UPS UKASH UKCASH Gumtree Scam and scams in general

dreammanifest

grannieannie123 wrote: »

Another idiot here! I thought I was good at spotting scams, but a bicycle was offered on my local Spalding freecycle group, I answered it, and a week later, got a reply saying the mods were late in putting the 'offer' on the forum and due to ill health, 'Jane Whitefield' had relocated to Aberdeen. I said it was a shame, but then she came back and said if I sent a courier for it, I could still have the bike. All the couriers I tried said the bike had to be bubble wrapped and boxed, so then 'Jane' comes back to me saying that she found a courier who would box it for us and send it down to me. I should have realised, but really wanted to trust her, she sounded so nice, that I paid the delivery amount by UKASH, then got an email from the 'courier' (Links-couriers of Aberdeen) to say that I needed to pay a 100% refundable insurance before they could send it, and like an idiot I did. I was suspicious by this time, but I googled UKASH, and they looked okay, then I googled the couriers and their website wasn't too bad, few anomalies, and I did wonder why they didn't take VISA. The bike (she sent pics too!) was electric, so ideal for me with my arthritis. Wasn't until today that I managed to get back onto here and read all these similar messages!

So this one is still going on, just wish I'd listened to my head instead of my heart!

:eek: It is really upsetting. Here are the emails I received:-

Hi
The bike is still available . It has done less than 150miles work from new. The bike can ride at a speed of around 30km per hour without pedaling.Will easily travel over 50miles with the PAS system. Great, comfortable ride and easy step through frame.Great on hills with an extra high torque motor. Great features of Athese bikes include:36V 10amp Lithium battery with electric protection circuit. UK charger included. 250W high torque rear hub brush less motor The latest three speed P.A.S (Pedal Assist Sensor) and throttle control. The variable speed motor automatically operates as you pedal. 6061 Aluminium alloy lightweight frame. 6 speed Shimano derailleur. Fold-able seat. Front and rear lights. Front and rear disk brakes.mudguards and rear pack rack.26 inch double rim wheels with stainless spokes. It has some minor scratches on it when I fell off at minor speed, otherwise it is as new. when fully charged can go at least 60- 120 miles and take between 3-9 hours for full recharge. Where about are you ?
Best Wishes

Hi
Please i am sorry you are a bit far from me now, The bike is still available and i am not selling it, i just wanted to offer it to someone who could make good use of it, Suffering from osteoarthritis, my doctor advise me to stop using the bike and moreover i fell from it and had some bruises . But i am afraid you are far from me.This ad was posted more than a week ago because i wanted to relocate to Aberdeen,the Moderator delay in publishing the ad and i left. I am presently in Richmond Terrace, Aberdeen but if you are interested you can come and pick it up or alternatively you could get the bike via courier. If that is Ok with you let me know.
Best Regards

Hi
Please i really want to be sure you will put it to good use, you should not be upset about this, i once offer an item and later found it on gumtree for sale. To get a quote from the courier you will need the following my address is 5 Richmond Terrace Aberdeen, Aberdeen City ab25 2we and the weight of the bike;Net Weight:30.5kg ,Packing Dimensions:1600*300*1000mm.I just checked the cost of delivery to your home and the delivery charges are not so expensive. the delivery charges are in two parts you can either go for a standard delivery for £35 or express delivery for £45,depending on which of them you will wish to take.This include packaging and posting . I try to find out the difference between the charges,but they said with the standard delivery it will take two working days before delivery but with the express it will take just max 12 hours before delivery. if you can afford it then you get back to me with details of delivery address and full names including phone numbers ,i will take it over to the delivery agency for registration and delivery All i have to do is take the bike to the courier and have it register for delivery to your address, after the registration you will be contacted by the courier. if you are ok with that let me know.
Thanks

Hi
All i have to do is pop out tomorrow morning with the bike and register it for delivery to your address,after the registration you will be contacted by the courier for payment. I will let you know when i am done with the registration with details from the courier.I will let you know when i am done with the registration tomorrow morning. Are you going for the standard or express delivery?
Thanks

