Vw t25 camper [email protected]

How have you got on with your detective work Terrance? Have you managed to work out how they are operating?

I've not been able to get online recently due to moving house.

I'll be writing out my letter to the MP when I get a bit more time and I'll also be writining back to Barclays.

I've phoned a few solicitors, just out of interest but they're not interested in helping with this kind of case.

The good news is that far fewer UK bank accounts are being reported as being used in this type of scam, so perhaps the banks have taken action. The downside of that is that you can only pursue it as an issue with your MP as being an example of a general and widespread problem because, as you have discovered, you won't get anywhere trying to take it up as an isolated case.

It's virtually impossible to trace these people and the only time they expose themselves is when they divulge the bank accounts they're using. The accounts could be those of dupes or criminals but the authorities can't make a distinction in my opinion. I have every sympathy for anyone duped in to becoming a money mule, but whether you're a money mule or a drugs mule you're committing a crime for money and can't expect to get away with it unscathed.

I've been offered bank accounts in Europe by scammers but that'll be much less successful. HD has posted Employment Scams in that forum where the scammers are offering bonuses of £300 for UK bank accounts which perhaps indicates that they are getting more difficult to get hold of, though the group I'm looking at are back in the UK. Their bosses won't finance their stay without them working so that if they can't set up bank accounts they'll find some other means of making money but they always have drugs as a sideline.

Hi,
That are at it yet again. I contacted the seller on eBay of the following item
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/380740213148?redirect=mobile
My partner also contacted them and received a response from someone saying not to bid or buy as their account had been hacked and the item wasn't genuine. I reported the item to ebay ( it is still on). We thought nothing more about it. Today I received a text message from someone called Evelyn, no mobile number showing! The text said the camper is still available and to email [email protected] if I was interested. Needless to say I will be ignoring it and flagging up to ebay fraud department.

Welcome to Scamwarners samsasylum and thanks for the post.

That's immediately recognisable as being the work of a very prolific and successful fraudster. The ebay account looks quite legitimate and there's no reason why a scammer would alert you to an item listed on their account being fraudulent, though you'd expect the real account owner to delete the item themselves.

I can only speculate as to how a fraudster could get access to an ebay account but ebay ought to look in to it themselves as such occurrences undermine the whole reliability of their system.

Strangely enough this isn't the only example of an ad site where items are being posted under the identities of other people.

The fraud has been going on for a long time. Much longer than even this news article from The Independent in April of this year. I like to check for all mentions round the internet of scams like this and I noticed that this one even mentioned scamwarners.com.

I looked online for similar stories, and I reckon there's around 100 people who've been caught by the same scam, often by 'Sarah' and often using the same Barclays account," he says. Several victims tell their woeful stories on www.scamwarners.com.

Hi all,

Just joined this site as unfortunately my mum has just been scammed by 'evelyn', claiming to be based at an address in Dundee, selling a mercedes vito 115 van on ebay. The money, apparently being paid to ebay, went to an account in the name of Benedita Souto, a natwest account. I contacted Natwest who said they'd put a 'note' on that account, which was still open, but couldn't guarantee that no activity would take place on the account. I also reported to local police, Action Fraud, my mum's bank and ebay. I called Natwest again this morning but spoke to someone who was not helpful at all and said that the first person I spoke to shouldn't have given me any details!

Last night I saw that the same vehicle was still listed on ebay (even though ebay apparently closed that account at 15:45 earlier that same day??!!) They had also apparently closed 2 other 'linked' accounts??

Evelyn contacted mum via the email address '[email protected]'

Last night I contacted the seller on ebay before the listing disappeared. I have now received a text message asking to reply to a different email address if I'm interested in buying the mercedes van!

Have read with interest the Legal Beagles link about scammers that have used various Barclays accounts, and the actions people are taking to try and get some sort of action out of Barclays...has anyone else had any experience of similar with Natwest - I'm assuming a similar response from them?

Welcome to Scamwarners mishposs.

