ARRESTED- 2 iPhone X Sold, Fake Westpac Bank Receipt, No Payment Received, Reported to Police and What's Next?

Lccvonlineoz on 10/01/2018 - 23:48
Last edited 20/01/2018 - 21:57 by 1 other user

5pm 18/01/2018. My boy has been arrested and I am now with POLICE. I will upload what I have done to see him again very soon, all about HUNTING and FISHING

Taking Money back is not guaranteed as per officer however i am relieved.

An iPhone X Award - Please contact me.

This is a fraud which just happened to me. It has already happened and I will make it very short compared to 3 pages in my Police Report.

Please comment if you have a solution for me.

It was a very last day of 2017, I had two brand new iPhone X for sale on Facebook. A guy approached me via facebook messenger not too long after, I ended up with a deal of $3370 for 2 phones and he will see me a day after.

He has rescheduled a couple of times and told me to meet him after lunch time. He asked me to give him my bank details and will make a transfer. A bank receipt (screen capture) has been sent to my mobile number and it looks genuine with correct.

I met him at a bank where I was doing banking, I took him to my car and gave him 2 phones. He kept telling me it would take 24 hours to receive the payment as my account was a new account.

Westpac confirmed that payment didn't go through. Payment is never received and there was another guy picking up his number and told me he has gone back to India. Facebook account has been closed.

What I have:

  • Real Name : Mod: Removed Personal Information

  • Location: Parramatta, NSW.

  • Profile pictures and a couple of his friends, family members.
  • The mobile number was used to contact me.
  • A confirmation the mobile number owner is Mod: Removed Personal Information, telstra Network.
  • Text messages.

  • Fake banking receipt probably showing his account number where he transferred from.
    Mod: Removed Personal Information

  • I think that bank and a real estate agent where I parked my car and gave 2 phones to him have footage.

  • Reported to police.

If anyone can help to recover loss, I would appreciate and give away one of those phones.
Thank you

UPDATE 20/01: If anyone was victim, please contact me to grab Police contact to sort things out.

UPDATE 13/01: A member PM asking to help me with his own website.
UPDATE: I have been given a couple of valuable messages.
UPDATE: I was told, Police has looked into the person with a name Mod: Removed Personal Information

This post has turned into a witch hunt. Fine to discuss but leave personal information out of it. Please leave the police to investigate.

Financial

Comments

  • Wallyt99 on 12/01/2018 - 13:49
    +1

    There are alot of ways you can go about expanding on threads of information… E.g look at the url of the facebook account see if it provides a clue. Reverse image search the photo see if there are any other hits. Try and find a username or email address which you can use to search. Lastly keep track of the profile. Likely in 3 months he will use that profile again. Ideally he uses it to sell something… Then you get a friend to meet him and as for the next step… Up to you.

    I would personally give him the option of going with you to the bank and giving you the cash OR notify him he is being detained (physically if necessary) until the police can arrive and effect an arrest.

  • [Deactivated] on 12/01/2018 - 14:34
    +3

    I think this may only be a small part of the process of money laundering… gone wrong.

  • Herbse on 12/01/2018 - 15:26
    +1

    Welcome to online selling

  • jace88 on 12/01/2018 - 16:25

    For others who face similar risks, whenever I get a transfer I like to look at BSB numbers.

    Interestingly in this case, the BSB is for Warwick, WA - whilst there could be many reasons for this, and does not necessarily mean anything, it does seem odd someone living in Parramatta NSW would open a new account in a branch located in another state.

    • Gaz1 on 12/01/2018 - 16:28

      Interesting - how can you work out the bank brach location from the BSB?

      • KingNgope on 12/01/2018 - 17:45

        I believe bank branches can search this up for you as well.

      • lgacb08 on 13/01/2018 - 09:33

        For the big four it can be easy to guess, bsb has 6 digit first two identify the bank (06 for commbank, 03 for ANZ) the third one normally indicates the state of the branch. This is an indicative guess only, rules might change when banks exhaust their allocated numbers (probably unlikely considering trend of branch closure nowadays)

        • Baysew on 13/01/2018 - 12:16
          +1

          For the big four it can be easy to guess

          03 = Westpac not ANZ (Which is 01)

          Best not to guess!

      • nismo on 13/01/2018 - 12:04
        +2

        You do realise what BSB actually refers to?

        Bank State Branch

    • WTF on 12/01/2018 - 16:29
      +1

      edit: my bad that was the receivers one!

      Use this to search:
      http://bsb.apca.com.au/

    • [Deactivated] on 12/01/2018 - 16:36
      +2

      Not unusual. Many students migrants move around the states to find a good opportunity be it job of studies

    • ccvonlineoz on 12/01/2018 - 17:05

      A new tip I have learnt from you. Thank you.

