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Thread: Scammed!

  1. #1
    Diamond Member Neville Bailey's Avatar
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    Scammed!

    My poor Margaret got roundly scammed in the past few days.

    As some of you know, she runs two stationery shops and a Cardies store.

    On 24th December she received a call from a certain Mark Lyle, ostensibly from Apple i-Store, asking for a quotation for 25 reams of A4 paper. Margaret duly emailed him a quotation, amounting to just over R5,700, which he accepted. He then faxed a proof of an EFT payment from his Capitec bank account, and Margaret went to her ABSA branch to get their assurance that it was legitimate, which they confirmed.

    On the strength of the proof of payment, she allowed him to collect the stock from her store. As of yesterday morning, the EFT was not yet reflecting on her ABSA account, but she assumed that it was because the EFT was made from a different bank and the delay was due to the public holidays.

    Then, yesterday, she got another call from Mark, asking if he could order another 25 reams of paper. Margaret sent him another quotation, which was slightly less than the first, due to the lower grade of paper, which he again accepted. Once again, a proof of EFT payment was emailed through (see attachment) and he collected the goods later in the morning.

    When I checked Margaret's ABSA account last night, I became suspicious when the first EFT payment was still not reflecting. I then looked more carefully at the faxed proof of payment for the first order, and the email relating to the second order and then I became more worried. The faxed proof of payment indicated that it was faxed from an internet cafe, and Mark's email address was appleistorenorth@mac.hush.com - very odd indeed.

    Telephonic enquiries with the Apple i-Store at Gateway Shopping Centre confirmed that there was no Mark Lyle working for Apple i-Store.

    Margaret is paying a visit to the local Capitec branch to ascertain whether or not the proof of payments were genuine (but reversed), or whether they were pure fraudulent documents, and that Mark Lyle did not even have a Capitec account.

    Naturally Margaret is beside herself - R11,000 is a lot of money in anyone's language.

    Be warned!
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    Neville Bailey - Sage Pastel Accounting Consultant
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  2. #2
    Diamond Member AndyD's Avatar
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    Sorry to hear this Neville this type of scum just take a gap where they can. I suppose the only way to prevent this is to wait the 2 days for funds to be cleared. I have to be honest, the banks also don't help, there's no reason nowadays that it should take days for funds to clear between banks if it's an electronic payment, if they can clear payments immediately within the same bank there's no reason they shouldn't be able to do the same with the other major banks....apart from they're collecting interest from their transit accounts I guess.
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    Diamond Member Citizen X's Avatar
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    This is disturbing! The proof of payment looks very legit! I think that in cases such as these, one will just have to wait for the money to clear and then release goods...
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    Diamond Member Citizen X's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by AndyD View Post
    Sorry to hear this Neville this type of scum just take a gap where they can. I suppose the only way to prevent this is to wait the 2 days for funds to be cleared. I have to be honest, the banks also don't help, there's no reason nowadays that it should take days for funds to clear between banks if it's an electronic payment, if they can clear payments immediately within the same bank there's no reason they shouldn't be able to do the same with the other major banks....apart from they're collecting interest from their transit accounts I guess.
    You can draw saswich from any atm immediately so there's no real reason why funds shouldn't appear immediately etf that is..
    Last edited by Citizen X; 28-Dec-12 at 03:45 PM. Reason: typo
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    I fell prey to this last month...

    I received a pdf proof from a buyer confirming his deposit into my account...a week latter the money still hadn't cleared. He refuses to answer my phone calls or reply to my emails.

    Turns out there are numerous sites available that will allow you to covert any word doc to a pdf & vice versa.....

    LESSON LEARNT...

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    Diamond Member Justloadit's Avatar
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    Never release any goods, until there is confirmation of the money in your account, irrespective of how much your customer complains.

    You will note the ones that want immediate service are the scamsters.
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    Email problem Didditmiself's Avatar
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    About 10 years ago my son advertised that his computer, screen and accessories were for sale. He received 1 or 2 responses. One guy said if he brought a bank guaranteed cheque could he take the machine away as soon as he paid for it? When he arrived with his "brodda" they looked at the computer, asked all the right questions. We in turn looked at the cheque (Standard bank) and it looked like the real MC Coy. Everything (even the feel of the paper) including the 'ACB' logo on the side of the cheque was there. They were in no rush and this made it even more convincing and eventually left after about a hour. They even asked for a discount (i.e. although the cheque was made out for the advertised amount would we give them back R200 in cash as a discount?) which we refused. Anyway, we deposited the cheque and we noticed a credit and then a reversal on our statement at the end of the month. (In those days internet banking was relatively unheard of). Well we were all caught 'hook,line & sinker'. From the moment we heard their accents (Nigerian) we should have been on our guard. We said to the bank that this can't be correct as it's a bank cheque. They said it was part of a batch of stolen cheque books which scamsters have misappropriated. An advert appeared in the local paper/s warning the public that a batch of cheque books had been stolen but we never saw it! The cell phone numbers they gave us also went unanswered.
    So yes, Justloadit, I agree with you. Do not release the goods until you have confirmation that the money is in your account. Tough titty if the customers complain. Luckily the amount involved was only R7000 but 10 years ago that was still quite a lot! One positive thing came out of that: we don't trust anybody now with cheques and only if the eft shows on the printout (we have internet banking at home now), then we give the goods.

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    Hi Neville,very sorry to hear of the mishap. may i just enquire. Did Absa see a credit in Margaret's account OR did they say it was legit after just seeing the capitec proof of payment? Thanks

  9. #9
    Diamond Member Neville Bailey's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by flaker View Post
    Did Absa see a credit in Margaret's account OR did they say it was legit after just seeing the capitec proof of payment? Thanks
    They only saw the proof of payment document which, it now seems, was forged.
    Neville Bailey - Sage Pastel Accounting Consultant
    www.accountingsoftwaresupport.co.za
    neville@accountingsoftwaresupport.co.za
    IronTree Online Solutions

    "Give every person more in use value than you take from them in cash value."
    WALLACE WATTLES (1860-1911)

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    New Member Kornflake's Avatar
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    Another scam is where they send you proof of eft payment, but in reality a (stolen/cloned) cheque was deposited, and is then returned after 2 or 3 days. Always confirm that eft deposits were in fact efts, and not cheques, before releasing goods

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