I'm sorry that a member of your family has joined the growing list of victims of this scammer.

Having retired from UK banking I can't say that I'm impressed by the behaviour of UK banks in dealing with what has become a widespread criminal activity underlying large scale international fraud. Irrespective of what a bank may or may not tell you, and to be precise the bank were wrong both times they spoke to you, they are obligated by law to implement statutory money laundering procedures to prevent this sort of activity. It isn't enough that they may have followed the correct procedure to open and monitor the account. The fact is that if it was used to perform fraud their procedures failed, and this is a widespread and prevalent failing that cannot be considered an unfortunate and inevitable consequence of having a banking system.

Yes - the bank should not have even confirmed the existence of the account to you and it was foolish of the second person to confirm that they shouldn't have done that - rather a unique double whammy.

Having reported it to the police I'd be inclined also to formally to report it to the bank, sending a mail by recorded delivery pointing out that under money laundering legislation they are obliged to report any accounts involved in suspicious transactions, and failure to do so can lead to prison sentences for those individuals failing to comply. The least you want to happen is to get the account shut down and properly reported.

I regret that there is little chance of you getting any money back and the only option is to take it up with your MP, which may sound onerous, but actually it's quite easy to do as there is an online means of doing this. Also the MP Stella Creasey has an interest in all things banking and it would be worthwhile taking it up with her. It's unlikely to get your money back but it would stop criminals infiltrating our banking system. If you pollute the planet you have a responsibility to clear up the mess and I feel the same should apply to banks. If these accounts caused them financial loss they'd take prompt action but they appear inert and uncaring as long as they can just shrug it off as being nothing to do with them.

The Nigerian who opened over 750 bank accounts recently was an outrageous example and another similar case has appeared in the news in the last few days. That was only 150 odd bank accounts involving fraud totalling £500,000.

Bank in the UK are not doing themselves any favours.

Just to make you aware this person is still up to her tricks this time advertising a 2008 Autotrail Trigano campervan for sale for at £6800, saying she is based in Scotland and that viewing is not possible but she will pay for delivery, with payment via Ebay. We have contacted Ebay and they informed us not too have any further dealings with this seller, too good to be true, BEWARE!!!!!! Cheers Dave

Welcome to Scamwarners dave1950.

If you look at this thread towards the bottom of the page you'll see that they've already claimed another victim.

http://www.scamwarners.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=20387&start=120

If you can give any links or e-mail addies it would be useful. We caught the fake eBay page before the criminals took it down this time which was very useful. The more examples of their work we get to see the better.

The volume of fake ads they're posting on all ad sites is phenomenal and something needs to be done otherwise the sites will become worthless.

Thanks for your reponses. These people are clearly relentless. I wonder how many of them are involved in this scam.

I have written to that branch of Natwest by recorded delivery with the details as you advised. I've also raised my concerns to MP Stella Creasey.

I forgot to say, after my mum had transferred the money, once we had realised it was a scam, we found the same vehicle still listed on ebay and the seller was 'plantmadness61'. I sent them a message from my account asking about the vehicle. The listing was removed and then I received a text message from a number that showed up as o7771238656 (note the strange small '0' at the start). Tried the number and just got a 'number not recognised'. The message asked me to email '[email protected]'

It would be no exaggeration to describe the scale of fraud going on as being phenomenal mishposs and someone needs to get a grip as it appears to being left to amateurs to do the little we can.

Quite apart from the scam adverts there is a whole criminal industry involved in setting up fake employment sites to recruit money mules and HD here has taken the lead in flagging up what must total beyond a thousand sites devoted to providing bank accounts for money laundering. To support that there has to be a very large organised gang spamming job sites and then spamming victims, aside from setting up the fake sites themselves. After recruiting money mules, on top of that another layer has to then post the scam adverts for vehicles and handle the victims which may involve setting up fake ebay pages as well. Such an operation has to be large and organised. The banks, the ad sites, the police and government have to do more. Ebay, Gumtree and autotrader are all deluged with scams and, if the scammers win, those name will become memories of businesses that failed. Governments must ensure that police enforce the law and money launderers get blacklisted with banks and the the government ensures the FCS imposes sanctions against banks who don't observe money laundering legislation. Currently the UK is suffering a criminal feeding frenzy driven by sloppy legislation and lax controls.

