I was scammed of £220

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Hello I'm New here! Joined: 29 Jun 2010 Posts: 4

Hello guys
i was called by an escort agency asking if i wanted to accompany their guests out for dinner weekends, they said they have guests from all over europe and i could earn as much as £50 - 80 an hour.

I was asked for my driver's lic for identification and asked to make a payment of £220 via credit card.

It was a UK call center and an 0871 number. After which a company called DXI-EASYCALL.NET appeared on my debit card and i never heard from the company again.

I keep calling the number and am left on hold.

What do i do ?

I asked my bank to reclaim the funds back and they sent me a dispute form.

In my reply, i claimed i never made any transaction with the company dxi-easycall.net but didnt mention the escort company

Is this the right approach ?

The website is www.elegance4her.com and number is 0871 987 1537

thanks
Edy

Posted: Thu Jul 01, 2010 2:20 pm

At first glance the site looks genuine. Been registered since 2003.
Though they do give their phone number as 123123123

The registered address has all sorts of of strange businesses operating from there.

Posted: Thu Jul 01, 2010 2:33 pm

Scammers often piggyback onto legitimate sites to lend credibility to their scams. But just because they claim to be affiliated with the site doesn't mean they really are.

I don't know about the laws in the UK but in the US credit card companies are extremely responsive to disputes and will immediately cancel any questionable charge until they complete an investigation. If you haven't signed anything there will be no way the scammer can document your having authorized it.

You should post something about this at our sister site, www.scamwarners.com.

Posted: Thu Jul 01, 2010 2:48 pm

30 years ago I saw a 'too good to be true' job, offering a good salary to accompany well off but lonely/nervous people as they travelled around by air.

I applied, to a local UK adress, and was accepted. They then asked me for a lot of money to pay for a 'medical' - it was money i hadn't got, so I bottled out and looked elsewhere for a job.

The next I heard about it was when the Police raided their offices, after many complaints. They found some desks, with sanded down telephones, no people.

It just goes to show nothing is new, and the maxim 'If it's too good to be true, it probably is' has always applied.

Posted: Fri Jul 02, 2010 2:26 am

@afrika, I would notify the bank that you want to change the numbers on your cash card (as if it had been lost) so that they can't hit your card again.

For sure dispute the charge in truth. You may have lost the money because you did authorize the charge.

My question is, Did they contact you out of the blue? Or did you respond to a job posting?

I don't know about your location, but in the USA "Escort" is a euphemism for a prostitute.

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 29 Jun 2010 Posts: 4

@Paranoid

No they did not contact me out of the blue, i was actually filling out some forms on a dating site. and then stumbled across their site.

they said they were a high class dating agency for me and said its the new word for escorts.

The only reason why i paid, was because they said they only take money via credit or debit cards, which i felt, no scam agency in the developed world could setup business and be scamming people of money and have the banks complacent abt it.

I received the DISPUTE FORMS for visa from my bank today and just wanted some advice before i send it back.

If you say i have lost the money, because i believed a lie. And was scammed for a service which i never recieved, then we all better start making money off people, if the banks wont refund the money.

Pity the world we live in today.

Posted: Fri Jul 02, 2010 9:03 am

I think if they sent you the dispute forms, you have a good chance of getting it back. I was robbed when someone at a garage sold my card details, and £50 mobile phone topups appeared all over my statement.

It cost me a lunchtime to fill the forms in at a bank, but I got the money refunded. Smile

I realise you did authorise it, but you were an unknowing victim of fraud.

Posted: Fri Jul 02, 2010 2:37 pm

Welcome to Eater afrika and I wish you good luck getting your money refunded.

Posted: Fri Jul 02, 2010 3:55 pm

I work in credit cards and I can tell you that if you tell your bank that you have authorized the transaction and received nothing in return they will dispute the charge for you as 'Goods Not Received.'

I'd be amazed if you didn't get your money back. I've never seen a genuine 'Goods Not Received' not be refunded.

Posted: Fri Jul 02, 2010 4:38 pm

Be aware the rules may be different for debit cards than credit cards, but you should chase it with the bank nontheless. Get them to cancel and re-issue the card too, as if stolen, to prevent further fraud.

This is a prostitution position, so they're probably relying on people not coming clean, so full credit to you for chasing it down. Also be aware that there are not that many women who will want to pay men £50+/hr for company, romantic or otherwise. Just a fact.

http://dxi-easycall.net/easycall-cardpay.php terms and conditions say that they effectively hold the cash in escrow for upto 180 days against chargebacks, so you should be ok getting your cashback. It may also be worth letting easypay know you believe the merchant to be fraudulent, explaining why, and they'll probably shut down their account as high-risk.

Posted: Fri Jul 02, 2010 5:09 pm

Deleted.

Posted: Sat Jul 03, 2010 7:23 pm

If you volunteered your card details there's usually little chance of a refund unless they have contravened the credit card companies terms and conditions. Fraud does do this, but it can be damned hard to prove as a lot of unscrupulous companies skirt around the law on card transactions without actually breaking it.

I had a card cloned some years back. I don't know where or how the details were obtained, but because they didn't have my PIN it was obvious I hadn't been neglectful. It was being used by some saddo, living in motorway hotels on the M4 and seemed to exist on takeaway curries and pizza. When I noticed what was going on and reported it to the bank, they informed me I would get the money back as technically it was they the money had been stolen from.

But it was me that ended up sitting in a stinky police station filling out forms for four hours. Confused

If it ever happens again, I'm tempted to just go to the police and say my bank has been robbed and let them sort it out between them.