Originally Posted by tjob

Hello chaps,

Long story: I had an email enquiry from a guy wanting his M3 detailing, few emails back and forwards and his email signature had his Instagram and twitter, as you do I went on for a prod around to see what's what. Turns out he is a Forex trader (foreign exchange stock broker essentially), and offers managed accounts etc.

So after I said I wasn't willing to travel 200 miles to detail his car, conversation turned to his company and what could he do with just a couple hundred quid of mine in a managed account, letting him trade my cash and then I can withdraw at any point. Now I'm totally new to the stock market side of things, but he seemed to know what he was talking about, provided me proof of clients accounts he manages, print screens of him sending people money & visa versa. He gave me his address(es) and a photo of his driving licence. I dug far into his Twitter and facebook etc and everything tied up, so figured Id give it a go, and sent £350. Not a huge amount, but he stated this was his minimum account deposit and for me, it was a tester really to see if it's all legit, I would perhaps put more in ONCE he has proved he is worth it.

So, daily contact was fine, updating me on how he's made £80 for me, then £110 the next day, so I then asked if I could withdraw it. Bit of profit, and proves he can be trusted.

Turns out there was a 30 day minimum account period, funny, never told me that and it doesn't state that on the website, and I specifically asked if I could take money out as and when with no notice period.

Anyway, contact became scarce, I'd get a blunt reply '£1245', no details, just an account balance.

Got bored of being ignored and waited out the 30 days. No answer, got to 39 days and eventually he replies saying he's had a kid, bla bla, I can see that's all 'true' from his social media, but really I didn't care too much, he has my money and it takes 2 minutes to do a BACS transfer.

He then basically tells me it takes 6 days to withdraw the funds from his trading account, but given this was now somewhere around boxing day, all the 'working days' gave him time. money never arrived.

So the other day I just sent him a message saying I'll come collect cash from you, in London. He instantly replies giving some excuse, he'll transfer it etc. no sign of money. So this is when I did what I should of done from the start and really dig.

Although I already have his address, I can see where he has uploaded his Instagram photos from and they match his address, but I've found his parents on facebook, his dad's company and address, his mums cleaning business details, his previous employers details, a local car dealer who happen to have his car for sale there, and a whole load of other seemingly random, but useful information.

I decided to ring his dad, who was in shock when I explained the situation - he wasn't aware at all of this 'investment' company, and said he owed him a fair chunk of money but he would try get him to get in touch with me to explain himself. Apparently they hadn't spoken for months, he moved out and they haven't even seen their 1 week old grandchild yet. I apologise for getting him involved and that's that. But, quick check on Facebook and they were together on the 28th December and 10th december (at least then anyway, tagged together on Facebook), so I called him back and cornered him on this info. He told me to email him for any further communication. Won't be bothering. He did however tell me where he used to work etc, so he seemed to not really care what he told me, but still lied about some stuff...

So I called his previous employers, main dealer car garages x3, and a local bodyshop. Lads at the bodyshop didn't like him at all and gladly confirmed the number I had for him was correct and his only current number.

So the result of this is still that he has my £350 and although he's blocked me on all social media and phone, I can still see what he's posting (he's not the brightest spark)

So what would you do? I have his address which he freely gave me, and a load of other addresses related to him, but I'm not really wanting to knock on his door to find out who's where.

Do I just report this to the online fraud people?

Short story - Foolishly gave a random man £350 and he won't give it back but I now have a lot of totally random and pointless informtation about him to make me feel better about the situation*

Originally Posted by dpb

Mugg

Originally Posted by ditchmyster

I like how he says the scammer is not the brightest right at the end. Err look in the mirror.

Some people are so greedy and want to make fast easy money that they hand some random bloke a wad of cash, then start bleating when he does one.

Expensive lesson.