Bonneville America Forums Forums Off Topic Discussion Forums Lounge I Got Scammed last wek

Well I thought I was A bit on the sharp side when it comes to these sort of things . But I must be getting older and not wiser I reckon. This is what happened to me last week.

Had a package delivered by DPD ( large company ) at 3.0pm Signed for it , brought it in opened straight away. Mobile phone with invoice from Vodafone. At that point doorbell went again. This was within 2/3mins of closing the door to the 1st delivery. Different man with Bright red jacket on with paper work and a tag hanging round neck . He said they had just drop a package and there was a problem with it and he needed to rescan it. I went to the kitchen and got the package .Said I had opened it, he said no problem if it needed it . They would repack it. Gave it all to him and then he said he was popping back to the van to rescan the package and would be be 1 / 2 mins. So I gave it all to him. . Then thought these was strange . So 2 mins later went outside and no van or the man. I looked up and down street, no sign of either. I was very lucky that I had opened the package because I would have handed it back without knowing what was in it. I then realized that I had been scammed.
Came back in and phoned Vodafone. I told them what happened. He then checked and told me an order had been placed in my Name and Address on the internet. He put a block on the phone. Type up the Details and said it he would pass it on to the Fraud department and they would contact me.

Then phoned DPD . I told them what happened. She confirm that I had signed for a package at 3.0pm. I asked do they give a time slot and she said an email had been sent not to my email but a made up one with part of my name in it. It gave an hour the time slot for the delivery. So the guy new when the delivery was going to be. He just waited for it to come and the driver leave and knock on the door.
Contacted my bank to check if any Direct Debit had been put on my account from Vodafone or any dealings on my account that I was not aware . Was told all was normal

Received a letter from Vodafone which contain Direct Debit details in my name to a bank account number and sort code which have no reference to me at all.
Called Vodafone again .Who checked out the account and said that it was under investigation by the fraud department. They will be contacting me by letter within 14 days. Not to worry as it will be sorted out by them . The letter will let me know the outcome of the investigation. The account has been frozen by them. So hopefully I will not lose out anything with this.

Had a Courier call with a package later in the week and I mention to her what had happened . She said that when she was delivering in a road about a mile from me. They told her that a neighbour of theirs had the same thing happen that week to them as well. They gave a package straight back and no one came back.

You here about all this fraud on the internet . But first time it has happened to me or anyone I know.. One thing for sure I wont get caught this way again. Maybe another way tho. atb geoff

Wow! Those scammers are always coming up with new ways to get the unsuspecting.

Just curious what phone it was. They use SIM cards so the service to the scam is incidental. They can unlock the phone and use a different SIM and it won't report itself to anybody as being stolen or scammed. The ESN phones are pretty useless when stolen. It was probably A high end upgrade like Iphone or Blackberry.

Great retail model, don't buy it to begin with then resell it with no overhead. They are starting to snatch phones here like they used to run buy and snatch purses from the girls arm.

We have to remember that we are walking along talking or texting with a several hundred $ computer in our hands.

That's quite the elaborate scam. Appreciate you posting the story here... it gives the rest of us a heads up!

Brilliant way of doing it, but they must have been watching the house Geoff to see when it was being delivered....

Only had a very quick look But think it was the new
Samsung Galaxy S III. Which go for around £400/500. But for sure it would have been the top of the range one.There are not going do it for a £20 phone thats for sure.A neighbour was puuting out his rubbish bin and saw him come round my hedge and go to my door.So he was waiting . I first thought that he might have been in with the driver.But I dont reckon the driver would risk it for one phone split 2 ways. If it happened to many times with his deliverys they would so work it out he was in on it.
So Dont give it Back .

atb geoff

When I read the subject line I thought you were gonna tell us you'd bought a Harley.

I'm the kind of person who would have wanted to call the shipping office and want to see ID before I did anything.

I got scammed outta 10,000 dollars one time. They are very clever and make great web sites with references and feed back pages. They even go as far as to report to the BBB so they have credibility. These guys even joined the chamber of commerce, and other typical things you would check before dealing with someone in that amount of money. I got had and they got me good. I contacted the local authorities who were utterly impotent and even the FBI, who claimed they have been trying to pin these guys down with out any luck.

Here in Orlando, it's simpler.

They're just following the UPS trucks, watch them leave packages at front doors, and if no one opens the door immediately, they just run up and take it.

No scam involved.

that's old school

Yes, simpler times!

On Public Radio yesterday; the FTC has ok'ed a process where you tell your phone provider your "tablet" or other device has been stolen, and the company can shut it down, rendering it useless.