I sold it for €400, they paid me €600 and I had to return €200
Posted: Wed Dec 18, 2024 4:31 am
On a quiet Saturday morning, our protagonist, Santi, was doing a thorough cleaning of his storage room. Too many things stored over the last few years had reduced his capacity for storing everyday items such as bikes, summer or winter clothes, shoes, etc. It didn't take long for him to discover that he still had an old Sega Megadrive video game console , very popular in its time, along with its original controller, an additional one and three games. At that moment it occurred to him that perhaps he could make some extra money if he managed to sell it on one of the second-hand sales platforms on the Internet.
After doing some research, based on the recommendations offered by the OSI regarding secure online stores, he decided that the Vibbo portal was what he was looking for.
A few days later, a user, a citizen of the United Kingdom, became new zealand phone number data interested in his product, asking our protagonist for a WhatsApp number in order to speed up the conversations in order to reach a series of agreements. The supposed buyer, appearing to be a normal citizen free of initial suspicions for Santi, asked him via WhatsApp to send it by express mail and make the payment by bank transfer, indicating that he should please not sell the product to anyone else, since he understood that they had reached an agreement.
Our protagonist was very clear that he would not proceed with the shipment until he received payment for the product, but the buyer wanted Santi to send him the tracking number of the package before making the transfer through his bank “Coust Global Bank”. Despite Santi’s reluctance, he made the shipment, indicating the tracking number of the order to the buyer’s bank.
Image of transfer order to CoutsGlobal Bank Online
Shortly afterwards, the bank sent Santi an email confirming his client's transfer order, for an amount of €400, including charges.
Three days later, Santi received two more emails from the bank. The first indicated that they had already confirmed the package number and that the transfer would be made immediately. But the second email indicated that the transfer amount could not be less than €600 because it was an international transfer to Spain, so if they wanted to go ahead with the sale, Santi had to send €200 via Western Union or Moneygram as compensation for the €600 that had to be sent as the minimum transfer amount.
Image of problem with shipments under €600
Our protagonist, very surprised, contacted the buyer, to whom he told him that he should send the €600 first, and then he would return the €200 difference. He was a little nervous, since the package had been sent and he had not yet received the amount in his account. But the supposed buyer had other plans; he wanted Santi to send the €200 first...
At this point in the film, faced with such obvious suspicions of fraud, Santi told him that he would not send any money, and that if there was so much problem, he should send the €400 by postal order. The scammer was so desperate to gain his trust that he changed his payment method, trying to get Santi to contribute €100 and Santi another €100, so that once the €600 transfer was made, Santi would return €100, which raised even more suspicions of fraud.
Given the circumstances, our protagonist was already fully aware that it was a well-planned scam, the aim of which was to keep both the product and the victim's money. Therefore, our protagonist went to the State Security Forces and Corps to file the relevant complaint along with all the information he had: emails, conversations, etc.
And how does the story end? The investigation is still ongoing and our protagonist is waiting to find out what the outcome of this attempted scam will be. What is clear to him is that, as we have advised in several OSI articles, a number of considerations must be taken into account before selling items on the Internet:
After doing some research, based on the recommendations offered by the OSI regarding secure online stores, he decided that the Vibbo portal was what he was looking for.
A few days later, a user, a citizen of the United Kingdom, became new zealand phone number data interested in his product, asking our protagonist for a WhatsApp number in order to speed up the conversations in order to reach a series of agreements. The supposed buyer, appearing to be a normal citizen free of initial suspicions for Santi, asked him via WhatsApp to send it by express mail and make the payment by bank transfer, indicating that he should please not sell the product to anyone else, since he understood that they had reached an agreement.
Our protagonist was very clear that he would not proceed with the shipment until he received payment for the product, but the buyer wanted Santi to send him the tracking number of the package before making the transfer through his bank “Coust Global Bank”. Despite Santi’s reluctance, he made the shipment, indicating the tracking number of the order to the buyer’s bank.
Image of transfer order to CoutsGlobal Bank Online
Shortly afterwards, the bank sent Santi an email confirming his client's transfer order, for an amount of €400, including charges.
Three days later, Santi received two more emails from the bank. The first indicated that they had already confirmed the package number and that the transfer would be made immediately. But the second email indicated that the transfer amount could not be less than €600 because it was an international transfer to Spain, so if they wanted to go ahead with the sale, Santi had to send €200 via Western Union or Moneygram as compensation for the €600 that had to be sent as the minimum transfer amount.
Image of problem with shipments under €600
Our protagonist, very surprised, contacted the buyer, to whom he told him that he should send the €600 first, and then he would return the €200 difference. He was a little nervous, since the package had been sent and he had not yet received the amount in his account. But the supposed buyer had other plans; he wanted Santi to send the €200 first...
At this point in the film, faced with such obvious suspicions of fraud, Santi told him that he would not send any money, and that if there was so much problem, he should send the €400 by postal order. The scammer was so desperate to gain his trust that he changed his payment method, trying to get Santi to contribute €100 and Santi another €100, so that once the €600 transfer was made, Santi would return €100, which raised even more suspicions of fraud.
Given the circumstances, our protagonist was already fully aware that it was a well-planned scam, the aim of which was to keep both the product and the victim's money. Therefore, our protagonist went to the State Security Forces and Corps to file the relevant complaint along with all the information he had: emails, conversations, etc.
And how does the story end? The investigation is still ongoing and our protagonist is waiting to find out what the outcome of this attempted scam will be. What is clear to him is that, as we have advised in several OSI articles, a number of considerations must be taken into account before selling items on the Internet: