[UK] Scammed - I have scammer's phone/bank details

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Hello I'm New here! Joined: 14 Feb 2014 Posts: 2

Hi all, I am hoping to get some advice, or perhaps some help or a suggestion at the very least. My flatmate is an eBay trading assistant here in London in the UK. She doesn't get much work from it, but from time to time it helps her make a bit of extra money which helps as she is currently out of work.

A guy called her the other day with a sob story about having to sell his Macbook because he was behind on his rent and being threatened with eviction. She made the mistake of allowing him to send the package directly to the customer, providing a tracking number as proof of postage and due to being a little too trusting, transferred the payment to him on receipt of the tracking number. The customer received an empty box and the scammer now has the money, approximately £1400 worth.

Obviously she should have taken possession of the goods directly and then mailed the goods to the customer herself and naturally she shouldn't have been so trusting... nevertheless, she is now extremely broke, being threatened by the customer, and doesn't have any money of her own to reimburse them with. As you can imagine, she's quite stressed and very upset.

She has the scammer's phone number and bank account details. She has filed a report with the police who told her that the fraud investigation unit may or may not bother to investigate it. The bank is not being helpful either.

Given a phone number and bank account details, is there anything creative she could do (or have someone else do) to figure out who the scammer is and potentially get the money back?

Posted: Fri Feb 14, 2014 2:12 pm

Having a phone number and bank details is no guarantee that you have the scammer's details.
Phone numbers can be faked, there are numerous websites that offer call forwarding.
The scammer could be using a money mule, so it could be that the account you have is not that of the scammer's, but another victim he's stringing along. If the scammer has covered his tracks well enough and got the money 'laundered', it'll be almost impossible to track where it went and it's doubtful that you'll get it back.

In any case, PM the bank details to a moderator or admin (their names are green or red), for they have mysterious ways of getting scammer's bank accounts shut down and can help to rescue the unsuspecting mules.

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 14 Feb 2014 Posts: 2

Ok thanks, I will do that!

Posted: Fri Feb 14, 2014 3:01 pm

Hi Snowfrog and welcome to Eater.

Sorry to read about your roommate. If you post the details at our
sister site, www.scamwarners.com, you could hep prevent
someone else from being a victim.

Best of luck!

Posted: Sun Feb 16, 2014 5:44 am

As others said PM a mod with the details.

Then

Post the story on Scamwarners.com to get more input from folks who have experience helping scam victims - as well as to possible prevent someone else from being scammed by the same person (posting his contact details makes it available to Google which could mean someone else realizes he is a fraud before losing money).

Advise your roommate to keep documentation of police reports, and other relevant data. It could at least serve to protect her somewhat, legally, in the she would at least be able to show she was not intentionally trying to scam anyone.

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