Ebay, Gumtree & Autotrader Vehicle / Car Scams

[diame]

Re: Ebay & Gumtree Vehicle / Car Scams

Another fake shipping company

http://www.corera-trans.com/

And www.Log Mobi .com is another new one

[Boycie]

Re: Ebay & Gumtree Vehicle / Car Scams

An interesting article

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/sc...ng-uk-4071403?

THOUSANDS of people using fraudulent passports could be gaining access to the UK as security staff struggle to identify fake photos, according to a university study.

If border staff are liable to such error rates there is no reason to expect bank staff will perform any better. If a person enters the UK, legally or illegally, if they have a batch of real ID cards perhaps of family members with whom they are likely to have a likeness, if each account opened can be worth a minimum of £5,000, it's very tempting with there being little risk of getting caught. Providing evidence of abode wouldn't be a problem and, if there's an organisation behind it, it can be handled on a bulk basis perhaps through someone providing cheap temporary accommodation.

Success against them is minor but measurable from seeing how they change the way they operate. They're changing email addresses much more frequently now and they aren't using 'singleton' adverts so much. It's a matter of observing how they operate and devising a strategy to combat it in the most effective and efficient manner. I'm fairly confident that including car registration numbers in my warnings caused them to photo-hack pictures in their 'singleton' adverts, but I operate a better strategy against them now, but I still quote registration numbers as that makes using the same photos again and again less successful.

I've been a little poorly over the past week, but I've still been noting fraudulent adverts and I'm back 'buying' cars again. I consider that each account reported costs them £5,000 and it helps to highlight where banks are failing in their procedures.

[Boycie]

Re: Ebay & Gumtree Vehicle / Car Scams

I've got another fake escrow site that I'll post and get incinerated once I've ended the bait but this is quite remarkable.

The fraudulent site is impersonating a real UK escrow company where the director has been prosecuted for involvement in a £10m money laundering fraud. Mentioning the details of that won't be good for my health, apart from the fact that the FCA registration appears to remain valid. Don't get me started on 'small payment institution' authorisations. I'd love to know what qualified this person to act as a small payment institution.

On a general note if the UK cannot properly identify its citizens (or non-citizens), and the evidence we are collecting suggests that banks can't do it (and a bank account is a useful means to collect other forms of ID) then it can't properly collect tax, enforce the law (fining or jailing people who don't exist is pointless), or administer the benefits system. As well as the risk to government and consumers there is also a risk to banks and businesses who are potentially a far more profitable target. I hope someone gets a grip some time because the more I learn, the more unwell I feel.

In my recent baiting spell it's now five out of five for fraudulent accounts at Barclays and even I'm getting embarrassed. I'm out tomorrow but once I've got the mails and screen prints together I'll post up the whole exchange with links here and at SW, though I'll see if I can get another account before the bait ends. It's quite extraordinary that the government ignores the problem and the banks refuse to deal with it, but what we're dealing with is large-scale organised fraud and yet dog-fouling appears to be more rigorously enforced. I retired from banking less than 10 years ago, but it seems like 100 years from what I see now, and it was far from perfect then,

[Amethyst]

Re: Ebay & Gumtree Vehicle / Car Scams

Hi ,
Thank you for your interest in my xxxx whatever car I feel like scamming you for xxxxxxxxxxxx, Full Service History,1 previous owner.All documents in original folders. 2 key fobs.The car is in perfect condition, no accidents, no damage, scratches or dents. HPI clear and fully paid
I am selling it at £1,950 because I've just finished the divorce and I am very glad that I took it, because it was my ex husbands most precious thing. He cheated on me although we have 2 kids together, anyway I don't wish to bore you with my life's story...
I don't ask to much for it because I just want to get rid of it ASAP, just want to erase a bad memory and I should get rid of it.
The car is in xxxxxxx because I live here.As you can see from the pictures my car is in perfect condition.
From the beginning you have to know that for the payment I request only secure pay. I prefer the payment to be done using....eBay services (I will receive the payment only after you receive and inspect the car and only if you agree to buy it). I will pay for shipping and handling (my ex buyer did not received his loan but he already paid for shipping) so there won't be any additional shipping costs for you.
If you are interested in buying it please provide me your full name, address and phone no for shipping so I can initiate the deal through eBay. I will wait your answer (if you are interested to buy) very soon.

Kind regards,
Dr Sofia Wallace


YAWN !

[Boycie]

Re: Ebay & Gumtree Vehicle / Car Scams

I've posted details of my latest 'purchase' from a fraudulent seller on Autotrader UK here

http://www.legalbeagles.info/forums/...ive20d-SE-2012

That's given me my fifth Barclays 'money mule' bank account in this latest run of baiting these fraudsters and I'll be buying again this Bank Holiday weekend, when they're bound to be very active. The fraudulent escrow website will be delivered up for deletion.

