Scammed and so difficult to report

diddydaddy

So I was scammed out of £800, and almost resigned to the loss, that I will never get my money back.

But although this is annoying enough, what really gets to me is no one is interested. I try and report it, and just given a 'bean count' number. No feedback, no reponse, no investigation.

The ads I fell for are still there. Yes I can tell the largest web site which one's they are, but then they will remove them, and I will lose all the evidence of them ever being there in the first place. 

Tried reporting to trading standards, and all you get is onward liks and reporting forms, which for some reason are only available on weekend days.

Notified the most famous consumer program, (not sure if I am allowed to name them within forum rules), but I guess my loss is not big enough for them to take an interest.

So even though, I have the ads, which are still live, which point to the scammers, the link in which I gave them my hard earned money, still NO one is interested.

It is not surprising there are so many scammers out there, no one does anything, apart from take a count for their own statistics, and so they can get your email and bombard you with sammer prevention messages.

I would love to bring these criminals to justice, and I think it would be easy to 'follow the ads, and money' to stop them, but if I can't get anyone to stand up for normal people, then what is the point. May as well just keep handing these lowest-of-the-low criminals, our money, and say good luck to them. 

elsien

Perhaps an indication of the websites in question and in what way you feel you were defrauded would help if you want any suggestions?
How you paid, what for, etc? 

MattMattMattUK

diddydaddy said:

So I was scammed out of £800, and almost resigned to the loss, that I will never get my money back.

But although this is annoying enough, what really gets to me is no one is interested. I try and report it, and just given a 'bean count' number. No feedback, no reponse, no investigation.

Who did you report it to and how did you pay/send this money?

diddydaddy said:

The ads I fell for are still there. Yes I can tell the largest web site which one's they are, but then they will remove them, and I will lose all the evidence of them ever being there in the first place. 

Tried reporting to trading standards, and all you get is onward liks and reporting forms, which for some reason are only available on weekend days.

That sounds odd in itself, the forms work every day of the week.

diddydaddy said:

Notified the most famous consumer program, (not sure if I am allowed to name them within forum rules), but I guess my loss is not big enough for them to take an interest.

The consumer programs, people like Martin Lewis etc. get thousands of emails and messages every day of people wanting them to sort out their issues. 

diddydaddy said:

It is not surprising there are so many scammers out there, no one does anything, apart from take a count for their own statistics, and so they can get your email and bombard you with sammer prevention messages.

The best thing one can do is apply common sense and basic checks. As soon as one site gets shut down another will pop up, it is a never ending battle for the authorities, the best antidote is consumer awareness.

diddydaddy said:

I would love to bring these criminals to justice, and I think it would be easy to 'follow the ads, and money' to stop them, but if I can't get anyone to stand up for normal people, then what is the point. 

That is something for the legal authorities, but the reality is that many of these scammers will be outside of the UK's ability to investigate and mostly outside of it's jurisdiction.

diddydaddy said:

May as well just keep handing these lowest-of-the-low criminals, our money, and say good luck to them. 

Or you could stop handing them your money? The reason that various groups, government bodies etc. spend so much on consumer education is because it is really the only way to stop these kind of scams, anyone can create an email, a web page, make a phone call etc. and they rely on people making poor decisions, as long as people continue to make poor decisions then they will continue to exist. 

Exodi

diddydaddy said:

I think it would be easy to 'follow the ads, and money' to stop them, but if I can't get anyone to stand up for normal people, then what is the point. May as well just keep handing these lowest-of-the-low criminals, our money, and say good luck to them. 

I disagree - most of these websites use domain privacy servers so it's hard to establish who runs the website, and as someone who takes a keen interest in scams, you see they often come from countries like Nigeria, India or Hong Kong.

It becomes incredibly difficult trying to take enforcement action against unknown (or even known) individuals on a different continent. Or putting the time and effort into having a website taken down, for another duplicate to pop up in its place with new ads minutes after.