  • El Grande on 12/01/2018 - 17:06
    +13

    Is it just me or the phones were stolen or fakes in the first place? This story sounds so fishy.

    • pyramid on 12/01/2018 - 17:19
      +14

      Not just you. Count me in as well. Whole story, Xmas gift, relative who gifted iphone are travelling, 2-3 new users registered today and trying to help and OP bought OP5T in another thread from gearbest……

      • WTF on 12/01/2018 - 18:07

        Mee three..

        • dealman on 13/01/2018 - 23:17

          Four

      • tranter on 12/01/2018 - 18:57

        And sold brand new MacBook Pro in OzB classifieds.

      • Symbiotic on 15/01/2018 - 01:15
        +2

        When a user suggested Apple could block the phones with the IMEI numbers, the OP’s response was:

        To be honest, I don’t really want to do that at this stage. Pretty hard to explain.

        Could just be trolling. If not it reeks of dodginess and it’s probably wise not to get involved in “helping” the OP. No issues with rubbernecking this car crash of a thread, though.

    • KaTst3R on 12/01/2018 - 17:27
      +6

      Plot twist, user obtains stolen phone, tries to sell it off and got defrauded. Got 1 phone for xmas is believable, but 2 iphone x? Someone must be going around telling everyone his wish list.

      • WTF on 12/01/2018 - 18:12
        +6

        Lol this is like that gang story from penrith.

        A mob drove up to a house in Penrith in a black holden to rob the place. After looting the house a few minutes later, they rushed back to their car to make their getaway only to find the car on stumps with the all the wheels stolen!!

  • Wiede on 12/01/2018 - 17:25
    -4

    Giving my $.02

    You can be easily sued for defamation when posting real info with accusations without evidence.

    • ccvonlineoz on 12/01/2018 - 17:28
      +24

      I am waiting for him suing me so I can meet him again.

      • Wiede on 12/01/2018 - 18:21
        +1

        Haha good for you.

      • dealman on 13/01/2018 - 11:08

        Mate you haven't posted the link of your original advertisements yet it's pretty clear you are the one who are lying and making the stories up

    • Cyphar on 12/01/2018 - 19:16
      +1

      You can be easily sued for defamation when posting real info with accusations without evidence.

      This is wrong. Posting personal details of somebody who conned you is not defamation, otherwise people would be taking media to the courts every day.

      Have a read on the proper meaning here and compare it to OP. It's apples and oranges.

    • Friendly Troll on 13/01/2018 - 09:44

      The victim needs to prove that such actions are/were damaging to them. The risk of defamation is generally higher if someone has a notable social status.

      There was one court case where the plaintiff sued the defendant for defamation. The court sided with the defendant because the plaintiff's actions were true.

  • srhardy on 12/01/2018 - 18:15

    Hindsight is ALWAYS 20/20… New, unactivated and no IMIE numbers to get reported to apple, plus blocking would only work in OZ anyway. MAN OH MAN ARE YOU SCREWED.

    Bet you it WONT happen again but how did he manage to do a non-transfer because he knew he wasn't paying for it???

    • Gaz1 on 12/01/2018 - 18:54

      Presumably a photoshopped / edited bank deposit confirmation.

      • dealman on 13/01/2018 - 23:17

        Presumably a concocted story to malign someone.

  • T1OOO on 12/01/2018 - 18:37

    Why the hell do things like this continue to happen time and time again. I mean people are really just so so stupid. No other way to put it.

  • Super8Tab on 12/01/2018 - 18:37
    +2

    Sad to see this is still happening, hopefully we won't see this again from next month when transfers become instant.

  • GreatWhiteHunter on 12/01/2018 - 19:14
    +3

    You can use his image to search for his other Facebook accounts.

    The same technology used to auto-tag faces can be used to find the identity of anyone you have a photo of who has an open Facebook account.

    This catches out a lot of guys cheating on their girlfriends and/or wives.

    • ccvonlineoz on 12/01/2018 - 23:45

      Thanks for all your contribution. I really appreciate.

      • WTF on 12/01/2018 - 23:55
        +2

        OP Why are you refusing to disclose all the details?

        Why do I get the feeling the phones were not legit to start with?

        Did you really get these as gifts ??

        Where is the link to your orginal sales add?

