UPS UKASH UKCASH Gumtree Scam and scams in general

rimmy

jambo, what was your supposed purchase? I am building a catalogue of names, email addresses and dats etc to help the police as much as possible.

relieved

I nearly fell for this scam as well - Deb Regan, supposedly selling a wardrobe in the Newcastle area. Became suspicious when the email came from Parcelforce requesting that I buy a UKASH voucher for £80 and send a scan/photo of the voucher. Looking back I should have realised earlier, but 'she' seemed genuine, adding a google profile link to one of her emails etc. Grr. I'm so sorry for all those people who have lots money. Wanted to report 'her' to gumtree but the ad has now been removed.....

rimmy

Can everyone henceforth try and post the gumtree ad/ref no., the fraudster's name, the item, location etc so I can build up a database of info please..

GTK

Hi… I am very grateful to everyone who has contributed to this thread… and “sharing” the scammer’s texts/email letters/emails addresses/names/mobile numbers used. The problem with this new generation of scammers are:

a) the adverts are “realistic”
b) the scammers say they are happy to accept cash in their opening responses to punters.
c) the scam does not reveal itself until 3 or 5 emails/txts down the line.
d) this UKCASH scam is being used by SELLERS and BUYERS on Gumtree… you have been warned!

After my close shave, here’s my own general anti fraud guidelines
· If you “ask a question” to the seller.. is it specifically answered?… as typically the scammers use boiler plate type responses (in their emails and texts messages).
· In your initial txt or email to an advert… add something like “Easy to visit you, and pay cash” in your opener… as these UKCASH scammers only want punters where a “courier” could be used to send on the item to you.
· When receiving a text from a mobile, was it sent from a real “mobile number”, or was their number hidden or withheld?
· If you do get a mobile number.. and ring it… and it doen’t get answered… keep ringing… as you may then hear a pre-recorded message saying something like… “This mailbox is full, no new message can be recorded”.
· Can you/have you/ actually “spoken” to the seller directly? If not… walk away.

Charliezoo

I'm annoyed with Gumtree - I got scammed a couple of weeks back and reported it to Gumtree who removed the ad and sent me a standard message saying "looks like a scam, don't proceed with payment, etc" which was a bit late considering I'd already been scammed at that point but at least they removed it. I then found another scam ad, I recognised the text message immediately and reported it to Gumtree twice but they haven't removed the ad or acknowledged my messages. The ad it still on there and its a high value item- £440 so I really hope no-one has fallen for it. I reported it the day after the ad was placed so it could've been removed quickly.

I don't think Gumtree are taking these scams seriously unless you've actually lost money already. The ad ID that they haven't removed is - 111119948 (Bedfordshire) and the text was sent by 'Deb'.

The scammers seem to like using expensive baby stuff - the item I got scammed on was a Stokke cot, the other ad was a Stokke stroller and I've also found another scam Stokke stroller - ID 1002262779 (London). Interestingly someone has managed to hack into the ad and warn others of the scam on this one, I wonder how they managed to do that?!

cheekychap00

sadly got caught by deborah regan
gloustershire
using parcelforce/ukash vouchers
roland td9kx electronic drumkit
lost £420 1 nov 2012
reported to gumtree/ukash action fraud and bromley police
will gladly take part in anything that stops this fraud
john
ad number gumtree 1002336618

rimmy

Sorry to hear that John. I will compile your details into my catalogue and hopefully we can start to build up a good case. It seems there is little chance of us getting back any of our money (unfortunately) but whaat I did think would be valuable was to build up a comprehensive list of postings so that any anti fraud team have a lot of the leads and ground work to follow up on.

cheekychap00

thanks posted fake emails to parcelforce via their suspicious calls/ emails website
sent my full dozier to dom little somthing website via channel5 website
and
after getting told that my money had gone on sat by ukash
went onto their site raised a complaint on 2 points and want money back
1 ukash negligence in letting this same scam continue for 2 years
2 ukash business model flawed by encouraging money laundering and scams
they are regulated by the financial services authority
and if i dont get my money back will make a complaint on the 2 above points to the financial services authority
and if stlll no money will make a complaint to the ombudsman
this scam cannot continue
has any one made a small claims against gumtree for their negligence
john

cheekychap00

just got a reply from cowboytraders
the channel5 website saying
if we feel your tip is something we may be able to explore further, one of our team will be in touch with you
and they have asked for a daytime telephone number
you should send them a copy of your catalogue
john

amduffy

I thought it was suspect that parcelforce would be able to facilitate a transaction on a SUNDAY haha. It was only after i purchased the Ukash voucher for £140 that i thought "what kind of a 21st century business needs me to take a PHOTO of my voucher as proof"! Smart phones can scan barcodes, and there was no barcode. It just doesnt add up. Of course then i google ukash and found this scam to be the first thing that came up! Amazing. Deborah Regan will change her name soon im sure. I alerted the police and am waiting for a crime reference number, although i luckily cottoned on before handing over the ukash number! So am still in pocket. I cant believe how long this criminal has been operating on gumtree, with the same format of email address as well: deborah75regan@gmail.com
Shameful. I somehow doubt anything will be done about this! Glad to see someone has reported it to watchdog though, i did threaten ukash with that as the cheeky gits wanted £30 from me to refund my money!