Hi
Just to inform you that i will pop out in the next half hour and i will get back to you immediately i am done with the registration with details from the courier.
Thanks

Hi
Sorry for the delay, i am presently at the courier and they are doing registration already they told me this is how you will make the
payments,you will go to any local store,fueling station or news paper vendor around your area and get a ukash voucher for £35 Standard
delivery,send the 19 digits codes on the voucher and the value of the voucher to their email below with your full names and delivery
address,they will verify the voucher number and mail you for confirmation,if every thing is okay,then they will send you tracking details and time of
delivering of the parcel.The Reg Number of the item is MCB154001 use this as the subject of your mail to the courier,It is very important.
Deleted weblinks but is swift courier.
Tel; 07031824990
Please don't forget to let me know when you receive the bike.
Thanks

:eek:

Here is an excerpt from the last email I sent:-


I tried to go to the website, but it is down -not working. I googled swift courier and shared the instruction with the number you gave to me. They said what is that? They don't have such number. They said, sadly, it is probably just a scam, hence the cash voucher, as they take paypal payments.

Melbat

http://www.friday-ad.co.uk/wolverhampton/for-sale/sports-equipment-bicycles/fishing-tackle/bargain-maver-enigma-YI440H6A3

This one got hubby,wasn't until item didn't arrive that he sussed.
Having googled it led us here.

Laura Milton laura75milton@gmail.com

Have contacted the fraud team and ukash,wont hold our breath though.

Legionary

This scam is still alive and kicking, thankfully red flags flew up for me when they sent the convincing (but not convincing enough) "Parcelforce Worldwide" invoice, using the email address "royal-mail@delivery-depot.co.uk", telling me to reply to them with a £200 Ukash digit code within 24 hours before they send the item.

Ad is still up, ive reported it to friday-ad and the internet fraud team. The item is a "HIGH END GAMING PC GTX 670 2GB QUADCORE i7 8GB RAM 120GB SSD"... too good to be true for £200. Search on friday-ad, using area as brighton and search as "desktop pc" to find it, should be on first page.

The seller went by the name "Rachel Bowman" (rachel1975bowman@gmail.com) even has a convincing google account with pictures. Havent handed them any money, going to send them a ukash voucher code from the internet to mess with them, see how they like it :rotfl:

PG16

*****SCAM******
Ordered table and chairs through VIVA STREET, was told needed to send a copy of UKASH payment voucher for the courier service to deliver the items. I received an email from what appeared to be a PARCELFORCE WORLDWIDE email, with a tracking ref. only on further inspection of the email, the properties for the email address were royal-mail@delivert-depot.co.uk and the reference was 2 digits short to be validated online.

Luckily we have managed to block our ukash voucher, but arranging a refund from them is proving difficult as they seem just a shady a company as the scamming seller on viva street!

The seller went by Rachel Bowman, email rachel1975bowmen@gmail.co.uk, contact number 07593536717
After a Google search I see that she is scamming people all over the country and also goes by the alias Laura Milton with the email addresses laura75milton@gmail.com & lauramilton75@gmail.com

Thistle-down

nearly scammed by Rachel Bowman but happened to see the ad she ripped from ebay before committing to anything.

This was found on another site - " have done a little digging on the internet, it appears that this person, man/woman, is located in the usa. there may be more than one person running this scam, the e-mails from laura milton and parcelforce all originate from the city of mountain view in los angeles, postal code 94043, this puts it close to moffett federal airport. look it up on google maps, so there is little chance of stopping it, the best thing to do is warn others not to part with any cash to these people. i believe that the person on the phone is in the uk, and the partner with the e-mails is in the usa.

sally2014

Nearly scammed by Rachel Bowman. Currently advertising on Trade it a playstation 3 and games . Got suspicious when the phone number she gave me didn't work and the email she sent me was a bit odd . Googled her number and discovered she has ripped off loads of people . Have contacted Trade it , but it is currently still on there . So beware! The telephone number she gave me was 07593536717 .

amyegg2k

We got scammed....Friday-ad...cross trainer
Same Rachel bowman said from middleabrough
£190... She was gonna drop it off then had to go to work...asked us to get ukash and give her the code ...sent us a parcel force confirmation thing ... Parcel was expected today and never turned up so I googled I and wallah...scam artist... Rang ukash but codes already been used so can't block it... Reported to fraud squad ...nothing will b done.... Fuming....

ecohouse

The Rachel Bowman scam

You have my sympathy as I got caught with this one just before Christmas. I thought I was fairly scam savvy but the combination of nice personal emails, a google+ account with nice pics, some biodata etc convinced me to use the bogus information supposedly sent by ParcelForce. Lost £130 but want to keep this live as others will get caught.

