UPS UKASH UKCASH Gumtree Scam and scams in general

paddyrg

Just a reminder for anyone who sees an advert that seems tempting but their guts tell them is wrong, head over to scamwarners.com and ask for an expert opinion. Those guys have probably the best collection of free advice and opinions on this kind of thing you'll find anywhere, and it is all completely free and unbiased, from experts.

But as a rule, any time the words western union, moneygram or ukash come up, the chances of it being a scan are high. If the offer looks good but your gut hesitates even half a second, trust your gut, or at least get an opinion from scamwarners!

mattya13

Hi all,

My first post on the MSE forum. I felt compelled to post after I nearly fell for the UKCASH Gumtree Scam.

I'd responded to a Gumtree ad earlier in the week, which was advertising an IKEA chest of drawers for £40 in Cardiff. It seemed a good price for an item that was about £140 when new. The advertiser then responded by text message (I'd included my phone number in my initial enquiry), but her response came from "my.iphone.a" rather than a normal phone number. In her text message, was included an email address which I used for subsequent discussions.

I'd asked to view the item, which was located in Cardiff, but the person (Victoria Packer) replied saying that she was really busy with a hectic lifestyle, and she would prefer to make the drop-off herself later in the day. I was delighted with that response, because it was going to save me having to find a vehicle large enough to collect the chest of drawers.

Anyway, later in the day she responded again to say that she'd been called back into 'the office' and couldn't drop-off the item. Instead, she offered to send it via her firm's ParcelForce account (offered as a company perk). She said I could inspect the item on delivery and refuse it if it wasn't any good. Again, I accepted the offer and gave her the delivery details.

Well, this morning I received another email from Victoria ([EMAIL="victoria1975me@gmail.com"]victoria1975me@gmail.com[/EMAIL]) saying that the package was with ParcelForce and they would be sending me instructions on how to proceed. Sure enough, the instructions arrived from 'ParcelForce Worldwide' stating that I needed to purchase a £40 UKCASH voucher and send a readable scan of the voucher by email to them.

At this point I got very suspicious as this didn't sound like a true 'cash on delivery' service. I would have been paying up-front without actually having seen the goods.

So, after a few quick Google searches I arrived at this forum thread, which appears to confirm that it is a well know scam. However, I notice that there haven't been many posts lately, suggesting it has gone away. Well, I can confirm that the scam is still in full swing! Gumtree users BEWARE!

In all my years using the Internet, I can honestly say that this is about the closest I've ever come to being scammed. It is a pretty damned convincing story and is told in a very softly-softly manner by the scammer.

I hope this helps someone else avoid the same scam.

I've reported the ad to Gumtree.

Matt

sistafromanothermista

Lets hope so. The more people that know about this the better. Put the scammers out of 'business'!

gb12345

mattya13 wrote: »

Victoria Packer - victoria1975me@gmail.com

This scammer's email address is already listed on a number of scam warning and anti-scam websites.

carlaeliza

The Scam also seens to be from this man, I responded to a WII U bundle post in London on Gumtree (it was a very good deal!) A reply came from a lady telling me to email her husband as its his item and he will respond, but to write the item name in the subject line (clue 1), I got this following email back very quickly but smelt a rat from the various new clues and found this forum confirming my suspicions! The item listed said mint condition and not NEW, so he must have several adverts going! Why he thinks Scotland is not in the UK and why he would post an item avaliable and within an hour be deployed away from London makes his story very flimsy! I assume from the way it is written it is a non British scam,


Hi,
the nintendo is still for sale, the price is 200. I have bought it for a gift and now i don`t need it anymore. It is brand new, never used.
My name is John Wilshire, I work as a flight sergeant in the Royal Air Force, I have recently been transferred to a new military base in Scotland but you don't have to worry because the item is in UK and we will use a fast and reliable cash on delivery service (PayPoint) , this way you will have the opportunity to try the item first. Let me know if you're interested to use this service.

Cheers

carlaeliza

John Wilshire (wilshirejoh@gmail.com) AVOID!

rimmy

Great to see people are finding this thread and avoiding the scams! Thanks for posting the details.

Anyone reading this who has been scammed (or nearly scammed) please, we encourage you to post details of the advert here, as Google does a very excellent job of indexing this page, ensuring anyone with an ounce of suspicion finds the examples on this thread and avoids being scammed themselves.

It is evidently working!

rimmy

CarlaEliza,

I urge you to to edit your post and include a link to the item as well as the description please..

carlaeliza

I reported the item and it was removed by Gumtree- they then investigated and removed him so he/she will now be using yet another name! But REPORT! it works and could save another person falling for it!

adriannauk

:(I have just fallen victim to the scam for the first time as well... really gutted!

Basically Someone put a offer post on freegle for a 32inch tv locally which I replied to a week ago, and they replied yesterday on jenifer williams [williams0047@gmail.com] apologising that they hadn't got back to me sooner but they had to wait for Freegle to approve her logins so she couldn't reply, and as a result of that she has moved (which was the reason she needed rid of the TV and TV stand) but if we paid for courier we can still have it. to when I agreed. She said she needed rid of a laptop (which I assumed was faulty being freegle and all) to which I agreed to take as well. she said she will get in touch with a courier and get back to me with a idea of price.

she emailed me again within a hour and said a company called Neptune Couriers said they can deliver, and it would cost either 25 for express delivery or 20 for normal. so me and hubby discussed and we decided to go with express. then we get a email from freegle moderators reminding us of approved couriers, which was Neptune. we then got a registration number for our delivery, and was told to get Ukash voucher for 25 quid and email the courier with the reg number and our voucher number. which we did, and they emailed us back saying we would need to pay a refundable insurance deposit of £75, which is refunded upon delivery. This put our heckles up a little. They had a contact number so we called them, and they answered, and my husband discussed this with them and they assured they refunded, which we actually believed (don't worry I feel stupid now looking back!!!) we thought he was a one man band and this is how he just ran his business. They advised it was going to be same day delivery with a time slot 8pm via email. They will email us again to confirm once they got the voucher number.so we got the £75 voucher and sent that.

We googled him and found a offline website with his home address in Norfolk (which I doubt is his actual address) and with the same contact number. we got no further emails or contact. we called them back a couple of hours later to clarify when it was going to be delivered and was told everything is in hand.

we called about a hour before to double check again and they still haven't sent us any confirmation email. They told us to have a bit of faith O_o and everything is in hand.

obviously nothing turned up. we did another dig, and found that they have another courier company 'mercurycourier@yahoo.com' with the same details and same website.

then we found this forum, and validated our suspicions. we were both embarrassed and upset by it all, and felt so stupid. they have my address and contact number which makes me feel vulnerable.
This is the the first time it has ever happened to me and so it will be the last. They even went as far as setting up a google circle page for the jenifer williams with a woman's picture etc. I have a address from the website but I doubt its theirs. we have tried withdrawing our money back but it looks like they have already spent it. hubby is going to report to action fraud and to Ukash, not expecting to get anything back, but will have a good go.