Ebay, Gumtree & Autotrader Vehicle / Car Scams

[sheria]

Re: Barclays Car Purchase Scam

Hello Everyone,

I have lost £5k to a scammer, who advertised a car via loot.com

She introduced herself as a British Army Nurse, based in Lincolshire, but on a mission to Germany. For my and her security, she preferred the use of "Amazon" payment mode, where I would pay the purchase price for secure holding, then she would drop the car to me to test drive and if satisfied authorise the release of the funds to her. I believed in her and did that.

After making the payment to a Barclays Bank Account, she vanished.

I have reported the matter to Barclays Bank, where I am too a customer, but the response was a bit cold: "you are too trusting". Anyway, "report this matter to our fraud office and Action Fraud". I did all that. Any chance of recovering my money from Barclays?

Can Barclays release details of the scammer to me and if not is there a legal process to force them to do that?

[EXC]

Re: Barclays Car Purchase Scam

I suggest you re-post on this thread http://www.legalbeagles.info/forums/...ccounts/page26

[sheria]

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

Hi,

This is exactly what has happened to me.

Did you get your money back from Barclays?

EDIT - For information


Hi,

Can anyone help. I have been well and truely scammed. I saw an advert on gumtree for a vehicle and posted my details. I was contacted by email by someone giving me the vehicle details and asking if i was still interested. I said I was and my phone number was requested. I was told by this person he would contact ebay through his account and ebay would contact me with their bank details of an interest free account and they would hold the monies until I said I wanted the car. He said he would ensure I was on a payment protection scheme where if I didnt want the vehicle I could get a full refund. I was given a story that he had been divorced and had moved to Scotland and he would pay the shipping fee as he wantd a fast sale. A congratulations with all the ebay logos on was then received by myself via e-mail. Not being a user of ebay everything seemed legitimate. I then got an invoice via e-mail once again with the ebay logos and all the assurance of payment protection on it with a Barclays bank account number, sort code, reference and a beneficiary name. The invoice had a live chat facility and I indeed used this and questioned if this was a legitimate transaction. The answer came back by live chat this was legitimate. I went on this live chat about 6 times to ensure this was legitimate and all seemed well. I thought with Barclays bank account this was legitimate to. I was wrong!!!!!! When I went back on to the live chat an hour after the vehicle should have been delived it still worked but kept stating we are sorry our operatives are with other customers we will be with you shortly but this never materialised and I was not answered. The next day I phoned ebay direct askng for a full refund to be told this was not their account and had nothing to do with them!!!!!! I phoned Barclays and told them this account should be frozen because it was obviously being used for fraudulent activities. I was fobbed off and told by a Barclays member of the fraud dept it would be passed to the relevant dept which I had, in fact, phoned. I have contacted the police and they are investigating. I'm a bit peeved at Barclays complete lack of interest in this and would like to know if there is anyway I could get my money back from Barclays as I this bank account is obviously some kind of holding account for fraudulent activites. I am quite willing to phone every day if I have to do. Advice please. It was a couple of grand I have lost. If there is any way at all I can try and get my money back I will more than willing to try this.

Yours hopefully

[Boycie]

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

To answer your question dog-tired, victims of these scams tend to be looking for low value vehicles at unrealistic prices, and seeing unrealistic bargains they throw caution to the wind and allow themselves to act hastily.

Without referring to this particular deal, it appears to me that anyone with £35,000 to spend on a 50 year old camper van is taking a reckless risk in buying from a stranger off the internet who will not be able to supply any form of meaningful guarantee and against whom the buyer would have little recourse. Aside from the usual concerns, a vehicle of that age would require a thorough inspection including its structure. For that amount of money the future resale value must be considered and buying from a bloke off the internet wouldn't help that issue.

With that amount of money available it would be eminently sensible to purchase a vehicle from a known supplier whose reputation would add to its future value and not require the buyer to perform such a detailed pre-purchase mechanical inspection.

I'm not referring to this deal in particular but to the general circumstances outlined.

[dogtired]

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

I haven't that sort of cash any way.
Think the friend in question is a bit more trusting than me.
Told them to check and double check.
Only thing I have bought from e bay was some name decals !

[Amethyst]

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

Main piece of advice I can give him is, go see it. If the seller wants to sell it and he has it, storage or not he will let him go see it.

[Tools]

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

I messaged the seller to see if I could go view it with him, he replied saying that was no problem as he only lives 15 minutes away from where it is kept. Not the usual response of a scammer.

[Tools]

Re: Barclays Car Purchase Scam

sheria's posts moved into this thread

[Tools]

Re: Barclays Car Purchase Scam

Hello Everyone,

I have lost £5k to a scammer, who advertised a car via loot.com

She introduced herself as a British Army Nurse, based in Lincolshire, but on a mission to Germany. For my and her security, she preferred the use of "Amazon" payment mode, where I would pay the purchase price for secure holding, then she would drop the car to me to test drive and if satisfied authorise the release of the funds to her. I believed in her and did that.

After making the payment to a Barclays Bank Account, she vanished.

I have reported the matter to Barclays Bank, where I am too a customer, but the response was a bit cold: "you are too trusting". Anyway, "report this matter to our fraud office and Action Fraud". I did all that. Any chance of recovering my money from Barclays?

Can Barclays release details of the scammer to me and if not is there a legal process to force them to do that?

Hi sheria,

As you have read this has happened to a lot of people, in fact over 1000 people so far this year from info I have.

First of all, have you reported it to Action Fraud ? Although they do not directly investigate and only collate the data it is important you do so.

Can you please email me specific details to admin@legalbeagles.info, please include as much of the following information as you have.

