Ukash scam warning

Moany_old_git

My first post, I hope it's in the right place. One of my family has been scammed out of money involving payment for goods on Gumtree using Ukash to pay. Short version; Seller won't use PayPal, suggests Ukash. I had never heard of them but this involves buyer getting a voucher from agents of Ukash such as Costcutter stores wherupon buyer gets a voucher code and tells seller they have bought the voucher and please send the goods. Seller gets no money until buyer is satisfied. However !!!!! An email was received purporting to be from Ukash asking voucher number for authorisation. Unfortunately, trusting relation emailed back voucher code. Surprise surprise, it came from a clone site that looks like the genuine Ukash one and the £375 is now lost. Ukash say it was (somehow) cashed at an unauthorised dealer so we are investigating how that is even possible. They also they knew this had happened before but appear to have done nothing about it. Beware of Ukash as they are being less than helpful merely pointing at the small print that says "don't tell anyone the voucher code"

dealer_wins

Its not really UKash's fault, it the scum criminals exploiting people that are the problem. Its the same as any other phishing attact, or !!!!!! that respond to 419 emails etc

paddyrg

dealer_wins wrote: »

... !!!!!! that respond to 419 emails etc

To be sure, some 419 scams crudely just play on greed, but there are plenty of AFF's (Advance Fee Frauds - what 419 refers to) which prey on the vulnerable, scared, lonely, generous, lovelost, righteous, charitable, boarding hunters, car sellers etc., not just the !!!!!!! I have to make this clear as the last thing we want is for people to keep ashamed/silent as then the scam/abuse cycle continues and grows, and it is what the scammers want (so they can steal more money from a soft mark, or offer a 'recovery scam' where they pretend to be Interpol, etc, just a small fee first).

Please try not to mock victims offhand. Instead send them over to somewhere like scamwarners.com where volunteers try to mop up after people get scammed, and try to make sure they don't get fooled again, and to actively warn people discussing the scams with them. It's more constructive in the long run.

The UKash thing is interesting as it is a departure from the usual rich feeding grounds of WU and MG for the scammers, but it also suggests the scammer is in the Uk - if he's in the UK there's at least a chance of bringing him to justice, however slim. But any anonymous payment method can be scammers nests, no matter how well intentioned the system.

Moany_old_git

Thanks for the replies. I agree that it's not directly Ukash's fault but the point about that is that they were seemingly aware that it had happened before and had done nothing to close down the clone site being used for what are effectively the phishing e.mails.
It's a good point that Paddyrg makes about not just ignoring it. I suspect that the scammers work on the basis that if the amounts are too large, they will get chased whereas if they are smaller, then people are more likely to just say "I've been stupid I'll let it drop". The other reports on Gumtree were all up to about 500 quid.
I have contacted the registered web-name agent and they have given kindly given me the email address of the web-host so I will be pushing it as far as I can. I suspect the police will be less than interested which is what they have been so far.

paddyrg

It may be worth your while posting over at Scamwarners as then the info starts becoming more public, more easily searched, and hopefully your going public will save someone else from getting caught!

Moany_old_git

Having been contacted by a helpful representative of Ukash, the matter is in hand and they have effectively had the clone site taken down. In addition, they will very shortly be making their own site more secure to prevent this type of cloning from being possible again and implementing Verisign enabling visitors to verify the security and authenticity of the site.