Fraud - Full Carbon Bianchi

[GBguy]

I've sold quite a bit on Gumtree. I've got so used to these 'okes' offering to send me proof of payment, and asking for me to send the item immediately, that I tell them not to bother. When the money is in, then we can talk. But that story about an insider in the bank is very worrying. I'll have to record these calls in future...

[brad890]

excuse my ignorance, but how does this scam work so that I know to watch out for myself.

 

from what I understand the buyer deposits a fake cheque or cheque destined to bounce into your account, so from there what does one see?

 

does the money reflect on your statement but not available for use? or does it not reflect at all and the bank phones you up to say its bounced a few days later, or does it reflect then suddenly the cheque bonces and money withdrawn from your account?

[baie-sukkel]

@ the OP, is this Michael chap by any change a Zimbawean +- 29 years pf age? Plse make contact with me as I had a dealing with a similar NdLovu guy.

[GrumpyOldGuy]

excuse my ignorance, but how does this scam work so that I know to watch out for myself.

 

from what I understand the buyer deposits a fake cheque or cheque destined to bounce into your account, so from there what does one see?

 

does the money reflect on your statement but not available for use? or does it not reflect at all and the bank phones you up to say its bounced a few days later, or does it reflect then suddenly the cheque bonces and money withdrawn from your account?

 

Yes, it will reflect ( as a credit on your account) but usually on personal accounts its not available, as you say. The clearing process takes a day or two so usually if it hops, it will just reflect as a debit a day or two later.

 

I get really sad when I read about this kind of thing, many folk are not aware of the issues surrounding cheques and clearances and often fall prey to these mobsters simply because they are honest and believe everyone else is too.

 

SA in my opinion has become a paradise for fraudsters, the police are too busy to worry about tracking down white collar crime so these fraudsters are seldom bought to book, so they just carry on like its nothing to worry about, and harassing a woman to scare her into parting with more money is something new, and quite detestable as well.

 

In my opinion if most of these thugs spent as much time working an honest job as they do thinking up cons, our productivity rate would soar. **Sigh**

[milky4130]

excuse my ignorance, but how does this scam work so that I know to watch out for myself.

 

from what I understand the buyer deposits a fake cheque or cheque destined to bounce into your account, so from there what does one see?

 

does the money reflect on your statement but not available for use? or does it not reflect at all and the bank phones you up to say its bounced a few days later, or does it reflect then suddenly the cheque bonces and money withdrawn from your account?

yes he makes payment with a fake/stolen cheques, funds will reflect immediately but not available immediately, you won't know method of

Payment & will Hand over the goods. A couple of days later Bank will discover its stolen/fake & I guess you lose.

[brad890]

Yes, it will reflect ( as a credit on your account) but usually on personal accounts its not available, as you say. The clearing process takes a day or two so usually if it hops, it will just reflect as a debit a day or two later.

 

I get really sad when I read about this kind of thing, many folk are not aware of the issues surrounding cheques and clearances and often fall prey to these mobsters simply because they are honest and believe everyone else is too.

 

SA in my opinion has become a paradise for fraudsters, the police are too busy to worry about tracking down white collar crime so these fraudsters are seldom bought to book, so they just carry on like its nothing to worry about, and harassing a woman to scare her into parting with more money is something new, and quite detestable as well.

 

In my opinion if most of these thugs spent as much time working an honest job as they do thinking up cons, our productivity rate would soar. **Sigh**

 

 

yes he makes payment with a fake/stolen cheques, funds will reflect immediately but not available immediately, you won't know method of

Payment & will Hand over the goods. A couple of days later Bank will discover its stolen/fake & I guess you lose.

 

 

Thanks Grumpy and milky, I always assumed once it reflected as a credit in your account it was all A for away, but now I know better, and will clear it with the bank in future regarding larger quantities of money

[milky4130]

 

SA in my opinion has become a paradise for fraudsters, the police are too busy to worry about tracking down white collar crime so these fraudsters are seldom bought to book, so they just carry on like its nothing to worry about, and harassing a woman to scare her into parting with more money is something new, and quite detestable as well.

 

In my opinion if most of these thugs spent as much time working an honest job as they do thinking up cons, our productivity rate would soar. **Sigh**

P.S. SA is not special, this has been happening for quite sometime already in other 1st world countries. In fact I'd say it only started happening in the past couple of years over here.