The extraordinary thing is the website is an impostor and the original company was involved in a massive money laundering prosecution referred to here

http://news-insolvency.bis.gov.uk/Pr...ion-6984c.aspx

1. The registered office of the companies are now all at the office of The Official Receiver, at Public Interest Unit, 4 Abbey Orchard Street, London, SW1P 2HT.
2. The recorded directors of the companies are as follows:
Denver Trading AG – Pius Otto Gasser von Lungern and Philippe Francois Jean Godet;
Denver Trading Ltd – Trident Trust Company (Seychelles) Limited, recorded as a registered agent of the company;
Imperial Escrow Ltd – Rizvan Mian.
Rare earth elements are increasingly used in electronics-related manufacturing and in the miniaturizing of computers and headphones, powering hybrid cars for example.

http://www.mynewsdesk.com/uk/hm-reve...ag/rizvan-mian

A Nottingham man, whose business was used to launder £10 million of money obtained by criminals, has been sentenced following an investigation by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC).

It could be coincidental as the scammers will impersonate anyone, but it's irritating that the registration remains valid when its live details can be used in a second fraud..

[diame]

Re: Ebay & Gumtree Vehicle / Car Scams

Meant to say logmobi.com

[diame]

Re: Ebay & Gumtree Vehicle / Car Scams

Barclays account 13859762 sort code 20-90-74 Wandsworth high st London

[Boycie]

Re: Ebay & Gumtree Vehicle / Car Scams

As much as the police, government and banks may ignore the activities of these fraudsters, doing so is a serious mistake. To highlight the risks they pose to companies and banks if they are allowed to flourish through sloppy and insecure procedures here is an example of a firm of accountants who lost £80,000 through one of the myriad of /money mule' accounts set up by criminals in the UK banking system

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/s...-account.html?

The disturbing feature of this crime is the detailed knowledge the criminals had of this banks specific procedures and the detailed knowledge they had of the company's account and transactions.

The surprise to me is that criminals with the capacity to phish a car dealership should then bother to target their customers for relatively small amounts using a long winded process. I presume that they lack the skills and ability to take the obvious step of defrauding the dealer, but that won't remain the case for much longer.

http://www.bridgingandcommercialdist...n_5m_btl_fraud

Solicitor jailed in £5.5m BTL fraud

I don't know the full details and I won't speculate but in this case

Judge Goodin said: “This was a massive fraud on lending institutions principally, but also on occasionally the deception of borrowers.”


Judge Goodin said they were “stung badly”, and the lenders were “massively defrauded”.

If banks allow these money laundering account networks to exist in their system I have long warned that they will be used to defraud them and other lenders, and they face the same outcome as car adverts victims, because once the money is gone, it's gone for good.

[Tools]

Re: Ebay & Gumtree Vehicle / Car Scams

http://legalbeagles.info/gang-jailed...eguardian-com/

[dixie2013]

Re: Ebay & Gumtree Vehicle / Car Scams

http://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/2011/august/car_081511

http://www.usa.gov/topics/consumer/s...shopping.shtml


Number of complaints. From 2008 through 2010, IC3 has received nearly 14,000 complaints from consumers who have been victimized, or at least targeted, by these scams. Of the victims who actually lost money, the total dollar amount is staggering: nearly $44.5 million.
If you think you’ve been victimized by an online auto scam, file a complaint with IC3. Once complaints are received and analyzed, IC3 forwards them as appropriate to a local, state, or federal law enforcement agency.


these are links from some years ago BUT ONE SENTENCE STANDS OUT LIKE A SORE THUMB, A SENTENCE I AM CERTAIN THE NCA WILL ADOPT VERY SOON:

The buyer does not receive his or her automobile in these auctions, and the money is NOT recoverable.

i really do feel that with whats happened/happening in syria/iraq our authorities will be concentrating there time and resources there and at home, therefore catching serious organised criminals commiting fraud around the uk and europe will go to the bottom of the list!!!

like mr boyce explains watch how quickly our authorities act if a major bank or any other large company takes a massive hit from the fraudsters. WE the general public don't seem to matter and as far as there concerned we are there for the taking!!

[Boycie]

Re: Ebay & Gumtree Vehicle / Car Scams

@dixie2013 - I support you completely, but not with regard to your comment about the authorities being able to use events in the Middle East as an excuse for not addressing crime. I'm not suggesting a conspiracy theory but it could be possible that these stolen funds may be used to finance terrorist groups here and/or abroad. I spent my whole working life in banking and my superiors expected perfection and no excuses, and I expect nothing less. If that appears too high a level for the authorities and banks to achieve nowadays I would at least expect an effort. It's difficult not to note that US banking regulators are shooting down banks with massive fines as the FCA lies supine in a state of shock. It appears that the only regulator capable of dealing with 'money laundering' by UK banks are the regulatory authorities of foreign countries.
@Tools - I had noticed that article but they are just one of many such gangs operating in the UK. There are two variations of this crime, one which seeks both PIN and card and, the cheap version, that just goes for the card. People shouldn't get caught by the crime because, if they notice that the card hasn't come back, it's obviously quite easy to make sure no criminal can get it either, but banks would prefer customers don't perform the simple DIY to do it, though I would particularly as the criminal is likely to be standing right behind me. The pin number on its own is no use to anyone and I'm surprised that keypads aren't fitted with at least some form of cowl or hinged keyboard cover that would deter this type of crime.

