Hi OzB community,
I posted a JB Hi-Fi gift card for sale today on Gumtree and was caught in a fraud.
The customer sent me a drivers licence of an individual by the name of Johanis and tried to re-assure me he will make payment for my JB Hi-Fi gift card once I've sent through the gift card and pin (stupid me!). I'm wanting to see if anyone here has experience dealing with these sort of issues before and what are the options from here to recover my lost funds.
It was a $500 egift card.
That's ok then. Keep up the great work.
so you sent him the gift card details BEFORE you received payment……..?
Well the buyer promised to pay so that's like money in the bank. I recently took out a mortgage using 57 promises as collateral. True story.
was it a pinky promise tho?
I only use spit promises. Those are unbreakable.
Actually I reflected on this comment and realised that is exactly how a mortgage works, except it's only 1 promise… you promise to pay back the bank under the agreed T&Cs.
So I guess I'm the idiot, lol.
I do swaps at a JB Hifi ~ in cash only.
I get the front counter to check and report on balance. (They don't even need the Pin to check).
Payment cash.
We both take what we want and walk away.
No safer that I can see? Since the seller had the cards first he has all the details. So he could text a friend in another store: "GO!" and they can pay for a flatscreen TV using the card details before the buyer can use it.
Or if you can buy stuff at JB online (I don't know but I suspect yes) then he could set up a purchase ready, JB checks balance, you hand the money over… and turns his back and hits PAY NOW then runs. His new TV gets delivered tomorrow afternoon which he also sells.
The pin would not be scratched yet.
Pretty sure you need to the PIN to spend.
JB hifi staff just doesn't need PIN
Scratched PIN only applies to physical gift cards unfortunately not to e-gift cards.
Nothing in life is 100% risk-free. You could get hit by a car and die while going to JB hi fi anyway. All you can do is minimise the chances as much as possible.
This wont make you feel better. I was scammed on here by a fellow ozbargainer via classifieds. The username was Cryptotrader or something and I think I was scammed $250 at the time? was about 4 years ago now. It happens…
With Gumtree, I always make sure they pay either by PayID/BSB and verify their name before I send the goods if it isn't cash. I don't care if they submit their license for proof, they want it, they pay. And they ask how can they prove I will send it. I just say why would I ruin my reputation over this? They always pay.
No to paypal and Beemit.
Yeah if you're the seller, you put up the terms. If the buyer doesn't trust you…then…they just don't buy.
It's that simple.
It was nice of you to donate a gift card to a random stranger.
Member since 2010. I think you need to hand it in for 1 month.
This sounds so stupid that it could almost be a scam from OP…I don't know yet how that scam could work…like an inception scam
Can we see the license? I'm willing to bet Johanis is a reassembling of the John Citizen sample name.
Wait, here is my driver's licence as definitive "proof" of my identity:
https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.pinter…
https://i.pinimg.com/564x/e2/c6/83/e2c68301157ed9b8cf8c60dcc…
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/31/7f/8f/317f8ff2d7e4ccb390da…
https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.pinter…
… or these are just pictures of driver's licenses from a google search.
Or as with Gumtree scammers, images also attained by scam means also via scumtree. Such as asking sellers for ID to prove who they are.
hi Gotrice,
Sorry for your loss. If you paid for the gift card using your bank account, or any debit or credit cards and you have proof of purchase, you can take it to the store and tell them that you are not able to redeem it. They will be able to assist you to recover the gift card provided the fraudster has not collected their purchase. At least, the store could assist in some way, of course, it depends how nice their staff or the permit you will meet is.
The identity the fraudster provided you may not be legit so of no use.
Hope you can get it back.
thanks for this vchar! i received this gift card via my bank as a promotional incentive so not sure i can get the said proof of purchase. Is there another way to go about doing it through this particular circumstance?
Really?!
Can you link to the promo?
Radio silence…
I think you can ask for proof of purchase from your bank and take it to the store. You should do it as quick as possible because it is easier to help you if the scammer has not collected their order. Depends on what the fraudster used the card for, you may be able to track them to their address.
If you report to the police they should be able to get the order used to redeem the card. Jb should have it in their db. Good luck. Feel bad for you.
police won't do a thing, you can bet a house on it.
A lot of these comments are just mean. Sorry for your loss. I hope the police are helpful (even though that is unlikely). Try to move on and definitely ignore a lot of negativity in here.
mean? falling for an obvious scam? … but yea … maybe the person is a 14 years old and still learning about these sorts of things, so I shouldn't jump to conclusions.
