Ebay, Gumtree & Autotrader Vehicle / Car Scams

[Rod Jones]

Re: Ebay & Gumtree Vehicle / Car Scam. Barclays provide Fraudsters Accounts

If you think you could guess correctly 8 times out of 10 that would be statistically significant.

Looking at the list of accounts on here it's closer to 9 times out of 10

[Tools]

Re: Ebay & Gumtree Vehicle / Car Scam. Barclays provide Fraudsters Accounts

BBA and Police work to create ‘virtual ring of steel’ around City of London

Agreement reached with British Bankers’ Association after success in preventing theft of £170 million of customers’ cash
The British Bankers’ Association (BBA) and City of London Police have announced plans to train thousands of bankers a year to spot scams and act quickly to protect customers.
Using key techniques developed in the fight against terrorism, the association and police force want to create a “virtual ring of steel” around the City of London, echoing the renowned physical security that protects the UK’s financial centre.
The agreement follows close working between banks and the City of London Police which has prevented fraudsters and cyber criminals from stealing £173.9m from bank customers over the last nine months.

Information circulated by the force’s National Fraud Intelligence Bureau (NFIB) to businesses, and disseminated by the BBA as alerts to banks, has led to the identification of 20,000 accounts that were at risk of, or being used to acquire money from victims between 1st April and 31st December 2013.

By working together, the banks and the police protect victims who are targeted by organised criminals. Using information received from a variety of sources, the NFIB identifies suspect bank accounts which are being or may be used to take money from UK citizens or businesses. Once an alert is issued steps are taken to terminate these accounts in order to prevent/reduce further victimisation and harm that the related activity may cause.

The working relationship between the BBA and the City of London Police is world leading in the fight against the rising threat of cyber criminals. The partnership now aims to establish a global centre of excellence that will help to train banks from around the world.

The training workshops will focus on the latest threats and techniques in the battle against cyber crime such as investigating fraud, bribery and corruption.

Commissioner Adrian Leppard, of the City of London Police, said: “Over the past 175 years we have learned that the best way to keep the City streets safe is by standing shoulder to shoulder with those who live or work in the Square Mile, or who visit for leisure purposes.

“Now in 2014, and serving the country as the national policing lead for economic crime, the City of London Police is also focusing on the rapidly evolving and expanding threat of fraud and cyber crime. The next logical step for us to take is to create a ‘virtual ring of steel’ around what is the financial engine room of the UK. The way we are going to do it is by teaming up with City workers and sharing our experience and expertise with the banks that are now the target or being used as a facilitator for organised crime.”

Anthony Browne, BBA Chief Executive, said: “Cyber crime and fraud are some of the biggest security threats that we face.

“The systems that we have set up with the City of London Police have helped to protect hundreds of millions of pounds of customers’ money, but we want to go further.

“We want to create a virtual ring of steel around the City of London, to make it even more difficult for cyber criminals to operate here. The banks are often the first line of defence against fraudsters and criminals. By working together we know we can be even more effective at combating cybercrime in order to offer even better protection to our customers.”

[dixie2013]

Re: Ebay & Gumtree Vehicle Scam. Barclays provide Fraudsters Accounts

Another one to add to list

Beneficiary LULIAN FELEA
Sort 23-05-80
Account 13424535
Amount £4,400
23-01-2014
Metro Bank London

Same story work comitments in Scotland first saw gumtree location Norfolk
Email Signed Evelyn
Mobile which is orange pay as you go
email evelyn@global.co.uk

the final contact i received from the scammer was signed off by EVE!!

THANKS DIXIE2013

[dixie2013]

Re: Ebay & Gumtree Vehicle / Car Scam. Barclays provide Fraudsters Accounts

BBA and Police work to create ‘virtual ring of steel’ around City of London

this is all fine if your being scammed in say 2 years time when its all set up! now knowing there are processes in place to PREVENT this from happening again, now that the authorities are FULLY AWARE of the scale of the problem but what about the ACTUAL VICTIMS and potential victims in the next few months or maybe even years ???, and i'd have my mortgage on it that the number of VICTIMS will grow and grow, i was told there was 2500 victims of this scam/fraud in november 2013, its apparantly now upto 3500 victims !!.

thanks dixie2013

[Boycie]

Re: Ebay & Gumtree Vehicle / Car Scam. Barclays provide Fraudsters Accounts

That's a good article Tools. It's just a shame that it's issued by the BBA who I believe came close to getting shut down over recent scandals involving banks. They shouldn't be seen as much more than the promotional wing of banks in general and they should not be allowed any regulatory function considering their past record.

