Need Help from Someone in the UK

[No Longer Active]

It kind of sounds odd.. Possibly a Nigerian Welshman selling radios for flight sims...Odd combo without a doubt, the only true Welshman I know in the sim game is our legendary Ian P Sissons, I'd drop Ian a message and ask if he know's this guy since he's from Wales too....

Can we ask who the person is in Wales?

Thanks. Alex

[Geremy Britton]

The underlining message to all these replies is: Do not send any more money, whatever the circumstances.
Having a fair experience on knowing what to check, the possibility of the link to Wales is purely fabricated most likely.
I haven't clicked any links reading this post for my own protection however lottery win, etc is always a con. Inheritance payments, bank tranfers to you for no reason would be ringing alarm bells for me and are some of the other popular anecdotes to grab cash.

Websites such as the courier site you mentioned will be complex scam artists, who will have their IP address blocked and trailing around the world, which is untraceable. Names will never be real, bank intermediaries such as western union offer no protection and the money can be withdrawn to an external source without any control by western union.

Remember these free websites are setup with no personal information, and are produced to target the mass market in the hope at least someone will catch the trap.

Thus, regretably the chances of retrieving your initial funds are slim.

Checkpoints:
> Always carry out checks on who you are dealing with and crosscheck their location.
> Ask them why they're selling it
> ALWAYS pay by secure means such as paypal (Tell tale sign is the fact he 'doesn't have paypal' if he wanted your order so much spending 5 minutes setting up a paypal account would be a small price he had to pay. I know had you paid through paypal their fraud dept. is second to none)
> Have the item tracked and insured.

The information already given with regard to persuing the situation is perfect, so definately follow the standard channels in reporting this incident.

If I can be of any more help (as a UK resident, etc.) please feel free.

[Boeing 747 Flyer]

Hi there,

I can definitely confirm that there is absolutely no "one off fee charge" when exporting/important an item to UK.

[W9XE/Project777]

Thanks again everyone for your prompt replies.
As an update I did call my CC company and they said that the funds can not be disputed because this was a cash transaction. By taking a cash advance with my knowledge and using it through Western Union there was nothing wrong doing so. What happened to the cash from Western Union and whom received it is up to them. They recommend me going to the bank and talking with the Western Union to see if there is some protection through them. The CC company said always use a CC for a purchase. If things go bad you can get dispute the transaction. I will contact them tomorrow but I think I will end up in a loss.

If the person at www.qrz.com where i posted my original want is the same person who scammed me his reputation there is done. I emailed that person
Robin Griffiths, 71 Elder Grove Llangunnor Carmarthen, Carmarthenshire, SA31 2LH Wales with his posted email address but no reply yet. I will try a time or two more to see if he responds. In case someone has stole his identity I would like to protect him. However if he is the guy who did scam me I do have a few options I can use.

[archen]

Thanks again everyone for your prompt replies.
As an update I did call my CC company and they said that the funds can not be disputed because this was a cash transaction. By taking a cash advance with my knowledge and using it through Western Union there was nothing wrong doing so. What happened to the cash from Western Union and whom received it is up to them. They recommend me going to the bank and talking with the Western Union to see if there is some protection through them. The CC company said always use a CC for a purchase. If things go bad you can get dispute the transaction. I will contact them tomorrow but I think I will end up in a loss.

If the person at www.qrz.com where i posted my original want is the same person who scammed me his reputation there is done. I emailed that person
Robin Griffiths, 71 Elder Grove Llangunnor Carmarthen, Carmarthenshire, SA31 2LH Wales with his posted email address but no reply yet. I will try a time or two more to see if he responds. In case someone has stole his identity I would like to protect him. However if he is the guy who did scam me I do have a few options I can use.

Hi Larry!
I really feel sorry for you. I hope you manage to get your money back and this guy will go to prison!!

I can't help you since I have no experience in this, I just wanted to wish you good luck so good luck and keep us updated on the progress.

best regards,
Anders

[brynjames]

The telephone number for Robin Griffiths is 01267 236275 (don't dial the zero from outside the UK). Google Streetview for the address makes it look an unlikely hideaway den for a gang of international fraudsters. In addition, Robin Griffiths appears to be a respected member of the local community, town councillor etc., so the most likely thing is that he is himself a victim of identity theft. He would probably like to hear from you so he is aware of any threat to his own finances.

The Tax Office location in Blackpool doesn't seem to be a valid tax office address ( and the organisation now calls itself HM Revenue and Customs anyway). I was amused by the line that said it was regulated by the financial services authority. This authority is set up to protect us from folks offering financial services; no-one, but no-one, protects us from HM Revenue and Customs!

The other guys are right about Western Union payments being a big no-no.


--
Bryn

[RadarBob]

I pasted a section of that random cut and paste text that purports to be from HMRC into Google
Definately a link to Nigeria and Lottery/Nokia mobile phone scams there I'm afraid.


http://antifraudintl.org/showthread.php?p=96372

Bottom post looks familiar.

Sorry Larry,

Rob

[royrb]

Hi my name is Roy i also placed a wanted ad in qrz and had 3 replies all from uk i bought a ham radio from one of them and paid 300.00 by western union.he was useing a ham operators call and address,i am sure he stole his idenity but he had to have his idenification to pick up his money. 73 Roy WA5BTI

[W9XE/Project777]

Roy, Sorry to read about your loss as well. I contact my CC company but because it was a cash transaction and there part was legal I could not dispute it. I tried calling Western Union but was on hold so long I gave up. Will try again, sure nothing will come out of it but I want to know where the person picked up the cash. I want to see if it was truly in the UK. I have been working on a post for QRZ relating to the ham in question. I have sent emails to his posted address but no response. Since no reply I have to assume he may be the party who scammed me. If so other hams will soon know not to deal with him. If he then responds as a victim then I will post that as well. I want at least some satisfaction from my loss and hope others will not fall into the same scam as I did. Guy was good....

As for Western Union I intend to file a fraud report and to let them know I do not intend to use there service and to aggressively recommend to any person I know NOT to use there service since there is no protection.

[rochte]

Scammed here, too, for $300 by a fellow purporting to be ham operator M3SNV, Stephen Disley, from the Liverpool area.

He also responded to an ad that I had placed on swap.qth.com and said that he didn't have Paypal. Same shipping nonsense - gave me a "tracking number" from "First Flight Courier" and a link to the same firstflightcourier.cz.cc web site. The "tracking information" now says that the package is in Mexico and is being "withheld by customs". Ya, right.

I guess my big adventure this week will be finding out just how seriously the UK authorities take cyber crimes....