….maybe the person is a 14 years old and still learning about these sorts of things
OP has been 'Member Since 03/05/2010' - something tells me he/she isn't 14 years old or anything close to that 😜
they aren't mean but smartass. they don't offer any help but keep blaming the victim. they act like they are perfect and smart but they are actually a bunch of moron. I wish them good luck and never be scammed for their whole lives. I also hope they won't ask for any helps as they are smart enough to help themselves. what a freak.
Me2 got rip-off in the past from gumtree psn gift card for $120 cash. There is this korean kid who sold me an unactivated psn cards which I picked up from him at Epping.
I did asked for a refund which he said that he will get back to me but later completely ignored me. So I told him i am going to make a police report…..still no reply.
Ended up making a police report, took about several months to get a call from the police which they tried to contact him but he didnt pick up the phone. Then they gave me the option to prosecute him in court….@_@. Lol I just wanted my money back not to prosecute and destroy a kids life over $120. I told the police its ok just leave it.
Sooo the question is if you are ready to prosecute this person by all means track him down but I learn the hard way it is a waste of public services like the police to track down a petty criminal which they could be using their skills to track down real criminals like drugs, rape and murder.
Today….i still buy stuff from Gumtree as it is the best place to buy digital credits for a good discount except now I will redeem on the spot lol.
Yeah people should prosecute because grubs like that will be emboldened to go on to more, usually worse, crimes. That's the whole point of punishment… to artificially activate something vaguely resembling morals, by making them think twice before doing it again. No consequence virtually guarantees they'll do it again and again until someone finally does take that stand. By then it could be years later and mean your own kid or younger sister dies of an overdose from the tainted drugs the grub moved into dealing.
Personally I'd invent a fake persona, watch for a similar scam, pretend to 'fall' for it again only as a 'different' person obviously, and wait and watch. If he turns up and it's the same guy, follow the little snake home. Then the victim has a range of options how to proceed.
FFS…
I doubt there is really nothing JB can do. Sure they can stop the transaction, contact police to provide CCTV footage when the criminal collects the item or provide the delivery address, etc. At the end of the day, its their willingness to do something or meh.
Transaction has already happened. Online purchase so no video. Often Fraud purchases are delivered to vacant lots. There's not even a way for them to know OP isn't the one trying to commit fraud (purchase card, use it online but says it was stolen, try to get money back).
So any further action required by them would be initiated by the police. Without a police request they just waste thier own time.
Hmm, I remember my first day on the internet.
That African diplomate is due to send me $72,000,000 soon.
Your patience is admirable
“When the son of the deposed king of Nigeria emails you directly, asking for help, you help! His father ran the freaking country! Okay?”
You aren’t getting this back. Accept that fact. I’m not going to give it any sympathy either because freely sending a gift card like you have is just stupid. You’ve just fuelled up a scammer with the confidence to continue trying to scam.
JB TCs clearly state to treat the gift card as cash - police won’t do anything on this either except add it to the statistics. No one will compensate you for this.
can you show us the driver's license
if you can't trust a fellow gumtree user nowdays…who can you trust.
This is probably a troll post to get ozbargainers triggered lol
My terms of sale for gift cards (e.g. JB card)
Just cold hard cash
What about warmish soft cash?
What about warmish soft cash?
Might accept that, but wearing gloves. :-)
Lesson learnt I hope. The only thing that surprises me is you have been a member on here for 10 years yet you made a basic error that has been screamed as a rule in every scam post on here for the last decade. Gumtree is full of scammers waiting for people that are willing to trust them, it is ALWAYS cash before product, no ifs buts or maybes, no pictures of receipts or email confirmations of payment, no promises, no excuses. Until the money is confirmed in hand by you then it is no transaction, doubly so when it is something that is so easy to steal and convert.
Unless it is cash on delivery i wont use Gumtree for anything
RULE OF THUMB
Humans are scumbags and the trash of the earth.
Believe in that and you will do well I. Lofe
I see some humanz have been duped again.
Humanity never fails to disappoint
It was a $500 egift card.
How could you not find something to spend $500 on a JB? I could easily spend that in no time!
soooo many gumtree scam posts on here lol. Who wouldn't in their right mind get the payment first before handing the goods…………
How do people still fall for this?
Got scammed? Sounds about right. Sorry to hear.
So the OP states that they received the gift card via a promotional incentive from their bank. So my theory is that they received a FREE $500 gift card for re-financing mortgage and then decided to profit by selling on gumtree. So really the OP is not out of pocket because they never bought the gift card in the first place.
That's a logical fallacy right there…they have paid for the product via being a mortgage customer and paying interest to the bank (and indirectly through commissions)
Comments are closed by OP request.
This happened to me, but it was $90.