If it has any merit it is in actually recognising the scale of the threat facing the UK and its economy. I make no apologies for sounding hysterical, but each victim goes through a life changing experience and there is no recourse to an extent that fraud is now the fastest growth area in our economy and organised crime is liable to pervade every aspect of our lives. Considering the threat posed by the massive rise in personal accounts opened solely for the purpose of fraud a colleague of mine has uncovered the first example of a company account being set up solely to be used in the same way. I'd love to have listened in on that interview. Isn't it strange that ordinary individuals with no powers or authority can get such a clear view of what the criminals are doing, and yet the authorities are completely oblivious.

The article is skewed to suggest that the victims are banks when we know that the victims are the consumers. It is the legal responsibility of banks to protect consumers by not providing financial services and a safe haven to criminal enterprises. Can I say this more clearly ?

If banks are so hapless and incapable of recognising criminal activity being performed by their customers, then perhaps the 'ring of steel' should protect the rest of the country from their activities. I spent my whole working life in a bank and to suggest that a bank clerk can't recognise a 'wrong un' is utterly laughable. Let's be honest just for a second and state categorically that the pressures on bank staff to meet financial targets nowadays make it inappropriate for them to have delegated authority to administer any money laundering legislation or report criminal activity, and everyone knows this. I even saw a report of one major court case where it described the manner in which a senior banking official waved a money launderer straight through all banking formalities, and no action was taken. They simply don't meet their legal obligations and priority is always given to meeting targets over protecting anyone but themselves.

That's the way banking is, and thinking otherwise is kidding no one. The greater horror is that after feasting on consumers, the criminals will turn their attention to the banks themselves. Having presided over, and profited from, the corruption to which they provide banking facilities who will bail them out when it all goes pear shaped ? - presumably the same mugs currently getting duped by these criminals.

From that article, even the authorities appear to consider that the average numb skull criminal can outwit a banker. Really ?

[Tools]

Re: Ebay & Gumtree Vehicle / Car Scam. Barclays provide Fraudsters Accounts

I wasn't saying I believed a single word of it or had an ounce of faith that it would make any difference other than to blow smoke up each others arses and give Boris something to waffle about. I was merely copy/pasting for info.

[Boycie]

Re: Ebay & Gumtree Vehicle / Car Scam. Barclays provide Fraudsters Accounts

It was interesting to see the article Tools and it does indicate that the problem is recognised even if the banks and authorities appear totally hapless to deal with it.

You may be interested to see this article about the person who was refunded by Barclays Bank in respect of a 'vishing' fraud.

http://www.thejc.com/news/uk-news/11...after-jc-probe

It was slightly different from the type of fraud we see here mostly in respect of vehicle purchases, but it does establish some useful precedences. They're not legal precedences, but it does establish some grounds on which a victim may at least pursue the bank to the FOS.

As I indicated with my reference to the case where a bank claimed to have been hacked for a massive sum of money, banks are unique in being allowed to be the investigator, judge jury and final arbiter in many cases involving their own wrongdoing. In that case much wrongdoing is never uncovered. The FOS has power to investigate, but I doubt they ever really do.

If you can earn £60,000 plus simply by opening an account with a UK bank, it's tempting not only for a significant number of people in the UK to do it, but it's also tempting for a lot of non-UK citizens. If you're a non-UK citizen the risk of being caught is negligible.

Though the banks may not suffer losses directly at the moment, this will become a major problem rather like the floods, with the authorities failing to comprehend or address the problem before it gets out of hand. One thing that banks are sensitive to, is bad press and association with fraudulent activity, and I'm surprised that they appear not to recognise this. In the longer term banks will fall victim themselves to accounts they hold that are set up merely for the purpose of fraud. It's inevitable and it doesn't take a genius to know how to do it. The dilemma then for the banks is that, if there is anyone they can prosecute, how it happened will be revealed in court.

In the current situation, where the banks don't lose money and there's no one to be prosecuted, banks can behave as disinterested bystanders.

[Tools]

Re: Ebay & Gumtree Vehicle / Car Scam. Barclays provide Fraudsters Accounts

In addition to the BBC South East's Inside Out programme airing the short piece about Online Vehicle Scams, they have decided to run an edited version (6 minutes instead of the Inside Out's 12 minutes) nationally on the BBC's One Show Monday 7pm.

