I've been conned (phishing)

hello my name is joe, im not very computer knowledgable, which has probably led to my nievity, which has led to me being cond. i saw an advert for a car on www.usedcarmart.co.uk which i obviously though was a ligitamate site. any way i found the only contact info for the seller was an email. the car turned out to be apparently from finland, although british car. we exchanged a few emails. he then said he was selling through ebay. i recieved what i thought to be an email from ebay. i payed through western union, which later i found out ebay never promote western union as a method of payment, so it turned out to be a mirrored ebay message, a fake, looked so real to untrained eyes, ive screwed up, iv'e lost £3,500.00, no car. i have been to the police,doubt they'll do anything. can someone else please tell me if there is anything i can do?
i feel so stupid everything became clear soon after...

edit by admin: please do not post contact info on the forum, thank you

No, there is nothing you can do.............

Except learn from your experience?

This has nothing to do with computers, it is all about human greed and stupidity.

Think of the old days before the internet .................. a "classified advert"......... in a newspaper or magazine...... would you have sent £3,500 to an unknown person, whom you had never met, for an expensive device you had never seen, or tested?

Talking of stupidity, why is it I find something "wrong" about this post? OK: a clue in that the personal contact details were removed by an Admin?

The English is very interesting............. some bits are quite sophisticated whilst others imply a downtrodden, working class, ill-educated person.

We don't know about computers, but we can spell "phishing" in a particular way?.........a "mirrored ebay message"?.....

JP old chap, please pull the logs on this one............ I think I have something for my mates in New Scotland Yard ;)

If you where stupid enough to send money to a complete stranger via western union. Then you deserved to loose that much money.

at the end of the day, you have learnt a very very valuable lesson. Next time be more cautious, and use your head and think before you do. ;)

cheers
acidtone..:)


EDIT:> and why is this in Question about Antionline? Shouldn't it be in Phishing and Cyber Scams instead..? :confused:

My comments do not apply to the header.............I corrected that.........just read the rest.

Scam artists are born every minute, as are their prey.............. I guess that is why e-bay have so many problems with fake auctions?

If the guy is genuine, all he can hope for is the police.............. who might well write him off as a total pillock, and chase something more obvious?

I wonder if this is not some exercise by university students?....... errrrrr Department of Psychology.......... we respond badly..... and when the "Job" arrive, they will be walking their house pets...... or sniffer dogs ;)

What a sad, sad way to reply to a quite simple request for some help or advice.

I gotta say - the normal antionline standards of helpful, friendly advice seem to have slipped quite dramatically here.
Why not help him out, and if you think he is not genuine, then just ignore him.
I happen to know this guy is genuine. I spoke to him. At my house. In person. I explained what phishing is (including spelling) and I suggested he come here for some good advice. I wish I hadn't now.

Anyway...

Hi Joe, sorry we didn't get to talk a bit longer while you were at my place.

Having had a quick look around myself I have some other links for you...
It would seem that the site you mentioned is a genuine site. It's just the particular seller you had dealings with that is the scammer. usedcarmart.co.uk has a forum with a section dealing specificaly with scams...
http://www.usedcarmart.co.uk/forum/f25-scams.html

You could also try

http://antionline.com/showthread.php?t=263266 for a contact directory related to anti Phishing.
or
http://www.euroconsumer.org.uk/index...rnet_fraud.htm
and
http://www.consumerdirect.gov.uk/
that last link is probably the most useful for you (though you will have to spend some time reading through it all).

Good luck! I think you will probably need it.

Apologies for the reception he got. I guess we did think it wasn't genuine. Sorry about that.

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Originally Posted by JPnyc

Apologies for the reception he got. I guess we did think it wasn't genuine. Sorry about that.

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How do we know he is genuine.

Anyone could drop a post saying someone was round at their house.

What were the details that were edited out?

Steve

We don't, but apologies are free. I edited out his email.

Tis the nature of the business of Computer Security....
to be suspicious...trust your instints.

I see nothing wrong with delving deeper into the issue to see if it is genuine request for help...

This statement got my spidey sense tingling

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i have been to the police,doubt they'll do anything

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MLF

Fair enough.

I just wondered what it was, but an email seems fairly harmless... Excpet for the spam though.

I've never needed to examine this any furthre, but if you use a Western Union transfer, then is there no validaion of the transfer destination?

This must be a money launderers paradise.

Steve

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Originally Posted by morganlefay

This statement got my spidey sense tingling

MLF

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Actually having been to the police on an unrelated matter, I can sympathise here.

It seems that following an RTA where no one is injured the police couldn't care less if insurance details are exchanged or not.

Steve

I am just confused as to what the actual request is....

MLF

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Originally Posted by steve.milner

Fair enough.

I just wondered what it was, but an email seems fairly harmless... Excpet for the spam though.

I've never needed to examine this any furthre, but if you use a Western Union transfer, then is there no validaion of the transfer destination?

