Has my friend been scammed?

foxy-stoat

Report it to the police and see what happens. The money is gone - doubt he will see it again.

[Deleted User]

lockheed wrote: »

His lawyer. I kid you not.

Holy fishsticks.

Arleen

lockheed wrote: »

His lawyer. I kid you not.

Is it as much lawyer as the "barrister" who wrote the guarantee document? If he is an actual lawyer, not just some arm-chair lawyer then he should also lodge a complaint with ORA (okregowa rada adwokacka) appropriate for his region. If they will find in his favour then he could try to sue said lawyer in civil court for the money he has lost due to the scam, it's also probably his only way to try to recoup the money.

But I just can't imagine than actual lawyer would ever say "yes, go ahead with it" if for no other reason due to the fact that most of this document is pure nonsense and very basic fact-checking shows the BS.

On side of the criminals, the money was most likely gone within an hour when it shown up in the bank accounts. You of course should still follow up and report it with action fraud and the police, but don't keep any hope up for getting the money from them (EVEN if they get caught they most likely owe so much that it's just not going to happen).

tonycottee

Just to add - that passport isn't genuine.
It is an old style one without a chip. They stopped being made in 2006, yet that passport was issued in 2009.

Clive_Woody

Sounds perfectly legit.

If your friend would just send me the governance release fee of £2750 and the HMRC entrepreneur tax relief fee of £3999 then the loan will be in his bank tomorrow.

Brock_and_Roll

There is ZERO chance of getting the money back from the scammers. The scam may look a bit "crap" to some of us but it is normally part of major organised crime. There will be many different parties involved with different jobs (setting up bank accounts, creating documents, making calls etc). Almost certainly the cash will have been moved through several bank accounts within minutes then out of the country to a location where there is pretty much zero chance of anything being done.


If it makes the OP's friend feel any better, I see major international firms fall for scams where they really should have known better - and in these cases they are often done for hundreds of thousands and the rest!

MABLE

I read yesterday there was a 75 year old lady who was scammed by someone who said they were a Halifax fraud investigator. He phoned her and got her to part with £200k in a series of transactions and arranged for a courier to collect the money.

My point is as long as there is gullible people out there the scams will never stop.