Phone police (not much point); talked to Actionfraud who took loads of details. Talked to UKASH but wasting my time; difficult to get hold of, phone numbers often didn't work and after talking to their rep who thought everything they were doing was fine, I gave up. Then called Ombudsman but they can only take on a personal enquiry (which doesn't help anyone else) and thought chances of getting money back were extremely low; decided not to waste their time. Talks to FCA but didn't get anywhere with them either. Have contacted Watchdog and Moneysavingexpert and am awaiting replies.

£1000s are being stolen from honest working folk with this scam which uses almost identical techniques involving offer to drop item off, bogus Parcelforce forms by email and final request to purchase a UKASH voucher and email copy to "Parcelforce" - and this has been going on since July 2012 - maybe earlier. Names change a bit but nature and content of scams the same. I challenged UKCASH to do a better job of advising their agents and giving out warning alerts but they seem content with the small rather bland bit of copy of the small insignificant voucher receipt. If either Watchdog or Moneysavingexpert pick this up I'll give UKCASH and some of the advertising sites like Google a hard time for allowing this to continue.

I cannot understand since I found yet ad by Rachel Bowman yesterday why the bright boys in the Fraud squad haven't managed to track this down in over two and a half years.

This is the classic text in the first reply - so beware!

Hi Sonia,
Just got in, it's total chaos out there so couldn't follow up on your email. Packing things for a trip to my parents so wouldn't mind making a drop off

If you'll send me your postcode I can check out on my satnav the distance to yours.

Reasonable price and accurate description, it's worth the money, no bad surprises. I won't go any lower.
Can be reached on -0759-353-6717- low signal strength area but check emails regularly.

Ta,
Rachel.

P.S. Will let you know before heading out, cash only please.

BusyB06

I very nearly fell for one of Rachel Bowman's adverts: Selling a Samsung Galaxy S4 for £100 on Trade-It (Friday-Ad). I should have known it was too good to be true!
Special thanks to ecohouse. I had the exact same wording in my email:
Hi Birgit,
Just got in, it's total chaos out there so couldn't follow up on your email. Packing things for a trip to my parents so wouldn't mind making a drop off

If you'll send me your postcode I can check out on my satnav the distance to yours.

Reasonable price and accurate description, it's worth the money, no bad surprises. I won't go any lower.
Can be reached on -0759-353-6717- low signal strength area but check emails regularly.

Ta,
Rachel.

P.S. Will let you know before heading out, cash only please

ecohouse

Having been caught out before Christmas when trying to purchase a Yamaha keyboard and gone through the endless rigmarole of reporting to police, action fraud, Ombudsman, FSA - and MoneySaving Expert I've achieved nothing so far - except to confirm that the sames continue> Helen Bowman has now become Helen Miller and is advertising the same Yamaha keyboard 630 at a higher price (£160) - this time from Chelmsford.

Advert i on Friday-ad (which I've reported) and circulated by Trovit.


Hi Sonia,
Just got in, it's total chaos out there so couldn't follow up on your email. Packing things for a trip to my parents so wouldn't mind making a drop off

If you'll send me your postcode I can check out on my satnav the distance to yours.

Reasonable price and accurate description, it's worth the money, no bad surprises. I won't go any lower.
Can be reached on -0759-353-6717- low signal strength area but check emails regularly.

Ta,
Helen.

P.S. Will let you know before heading out, cash only please.

This fraud outfit has been using almost the same scam since 2012 and dozens of folk are falling for it. Don't under any circumstances ever send a copy of a UKASH voucher