Making a profit from an attempted scam

BnA

My Brother-in-law gleefully informed me a few weeks ago that he had sold his car on carzone for even more than the asking price. This fella had contacted him from the UK, to buy the car as a present for his sisters wedding in some eastern European country. And he had already sent over a sterling cheque for more than the asking price.

I thought he was taking the p1ss but it turned out he had fell for it hook line and sinker. Being a regular reader here, I recognised it straight away and set him straight.

So, with his hopes dashed, he decided to play along anyway just to see how things would pan out. He lodged the cheque and of course it cleared. Yer man got onto him then to send money for shipping etc etc blah blah you know yourself.

Anyway, the Brother-in-law, now being aware of the scam did nothing and just sat tight and of course 9 days later the bank came back saying the cheque had been stopped because the cheque had been reported as being stolen and the money was deducted from his account again.

But, here is the funny bit. In the 9 days that he actually had the money (which he didn't touch) the exchange rate with sterling changed so much that when the bank had to take back out the money out of his account to cover the bounced Sterling cheque, they only had to take out €120 less than they had lodged in the first place. So he actually ended up €120 better off from the whole thing.

daveharnett

Nice one!

Mr Magnolia

Interesting to hear that he profited. The bank must be liable for the difference?

The_Conductor

It was luck- the exchange rate could just as easily have gone the other direction.

OldmanMondeo

Not out to 'dis you, but a sterling cheque takes 21 days to clear (Had a few STG£ cheques and the OH works for a bank), it may be more before the bank find out it was stolen. Wouldn't be supprised if the bank took the €120 back.

L1011

OldmanMondeo wrote: »

Not out to 'dis you, but a sterling cheque takes 21 days to clear (Had a few STG£ cheques and the OH works for a bank), it may be more before the bank find out it was stolen. Wouldn't be supprised if the bank took the €120 back.

What right would they have to take it back? £xxxx was lodged to his account, £xxxx was taken back out, the currency markets dictated that they were different € values.

Bank isn't down any £.

milltown

Score!

R.O.R

Well, I think the only proper thing to do is a least send 50% of the profit back to the guy who sent him the cheque. Poor guy now has a stolen chequebook he can't use, and no wedding present for his sister in Turkmenistan. €60 would surely cushion some of these cruel blows.

some, or all of the above may be attempted humour

partyguinness

Sweet...am selling a car at the moment on carzone and sick of these bullsit emails from UK asking about my car..I usually send back an abusive and rascist rant..

OldmanMondeo

MYOB wrote: »

What right would they have to take it back? £xxxx was lodged to his account, £xxxx was taken back out, the currency markets dictated that they were different € values.

Bank isn't down any £.

Every right. The Cheque was stolen, therefore no money would have changed hands. The bank will be down because of this. And with the difficulities the banks are facing, you can be sure that anything they are short they will recover.

rebel.ranter

partyguinness wrote: »

Sweet...am selling a car at the moment on carzone and sick of these bullsit emails from UK asking about my car..I usually send back an abusive and rascist rant..

Why not go along with it, give Bertie Ahern's name, and his address, let them send the sterling cheque to Bertie. See what Bertie does with the sterling!

L1011

OldmanMondeo wrote: »

Every right. The Cheque was stolen, therefore no money would have changed hands. The bank will be down because of this. And with the difficulities the banks are facing, you can be sure that anything they are short they will recover.

Banks fault for releasing the funds in the first place.

They have no right, and no ability to recover money over and above the sterling value - which they have.

Had the OP been screwed over by the sterling going the opposite direction do you think the bank would have refunded him? Would they bollox.

partyguinness

Just got another bull**** email there now enquiring about my car..second one today..TBH I dont have the energy or time to string them along.

Darragh29

A few years ago, I left a job and my last salary payment went into my bank account as usual. For some reason, someone in HR decided that a mistake had been made with the actual amount paid, (it was supposed to include holiday pay that I hadn't taken), and this person decided to recall the whole amount from my bank, to basically reverse the payment, so what I saw on my online statement was something like this...

*Actual figures here are makey up btw!


Credit Debit

Salary: *2,756.67 Euro
Recall: *-2,756.67 Euro

I got in touch with my branch and asked them who took 2,756.67 Euro from my account without my authorisation. I was given the ususal "we have the right to take money from your account if it was put there by mistake", blah blah blah.

I got some legal advice and the truth is that NOBODY, including your bank, is allowed take a cent from your account without your authorisation and written consent.

