Scam help please

hollydays

Ask the builder for his police crime number reference.

elliep_2

sheramber wrote: »

Was the scam invoice the same as the genuine one?

I still don't have a genuine invoice.

Keep_pedalling

You may still owe him for the work, but his negligence, in allowing his system to be hacked, has been responsible for an equal loss on your part.

If you have legal cover on you home insurance it might be worth finding out where you stand legally on this.

elliep_2

Keep_pedalling wrote: »

You may still owe him for the work, but his negligence, in allowing his system to be hacked, has been responsible for an equal loss on your part.

If you have legal cover on you home insurance it might be worth finding out where you stand legally on this.

Thanks, I hadn't considered whether my home insurance might be able to help. I'll look up the details of my policy and give them a call tomorrow.

Manxman_in_exile

Keep_pedalling wrote: »

You may still owe him for the work, but his negligence, in allowing his system to be hacked, has been responsible for an equal loss on your part.

If you have legal cover on you home insurance it might be worth finding out where you stand legally on this.

Is it at all possible that the tradesman has (or should have) insurance against identity theft? Assuming the tradesman's story is true, he's suffered a loss because of theft of his identity.


I suppose even if he does have insurance, he may be in breach of T&Cs because of the six month delay?

elliep_2

I'll ask about the identity theft insurance.

I've been really thrown by this because I'm normally very savvy. I'd spot a phishing email a mile off and have hung up on (probably) my own mobile phone company because they called me and wanted me to verify my details, so I asked them to verify themselves first. We ended up in a deadlock and I hung up. Normally I'm very aware of scams but I'd never heard of this type and didn't recognise it for what it was.

I've been communicating with the tradesman since the original post and he says the police have advised him that I am still liable for the full bill which I haven't paid to him. It is me who has been scammed and not him. However he also states that he recognises the delay in noticing the lack of payment was a fault at his end and his email provider have also been at fault for not noticing the hack. So he has offered to wait the further 3 months while the bank investigate, and stated that he won't chase me for any money at any point.

Essentially he says I don't have to pay him, but I feel bad doing that and will await the outcome of the bank investigation but probably pay him 50%. As there were faults on both sides it seems fair to share the loss. But in the meantime we're both looking at whether there are any insurances or anything else which may be useful, although this is unlikely.

eddddy

There seem to be a lot of strange coincidences here. Do you completely trust the tradesman?

The usual scam is that somebody emails you a legitimate invoice, then a scammer sends you a second email saying that the bank account details were wrong in the previous email or have changed.


But you're saying that a scammer created a fake invoice, so must have known...

• Your name address (if it was on the invoice)
• Details of the job (to put on the invoice)
• That the job had recently been finished (so it was the right time to send an invoice)
• The correct price to charge you

... and then the scammer took the time and effort to format a fake invoice.

... and then the tradesman 'forgot' to invoice you for 6 months.


Are you sure that the tradesman didn't really send you that original invoice - which you paid into his account...

... and now he is trying to scam you into paying it again into a different account of his?

elliep_2

Yes I'm sure it's not the tradesman.

I hadn't had an invoice, so emailed to chase for it. The scammer got the information from the quote which was saved in the sent messages and reformatted it quickly into an invoice instead of a quote so had all my details and the agreed price from that. It looked genuine to me as it had all the same format as the genuine quote I'd seen. It would have been a very easy cut and paste job and would have taken only a few minutes.

The plumber is a friend from church and I trust him. He seems as shaken by this as I am. I was probably an extra-easy target because of the level of trust I have in this particular plumber.

Manxman_in_exile

OP - good luck!


My comment about identity theft insurance is purely speculative. I just know it was offered to me on my buildings insurance and I was wondering if it was something that would be available to a tradesman as part of his business insurance?

GrumpyDil

Interesting that the police commented that you still owe the money as that is a civil matter and not within their area of expertise. Although do agree you are the one who has been scammed and not the builder.