        • ccvonlineoz on 12/01/2018 - 23:58

          I am happy to show you via PM as per Mod

        • dealman on 13/01/2018 - 11:09
          +2

          @ccvonlineoz:

          pretty certain you can post the link to your original advertisement that will not cause an issue with the Mods

        • WTF on 13/01/2018 - 12:12
          +4

          @ccvonlineoz: so you were happy to post someone elses name, phone number, pics, bank account number, photos of his friends but you wont reveal anything about yourself??

          Sorry but on my BS scale you rank high.

  • donqx on 12/01/2018 - 19:14

    Hey op, can you show us the link to the actual Facebook or Gumtree advertisement that was posted? I think my cousin is also a victim of the same fraudsters!

    • [Deactivated] on 12/01/2018 - 19:17
      +1

      It was facebook messnger, op told me

      • donqx on 13/01/2018 - 02:20

        Thanks

    • festivalmayhem on 13/01/2018 - 11:02
      +2

      Another brand new user.

      • dealman on 13/01/2018 - 11:10
        +2

        Another liar making a story up

  • GreatWhiteHunter on 12/01/2018 - 19:17
    +4

    I would create another facebook account and list 2 more phones for sale in the same place you listed the last 2

    make sure the potential buyer cant link the new facebook account to you

    then just wait for him to contact you to buy the phones.

    Guarantee he will.

    then just citizens arrest him when you meet him (ie. beat the crap out of him then take him to the cop shop)

    • Moneyneversleeps on 13/01/2018 - 05:20

      Except the new account will have no friends on the list. Sure he can hide friend list but that would look more sus. If OP was to go down this route he would need perhaps his real friend or relative to create for him.

      • GreatWhiteHunter on 13/01/2018 - 10:57

        Surely the OP could do that. Hell I would be happy to.

  • bigbadboogieman on 12/01/2018 - 19:24

    Just wondering if police should also be pursuing the person using the phone number that was used to send the fake receipts. I am pretty sure if they get the guy answering phone now, to visit the station, he would be singing who was using the phone. OP has met the person he can ID him pretty quickly I suppose….

    • GreatWhiteHunter on 12/01/2018 - 19:47
      -3

      In this case, the police will do absolutely nothing.

      They are too busy eating donuts and taking brown paper bags of corrupt payments from drug dealers to actually do any police work.

      The police will do sweet FA in such a case other than record it so the OP has a useless incident number.

      • GregMonarch on 13/01/2018 - 22:55

        You don't know what you're talking about!!! They use bitcoin now instead. ;-p

  • GreatWhiteHunter on 12/01/2018 - 20:33
    -1

    Call his mate using the same phone number who claims the guy is India now.

    Tell the mate to pass on the message that the cost of repairing 2 broken legs is a lot more than the cost of the phones you are owed.

  • witsa on 12/01/2018 - 20:42
    +4

    Firstly, bad luck and unlikely you'll ever see that money again.

    However if you are sure the guy you met is the guy in the facebook photo, then this is what I would do. I would just post this entire story along with his picture on facebook and get as many people to share it as possible. Make sure to make it public so that it is crawl able by search engines and include any photos of him with other people.

    This is the kind of thing that'll go viral. And Facebook being one of those mediums, you're likely only 2 or 3 degrees of separation from him so it'll be very likely that him, someone who knows him or someone in those photos will see it.

    Something might come of it. But at minimum, you've made it very likely that this crime will catch up to him. Would you take 3k to be forever associated as a thief? In a very public manner where all the people you know can see? I mean, yeah, maybe the police won't have time to do anything about this petty crime, but if you saw a picture of your friend, colleague, brother or relative in a post like that, would you lose a bit of trust and respect for them?

    And with facial recognition the way things are going, it might even affect him somewhere down the line employment wise. It wouldn't surprise me if we eventually enter a world where you can do a facial recognition web search for any public images.

  • chumlee on 12/01/2018 - 20:48

    Anyone including police and courts can be fooled

    http://www.news.com.au/national/queensland/courts-law/philli…

  • misterpotatomato on 12/01/2018 - 22:02
    +2

    This sucks. Sorry to hear op.

    Also, reading this makes me realise how easy it would be to socially engineer a group of people (a la ozbargain community) against a common person by supplying a rage inducing story and then their Facebook details and having everyone go at them.

    Certainly not what I'm suggesting is happening here, but internet justice can be a fickle thing :/

  • Moderatorneil on 12/01/2018 - 23:26

    This post has turned into a witch hunt. Fine to discuss but leave personal information out of it.

    • [Deactivated] on 12/01/2018 - 23:42
      +2

      But he weighs the same as a duck.

      Burn him! Burn him! Let's make him into a ladder.

      • [Deactivated] on 12/01/2018 - 23:43
        +2

        Ozbargain doesn't want to be sued cuz of two iphones, smart move.