After a solicitors letter, I got 2,756.67 Euro put back into my account and the issue then was between my bank and my previous employer.

I know this seems off topic but OP, I'd have hit the roof when they took that money out of that account. The difference would be that in my case, the funds were credited immediately into my account, but in your case, did the funds clear his account or could be not have used this money anyway as the funds had not yer cleared???

You can imagine if he had use of the funds even though the cheque had not fully cleared his account, he could have used that money and then the bank subsequently take out the funds and he's a few thousand Euro in the red...

BnA

smccarrick wrote: »

It was luck- the exchange rate could just as easily have gone the other direction.

That was the first thing I thought of when he told me.

What would have happened if the exchange rate had gone the other way. Who would have been out of pocket ?

My brother in law ?

His bank ?

The bank the cheque book was stolen from ?

The person the Cheque Book was stolen from ?

As a complete aside, I was selling a car myself just before Christmas. I got a call from a guy with a terrible broken English telling me he was buying it for a friend of his. Alarm bells were going off alll over the place and I nearly hung up on him. To be honest I was only staying on the line to see where he was going to try and go with it. But he actually turned out to be genuine. Friend had bugger all english so he was doing the ringing. They were very nice chaps and bought the car in the end no probs.

BnA

Darragh29 wrote: »

...I got some legal advice and the truth is that NOBODY, including your bank, is allowed take a cent from your account without your authorisation and written consent.....

This story will tell you just how arragont some bank workers are (were...?)

My parents are farmers and did all their banking through a single joint account in a local branch of large national bank. At the time they also had a farm loan in the same bank which they were paying off by direct debit.

Anyway, the Ma decided she wanted to set up her own account to save up a small bit of money for herself to do her own few things around the house etc. So she did that, in the same branch and that was fine.

Anyway, she was in a shop one day and she was buying something for a few hundred pounds and using the laser card from her own account to do it. Bamm... the card was rejected.

She couldn't understand what the hell had happened so the next day she headed into the bank to find out the story. It turned out that the previous month, when the direct debit had hit my parents joint account for the loan repayment, there wasn't enough money in the account to cover it. So instead, without even contacting them, the manager of the bank took the entire payment out of my mothers savings.

All I can say is, I would hate to have been that poor man when he told my Ma that. There was no need for solictors with her. She freggin' lit him from a height and the money was returned. She moved her savings to the Credit Union though and eventually moved the joint account to a different bank too.

Darragh29

In my case (I'm just wandering off topic here for a second!), the bank sent me on this glossy brochure from the IBOA (Irish Bank Officials Assocation), which in my opinion was nothing other than a union for bank employees, that appeared to back up their argument. The unavoidable fact was that my bank account was set up on the basis of a contract between me and my respective bank and the IBOA had absolutely no basis for being involved in any decision regarding funds into out out of my bank account.

I got the money back and closed the account and like your Mother, I also paid a visit in person and ruined his day! C*nts the lot of 'em! :D:D

mikemac

Darragh29 wrote: »

In my case (I'm just wandering off topic here for a second!), the bank sent me on this glossy brochure from the IBOA (Irish Bank Officials Assocation), which in my opinion was nothing other than a union for bank employees,

Of course the IBOA are a union.
They're not trying to hide anything, they clearly are a union and don't claim otherwise. Oh, and former member here

You seem suprised?
They represent their member interests, there isn't anything dodgy or devious about that.

Darragh29 wrote: »

I got some legal advice and the truth is that NOBODY, including your bank, is allowed take a cent from your account without your authorisation and written consent.

Criminal Assets Bureau
But even then you need a court order

OldmanMondeo

The point I was trying to get across is that a non Irish cheque takes 21 days to clear, the bank came back after 9 days and said the cheque was stolen and refused to pay out. They may also take the €120.00 back because the cheque was not cleared and the funds were not technically in his account.

L1011

The 'funds' were sterling - they have this full amount of sterling back

that the money markets gifted him 120 quid as a result is IRRELEVANT. They can't come after this, just as the cash would have been lost if the market went the other way.

Anan1

partyguinness wrote: »

Sweet...am selling a car at the moment on carzone and sick of these bullsit emails from UK asking about my car..I usually send back an abusive and rascist rant..

Ah, an illiterate racist. There's a new one.:)

partyguinness

Anan1 wrote: »

Ah, an illiterate racist. There's a new one.:)

I doubt that very much if thats a new one;)

peasant

I think we're done here, as far as the topic is concerned