Scammers have an App to do fake fund transfers

[Izabarack]

Friend selling item on FB scammed by smart guy with an App. Smart guy arrived, viewed the item and used his phone to do an electronic funds transfer on the spot. Showed friend his transaction authorisation SMS and then receipt and emailed receipt to my friend. Emailed receipt image received by my friend about 30 seconds later. Friend then broke her own rule of not handing over items until the money is in her bank but she was literally on her way out the door to visit her partner in Hospital so released the item. Such electronic transfers normally happen overnight so she accepted the receipt to convince herself that all was above board. Three days later, no money in her account so off to make a Police report.

Good outcome a couple of days later. Friend had photo of the scammers Driver's licence, his image on her security cameras, and a photo of his car rego plate.

Now the important info. The villain had App on his phone that he used to send the fake SMS authorisation to himself and then provide a receipt saying the funds had been transferred. The email of the receipt to my friend was legit from his fake eMail address. A bit of research by my friend turns up several similar Apps to the one used on her so she bought a copy to play with; $5.

So my friend is again quite rigid in her rule of not releasing any sold item until the money is in her FB Marketplace account and has been transferred out to an everyday account. Just plain lucky that the scammer was not equipped with fake licence and fake rego plates. so, smart enough to use the App but not smart enough to hide his identity.

There is a whole lot more to the after story where my friend actually tracked the Dipshit down to his house and now has his car as reparation for the stolen item. Stolen item was $7500 and she has onsold the car for $10, 200. Cops know the whole story and know the scammer and know my friend has withdrawn her report on the grounds that she got the car. But that's a story for the campfire sometime.

[Dot]

Well done to your friend.

[dream4red]

Great warning and thanks for sharing.

[T1 Terry]

They are so sophisticated these days, but there is always a technical innovation to stay ahead of them. That Osko is virtually instant, we got scammed a number of times when we had the business, just too trusting, but the introduction of Osko stopped that happening to a greater degree .... still did dumb sh*tte and got our fingers burnt, but we still maintain our faith in humanity in general ..... those who are out there looking to scam people where ever possible will eventually get their just rewards ...... when the chips are down, real friends who are willing to help you are hard to find if you've spent your life conning people ....... Everyone gets old, that is the time you get back what you sowed in your younger yrs ..... I must have been a bad b*gga when I was young, it certainly is getting me back for what ever it was I did ......

T1 Terry

[T1 Terry]

This one came as a text on the phone:
myGov: New important alert from us in your dashboard
GO TO onlinegovaustraliaservice.org

If you ge this message,, try to call the phone number back ..... odds on, it goes to a recorded message that the number is not available. Feel free to lo into your proper My Gov account and see if there really is a message there,
but,
don't click on the link or go to the site, it has all the signs of being a scam/phishing site

T1 Terry

[BernieQ2]

I don't have a myGov account, so should be safe
Plus I don't open things like that.
Bernie.

[Greynomad]

Same same, Bernie!
I received a similar message… problem on my ( non-existent) MyGov a/c.

Lately I have also been bombarded with “Your phone memory is full. Download this app to remove duplicate data.”
Except that I KNOW I have only used 55% of its memory.
Check it occasionally in Settings.

I have also received three calls on my WATCH.
It’s connected to my phone account because it has a fall alarm which alerts family members with an SMS if I fall and am too injured to cancel the alarm.
The only people who have that specific number are SWMBO & Son-&-Heir.
Needless to say I ignore the incoming calls.