5 Feb: A Happy Ending to Pre-Xmas Online Fraud

Less than a week before Xmas I had posted my Brompton bike for sale. A few hours later aessage came in from a guy just north of here offering full price. He later sent a request for bank details ...

I was involved in a rare in depth conversation with my son. Pretty soon after sever requests for information, I became a bit "over it" and distracted by conversation. 

Basically, I'd given out too much information to a,very cunning fraud professional.

When I checked for the deposit by "Robert Jackson" I saw a withdrawal by someone with a distinctly Indian looking name. As I was gaping at the screen and berating myself, a second withdrawal followed.I did everything I could to shút the account down. It was too late to advise my bank. An auto response came through for me to approve the second payment, I declined.

I .made an online report to Fraud Watch (?) and called my bank the following day.

i was told they would take best endeavours in a field with few wins. Fortunately, the second withdrawal was shut down, and never left my account, but the gentlemen did try to access my maximum daily limit $5000. My bank advised that the fraudster had not only accessed my account, but .my phone! He had put money on my account, (to wash it), and shifted money between my accounts. Further, that if I had not acted quickly, they would have tried to withdraw $5000 each subsequent day. Scary!

Yesterday, I was advised the full amount had been recovered. 

Over Xmas I saw YouTube videos of fraud buster type teams blowing fraudsters cover. If its true, there are typically teams of fraudsters, under a kind a pin, trying all kinds of tricks to separate people from their savings. This investigation team would hunt down, access their computers and do the fraudsters tricks back at them. At other times they would break into phone calls and tell the victims they were being scammed. It was very stress busting watching these suckers get upset and scream abuse.