Next on

17/02/2014

Matt Baker and Alex Jones with stories and reports from around the country.

• BBC One

Monday 19:00 BBC One




The national coverage should raise more awareness to the issue and hopefully both bring forward more victims and prevent future ones.

[Boycie]

Re: Ebay & Gumtree Vehicle / Car Scam. Barclays provide Fraudsters Accounts

I couldn't help notice that Autotrader UK have been very active tonight removing scam adverts, and Friday night is usually a very active night for scammers. Credit where credit's due - especially as it saves me having to list them at SW. I also noticed that they ran their own advert which I suspect may have been them testing a means to detect scams, but I won't describe it further.

Coincidence ? - or recognition that allowing an ad site to become overwhelmed by scams is bad for business. The banks appear to be slower in recognising this.

[wales01man]

Re: Ebay & Gumtree Vehicle / Car Scam. Barclays provide Fraudsters Accounts

It will be good to see the end to this Scam but beware the next one will soon rear its ugly head and pull into its trap the vulnerable who despite repeated warnings will once again pay for nothing instead of the bargain they hoped for.

[Leo108]

Re: Ebay & Gumtree Vehicle Scam. Barclays provide Fraudsters Accounts

In my experience about reporting the scam that happened to me. The local police couldn't have been more helpful and treated my case with empathy. When they handed it over to the 'Met' to investigate the Barclays account in London, the local police did warn me that anything below £10,000 was generally ignored by the Met because it was too expensive to spend time investigating the case.

[Tools]

Re: Ebay & Gumtree Vehicle / Car Scam. Barclays provide Fraudsters Accounts

Unfortunately Wales, it will never end, all we can hope to do is raise awareness and disrupt the scammers, I am not naive enough to think for one minute it will have a massive impact on their activities but if it stops just one person being taken advantage of then all well and good.

[Tools]

Re: Ebay & Gumtree Vehicle Scam. Barclays provide Fraudsters Accounts

In my experience about reporting the scam that happened to me. The local police couldn't have been more helpful and treated my case with empathy. When they handed it over to the 'Met' to investigate the Barclays account in London, the local police did warn me that anything below £10,000 was generally ignored by the Met because it was too expensive to spend time investigating the case.

This is one of the things we are trying to change, to get them to recognise that collectively the value is not just in the £1000's but in the £millions

[Boycie]

Re: Ebay & Gumtree Vehicle / Car Scam. Barclays provide Fraudsters Accounts

You're quite correct wales01man, but don't be too critical of the man in the street because professionals fall for these scams too. You only have to consider the bank staff who allowed the bogus computer staff in to their back office to access their computer system, and that happened at two different banks. Any bank that can't manage its 'gate keeper' security has some very basic security issues to address.

I'm always amazed at how hard banks push mobile phone and iPad banking applications for systems that are intrinsically insecure. Their simple portability makes them insecure aside from anything else. If you saw the Channel 4 programme about how people were on-selling obsolete phones that people believed had been wiped clean and they were able to retrieve passwords and virtually everything that had been sent through them.

I found this news item particularly interesting relating to 23 bogus companies set up to perform a £4m VAT fraud. Someone's KYC (know your customer) procedures were breached with consummate ease considering that the companies only existed on paper. Once the East Europeans learn this little trick HMRC won't be able to keep pace with the claims. We know that they have hundreds, if not thousands, of fraudulent personal accounts set up, and evidence that they're setting up company accounts has already been noted. If the accounts were set up with fake ID's and the perpetrators are located in Romania, they won't be quite so easy to apprehend.

http://www.constructionenquirer.com/...-4m-vat-scam/?

It's unreasonable to expect the average person to be smarter than our banks and HMRC.

[Boycie]

Re: Ebay & Gumtree Vehicle / Car Scam. Barclays provide Fraudsters Accounts

http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wa...dsome-6712706?

The list led to arrests in Manchester and Liverpool and the discovery of some £765,000 in total having been received from victims.


At least 70 victims had been targeted, all of them abroad.

The judge, who conducted an eight-week long trial which ended in a total of 68 convictions for money laundering, congratulated the officer in the case .....

No mention of the accused having their accounts closed and being blacklisted from opening alternatives.

Bank accounts in the hands of criminals are used as financial weapons. Those who choose to do so should lose the right to have them.

68 convictions ? - one area of the economy appears to be flourishing - crime.

When you're involved in crime valued at £765,000 - you're in the big time, and should be treated accordingly.