by bank transfer and the bike has been collected. I wouldn’t be risking doing this so hope it’s not another scam although the payment was cleared.
