Bank Transfer Scam

soulsaver

Well it could be a costly lesson - but instead of learning, you're still trying to blame a banks process for your lack of diligence.

If you're dealing with internet, then your dealing with modern day wild west - there's plenty of honest people out there...but there's scammers abounding, too.

So, you make sure you don't stray from straight forward principles: Someone asks to accept a bank transfer payment from another person - no way.

Even worse, a 3rd party pays by bank transfer without communicating with you first? You think that's an 'everyday' occurrence?

They have a problem paying through their bank? Tell them send cash special delivery.
. 
Or pay by cheque and you'll ship on cleared funds.

Can't do? They're hard work? Pass - they're likely scammers.

jimjames

soulsaver said:

Even worse, a 3rd party pays by bank transfer without communicating with you first? You think that's an 'everyday' occurrence?

I think that you're again being somewhat unfair. If the partner of the person making the transaction made the payment I wouldn't expect to have contact with them. It might not happen every day but it's also something that isn't beyond the realms of possibility. I'm sure the person who paid their money for a non existent rental property is thinking the same. Two people scammed at the same time is a clever MO. It's very easy to be critical in hindsight, I know I've come close to being scammed in the past and it's only after the event you think "what just happened?"

HWBY

Hi Jewels, I can't help with any practical advice, but did feel the need to chime in that I think people in this thread are being very unfair to you.

This scam has started popping up lately, and you're not the first person I've heard of to fall victim to it. It's especially prevalent on online market places where users interact directly with each other - Shpock, Gumtree, Depop, etc. It's a very sophisticated scam and often isn't detected until days - maybe even longer - after it's happened.

It's very easy for people to cry "you should have checked!", but really, checked what? It wouldn't be unusual for someone to make a purchase with their partner's details - I bought £150 worth of whisky with my wife's card and name the other week after losing my own! As far as you could tell, the transaction was legitimate.

I hope you and and the lass on the other end get everything resolved. It's not your fault, and those in this thread sitting on their high horses aren't as savvy as they like to think if they don't see how this scam works so easily.

Batesy1976

pbartlett said:

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.

This is exactly how it was before the banks signed up to the voluntary code.  It's why people say that bank transfers (as the recipient) are completely safe.  They don't know that everything has changed.

I knew when this was being introduced that the obvious outcome was that anyone receiving funds from a fraudulent source would be hung out to dry, and those tricked into sending them would be subsidised by other customers.  There's no such thing as a free lunch.  Banks were never going to be footing the bill for this.

Edit:  And that's nothing to say of people claiming they were scammed to get their money back and the item, with the banks unwilling and largely unable to verify the truth of the claims.

sheramber

I hope you and and the lass on the other end get everything resolved

Somebody is going to  lose out.

Jewelscollectingdust

Thank you all 

Now Relaxing with a glass of wine i can only reflect - It’s been a  very fractious  day - I think the freezing of every account we have leaving us absolutely penniless in terms of internet banking and a whole host of problems with my bills direct debits, husbands salary, rent for my business etc etc to sort out just felt like the last straw this morning

ive also had to temporarily shut my eBay account until I can negotiate how to continue trading as buying stuff like postage labels and having payouts from managed payments are currently all linked to these frozen accounts - there’s money stuck in ebay  and currently I have no way of getting it out. I was already in process of changing ebay bank account - but they then froze the account today I was in process of switching too 

ive spent the evening sending my credit card sky high - by trying to pre-pay some of the bills on my account for the next three months - so they don’t need to take the direct debits in the account

What really made this so much worse was the stream of misinformation I got from the bank with every call. 

The information I was given here in this forum was  the truth of the situation - that this could take weeks to resolve - so thank you for that - I appreciate the frankness even though it wasn’t good news 

Rather  frustratinglyly 
I was told on first call - it would be sorted in 24 hours 
Another call - it would be a couple of days 
Finally  tonight - the truth - that they will not give a time frame for resolution and all our accounts will, remain frozen until they decide 
To be honest I feel really worried about our savings - and the funds we have in these frozen accounts - they are everything we have !!
The treatment by the bank - leaves me feeling more violated than the scam  - we have held some of the accounts now frozen with them for 35+ years 

They  have said I can withdraw cash at branch but that’s all. 

Thank you to the person that advised the bank accounts to look at - I am on a mission to look at that tomorrow - hopefully to try and sort my eBay account 

There’s something else a bit strange happening and I’m not sure if its co-incidence or not 

I have just started getting a regular spam type text messages with an odd link saying I’ve got a voicemail - it’s an overseas number and the link looks weird and keeps changing although the message is the same  -  obviously  I have not clicked it or tried to open 
At no point did I ever supply a phone number during the transactions - so it could be coincidental ??? - but I am feeling suspicious 

Teapot55

When the woman paid the deposit into @Jewelscollectingdust ‘s bank account her bank will surely have flagged up that the name on the account wasn’t that of the person she thought she was paying? Why would she ignore that warning? 

Jami74

Jewelscollectingdust said:

There’s something else a bit strange happening and I’m not sure if its co-incidence or not 

I keep getting spam type text messages with an odd link saying I’ve got a voicemail 

I am also getting a lot of those at the moment. It's probably unrelated. I do not have a business and have not had any banking problems.

It's good the bank have said you can withdraw cash at a branch. Hopefully once you've set up a new account you'll be able to deposit cash into it.

Jewelscollectingdust

Thank you Jami74 

good to know those messages are not just happening to me.

cymruchris

Teapot55 said:

When the woman paid the deposit into @Jewelscollectingdust ‘s bank account her bank will surely have flagged up that the name on the account wasn’t that of the person she thought she was paying? Why would she ignore that warning? 

They probably told them the same story as the OP but in reverse - using the OP's name as the partners account that would be used as they were having problems with theirs - or something daft like that. Or equally they could have both been in on it at the other end - but the chances are the OP will never know for sure.