Think I have been scammed?

londongirl1984

Oops, thanks guys. I did opt to recieve notifications for any replie but didn't get any. He actually texted me a week after the gig to say I'd have the money that evening but nothing through and heard nothing since. Oh well.

fiddiwebb

I wouldn't let him get away with it, you may not be the only one he has scammed or intends to scam.

£45 may not sound to much for one hit but it adds up if he is doing it to other people.

Does the name on the voicemail match the name on the bank transfer details?

Give the police a ring as suggested and see if they can offer any help (try and get a crime number if possible, that way it becomes official), even if they cannot help you it may alert them to further possible scams by the same person.

vax2002

He could be anywhere in the world.

fiddiwebb

vax2002 wrote: »

He could be anywhere in the world.

More than likely to be in the UK I would have thought.

Tickets for UK gig.

Bank transfer details in UK unless op can say transfer was to foreign bank.

ashleypride

fiddiwebb wrote: »

More than likely to be in the UK I would have thought.

Tickets for UK gig.

Bank transfer details in UK unless op can say transfer was to foreign bank.

Depends how stupid he is. A bank account in the UK doesn't mean the scammer is in the uk, they may well be using a comprised or mule account.

pinkshoes

I'd text him back, tell him no worries, you've got hold of his address, so if it's easier for him, would it be OK if your husband went round to pick the money up on the way to his kick boxing class on Thursday night, as it's really nearby? Or if he prefers, he can just transfer the money...

AmIBeingRobbed

somethingcorporate wrote: »

If you do call the police DO NOT use 999 - it's for emergencies only You will be able to get your local police station number from google.

A call to your local London police station will result in an experience along these lines:

• A 20 minute wait for the phone to be answered
• The phone will be answered by a civilian with a script to read out citing lots of reasons for the police to do nothing ... although there is sufficient information to have the guy "bang to rights"
• and even if they did investigate, you will get a letter back climing an "investigation" has taken place.
• The reality is the police do nothing until they get details from the financial institution which does not happen in the real world. The police will not act on details a member of the public supplies.
• And why would I say that? Well my credit card number was fraudulently used by someone who booked holidays and ordered goods which were personally collected several days later. Luckily, the loss did not come out of my pocket, but everyone else pays. Clearly this knew how the system works and what he could get away with.

My point is, it a waste of time to tell the police.

May be you should threaten to sue the other guy's bank for allowing the account with their customer to be used for fraudulent purposes. That might put on enough pressure for someone to do the right thing ... it is probably not an isolated incident.

I am not sure its worth going to court, the amount of money is too small.

But doing nothing allows this guy to continue the fraud and you can reasonably expect to hear a mendacious claim that the tickets are in the post.

Morale: Never, ever, ever trust a sweet talking man or a bank.

maninthestreet

OP - post all the information on here that you have for this scammer - name, phone number, sort code and bank account number. This assumes there is no on-going police investigation.

shaun_from_Africa

fiddiwebb wrote: »

More than likely to be in the UK I would have thought.

Tickets for UK gig.

Bank transfer details in UK unless op can say transfer was to foreign bank.

Unless it's an offshore bank account, in which case actually tracing the account holder can be extremely difficult.

fiddiwebb

ashleypride wrote: »

Depends how stupid he is. A bank account in the UK doesn't mean the scammer is in the uk, they may well be using a comprised or mule account.

Doesn't mean the scammer is stupid because they are in the UK and scam in the UK, we see enough UK based scams happening here, of course that doesn't discount that the scammer is operating from abroad but all the signs so far would indicate that it is a uk based scam.

THe scammers stupidity relies on how much "real" information is not hidden.

If he is indeed scamming people for possibly small amounts of money then there is more chance that the same bank a/c details will be used for the bank transfers, I seriously doubt that the scammer will set up new details for each bank transfer if it is receiving small payments.