It was when the payment transaction swung into action that trouble started
A SCAM which is costing unsuspecting sellers thousands has been unveiled by a Limerick man who was an intended victim. Christopher O’Dwyer from Ballynanty contacted the Limerick Post after narrowly escaping the scam while trying to sell his motorbike on a trading website.
He said he has reported the issue to the Garda Siochana.
Mr O’Dwyer put his bike up for sale and was delighted to get what he believed to be a serious offer from a man who said he was resident in the UK. “I put up pictures and a video clip that showed the bike working. We agreed on a price of €4,000 and he said he would pay his own shipping costs. He agreed to put the money into my account,” Christopher told the Limerick Post.
But it was when the payment transaction swung into action that trouble started.
Christopher got an email via his smartphone telling him that the payment, along with the €800 shipping costs, had appeared in his online account.
“It normally works that the money then transfers to your bank account about three days later.but before that could happen, I got an email from the buyer saying I would have to send the €800 to his shipping company before the money could be transferred to my bank account,” said Christopher.
At this point Christopher felt there was something amiss and consulted with his bank.
“The Bank manager told me that this is a scam and a lot of people have been caught with it. What happens is that the seller is told to send money, either to complete the sale or because the buyer has mistakenly put in too much as they were calculating in sterling,” Christopher explained.
“The demand for a return of cash is made within the three-day window, and victims, believing the plausible excuse that an overpayment was made because of the difference between Sterling and Euros, send the amount requested.
“Once it goes into the system, that’s the end of it. The email about the payment was from a fake address and there was never any money paid into that account. So had I sent the €800, he would have been that amount up. – I just want people to be aware of this scam so that no-one else is caught by it”.
A garda source told the Limerick Post that this kind of scam, in one guise or another, is becoming increasingly common.
“It used to be the fake emails, apparently from a friend’s account, telling some story of being mugged and needing money sent. They are pretty recognisable by now. “These on-line selling and buying scams are on the rise and a lot of people get caught out, because the fraud seems plausible and the ‘buyer’ will do a good job of convincing the victim that he is genuine before they pounce. Even if they convince one in a hundred people to send them money, they’re up because emails cost nothing but time”.
