Victim Of Facebook's Sponsored ad Scams By Chinese Sellers

fraudvictim1
Contributor
Contributor

Hi all

Apologies for the long message.

I have been a victim of a Facebook sponsored ad scams.

The way it works is, Chinese sellers uploads videos of various goods like top end remote control cars, planes, JCB Trucks, Kitchen items like grill pizza machines, Electric Tools, etc, usually seen on Facebook Marketplace sections, These advertised goods aren't available in this country so many buyers fall for these scams, unfortunately, I did too. so once you click on it, it takes you to their dodgy websites which seems legit but in fact, they are a copied versions of genuine websites, the company I purchased goods from trades in various name, one of them is this one here,

Onhui Technology Co, Ltd. with dodgy emails, one of them is this one 

<removed>

 

So what happens when an item is purchased using PayPal? You receive an automated email thanking you for the purchase along with a few other Gmail address' to contact them in case of any problems. (All fakes)

Next, they post the allegedly purchased goods, they will email you the TRACKING NUMBER which looks genuine but when you try it on the CHINA POST site, it fails to recognize the number, eventually, after waiting for nearly a month and numerous emails, the item arrives, posted from somewhere in London, (this is where their cousins residing in London or somewhere in Glasgow comes in to play their part in this scam) they post a small keyring or a packet of small screws, the third company sent me a pair of 99 pence earings and the last one sent a Shanghai nightlife postcard with a 2020 small pocket diary sent in a small size A5 packet, shoved through the letterbox (remember, items bought were big kitchen stuff, a grill machine, remote control 2 feet long Jeep, so not possible for a postman to put it through our letterbox)

Now, these packets will have the same tracking numbers, in my case, it had 2 tracking numbers, one was a ROYAL MAIL one and the other one was, the one when this fraudster sent in the first place by email the Chinese one.

 

So you open the packet and to your surprise, the dissapointments kicks in, they have sent you the wrong item so you email them to find out whats happened, that's when the drama begins, they communicate with you via different names with different email i.d's, not accepting liability and with baseless stories, most of the times, not making any sense as it's in broken English saying "sorry my friend, you don't like my goods but you have to understand, if you send back goods, it will cost you $30 dollars as we will only accept returns if it has a tracking number from ROYAL MAIL, so it is not worth for you to return your order, so my friend, I will offer you 10 percent refund, you keep the goods, is that a good deal my friend"  and starts offering you refunds 10 percent next day you get another email offering 20 percent but I kept threatening them with legal action after 3 days, another one came, this one from a different email i.d offering 40 percent, thats last offer telling you take it or leave it, thats when I contacted paypal to investigate, first claim was for item not received, paypal tracked the item and as mentioned before, it showed as "delivered" sp paypal refused to do anything so i called and explain whats happened so they told me to change the cattegory "wrong item sent" luckily i did, this fraudsters did not respond to paypals emails on timely manner so for 3 items, paypal refunded the money back, which was a victory even though it was a matter of 50 dollars each transactons

 

Now, only one remains, so please can someone advise me on the following, 

This chap keeps responding with baseless arguments so PayPal advises the following, below is the message from them, 

 

What should you do?

We'll need some additional information about your case. You'll have to provide the following on or before 30 November 2020 at 08:22:48 GMT.

  • Report filed with a law enforcement agency or government organisation. Examples of such agencies are: Internet Crime Complaint Center (https://www.ic3.gov), state agencies, state police or a federal law enforcement agency such as the FBI or the Postal Inspection Service.

What happens next?

We'll review the additional information and update you with our final decision.

 

I just called the helpline and spoke to someone from abroad with an American accent, I told him I have no time to go to my local Police Station and even if I did, this is a civil matter which they won't be able to help so he suggested I go on ACTION FRAUD website and register the case and when I get the CRIME REF NUMBER, I contact them again and they will make the decision.

 

I just looked on the ACTION FRAUD website but there is nothing to suggest how to get the CRIME REFERENCE NUMBER, 

 

Please help so the Chinese chapter can be closed for good.

 

Thanks in advance and apologies for the long message

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1 REPLY 1

Feather2
New Community Member
I'm really sorry you're having the problem you're having I'm having the same problem only I ordered quite a few items for a large amount of money and I have received nothing not even little rinky-dink things they wanted to send me a $9 refund when I paid over $100 to them for one item I refuse this and I've contacted PayPal times and they said they can't find where my purchases were on their computer but I have the receipts where they sent me saying that the purchase was made so I believe the PayPal needs to stop sending them money and taking money for them and I also think marketplace should take them off there if it is a scam I think marketplace is also facilitating them to commit scam on people by keeping them on their website
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