UPS UKASH UKCASH Gumtree Scam and scams in general

Geraint_M

I had an identical email to the 'asked around' one above about Parcelforce being able to collect cash. Wondered how it worked, so searched online and found this thread with the exact same email!

S/He is now using the name [text removed by MSE Team]

Very effective fraudster. Not very nice. On the Google+ profile when you look at it: The 'I like peace' and 'I tell the truth' gobbldegook is almost comical.

dealer_wins

Why cant the Police arrest these people. Surely they must be easy to trace?

Reading this thread makes me mad these scum are getting away with stealing £1000s

raven83

Geraint_M wrote: »

I had an identical email to the 'asked around' one above about Parcelforce being able to collect cash. Wondered how it worked, so searched online and found this thread with the exact same email!

S/He is now using the name [text removed by MSE Team]

Very effective fraudster. Not very nice. On the Google+ profile when you look at it: The 'I like peace' and 'I tell the truth' gobbldegook is almost comical.

I've just had the exact same thing, I inquired about a tumble dryer off of Gumtree and had "[text removed by MSE Team]" message me. I thought it was suss after the first message she sent me, just didn't ring right and she never answered my questions directly. The ad for the tumble did seem to good to be true, now I know why.

Karlk

Thanks everyone for posting this, I was nearly HAD! After seeing a surfboard on ebay by someone called [text removed by MSE Team], I was told that they could drop off the board personally because his mum lives near me then they said they had to work urgently but get could there courier at work due to company perks for free. It was all very convincing . I was then told I would recieve an email from the courier.

The email from the courier looked like it was officially from parcelforce the address given was (Text removed by MSE Forum Team). The email went like this

Parcel Tracking details
=================
At the request of [text removed by MSE Team], this notice is to confirm that the following shipment is in transit.

Important delivery information


then my address etc.....

and these instructions

Payment required within 24 hours:
Instructions:

Find a corner shop, newsagent, convenience store, supermarket or outlet that has the PayPoint sign as you can see bellow:

Ask the shopkeeper for a £170.00 voucher.
Reply to this invoice directly with a readable scan or a photo of the UKASH receipt.
Our department will automatically validate your voucher and release the parcel out for delivery.
The delivery agent will call you on *07414724346* 1 hour prior to delivery. You are able to inspect the contents and if satisfied you will need to sign for it. If not, our agent will do a bank transfer and return the parcel as rejected.

Parcel Force Package Inspection Department

CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE: The information contained in and accompanying this communication may be confidential and is intended solely for the use of the intended recipient(s). If you are not the intended recipient of this communication please delete and destroy all copies immediately.
==================
Parcelforce Worldwide is a trading name of Royal Mail Group Ltd.
Parcelforce Worldwide's principal office is Lytham House, 25 Caldecotte Lake Drive, Milton Keynes, MK7 8LE.
Royal Mail Group VAT registration number: GB243170002


Thanks for everyone making me aware that this was a scam, I had my suspicions . Especially with this UKASH thing but it was very convincing.

Karlk

I just sent this to "Stacey" (Text removed by MSE Forum Team) not that I think It will do much good? I hate these scumbags that prey on people with little money themselves.

Hi "Stacey"

Fortunately I am not that gullible. I have been extremely ill and the surfboard was going to be a treat to myself. Do you ever wonder about the people you are scamming?? Are they ill? are they old?? are they poor??

You are scamming people that are buying second hand goods so will generally have little money themselves and will be trying to get the cheapest Item possible. Does that make you feel good to know you are taking money from people that generally don't have any themselves?

Budgetary

Just been in contact with this 'person' via Gumtree. Got suspicious when I was asked to send a payment via Paypoint to a service that wasn't offered by Parcelforce Worldwide. Googled it and landed at this page.

(Text removed by MSE Forum Team)

Their google plus account shows a 'Mum' with three kids.

All in all very convincing reponses for emails with good english although they are all template responses as listed in previous posts, including the 'Mother' living nearby.

Suffice to say, no payment or response sent to last email....though I'd post this in the hope that someone else can google the latest email etc.

squirt755

Thanks so much you guys you just saved me from falling subject to this scam, had the email about shipping it via parcelforce and so glad i checked it out now.

fekker

This scam is still active on Gumtree, currently using:

- [email][text removed by MSE Team][/email]
- [text removed by MSE Team]
- The Parcel Force email detailed exactly as above.

We've done a fair bit of buying and selling on Gumtree with no problems. This person was acting a little odd (slow responses, ignoring specific questions) but that isn't unusual in this environment.

We got as far as going to the Co-Op and buying UKASH vouchers (nearly £300). It was actually the chaps that served me in Co-Op that got me thinking, he told me that UKASH is often used for fraud.

I'd even scanned in the vouchers ready to email the scammer when I Googled and found this thread.

The advice that if a deal is too good, it's probably fake is good advice - but the item we were buying was something we didn't know much about. Having researched further, we see this deal WAS too good - but we didn't realise this.

We reported this to the police and are very thankful to this forum for helping us dodge that bullet.

body_boarder091286

yep unfortunately '[text removed by MSE Team]' has scammed me also in the last few days too. thought the makita plunge saw was to good to be true, so inquired and had exactly the same type of automated emails that everyone has had, sadly no makita plunge saw turned up today between 9-10, so had a gut feeling that i had been in a scam and googled, 'UKASH gumtree scam' and came straight to this ..gutted! looking back i cant believe i was so stupid! i just went ahead because i thought UKASH could of been pretty genuine as its used in most newsagents and mite of had the same type of cover as paypal or something, just me not thinking straight.. cant believe i was replying to all her emails, and just getting the automated responses and they just fitted so well..reported to action fraud, and UKASH.. UKASH were absolutely hopeless they just said, 'whats the code?' and 'oh sorry the money has gone..' end of story.. this is so easy for someone to do even they wanted to take it onto themselves to make extra cash and keep ripping people off, i wont be surprised if its alot more people doing it now too! £110 gone! gutted!

fekker

body_boarder091286 wrote: »

yep unfortunately '[text removed by MSE Team]' has scammed me also in the last few days too.

I'm so sorry to hear that - I've taken to scanning GumTree looking for posts with that number and reporting them, but they've been at this a long time using the same telephone number, which the Gumtree systems surely could scan for,

Assuming many other people have reported this phone number, I think you have a decent claim against GumTree for your loss. They've failed to protect you from a known fraudster.

I didn't lose any money so don't have a case, but I'm sure everyone on here that did lose money would provide evidence for you.

Good luck.