    • WTF on 12/01/2018 - 23:50

      Good call. This is a very dogey story. OP is also not reavealing everything. Patel is an extremely common name. I would hate for some innocent person to be target for no good reason.

      • [Deactivated] on 12/01/2018 - 23:52
        +1

        Yes i agree. Imagine if you were wrongly accused for brodening deals.

        • Herbse on 13/01/2018 - 01:38

          My worst nightmare

  • Cheapascents on 12/01/2018 - 23:50

    dang crazy

  • Herbse on 13/01/2018 - 01:42
    +2

    Not sure if anyone has already told you this yet. But you shouldn't sell stuff until you have the cash in hand.

    • arcticmonkey on 13/01/2018 - 04:29
      +15

      1st time I’ve seen it mentioned.

  • wtigers on 13/01/2018 - 03:33

    Lol who gives someone the items before getting the money, you should of wait for the funds to show in the account then give it…

  • Aceboy884 on 13/01/2018 - 07:08

    There is no recourse for this action

    Let alone proof you ever gave the phone as exchange for a fake receipt

  • freelife on 13/01/2018 - 07:40
    +3

    Go to India and look for him, walk around and look for anyone really excited about having an iPhone X for free

  • DiscoJango on 13/01/2018 - 11:25
    +1

    there are two sides to every story

    so far we have only heard op's side of the story, and at best it has vague details and a lot of stupid mistakes and excuses

    lets try and see what the accused has to say before completely marking them as a criminal to their local community.

  • oSammy21 on 13/01/2018 - 14:41
    +2

    @OP always use cash. In this case I would of asked them for a license - proof of address - any ID at all. Take details down. For the price it is I would of even went into the trouble of writing a proof of sale signage with them signing they've received and you're awaiting payment.

    All you can do is submit to police. Find the original Apple receipts - go to the Apple store, explain and they will block the phones in the mean time. Don't bother about what other people have said about setting a trap - most likely he'll wait a while before repeating if he even does.

    In the mean time - that number is probably in the new iPhone - his mate would of picked up when your number came up. I'd totally condone putting your number on no caller ID, calling at strange times and in various aggressive different accents demand money

    • stickyfingers on 19/03/2018 - 03:16

      My mate got robbed with an iPhone X when selling for cash. Thief just grabbed the phone. Apple can’t and won’t block it and if it was never setup with a carrier (ie. brand new in the box) you can’t imei block it.

  • Christy Bambi on 13/01/2018 - 14:42
    -5

    So bottom end of the story, wait till payment clears and than give the product to the customer. Maccas has the same policy, the phones are gone and police won't like how you did the transaction. From their perspective you tried to dodge a taxable sale.

    • Baysew on 13/01/2018 - 14:53
      +1

      From their perspective you tried to dodge a taxable sale

      How has the OP tried to dodge tax?
      What sort of tax to you mean?

      • Christy Bambi on 13/01/2018 - 18:39
        -1

        gst

      • Baysew on 14/01/2018 - 00:32
        +2

        You need to register for goods and services tax (GST) if you:
        run a business or enterprise and your GST turnover is $75,000 or more ($150,000 or more for non-profit organisations)
        want to claim fuel tax credits for your business
        provide taxi travel.

        Goods and services tax

        Even if the transaction was subject to GST, the OP would simply record it on a BAS statement.

        Why are you calling the OP a Tax Dodger?
        Why would the Police "won't like" the transaction?

    • TightAl on 13/01/2018 - 20:02
      +15

      You're an idiot Christy, please stop.

  • netsurfer on 13/01/2018 - 14:50
    +4

    Selling items do carry risks.

    Recently, I tried to sell an item on feeBay. Paypal payment cleared so I assumed it was safe to send the item. "Buyer" sent a message asking the item to be posted a.s.a.p. I quickly got everything ready to be sent out. Just as I was about to post the item, I received a message from the owner of the eBay account saying she did not authorised the purchase and asked me how come she got notified that she purchased the item. Then, she raised a case against me on both eBay and Paypal (and she didn't tell me she did that on both sites). She then asked me to issue an refund a.s.a.p. It took me a hour contacting both eBay and Paypal support to realise that because she raised a case against me in PayPal, the transaction cannot be cancelled via eBay (had to resolve the Paypal case by issuing full refund first and then linked eBay case will be cancelled).

    Had I sent the item out seconds ago, I would have lost the item and still have to issue the refund.

    Selling expensive and attractive items online do carry a higher degree of risk. Even when a payment is cleared, the buyer can still claim the transaction wasn't authorised and demand a full refund.

