Scams like these

I saw a Fiat Ducato Winnebago "Birdsville" campervan for sale on Marketplace at a price just too good to be true. I pointed this out to Mrs Prozac who said, "what makes you think it is a scam?" So I contacted the seller who responded immediately saying he was selling for a family member and this is their email to contact directly. I contact the provided email (gmail) asking for some details, service records, mileage, is it manual or auto, where can I veiw the camper, etc. This is the response:
Hi,

Thank you for your real interest in my motorhome. I want to make it clear from the outset that unfortunately we cannot meet to close this deal , but there is a safe possibility to make this transaction happen. I am an emergency specialist medical doctor and I just left town because I was assigned to a hospital in Darwin where help was needed with the current COVID-19 situation (treating serious cases). I left the motorhome with a delivery company to take care of the delivery for me because I am not able to leave the hospital until these cases are resolved.

To add extra security to this transaction I would like the deal to be handled by www.escrow.com (check their website for more info). Using escrow services, you get free delivery at your address and you will have a 3 days inspection period. In case the motorhome is not as I described, the transaction can be cancelled and Escrow will refund your money back instantly.

As soon as I have your acceptance, I will register the transaction and Escrow.com will send you the notification with all the information regarding our transaction.

Maybe those mentioned above do not make you feel comfortable with this deal, so for this reason I have attached my driver's license, in this way I hope to show that I am a seller as serious as possible.


Kind regards,
Click to expand...

True to his word he attached the face and reverse car licence image of some poor schmuck from Sth Australia with the same name he is using in the gmail account. I check the name on - ahpra.gov.au/Registration/Registers-of-Practitioners - and sure enough it does not return a result.
The seller does not answer any specific questions, just returning with the the kind of standard reply above.
I'll have a think how I might string him along. Any suggestions? 🤣
 
prozac said:
I'll have a think how I might string him along. Any suggestions? 🤣
Click to expand...
Maybe start putting together the sort of mechanical information questions about Ducato’s that can be answered with some Google effort, making him put that effort in?

Don’t get too specific though; my wife had a scam ‘phone call on Thursday about some national scheme or other with a 3-letters acronym, she asked what the 3 letters stood for & was hung up on.
 
My mum keeps getting the Linkt toll scam emails. She has a device from RTA to use on the tolls, but the claims have the rego for my car.
I don't understand how they do this, but at least mum has the sense to check with me before she pays anything.
 
Just had a phone call. Recorded message starts about 2 fraudulent transactions on my Visa card. Yeah whatever. You are banned from my phone!

EDIT: 2nd scam call 40 minutes later from different number, same Visa message.
 
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SuePa said:
My mum keeps getting the Linkt toll scam emails. She has a device from RTA to use on the tolls, but the claims have the rego for my car.
I don't understand how they do this, but at least mum has the sense to check with me before she pays anything.
Click to expand...

I'm receiving the Linkt scam via SMS, rather than by email. Not sure if its from the same people.
 
Buzzard said:
My loan has been approved, all I need to do is provide VIN, chasis number and engine number. The lender will then straight away transfer me the money.
Click to expand...
With VIC Roads that is publicly available for any vehicle currently registered. Just plug the rego into the web site.

Fortunately AFF has a poster who lives in Darwin who works in the medical field. Small town
 
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A friend, usually very sensible and scam aware, was taken in by the "Mum, I've dropped my phone in the toilet" scam. She said it sounded like her only son. This also occurred on Remembrance Day, so she was involved and busy. Just the right text at the right time. With this scan, her "son" asked her to pay a bill and provided the account name, bsb and account number. $4,900! Yes, she knows she should have tried to ring her son anyway, and at any other time she would have. Her son rang her 4-5 hours later on the way home from work and when she asked how he got his phone working again, he asked if she had been drinking! She got on the phone immediately to her bank and was put through to the fraud department. Unfortunately, they could not stop the transfer, which seems odd considering payments to other banks are processed overnight. All in all, they were not confident of her getting the money back as the receiving bank account would have been set up with stolen ID and the money most likely would be transferred onwards or withdrawn the next day. The fraud department kept in touch by email but were not hopeful. She had to have a shoulder to cry on, hence me knowing the full story. If that text had come at any other time, she is sure she would have seen it for what it was.