Back in 2007 i was nearly a victim in the UK. I advertised a room to rent in our house, a "travelling dr" wanted to pay 1 or 2 months rent in advance plus deposit via cheques into my bank account this was posted to my address, this was for his son who will be moving to the London to study, I couldn't believe my luck, after advertising for quite sometime with no takers. He conveniently paid much more than was needed due to a mistake he made, which I was to withdraw & hand it over in cash to his son(scammer) luckily my gut said

Something doesn't sound right, I enquired by the bank & they said its a classic scam, needless to say it was the first time I heard of it, that's when the threats for his money started, i never heard from him again after I started making My own threats.

[aaronxc]

hey guys in hubber land im currently in this situation to so posted my add on gumtree 2hrs later boom get this dude simon saying he is very intrested and would like to do the deal with me. i give him my details then says he will do an Eft in the mean time i must arrange delivery so i knew this was to good to be true so i went to the delivrery address just to check the place out and it was in yoeville in some old dodgey building really rough place so i knew straight away this guy was a chancer LOL SUCH A CHOP!!!!! then the following day he sent me a meassage saying when can he expect delivery and i said when i see the money reflecting in my acc 30min later i get this email with 2 pdf files stating the eft had taken place. but no amount reflecting in my acc still. So today i get an sms saying he had accedently did a dubble eft when can i delivery???? :w00t: What should i do i wanna report this CHOP AND NAIL THIS CRIMINAL

[milky4130]

The sad part is, that this is considered petty so you'll get no joy from SAPS. The best you can do is take him for a ride until he gets the point, the other sad part is they catch the unknowing victim all the time & get away with it.

[kosmonooit]

Fraud hasn't taken place until the fraudster has the goods. I've tried to set a trap several times in such situations (with IT goods), tell them to come and collect, but no luck as yet. SAPS will act once you can lay charges.

 

Other scam is altered deposit slip sent to you - (stolen) chq changed to cash. Then you see the amount and think yes! then the chq gets returned.

 

Its sad you have to treat people with mistrust by default nowadays.

 

You can always say you need time for the payment to clear if any doubt, and call your bank for advice.

 

I've had a SARS VAT Cheque (R130k+) cashed into a private account by an insider job.

[nathrix]

Posted a link to this thread on the Bicycle Safety page on facebook so that people are warned and more people to be on the lookout for your bike.

Edited August 5, 2012 by nathrix ® ©™

[Vetseun]

I almost got caught as well. Luckily just before delivering I checked my bank account . On Nedbank you can see the deposit slip if you click on the deposit entry on the statement. I noticed that it was a school cheque, I called them and they confirmed that the cheque book had been stolen.

What really upsets me is that banks are so carefull with cheque fraud. So the teller who accepted the cheque and then cleared the funds should face a disiplinary hearing.

Good luck with finding your bike. It appears as if these bastards are not just satisfied with stealing your bike, they want to extort futrther money from you.

If you ever find them, break his flat nose. Or better still give him a bullet.

[Mavro]

Becareful out there. These vultures take no prisoners. Wait for the cash to reflect in our account and confirm that the cash is cleared before releasing the goods.

[Bonus]

Sounds like the most obvious cure to this problem is for the bank to indicate on your statement (on screen & paper copy) which funds are still "uncleared".

 

So you would have a balance of say 50k but 27k of that (value of transaction in question) would be "not yet cleared". You would know not to part with your goods until the uncleared amount became "cleared".

[Tankman]

He sent "his driver" to collect the bicycle.

Moses Bongani Phama ID Nr 8401018026080

076 771 2204

 

On the 30 July the cheque bounced and Moses started harassing me about being in possession of the bicycle and Michael owing him "transport money". I tried convincing him to leave the bike at the closest police station but to no avail. He and his "boss" - Manla - was just trying to get money out of me as well. Manla 0738143959

 

Hindsight is an exact science but I would have told the driver to bring the bike back and pay him double what is boss still owes him.

 

They might be tempted by the promise of money ... just have the cops standing close by.

Edited August 5, 2012 by Tankman

[Oliver Z]

In the days before gumtree the same scams happened with IOL and Junkmail classifieds (still do..). I hope that this doesn't become a gumtree- bashing forum. I, for one am happy that there are these free classified sites available, that help me get rid of excess "stuff".

The onus is on the seller to make sure he / she doesn't get scammed. I've had the same experiences as most of the folks ranting here - just haven't been caught. Usually 1 out of every 5 respondents to an ad is a scammer - they never phone, but prefer sms's.

The bank will always verify if it's a cheque or not. If in doubt, then ask them to verify that the funds are cleared and immediately available.

And never, never, never... I repeat: NEVER, hand the articles over until the cash is in hand.

I've had one cheque bounce because of insufficient funds and another was deposited which was in fact part of a bunch of cheque books that were lost in a Cash-in-transit robbery.

IMHO, I believe that cheques should be outlawed anyway. It's nothing more than an I.O.U.