It's very difficult to get any sort of overall picture of what they're doing and how they're operating but I suspect that all the apparently different scammers are actually all part of the same gang judging from the structure and tactics being used. In forum relating to ad scams I've probably posted nearly 50 fake ebay pages posted by criminals. Someone else I've recently contacted, who isn't on this forum is specialising in reporting real ebay pages set up scammers and, in a few months he's reported hundreds.

The situation is quite scary and I wouldn't go near an ad site knowing what I know.

anyone including myself who has been a victim of this scam/fraud should contact there MP and tell them your experience as i have done. A definate pattern has emerged were all stolen wired payments are all going into barclays bank accounts, if the banks are telling us to go away regarding individual cases i'm sure if a MEMBER OF PARLIMENT asked or highlighted this something HAS to be and WILL be done about it. I'M sure that in time we will ALL be compensated by barclays so lets all keep up the work on these sites and also to put pressure on your MP to get the answers you as an individual can't


thanks dogwithabone

Hmm, seems these people are at it again, I spotted a caravan offered on eBay yesterday at £6500, far too cheap for what it was so I knew it was a scam, needless to say eBay removed the listing later same night but low and behold they don't give up, I just got a text offering the same van, same price with an invitation to email [email protected], ring any bells anyone??

Have a friend who is old bill but they are just not interested, too much red tape, easier to catch me speeding.

I don't know what to say any more Tippler. Where bank regulation exists, it is a shambles and the police are in a permanent state of re-organisation as one scandal after another affects them. The FSA has been replaced by the FCA for no good reason as part of a re-branding exercise and SOCA disappeared in mysterious circumstances.

In the past year one person was convicted of fraud involving over 750 bank accounts they opened and used for fraud and another person has recently been convicted in respect of over 100 bank accounts they operated in the same way, and these aren't a part of organised crime. The only people in the UK who appear unaware that our banking system has become the natural home for bank accounts used in crime are our law enforcement bodies who have announced recently that they have set up a department to deal with internet crime, as if they've only just noticed the burgeoning problem.

I've never used an ad site and never would as they're run now because, although I know enough to avoid most scams, I just couldn't be bothered to wade through them all looking for honest deals. Unfortunately a lot of people go on those sites unaware of the risks, and the more people who get burned by scams on them, the more those sites will just become thieve's bazaars. Honest sellers can't compete with the scammers and buyers are more likely to get burrned than get a good deal.

The banking deficiencies, making it simple for any criminal to open a bunch of fraudulent bank accounts, just makes it too easy. Currently it's a lot easier to commit crime, with little risk of prosecution, than it is to get a job in the UK. I'm sure that there are online guides detailing how to set this up, though the ease with which it can be done doesn't require any great intelligence or technical knowledge.

As this newspaper article states

.....scam 'so easy a child could do it’

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/10375380/The-33000-a-week-benefit-scam-so-easy-a-child-could-do-it.html

It will probably only be when systems start to collapse that anything will be done about it.

Whether those involved are UK citizens or not is irrelevant. It's just a lot easier if you are not a UK citizen and/or have many foreign contacts.

just hope there is more to this than meets the eye!, surely its not a coincidence what there nationality is!!!!
http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/438866 ... ern-Europe . it apperars the law is trying to do something about our new european visitors, will they(the goverment or the police) now look very closely at barclays??, as boycie tells us they are regulated by the fca who seem toothless at taking this matter to task

And here's some screenshots showing how the Romo's ebay scammery works



Note the "This is a private listing, it will show up in your account after you buy it !" Then for the "money shot"



Yet another bank account which will be reported forthwith