I have been subjected to three scam attempts in the last week. The first was a 'phone call. The guy said that there was a security alert on my bank account and asked me to answer a few questions to check my identity. I said I didn't answer questions over the 'phone. He suggested that I should immediately go to my local branch and ask them to confirm the validity of the telephone number he gave me. I guess this must have been to increase my alarm and lure me into answering his questions. Instead I rang the bank call centre who said that it wasn't a genuine number. To double check I went into my branch. They confirmed that it wasn't a recognised bank number, and that there was no security alert on my account. They said if he rings back suggest that he writes.
The second and third scams related to OG's car which I have up for sale. The first was the usual company that claimed to have buyers within a 30 mile radius interested in the car. As my resistance grew his claims became more outragious so I googled the company and it came up a string of complaints against them. It was obviously a scam. I said "you know what, I have decided not to go ahead because I've just googled your company". He put the 'phone down on me.
The third scam came in the form of an email forwarded to me via a well known website that the car is being advertised on and went like this :
" I am glad to inform you that i am satisfied with the details and condition of the car .
Presently i am in offshore in Ireland but i will be traveling down to uk to complete the transaction, so first of all, I will like you to please put this car off advert to avoid interruptions from other interested buyers and count it sold, ok.
Concerning the price and payment , i will be happy to pay you £.......... for it . I will send you a Bankers draft of £4,500.00 which i will allow to clear into your bank account . You will deduct £1,000.00 as a deposit for it which is non-refundable. You will send £3,500.00 to shipping agent asap the cheque has cleared because I was informed by him that, he will need the money for shipping in advance at least a weekend before i will be in UK. The remaining balance of £.............. payed into your bank account or by cash before it can be pick up.
i will be waiting for 48hrs for you to confirmed the balance before the shipping agent can pick it up . Let me know the best way you want the balance to be paid? You need not to worry as our prepaid shipping Agent will come to pick it up from your base for shipment asap the balance has been confirmed by you . the reason for this shipment method is as a result of the congestion at the Singapore seaport, which does not make it directly shippable there.
I will compensating you with £100 for the time involve in paying the shipping agent and also for you to withdraw the advert.If you accept my terms of payment,The details and picture of the car will be sent to the shipping agent and get back to me with the NAME , ADDRESS AND CONTACT MOBILE TELEPHONE NUMBER for Bankers draft to be delivered to you . I look forward to a successful transaction with you and await your urgent response.
PLEASE NOTE,ITS WHEN THE FULL PAYMENT HAS BEEN CONFIRMED BY YOU BEFORE THE CAR DOCUMENT WILL BE RELEASE TO ME AND SIGN
As you can imagine, the shocking grammar, English and spelling didn't inspire confidence. I rang the company that I have the car advertised with and he said "was he suggesting he send you a bankers draft"? The scam goes like this. The bankers draft is fake. You put it into the bank and they pay out within 3 days but have 10 days to withdraw clearance. I would paid the guy the money and the bank would make me pay it back again. Dah! Dah!
Note to all scammers. I didn't come over on the last banana boat. Oh! I'm probably not allowed to say that now because it's un-PC. Drat! Look at this face, do I care? Nah!!
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1 day ago
9 comments:
It is amazing the lengths to which people will go to cheat others! You're on top of things, though, which is great. Hope this Valentine's day won't be too hard for you!
This just atrocious after all you have been through.
You could well do without things like this happening to you.
Just as well you are *on the ball*!
Hoping thats the last one (though I doubt it.) Everything comes in threes so maybe that is your lot.
I once had a phone call from my bank and the caller asked me to do a survey on the phone. I told them that I didn't do that kind of thing & refused.
I went to my Bank the next day & told them I thought there was a scam because I was asked to do a survey over the phone. Their response was..... yes it was them! They really do surveys over the phone.
I think people should stick by their principles and not give any information on the phone no matter what.
Nuts in May
There are so many of these people about these days, you have to have your head well and truly screwed on. Well done for picking them all up. You could do without all that at the moment.
There are some terrible people about RAC, Good job you had your wits about you. I often remind my 88 year old mother to never give any information to anyone. Whenever she answers the telephone to callers trying to elicit any kind of information she just tells them "you'll have to speak to my daughter and she is not here", then puts the phone down. That takes care of whoever rings. A
These cheats have nothing to lose and plenty to gain.
Maybe there should be a warning about this scam on the car sales website. Although these people will come up with some other con trick.
'Lazy people take the most pains', isn't that the saying? It never ceases to amaze me the lengths people will go to in order to avoid earning an honest living.
How tortuous is that? Gee... and yes, you'd have to be pretty daft to go through those hoops, wouldn't you? I'm glad you didn't get sucked in - to any of those.
It's excellent that you can spot these things straight away. I'm good at that as well, but have to feel just a tad sorry all the other victims of these assholes, who may not be as astute.
A cautionary tale for us all. We are most tempted to open e-mails from FedEx and UPS, which have attached viruses, because ship and receive a lot of packages using both services. Except we never use our e-mail address for either one so how would they know? Now, when I was a kid, my dad used to take us to the docks and we would watch the banana boats unloading the bananas.
Before I met The Man I would have not thought that anything like this was a scam. I can't believe how naive I was about those things before. I guess it's because I would never dream of scamming anyone that I think others wouldn't do it to me.
What do they care? As long as they make money somewhere!
Duh duh and duh again indeed!
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