Wonder of wonders, this has a good ending. She rang me yesterday, almost in tears with happiness! The money had been returned to her bank account! So there are excellent transaction fraud personnel who are obviously very good at their jobs. 😊 🍾
 
SuePa said:
My mum keeps getting the Linkt toll scam emails. She has a device from RTA to use on the tolls, but the claims have the rego for my car.
I don't understand how they do this, but at least mum has the sense to check with me before she pays anything.
Click to expand...
My Linkt toll scam emails don't include a rego.
 
So
Port Power said:
A friend, usually very sensible and scam aware, was taken in by the "Mum, I've dropped my phone in the toilet" scam. She said it sounded like her only son. This also occurred on Remembrance Day, so she was involved and busy. Just the right text at the right time. With this scan, her "son" asked her to pay a bill and provided the account name, bsb and account number. $4,900! Yes, she knows she should have tried to ring her son anyway, and at any other time she would have. Her son rang her 4-5 hours later on the way home from work and when she asked how he got his phone working again, he asked if she had been drinking! She got on the phone immediately to her bank and was put through to the fraud department. Unfortunately, they could not stop the transfer, which seems odd considering payments to other banks are processed overnight. All in all, they were not confident of her getting the money back as the receiving bank account would have been set up with stolen ID and the money most likely would be transferred onwards or withdrawn the next day. The fraud department kept in touch by email but were not hopeful. She had to have a shoulder to cry on, hence me knowing the full story. If that text had come at any other time, she is sure she would have seen it for what it was.

Wonder of wonders, this has a good ending. She rang me yesterday, almost in tears with happiness! The money had been returned to her bank account! So there are excellent transaction fraud personnel who are obviously very good at their jobs. 😊 🍾
Click to expand...
Oh that's so good. I think Com bank delays payments for 24 hours when it's a 1st time transfer, annoying sometimes but maybe necessary nowadays.
 
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My mum who does not drive in the states where there are tolls gets the sms messages very often.
Dont know how to block spam sms messages on iphones.
Not sure why the Aust govt cant go after these people like that "hi mum I broke my phone phone and got a new number" scam guy in Melbourne.
***
Osko payments are now immediate.
Also under the $5 limit.
Re 2fa for new payees, that one most banks will do
 
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AustraliaPoochie said:
My mum who does not drive in the states where there are tolls gets the sms messages very often.
Dont know how to block spam sms messages on iphones.
Not sure why the Aust govt cant go after these people like that "hi mum I broke my phone phone and got a new number" scam guy in Melbourne.
Click to expand...
The various police forces do have divisions for this stuff, but there’s so much of it going on they probably haven’t had most offenders reported to them.
The scammers are bad, but in a way I’d prefer they were hard to deal-with than have the desk-jockey at the local police station allowed to browse through all my messaging, ‘phone & internet info from my ‘phone & internet companies when they get bored just for the fun of it …
More importantly the majority is OS, where they can’t do anything about it. :(

Blocking messages from a ‘phone number is easy on an iPhone, you just have to open the message & there’re some options at the top of the page, I think you have to hit an “i” (for info) icon; one of the options is to block the message. However, it’s very unlikely to have an effect, because they send from random numbers, it’s rarely the same number more than once.
 
AustraliaPoochie said:
My mum who does not drive in the states where there are tolls gets the sms messages very often.
Dont know how to block spam sms messages on iphones.
Not sure why the Aust govt cant go after these people like that "hi mum I broke my phone phone and got a new number" scam guy in Melbourne.
***
Osko payments are now immediate.
Also under the $5 limit.
Re 2fa for new payees, that one most banks will do
Click to expand...
2fa protects against unauthorised withdrawals, but the Com Bank osko delay gives some protection against legitimate withdrawals... to a scammers account. Com Bank delays 1st transfers to a new payee and therefore victims can sometimes stop a transaction (perhaps Port Power friend was with comm bank?).

It would be nice if that was the default setting for all banks, perhaps which one could also opt out of though.

$5k limit... again some banks or accounts only; I've done $40k (daily limit) online inter bank transfers from nab which went through as immediate osko transfers.
 

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