Money mules are very common (using another innocent party to launder the money) as is crypto, both of which further dilute the money trail. The reason scammers aren't routinely caught isn't because no-one can be bothered, it's because it is incredibly difficult.

Sorry you got scammed.

user1977

I don't see a question - are you actually seeking advice from us? If you were just wanting a rant, this forum is better for that:

Praise, vent & warnings — MoneySavingExpert Forum

p00hsticks

diddydaddy said:

The ads I fell for are still there. Yes I can tell the largest web site which one's they are, but then they will remove them, and I will lose all the evidence of them ever being there in the first place. 

diddydaddy said:

So even though, I have the ads, which are still live, which point to the scammers, the link in which I gave them my hard earned money, still NO one is interested.

It is not surprising there are so many scammers out there, no one does anything, 

If you have not made any effort to get those ads removed, which could prevent others from making the same mistake as you did, then I think you need to add yourself to those who don't do anything ....

Vectis

Ok, but what's the consumer rights issue?

This just seems like a rant about scammers, and that's fair enough, but it should be on the right board.

Maybe, if you named the ads, and tell how you were scammed it might help others avoid the same.

Perhaps someone could move this to the right board, please?

sheramber

diddydaddy said:

So I was scammed out of £800, and almost resigned to the loss, that I will never get my money back.

But although this is annoying enough, what really gets to me is no one is interested. I try and report it, and just given a 'bean count' number. No feedback, no reponse, no investigation.

The ads I fell for are still there. Yes I can tell the largest web site which one's they are, but then they will remove them, and I will lose all the evidence of them ever being there in the first place. 

Tried reporting to trading standards, and all you get is onward liks and reporting forms, which for some reason are only available on weekend days.

Notified the most famous consumer program, (not sure if I am allowed to name them within forum rules), but I guess my loss is not big enough for them to take an interest.

So even though, I have the ads, which are still live, which point to the scammers, the link in which I gave them my hard earned money, still NO one is interested.

It is not surprising there are so many scammers out there, no one does anything, apart from take a count for their own statistics, and so they can get your email and bombard you with sammer prevention messages.

I would love to bring these criminals to justice, and I think it would be easy to 'follow the ads, and money' to stop them, but if I can't get anyone to stand up for normal people, then what is the point. May as well just keep handing these lowest-of-the-low criminals, our money, and say good luck to them. 

What about personal responsibility to check out companies before giving them any money?

Ectophile

You're supposed to report fraud to Action Fraud.  It won't do any good, but that's who you're supposed to report it to.

diddydaddy

wow what a bunch of absolute no help.
I thought I would get some decent advice on here, instead of people saying I shouldn't have given them my money, and peole saying I have done nothing about it.
Completely missed the point. 
The reason I have not revealed the ads yet, is that Google will remove the ads and they will remain squeaky clean, and I wil then have no evidence.
I am fed up with condescending people who say I shouldn't have given them my money, and I should have checked the companies out first. Yes I know this, but it has happened now, and I don't need a bunch of people telling me it shouldn't have happened.
The point I was making is maybe a bit of advice on how to report. And if there is anything that can be done.
This is not a rant, but I did think I was going to get some real advice, not a load of people stating the bl***ing obvious
I will remove myself from this forum, and try another.

Ergates

diddydaddy said:

wow what a bunch of absolute no help.
I thought I would get some decent advice on here, instead of people saying I shouldn't have given them my money, and peole saying I have done nothing about it.
Completely missed the point. 
The reason I have not revealed the ads yet, is that Google will remove the ads and they will remain squeaky clean, and I wil then have no evidence.
I am fed up with condescending people who say I shouldn't have given them my money, and I should have checked the companies out first. Yes I know this, but it has happened now, and I don't need a bunch of people telling me it shouldn't have happened.
The point I was making is maybe a bit of advice on how to report. And if there is anything that can be done.
This is not a rant, but I did think I was going to get some real advice, not a load of people stating the bl***ing obvious
I will remove myself from this forum, and try another.

You didn't actually ask any questions, why did you expect to get useful answers?