sarah now evelyn hudson

Welcome to Scamwarners MerryMerry.

We're delighted that your money didn't go in to a scammer's pocket and that we were of some help.

Some of the sites appear to have recognised that their survival depends on them being able to control the problem of scam ads otherwise they'll be completely overrun, but I'd still advise caution when looking for bargains.

I went for two Landrovers on Gumtree, one in London, one in Sheffield....when I called the mobiles they both had dialing tones indicating they were abroad. I have received a text asking me to email [email protected]. I googled the domain and that's as far as I am going. Oddly, another LD that I emailed about today turned out to be in Dundee not Manchester and they tried the Ebay scam on me. I am going to only by a vehicle that I can touch from a person I can see!

Welcome to Scamwarners bart holman.

If more buyers had your attitude this scam gang would have a very lean time, and we'd all be happy.

The mopexpert.com domain is in the form that is clearly another from the toolbox these fraudsters use, and the switch of vehicle location to somewhere in Scotland (on balance of probability remote enough you'd be unlikely to be prepared to travel to for a viewing) is a ploy they've overplayed so frequently it's embarrassing. It's not quite as daft as the other one claiming to be a soldier based on the Isle of Man, but they'll keep using them as long as people allow themselves to be suckered by these 'simpletons'.

Please, please read the warnings before you buy or, be very wise like bart, and only buy things you can see and touch. Make it clear you'll only buy on this basis and the scammers will run from you like a vampire faced with a crucifix.

The bigger the bargain, the more the buyer thinks of reason why you can't see it first - the more likely it is that it doesn't exist as anything other than a photo that the scammer's copied for his ad.

mopexpert.com is an email-only domain. Could you post enough info that one of us could send an email to mopexpert that's likely to get a reply, so that we can have evidence to kill the domain?

Think I have her too! her email address has changed, now at "prosbt.com" Trying to sell me a VW camper in Scotland, got this message today

"Evelyn <[email protected]>

Hello,
Are you still interested ? The 2006 VW Volkswagen Transporter T5 Camper Van is still for sale in excellent condition, with no damages or any faults. Full service history. All necessary documents available. My current location is Scotland due to my work commitments. If this is going to be a quick sale, I will let it go for £5,500 delivered at my costs.
The deal will go strictly according to eBay rules and policy.
Thank you"

Will let you know what happens but no money leaving my account until i've seen the vehicle.

Hope this helps someone

Buyers Beware!!

latest update

"HI 10 months mot with 5 months tax left. I am in Dundee. More photos at:
http://s832.photobucket.com/user/vwtran ... 1/library/
Due to my location and since view is not an option I have requested personal support and I was approved to use Buyer Protection Program. Here is how the process works:

- you give me your full name and shipping address
- I start the transaction with the eBay,
- they send further payment instructions,
- you have to pay for the item to eBay to secure the funds,
- they confirm me that they received the funds,
- I deliver the camper,
- you receive the camper,
- they send me the money.

Everything is covered by eBay. I will get paid only after you confirm that you received the camper in good order.
Let me know if this is acceptable. Thank you

Eve"

I dont think so Eve.

prosbt.com appears to be a fake email-only domain created by the scammer. Could you post the email headers so that we can kill it?

I too have been scammed by this evil person in Feruary 2014, for the same camper van and through e-bay. Like a fool I was taken in and sent £4200 to this person to a Barclays account in London. The local police and Fraud Aware have been informed, as has e-bay but nothing is happening about it. E-bay are not interested in pursueing it even though they have stated that she is still an e-bay seller. The Police say they have gone as far as they can with the investigation, and Fraud Aware have sent 2 letters now stating that their investigation have ended, but they have not mentioned whether they are going to prosecute or not, and I guess my money has long gone. I too was taken in by the fact that eveything looked like e-bay and genuine. I will never buy or deal with e-bay again I have no confidence in the site at all now. I am going to pursue my claim for a refund/compensation as far up the chain with e-bay as I can manage, but I do not hold out much hope. I hope this information about this person helps others not be taken in by this person.

You may have noticed catlady that I post up details of a minimum of 100 fraudulent car adverts on Autotrader UK daily and I don't normally cover other types of vehicle. That gives some idea of the widespread nature of the fraud that pervades every ad site in the UK and abroad. Amazingly, because the scammers hack/phish dealer accounts on Autotrader UK, there aren't really any adverts you can trust more than others. I can spot most of them, though I only post details of the most obvious ones. If anything I under report the scale of the problem and there has been no effective effort to change the situation over the years I have been reporting them. The sites get their income from advertisers, so that as long as advertisers pay them, there is no pressure on them to do much.

The situation is really quite bizarre because, if a fraudster can phish the Autotrader UK account of a company dealer, what's to stop them hacking the bank account ? If the criminal slips in a key logging trojan instead of a phishing link that's all he has to do. The criminal has to work hard to steal a buyer's money but, if they get bank login details they don't have to do much more than transfer money out.

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/comment/article-2689782/You-complain-crook-bank-tells-fraud-victim.html?

You can complain to the crook, bank tells victim of Google Wallet van fraud

It is absolutely insane that banks and the government are pressing everyone to operate online and yet online fraud is largely a matter that banks and the police ignore. You'd be surprised how many people in the UK find their accounts emptied by online fraudsters and banks are more frequently not accepting responsibility even when there is no evidence that the account holder did anything wrong. Cases of insider fraud are becoming much more common than in my days in banking and banks don't willingly own up to it. This doesn't apply in your case but banks have to tighten up their procedures simply because it does their reputation no good to be associated with fraud.

But this does not explain why so many vehicle sale scams involve accounts at Barclays. Has Barclays become a soft touch as far as opening an account is concerned?
Without too much effort, I found reports of well over a dozen identical frauds, all using accounts at Barclays. Perhaps the bank should put more effort into spotting those high quality fake ID papers – or are other banks just as vulnerable, I wonder?

[AlanJones]

But this does not explain why so many vehicle sale scams involve accounts at Barclays. Has Barclays become a soft touch as far as opening an account is concerned?
Without too much effort, I found reports of well over a dozen identical frauds, all using accounts at Barclays. Perhaps the bank should put more effort into spotting those high quality fake ID papers – or are other banks just as vulnerable, I wonder?

One has to wonder whether Barclays are just totally incompetent or whether there is a general culture of fraud within their certain areas of their staff. After reading this article http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2554875/Barclays-account-details-sale-gold-27-000-files-leaked.html and various ones on fradulent trading etc, I am tending towards the latter. One wonders how long the regulators will allow the situation to continue before deciding that Barclays are not fit to be authorised and take steps to remedy the situation.

http://www.runcornandwidnesweeklynews.co.uk/incoming/widnes-cyber-fraudster-spent-1m-6854893

This is quite a remarkable example.

With my banking background it is a matter of shame that the UK has achieved prominence as a world centre for fraudulently opened bank accounts. The greater concern is that those accounts will be inevitably be used to perform fraud against the bank itself. If the banks can't protect themselves then the regulator should make them.

[AlanJones]

John Skermer, 45, of Regency Park, headed an IT security team at Barclays bank where he worked as a software engineer, giving him the expertise and access to set up ‘ghost’ accounts with overdrafts of up to £1m.

I don't think I need to comment on how surprised I am at which bank it is

I like the way they mention so casually "the bogus account loophole in the security system"