Liability when scammed ?

[Dave A]

"The money reflected in the school's account for several days before she was persuaded into "returning" it" What worries me is normally these refund request cheques bounce quickly I have had it in 2 days.

A year or two ago I had one of these scam deposits only bounce after 8 days...

All agreed it was quite peculiar, and in that instance I never got the unpaid cheque sent to me too. It got "lost." Standard Bank apparently investigated, but as seems the way with these things, you never get to hear the results.

I've had one this month too. Just got the bad cheque in today with "Account not on file." Never heard of that before but at least the bounce reflected for the same day as the deposit.

[geraldenek]

I once had a laptop sold. The guy deposited the money into my account, I transferred is from my cheque account to my credit card account the same day (assuming it was cash). I then went and phoned the absa call centre to make sure that this money is cleared and that in no way this money could be returned. The woman at absa promised, so i sent the parcel.

Only to find a week later when the bank phone, that it was a cheque, and it bounced. My first question was, why was this cheque cleared immediately? The bank informed me, that seeing that it was paid into my cheque account, and I’ve had it for quite a while, they automatically clear it on good standing, but it is still my responsibility to ensure that i wait 7 days.

Luckily for me I phoned the call centre, just told them, they can't misinform their clients. Bank took my telephone bills to make sure of the exact date and time (because everything was recorded), I had to fill in a few forms, and they did an investigation. 2 months later, the money was back in my account.


Moral of the story : always wait 7 business days

[Debbiedle]

I would definitely hand this to a lawyer.

[Ann Williams]

I'm so sorry to hear about this scam. I posted a thread about what I think is the same Telkom scam almost ten months ago (Telkom billing refund scam) and am really nervous to see that this is still continuing all this time later.

Why I say so is that as soon as I was approached with this scam, hubby and I contacted the appropriate person at Telkom and told them about this in the hope that something would be done by them.

So my question here is whether Telkom have actually tried to do anything about this situation that is making their name 'gat'? (Would they be liable in any way? Just a thought....)

[Dave A]

I'm not at all sure how seriously the authorities are pursuing these scammers. And given we've had two attempts at our company the last 30 days (the Telkom refund one and the change of bank details one), I'm inclined to think scams are on the increase.

At this stage, the cure would seem to be inoculation by increasing awareness and vigilance. The sad part is if this is the kind of money the scammers manage to extract, they don't have to win too many for it to be a very viable enterprise.

[HAGGIS]

Thanks for all the comments everyone.

I'm sorry I haven't been keeping up with the posts, I was away in the bush for a while.

We saw our layer who has written to the school board, and have submitted the relevant papers to the CCMA. I suppose now we must just wait and see. What I am hoping is that the CCMA dismisses the verdict of gross negligence, because the schools disciplinary hearing was such a farce, then the school can't say she owes the money because she, in theory, was not negligent. Does that make sense ?

[Yvonne]

Haggis, Apologies for the long delay, I have been overseas for a few weeks.

I said I knew of a similar case and managed to followed it up.
An acquaintance of my sister in law, (SARS refund supposedly - con - knew all the details therefore almost guaranteed as an inside informant!)

In her case she asked her boss what she should do, and he authorised her to make the transfer, but still felt she was responsible!

She had been advised that the company was considering taking disciplinary action against her, I have been told that the company had dropped the case, but don't know know the exact details.
After some months of trying to ride out the situation, she recently resigned as she said the entire working relationship had been adversly affected.

My sister in law said that to the best of her understanding, no recovery through the banking system was made either, and nothing was ever heard regarding any investigation.

There have been a few cases of credit card fraud recently, when the credit card has not been out of the hands of the account holder!

The banks give them "the absolute run around" and say that there is no proof that they did not draw the funds themselves!

It seems as if our finance is definitely not secure.

My husband had to apply for a Nigerian visa, and the only way to apply is on line and payment made only with a credit card? Scary stuff.

Yvonne