I regret to say that as long as a bank can lay a loss off to the customer, it doesn't recognise it as a security flaw they they need to address. This attitude only highlights that when banks offer help, they do so only with an eye to profit. That's why I take exception to the concept of 'identity theft'. In law it doesn't exist and is properly known as 'identity fraud'. Banks would love to lay off the loses from identity fraud to customers when actually it's their lax procedures at fault.

A fresh example

http://www.click-manchester.com/news...ge-fraud.html?

The suspect is believed to be one of a group of men who used false information to swindle a building society into granting a £90,000 mortgage, which was authorised and transferred into an account held at another bank

.

I particularly enjoyed this comment.

It is not easy to con a bank into releasing mortgage funds…..

Self-evidently not the case. When banks operate sloppy procedures the public aren't the most lucrative target. Haven't they asked the receiving bank to refund the money ? :tinysmile_twink_t2:

For the past couple of days AT UK have been quick to take down fraudulent adverts, which is why I haven't posted details of any but, as I can't go long without buying a car, I saved one I spotted for myself and I am currently buying it and I'm in the market for more. This situation is ideal as the scammer will get few victims and I'll get his 'mule accounts' shut down.

I couldn't help but notice that though the newspaper report was new it related to an incident from over a year ago and that the police had published a photo of the alleged perpetrator (because bank premises have sophisticated camera systems recording all customers) asking for help to identify him. Just off the top of my head I wonder how many victims of fraudulent car adverts have had similar attention from law enforcement. Of course a bank can choose to release a photo of an alleged perpetrator (who has not been prosecuted) for any crime) when the fraud may affect them but will deny such a facility to a third party victim. Though I understand their grounds for doing so, I would lend it more credence if it weren't the banks allowing the fraudster to have bank facilities in the first place that enabled the crime.

[Boycie]

Re: Ebay & Gumtree Vehicle / Car Scams

I monitor all UK fraud news reports to pick up news on what criminals are doing and how law enforcement and financial institutions are reacting. These 'money mule' accounts that are used to defraud victims are a particular risk to everyone and the last story highlights the different way law enforcement reacts when the victim is a financial institution. The loss involved is actually not much greater than that suffered by victims of fraudulent vehicle adverts and yet the police have investigated for over a year and also make full use of the photos that the institution will have of all these criminals with no concern about customer confidentiality.

The fundamental problem lies within financial institutions and it is patently inequitable (unfair) when they make use of information they withhold from other victims simply because in these cases they have lost money themselves. The proper solution is to tighten up their procedures that allow the criminals to perform fraud. As the criminals improve their personal skills and knowledge financial institutions will be targeted more frequently.

Interesting to see virtually the same fraud taking place on Holiday Villa letting sites and it being performed in exactly the same way.

http://www.theguardian.com/money/201...homeaway-scam?

Holiday misery for the scam victims who believed they’d booked a villa through Owners Direct

[dixie2013]

Re: Ebay & Gumtree Vehicle / Car Scams

https://community.homeaway.com/message/75969

This particular group is in the monthly newsletters we receive from our uk authorities.the figure of 3500 victims, I'd estimate that figure now to be double,is the ongoing operation preventing a media blackout regarding our online car vehicle fraud as are now seeing daily press releases abt most frauds,harrods/concert tickets/c.v's/romance/holiday rental/bt/............ But as yet I have hardly seen the car ads fraud on ebay/gumtree/autotrader in the press/media?? Apart from the bbc attempting to cover the story

[Amethyst]

Re: Ebay & Gumtree Vehicle / Car Scams

Need a 'human interest' story to get publicity - sad thing is like the previous person who went public they can be subject to a lot of criticism themselves. With holidays it's easier to engage sympathy for the victim as a holiday isn't something you'd normally expect to go and see before paying the money for the booking.

[Boycie]

Re: Ebay & Gumtree Vehicle / Car Scams

Undoubtedly the posters of fraudulent adverts on Autotrader UK have both changed and reduced their activities recently. At one stage they were hacking up to 8 AT UK car dealer accounts daily but that is now down to one or two. Admittedly is was pointless to operate on such a scale but presumably car dealers were just so easy to phish. The number of 'singleton' fraudulent adverts has also reduced and, those that do appear, are better camouflaged and more difficult to point out but they are less likely to be successful.

Interestingly it also appears that the fraudsters are switching to a Western Union method to defraud victims, which possibly suggests that the campaign of reporting 'money mule' accounts to get them closed, is having an effect. This has been reported at SW and I have had a recent example myself, the details of which I'll post up when the bait ends. There will still be victims but I suspect that the Western Union option will be much less successful.