• Barclays Sort Code and account number
• Your Banks name ( please do not include your sort code or account number )
• Ebay Listing number, link, reg number etc
• Email address(s), telephone numbers used by the scammer and also forward their emails in full not just a copy paste of the text
• Copies/emails of fake paypal invoice and links to fake paypal chat facility
• Crime reference number
• Fake Shipping company name etc

I'm afraid to say it is highly unlikely you will see your money again, but be assured we are doing all we can to work with the Authorities etc on this issue.

Keep checking back for updates on this thread for updates. Things are happening slowly as can be seen here http://www.legalbeagles.info/forums/...bay-fraudsters

[Boycie]

Re: Barclays Car Purchase Scam

I'm sorry to hear that you've joined the ever increasing proportion of the UK population who have fallen victim to this international criminal organisation sheria.

I was going to post about the flaws in the UK payments system and the public's misconceptions about the protection they believe they have in performing online transactions, but I'll bore you all some time later.

Most people are unaware of the defects in the current payments system that criminals exploit to avoid prosecution which, when combined with a negligent laxity in account opening procedures, has made the UK home to a banking system awash with bank accounts used in fraud. In fact one Australian holiday fraud recently had all its stolen funds transferred to the UK, and when you are the number one choice for criminals worldwide, the general laxity in UK money laundering procedures is undeniable.

I would have expected any member of bank staff receiving a report of a bank account being involved in money laundering to take the matter more seriously and to submit a formal report, because that's what they're required to do by law under threat of personal prosecution if they fail to do so. I spent my whole working life in banking, so I know the law. You can probably guess that many banks do not take this law seriously and is one of several reasons why the UK has allowed this type of fraud to flourish.

Banks can live with the situation because it's the customers who lose money - not them. The fact that they're providing banking facilities to criminals doesn't even appear to occur to them in spite of it being the case that they're breaking the law in doing so.

In the next few months UK banks plan to launch a means to make payments from mobile devices using phone numbers to replace account numbers. I can barely describe how insecure such a system would be and I have an example from a news story of how insecure phone numbers are, but again, as long as they can legally put the loss on the customers' account, it isn't even recorded as a fraud by them.

If banks and online sites utilise insecure systems I would recommend that people avoid using them, or use banks and sites with more consideration for the people from whom they derive their income.

As Tools says sheria, it's most unlikely that you'll get your money back, but don't be fooled in to believing that the fault is down to you being 'too trusting'.

[Rod Jones]

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

I noticed that you posted the details on the SW forum, there are some other "features" that are common to Taran, H&L and Gillera, also to Morgan Transport that's long gone.

[Boycie]

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

I know that I crack on endlessly about the potential risk of allowing this type of fraud to become embedded within the UK banking system but it's late in the day for the authorities to being taking the matter seriously.

As devastating as frauds of between £5,000 and £10,000 are to private individuals the same faults and flaws in the banking system can be exploited for much greater profit by criminals. The basic requirements are the same.

I have no reason to believe that the same criminals are involved and no details of the methods used are given, but certain things within the banking system are immutable, so that I can make informed presumptions with a fair degree of certainty.

http://www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/new...e/11130418._/?

7th April 2014

Academy in Poole loses £1million in fraud 'linked to eastern Europe'

It makes you wonder why the fraudsters even bother with low value fraud.

A Department for Education spokesperson added: “……... has been the victim of a sophisticated serious fraud by a third party

That's funny - that's not how the authorities react when the victim is a private individual. The fraud isn't sophisticated at all and merely exploits lax procedures with UK banks.

If the banking system weren't awash with bank accounts set up for the purpose of fraud this simply wouldn't be possible.

[dixie2013]

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

HI THE ACCOUNT THE MONEY WAS TRANSFERRED FROM MY HSBS ACCOUNT
TO BARCLAYS ACCOUNT BELONGING TO
S.A.WEBER
SORT CODE 20-98-21
ACCOUNT MEMBER 7356247 LEICESTER BRANCH
E MAIL USED evelyn@globalbt.co.uk
copy of one of first e-mails

Hello,
The mercedes campervan is still for sale in excellent condition, with no damages or any faults. All necessary documents available. My current location is Scotland due to my work commitments. If this is going to be a quick sale, I will let it go for £3,850 delivered at my costs.
The deal will go through eBay and PayPal.
Thank you


Evelyn

this was the last reply off the fraudster:

Good news , Gumtree just e-mailed me a confirmation that your car will be delivered on Friday.

Many thanks
Eve



eve,evelyn same gang/frausters/scumbags/scammers. in an attempt to MAKE car dealers aware of dealer hacks on ebay, gum tree , autotrader i am going to make sure the motor trade are aware of whats occuring on these sites and to take there adverts elsewhere, maybe then these global sites will take fraud seriously as it may just start to affect there revenue streams !!!

[Boycie]

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

Heavens above. The same car advertised twice at the same time at different prices claiming to be located in two different places that I have previously demonstrated to be fraudulent.

I have screen prints. It is reaching a stage where buyers would simply be well advised just to steer clear of online ad sites. That advice would save me, and others performing the same task, a lot of wasted effort. I'm not blaming ad sites but, as an analogy, if my bank gets robbed every week, I'm not concerned whether or not its the bank's fault, I'll put my money somewhere else. The analogy breaks down, or is reinforced in that the customers' money isn't at risk with bank robbery.

If an ad site doesn't present a true picture (unintended irony) of items for sale, what's their point ?

[Rod Jones]

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

Found another scam on eBay (thermal imaging camera again), embedded scam text-in-image hosted here: http://parcel2go-pay.co.uk

Couple of email addresses there to add to the scammer lists, adding them to mine now.