Bank Transfer Scam

Jewelscollectingdust

I don’t know whether any collusion took place - I have to say it also occurred to me that might well be the case. 

But just consider this 

With a scammer (or maybe a group of scammers working together)  - the one flaw ie saying it was the partners account funds had come from - is totally a piece of cake to iron out. 

The hard part of this scam is to hook the rent / property deposit person and prime them ready to pay.
The rest follows on easy as it’s just a matter of making a purchase. 

Its also incredibly simple  for scammer to take that extra step to set up an email to look like that person using payees name - then pretend to be them on an email to make the purchase
Just take this particular scam that one little further step (hardly any further bother) and you have a situation that is perfectly identical to a genuine and honest transaction from the recipient of the funds stance - the perfect crime 
There would be absolutely  no way to tell the difference between a scam scenario and a genuine scenario from the recipient of funds stance who then parts with high value goods.

This glaring hole in the system requires that the banks take some responsibility. 
The fact the bank transfer system can so easily be manipulated in this way cannot be right. The system needs tightening up to eliminate this scenario being possible

I cannot be the first person this happened to and I definitely will not be the last

In my view the banks should hold responsibility to make the system safe and fit for purpose 

lr1277

The following is not having a dig at the OP during this difficult time for them.

I am wondering about the name of your business account. Does the account name include your name and\or business type? For example JCDJewellry? So the sender may have paused if the account name didn’t match the purpose of their intended payment. Also a good scammer would probably concoct a lie around the specific account name. Also I suspect many business owners may not want to give too much away in terms of company names or account names as some of these details are available from Companies House.
Like I said, just wondering.

Petriix

For the future a simple protection measure would be to insist on including a clear identifier in the transfer description field. Something like 'gold jewelry' in this case.

Abbafan1972

I hope that you get this sorted op.  What an elaborate scam as well.

The scammer was able to get this woman to trust him enough to think the property was legit and transfer the money.

I don't know whether you have your business name on your account, but if there's even a slight mismatch with account names when setting up a new payee with online banking, you get a warning. 

The scammer must have been very convincing to get her to transfer the money. 

jimjames

Thrugelmir said:

Jewelscollectingdust said:

The scammer was also in contact with another person whom he pretended to be doing a property deal with and asked her to pay a deposit to secure the deal they had done.
He gave her my bank details to pay the deposit - so the payment that comes into my account (the bank only give you name details)  The exact amount as agreed for gold items   I was selling - she other person thought she was paying deposit on property deal. 

Possibly collusion between the parties. Rather too convenient. 

Having seen someone I know lose thousands for a property I think this is entirely feasible as a genuine story without collusion. Some serious planning & coordination by the scammer but possible

MR1988

But is it possible that the person who sent the money is on the scam as well? What if they work together and then the "house deposit" victim just pretends to have gotten scammed?

Also, aren't people supposed to get a written paper or invoice for paying deposits? Why would someone pay a deposit for a house they have not seen and to a person they have not met?

sheramber

Jewelscollectingdust said:

 

Just take this particular scam that one little further step (hardly any further bother) and you have a situation that is perfectly identical to a genuine and honest transaction from the recipient of the funds stance - the perfect crime 
There would be absolutely  no way to tell the difference between a scam scenario and a genuine scenario from the recipient of funds stance who then parts with high value goods.

This glaring hole in the system requires that the banks take some responsibility. 
The fact the bank transfer system can so easily be manipulated in this way cannot be right. The system needs tightening up to eliminate this scenario being possible

I cannot be the first person this happened to and I definitely will not be the last

In my view the banks should hold responsibility to make the system safe and fit for purpose 

How would you suggest the banks do that?

pbartlett

One way (and I am not saying I agree with it) is to make the banks have completely no responsibility whatsoever ie they don't investigate claims of fraudulent transfers, they don't freeze people's accounts - they act just as banks and process transactions.

If there is any criminal wrongdoing (as in this case), the victim would report it to the police or actionfraud or whatever in the same was as any other crime is reported, but not the bank, who would simply act  as financial institutions and not detectives.

Under that scenario, in this case the bank would not get involved ***at all** - the lady sending the fraudulent deposit would be the victim of a crime and would not go to her bank but to the authorities.

Jewelscollectingdust

All our banking is done with the one bank 
we have several accounts 
one for our bills - one for business one for savings etc etc 

The bank have this morning frozen every single account we have leaving no access to anything 

I am totally at my wits end 
I can’t pay bills or run my business 

pbartlett

yes that's what they do - act as judge, jury and executioner. Please name the bank