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Scam warning (RE online employment)
GraceDalton
Posts: 11 Forumite
A scam that’s just cost me £2400 - I just wanted to let people know so that someone could possibly be helped in avoiding scams if ever targetted by something at all similar. I want the money that I've lost to do some good.
On the 22nd of June, I received an email offering me an online job, listing computers on eBay on behalf of "Valteck" who wished to increase their online exposure by selling through eBay as well as on their website and by directing to their website in the eBay listings. Stupidly, and desperate for work, I agreed, certain that I would avoid scams by only passing on money for the computers to the supplier (now the suspect) once I'd received confirmation that the computers had been received by those who bought them on eBay.
I listed the items as directed, 2 sold and were paid for. I gave the delivery addresses to "Alasdair" - but he told me that, because some people make fake payments on eBay, it was necessary for the money to be transferred from my Paypal account to my bank account before the computers could be shipped.
I transferred the money to my bank account, and was told by Aladair that the computers had been shipped. I sent messages to the buyers asking them to please let me know when their computers arrived.
I received an email - supposedly from one of the buyers - saying that their laptop had arrived. Later in the day (13/7), I received another email, supposedly from this buyer, saying that their neighbour would like to buy one also, and asking if more were available. Believing that this indicated that Alasdair was genuine, I transferred the first payment to him from my bank account. When I received an email, supposedly from the other buyer, saying that their computer had arrived, I made the second bank transfer to Alasdiar.
I then received a message through eBay from one of the buyers, asking why their computer hadn't arrived, and realised that the messages that had said the computers had arrived had been fakes from Alasdair.
The buyers are now claiming the money that they paid from my account, and I have thus lost £2409.
I am an utter fool
On the 22nd of June, I received an email offering me an online job, listing computers on eBay on behalf of "Valteck" who wished to increase their online exposure by selling through eBay as well as on their website and by directing to their website in the eBay listings. Stupidly, and desperate for work, I agreed, certain that I would avoid scams by only passing on money for the computers to the supplier (now the suspect) once I'd received confirmation that the computers had been received by those who bought them on eBay.
I listed the items as directed, 2 sold and were paid for. I gave the delivery addresses to "Alasdair" - but he told me that, because some people make fake payments on eBay, it was necessary for the money to be transferred from my Paypal account to my bank account before the computers could be shipped.
I transferred the money to my bank account, and was told by Aladair that the computers had been shipped. I sent messages to the buyers asking them to please let me know when their computers arrived.
I received an email - supposedly from one of the buyers - saying that their laptop had arrived. Later in the day (13/7), I received another email, supposedly from this buyer, saying that their neighbour would like to buy one also, and asking if more were available. Believing that this indicated that Alasdair was genuine, I transferred the first payment to him from my bank account. When I received an email, supposedly from the other buyer, saying that their computer had arrived, I made the second bank transfer to Alasdiar.
I then received a message through eBay from one of the buyers, asking why their computer hadn't arrived, and realised that the messages that had said the computers had arrived had been fakes from Alasdair.
The buyers are now claiming the money that they paid from my account, and I have thus lost £2409.
I am an utter fool
0
Comments
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GraceDalton wrote: »I am an utter fool
Agreed, thanks for the warning! best of luck for the future.“Washing one's hands of the conflict between the powerful and the powerless means to side with the powerful, not to be neutral. ”
― Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed0 -
YUP ... fully agree with this posterrageagainstessays wrote: »Agreed, thanks for the warning! best of luck for the future.0 -
Hi there!
Glad I found your post, I saw a job advert for Velteck Electronics posting stuff on Ebay, Gumtree, Amazon etc listed on Indeed.com. They got in touch with me and I was planning on starting work for them (although very sceptical), but when I saw this I researched the company online and I have found loads of information about these kinds of scams. I have reported them to Action Fraud and I would urge others to do the same. Their communications with me to date have been extremely suspicious.0 -
Thanks for telling us grace, many of us have fallen for scams of some sort at least once in our lives. (pyramid scheme for me (i was 16))0
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Why would they not use their paypal and company bank account? What reason did they give you for using yours?0
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People can do silly things when they're desperate. Sympathies to the OP.:( It's a lot of money to lose.
I'm sure the OP has already asked themselves all the 'Why....?!' questions that spring to mind.0
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