With the cyber world increasingly taking over the running of our lives, such ‘cons’ or scams range from offers to deposit large sums of money into your bank account so you can help someone escape from a war-torn country to bikes and parts being advertised for sale at ridiculously low prices. The hope is an enthusiast will forward a £50-£100 deposit, with the balance to be paid on collection.
When the deal goes wrong the enthusiast will often ‘chalk it up to experience’. Clearly there are neither bike nor spares and the amount lost is relatively small to one person… although if the scammer has had 200 replies then 200 x £50 is quite a lot of gain for little work.
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Here at OBM we regularly hear tales of similar misdeeds, often followed by a request to name and shame. However, we also need to remain within the law and if we publish details of these alleged perpetrators before due legal process has taken place then their legal team – these scum always have a legal team – will attempt to have the case thrown out on the grounds the our reporting has prejudiced any potential trial and done justice a disservice. Of course if we make allegations which cannot be backed up then we are open to other legal action.
However, one regular OBM reader advised of a useful ‘tactic’ which readers can use to help themselves in such potential scams.
The reader was attracted to a cache of spares at a reasonable cost and was just about to transfer the funds to the bank account as requested when the bank clerk casually asked why he was sending money to a foreign bank? This shocked our reader and upon further investigation he decided not to proceed.
It seems that it is a reasonably simple thing for your bank to check the account the money is being sent to and all that’s required is to ask before the transaction has been completed.
Of course once again, the main moral here is… if it seems too good to be true then it probably is.
