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How to track down scammers?
Posted: Tue, 10 Nov 2009 1:18 pm
by bluesky2009
Recently I was looking for flat sharing on the website. And there is this folk offering a flat somewhere near suntec city with some nice pictures of itself posted. He approahced me with a very detail description about himself (born in UK, working for invest banking..blah blah..) and why he was renting out this place. Initially I didn't suspect and thought he was just sort of like sharing. When I asked to view the place, he came up with thousands of reasons that it's not avail for viewing until I seal the contract and xfer the deposit to him. At this point I realized that this is totally a scammer trying to hoax innocent people and run away with $ without leaving any info to be tracked down. I didn't let out my suspicion to him as I want to get enough informatino to track him down. Now, need some advices, which authority dept. would be looking into such cases? Can I report this case anywhere to have people with expertise to track it down? All I have right now is a west union account name and address. Will this be sufficient enough?
Posted: Tue, 10 Nov 2009 1:39 pm
by sundaymorningstaple
That means more than likely they are not even in Singapore. And you don't have a ghosts chance in hell of tracking them down. You aren't the first one here and you won't be the last. There's been a rash of those that have happened this past year. As long as there are gullible people, there will be scammers.
Re: How to track down scammers?
Posted: Tue, 10 Nov 2009 1:42 pm
by ksl
bluesky2009 wrote:Recently I was looking for flat sharing on the website. And there is this folk offering a flat somewhere near suntec city with some nice pictures of itself posted. He approahced me with a very detail description about himself (born in UK, working for invest banking..blah blah..) and why he was renting out this place. Initially I didn't suspect and thought he was just sort of like sharing. When I asked to view the place, he came up with thousands of reasons that it's not avail for viewing until I seal the contract and xfer the deposit to him. At this point I realized that this is totally a scammer trying to hoax innocent people and run away with $ without leaving any info to be tracked down. I didn't let out my suspicion to him as I want to get enough informatino to track him down. Now, need some advices, which authority dept. would be looking into such cases? Can I report this case anywhere to have people with expertise to track it down? All I have right now is a west union account name and address. Will this be sufficient enough?
Contact the police asap, and explain what is happening, the police may want you to work with them in catching this culprit! They have the means to track him down very easy. Just keep leading him on, with getting the deposit transferred from your bank in home country, or something, delay him, without any suspicion. The account is probably not in Singapore.
Highly unlikely to catch them, however must be fun trying
http://www.informationweek.com/news/sec ... D=18700257
Posted: Tue, 10 Nov 2009 1:50 pm
by Saint
Is it still in the classified section?
Posted: Tue, 10 Nov 2009 2:42 pm
by sundaymorningstaple
Posted: Tue, 10 Nov 2009 3:30 pm
by carteki
Contact the site where you "met" the individual concerned. They are very aware of this and should blacklist them immediately. If not, please let us know so that we can avoid the site.
Posted: Wed, 11 Nov 2009 2:44 pm
by beppi
This kind of scam is very common in other parts of the world, and apparently catches on in Singapore too, especially on classified sites like Gumtree and Craigslist.
Of course the perpetrators are not in Singapore (and the advertised
property most likely doesn't exist or is not up for rent), so you have no chance at all to get them persecuted. I recommend wasting your time with more pleasurable things than calling the police here!
Just apply common sense and you'll be fine - anybody with a property for rent here would have a Singapore bank account, so why should you send him money abroad (and "Western Union" should anyway ring the alarm bells)?
I even had a guy once praising "his" appartment's central heating system - supposedly in Pasir Panjang Road!!! - and then wanting me to send the deposit to Nigeria, where else!
Posted: Thu, 12 Nov 2009 3:11 pm
by Deetz
If you emailed him at all you can google show email headers for whatever web or mail program you use. Then you can try seeing where he sent the emails from. And if it's from India or Nigeria yeah it's total BS