    • Legsweeping on 13/01/2018 - 16:53

      Assuming you had tracking the buyer's bank or Paypal would likely have had to front the cost, depending on the amount (not sure whether Paypal has a maximum liability).

      I sold a console for around $300, few months later the buyer filed a chargeback dispute but luckily I held onto it, and won the case.

      • netsurfer on 13/01/2018 - 21:30
        +1

        Unauthorised transaction is a bit different. Despite the transaction was performed on buyer's eBay account and payment done through buyer's PayPal account. Buyer can still indicate it was an unauthorised transaction. I suspect in my case, it was her son getting hold of her phone (that was just a guess). The workflow on eBay/PayPal is also a bit different.

        There were a few similar bad stories posted on the Internet (similar type of stories, except the sellers sent out the items already (most of them iPhone X phones) - which led to a even bigger mess for the sellers).

        The most disappointing part is that throughout the whole thing, the buyer never felt sorry for the mess, and was asking me things like how could this happen (honestly, I don't know why someone managed to get into her account and I was a victim of the mess as well). She obviously didn't care that I lost eBay final fee waiver and the postage cancellation mess etc…

        I just want to point out that even when the payment has been received and cleared, the buyer can still do some nasty things. For attractive and high price items, sellers do need to be careful.

  • Yummy on 13/01/2018 - 16:46
    +5

    When selling a high value item, always arrange a meet up in Police station.

    • Ahbal on 13/01/2018 - 22:10

      or in an area with security/cctv.

      Example I had a sale on gumtree, I met the person in a Plaza where there is security/cctv around.

      I hope others thinking of selling similar items can avoid such a situation by reading the advice here.

      • follow on 15/01/2018 - 13:28

        I don't see how a shopping centre provides you security. It's quite funny when people say to meet at the shops. I get this scenario playing in my head when meeting up that I could just "inspect" the item and make a quick escape without them being able to keep up. I don't do that and pay up, of course.

        Police couldn't give a flying turd if you report it to them

        • Ahbal on 15/01/2018 - 19:57

          I did quite clearly state "ares with security/CCTV". Pretty sure security guards are a pretty good deterrent for theft…

        • follow on 15/01/2018 - 20:00

          @Ahbal: yes police will do nothing. Security as well.

        • stickyfingers on 19/03/2018 - 03:17

          Spot on. Security only helps the police catch the thief. It might deter some theives but not all.

    • WTF on 14/01/2018 - 01:36

      Lol 😂😂

  • ribze1 on 13/01/2018 - 16:46

    Why do you have 2 iphones to sell? Why not use ebay?

    • pineapple12 on 13/01/2018 - 22:44
      +2

      The thing everyone else is trying to figure out why did himself and his brother already have 2 IPhone X’s???

  • andrew229 on 13/01/2018 - 18:45

    Post all the info you have on a reddit post
    Once his personal info is out , he would be easy to track
    Then link to the reddit post

    • ccvonlineoz on 13/01/2018 - 20:24

      I have never done thing with Reddit, will give it a try. Thank you.

  • harkoliar on 13/01/2018 - 20:46

    Hi OP

    I'm learning from your mistake. Feel for you.

    Do you by any chance can share or pm me a copy of the reciept? Would like to know how genuine looking is.

    • DiscoJango on 14/01/2018 - 12:03
      +4

      it was a genuine reciept - the transfer was actually done via his netbank

      however the trick here is that it was scheduled to be done in the future, say 3 days from now. once the scammer has the goods from you, they simply log back into netbank and cancell the transfer.

      what everyone is saying is that the OP did not wait until the funds had "cleared" into his bank account. the funds were still "pending"

      • harkoliar on 14/01/2018 - 12:15

        Ahh.. simple but brutal. Thanks for the that.

  • Empharand on 13/01/2018 - 21:47
    +6

    Why wouldn't you wait until the funds hit your account before agreeing to meet up with him?
    Doesn't matter if the screenshot looked genuine or not you don't hand over anything until you see those funds on your transaction list.

  • agam2104 on 13/01/2018 - 22:39
    +2

    No payment ,no item ,at any cost.

  • GregMonarch on 13/01/2018 - 22:47
    +2

    I've been told if you buy the items new, you should have received (and kept) an invoice with a copy of their two IMEI numbers. Guy steals them, you disable the IMEI numbers with Apple - devices now useless.

    • dealman on 13/01/2018 - 23:16
      +1

      But op is lying, never had items in the first place

    • Timfoo on 14/01/2018 - 10:26

      To late mate they been sold the day he had them. Just long enough to throw a sim in them to make sure they work

  • [Deactivated] on 13/01/2018 - 23:50

    Scam by OP. Enough said,

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