Don't be fooled by fraudsters

Anyone who advertises goods for sale – either on the internet or in print - is in danger of being approached by financial fraudsters.

The dangers of this were brought home to me just last week, when I was contacted by someone claiming to be interested in a bed I am selling through Loot, the magazine and website.

My suspicions were initially raised by the fact that the potential buyer was based overseas. Having recently returned from a trip to India, where my hopes of buying a beautiful wooden screen were dashed by the astronomical cost of shipping it home, I had to ask myself who in their right mind would want to buy my bed and pay for it to be shipped to Canada?

The explanation confirmed my fears. In somewhat inaccurate English, the potential buyer assured me that I did not have to worry about the shipment costs because he had a company that would handle that side of things.

He did, however, need to pay for the bed by getting a British client of his who owed him £3,200 to pay that amount into my account. I would then be able to deduct the £100 price of the bed from that amount and sending the rest to him via a Western Union transfer. “N.B,” said the final paragraph, “THE CHEQUE WILL CLEAR YOUR BANK BEFORE THE SHIPPER COME (sic) FOR THE PICK UP”.

Again, I asked myself, just who would trust a complete stranger enough to transfer £3,200 into their account when they only needed to pay £100? The answer, of course, is a fraudster trying to part me from my hard-earned cash.

This may seem improbable given the final sentence. But fortunately for me I had come across a similar scam in which Britons selling used cars lost out after accepting a cheque worth significantly more than the purchase price.

This particular con exploited a loophole in the banking system, under which exposing a cheque as fraudulent can take several days longer than the three to five days they generally take to clear.

As a result, many sellers were left thousands of pounds out of pocket when the cheques turned out to be fraudulent a few days after they had sent the funds off.

The best advice for anyone buying or selling goods remotely would therefore appear to be to be hugely wary of any offers that not only seem too good, but also simply too strange to be true.

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Comments

[Roberto Anggono]

There is an expression in law which says "Caveat Emptor" which translates to "Let Buyer Beware". Is there another expression which says "Let Seller Beware"?

What can, if at all, we do to reduce the fraud apart from being very careful?

Roberto

[Mary Leigh]

I put a mobile phone on eBay and was overwhelmed with crazy offers to buy it, which I ignored. However, the winner seemed genuine and I got a very convincing email purporting to be from PayPal saying that they had received the funds. I should send the goods and give them the details of the dispatch and then they'd send me the money. I was suspicious and emailed PayPal who said it was OK. I was still suspicious as the delivery address was in Nigeria. So I emailed Paypal again, who then confirmed that the email was a fraud. I was neither greedy or naive and still almost got caught.

[M Notserp]

Probably worth mentioning that like most of the cruder scams, such as the old 419 and its many variants, this one comes from West Africa, usually Nigeria. In many cases the "buyer" will tell you that he, or his wife for whom the bed/car/whatever is intended, is ACUTALLY IN WEST AFRICA AT THES TIME, to quote one I received recently.

Unbelievably, people still fall for these scams due to their own greed and naivety.

You might also publish a warning about fake Lottery scams (I've won a million pounds for a lottery I've never entered .... hello!!!), or companies with names like EcoSwissLife advertising jobs where your only qualification is to have a computer, be aged between 18 and 80, and be able to "process payments" from "clients".

I am sick and tired of these scum blocking my mailbox with their scams which are an insult to the intelligence of anyone with more than half a brain cell. The sooner they are all permanently behind bars the better.