This must be a money launderers paradise.

Steve

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I stopped allowing people to post any personal or contact info on the forum, because then, sometimes YEARS later, they come back moaning about wanting it removed. With 30 forums and millions of active users, it can get to be a problem.

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The English is very interesting............. some bits are quite sophisticated whilst others imply a downtrodden, working class, ill-educated person.

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Nihil thinks his ****** don't stink. ;) Cheers 'old' chap.
by your *buddy* Computernerd22 ;)

I wish you the best... you did not suffer a major loss, try to learn from this..

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Originally Posted by Computernerd22

Nihil thinks his ****** don't stink. ;) Cheers 'old' chap.
by your *buddy* Computernerd22 ;)

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Hey nerdy! get it right will ya?............ the correct phrase is

"he believes his stools are odourless"

goes with:

"he has sh*t for brains"

I once worked for a former USAMC major, and VietNam vet. he taught me those.............

Also, whilst I am correcting your Americaness: there was no such thing as the "American Civil War"............... it was "The Northern War of Economic Aggression"............... by today's standards Abe Lincoln would get the same as Saddam Hussein. You do know what "redlegs" were?:D

OK, the same could be said of Jefferson Davies (Davis?) but that is the way things go................. the winning side don't have war criminals.

/me I like "lemon squeezers" :p

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I am just confused as to what the actual request is....

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can someone else please tell me if there is anything i can do?

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He just wants to find out if there is any way he can try to get his money back.

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Actually having been to the police on an unrelated matter, I can sympathise here.

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You are so right! The police in rural England (read - middle of nowhere) are totally useless.

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How do we know he is genuine.

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Why should it even matter? Just give him some honest advice on possible ways to get his money back. Do you know any agencies/organisations that he could get in touch with that could help him out? What is the problem with letting him know? :rolleyes:

The poor guys has lost £3,500. That's a lot of money. Why not just give him some helpful advice instead of writing 14 posts that add nothing useful?

yeah....well I would just send 7000 cdn to someone...because I had his fricken email address...

this is a clear case of stupidity...

You offer advice Omin

Live and learn

Thats mine

MLF

Lot's of people are unaware of phishing practices. I know people who sit and scratch their heads while reading phishing emails, and all the while I'm screaming at them "JUST DELETE IT! DELETE IT NOW!", but they keep reading.

He's done what is a good start: go to the police. His next step should be to go to a lawyer to see what civil actions he can take. Additionally, he may want to stay in contact with the police to see how the case is progressing and ask for updates (say, once a week or something)

JPnyc: everyone wants that quick buck. Sometimes people figure that they can make $5000 in a hour with little to no effort. That is rarely a possibility. There is always some effort required to make even the smallest amount.

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which later i found out ebay never promote western union as a method of payment

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Hindsight is always 20/20 my friend.
Anyway, did you try to use the Money Transfer Control Number? This apparently tracks money transfers via Western Union.

I gotta say you're pretty much SOL. Problem is, I have hard time feeling too much sympathy, when right on Western Union's website (on the main page under the bold title "Protect Yourself From Fraud") is this:

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Because we care about consumers, Western Union urges you to protect yourself from fraud by considering the following:
-Never send money to a stranger using a money transfer service.
-Beware of deals or opportunities that seem too good to be true.
-Don’t use money transfer services to pay for things like online auction purchases.
-Never send money to pay for taxes or fees on foreign lottery winnings

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Sorry bud, this is one of those situations where all you had to do was yield a little caution & the outcome would have been completely different.

Doesn't really help him now though. I'm sure he's well aware that he messed up. What he's asking is, does he have any recourse now?

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Originally Posted by JPnyc

Doesn't really help him now though. I'm sure he's well aware that he messed up. What he's asking is, does he have any recourse now?

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Yes. Continue talking with the police and speak to a lawyer. Anything else (e.g., "hacking" into the person that stole them money) wouldn't necessarily help and may make it worse.

I would've thrown my 2 cents in but I'm not a UK resident. I do know of the US sites for this kind of thing, but that's gonna be pretty useless to him. I think this site is USA only but I'm not sure
https://www.econsumer.gov/pls/econsu...n?p_lang_seq=1

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Anything else (e.g., "hacking" into the person that stole them money) wouldn't necessarily help and may make it worse.

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Yeah. I made this clear right from the first conversation we had. I also made it clear that AO would not help with anything along those lines.

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What he's asking is, does he have any recourse now?

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Well, the only thing I can think of is finding out the MTCN (Money Transfer Control Number) & contacting Western Union and see if they can isolate a radius of where the money was transferred to?
Thing is, if this guy is smart enough to send spoofed emails, I doubt he is stupid enough to use his home computer. I didn't read anything about Western Union insuring transactions against fraud either.
Sigh.The bad guys win another one.
Doesn't stuff like this make you want to find one of these con-artists and shove your fist down their throat? :verypisse