Scams, whose fault?

For anyone considering purchasing anything from "Techrific", "Oz Bargain" or "Catch Deal" then I strongly urge you to do some research first.

It's the same company trading under an assortment of different names.

I'm not sure how much it's wise to say without exposing either myself or the owner of this forum to any legal risks but suffice to say I do not recommend this supplier for ANYTHING. You will find no shortage of others online saying the same and there's good reason for that......

Have you ever wondered why it seems there are so many scams around and nothing appears to be done about them ?

A relative of George Monbiot was fleeced in the UK by a classic scam. Check out what happened next.
Is it any different in Australia ?

My friend was the victim of a scam – and cuts mean she can do nothing about it​

George Monbiot



The state is now unable to tackle fraud even when you track down the offender yourself. As I found out


‘It’s no accident that businesses are taking risks with their workers’ lives: health and safety enforcement has been gutted.’ Photograph: Rui Vieira/PA
Wed 12 May 2021 15.00 AEST
Last modified on Wed 12 May 2021 19.47 AEST


https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/may/12/laws-protect-scams-enforcement-gutted#comments
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It was a classic insulation scam. The conman had targeted a vulnerable elderly person, discovered a nonexistent damp problem in the loft, and claimed his product would solve it. In reality, it was useless and dangerous, more likely to cause damp than to remedy it. He had brought a card reader in his briefcase, and extracted the money on the spot.

It was pure luck that the victim knew an investigative journalist. By the time I rang the scammer, I’d discovered enough to put the fear of God into him. A few minutes into our conversation, he panicked and started telling me everything, including the name of the aggregation agency he uses, which collects the phone numbers of vulnerable people, rings them, probes their weak points and then puts them in touch with the appropriate predator, who pays a fee for the service.

As soon as the call finished, he repaid the money. But I wanted to stop him, and the agency, from operating. I now had enough information to help an enthusiastic investigator take down an entire network. So I tried to contact the county’s trading standards office, only to discover that it’s impossible. Contact with the public has been outsourced to a charity: Citizens Advice.

I came across the ACCC Scam statistics webpage today and noted some very interesting stats and yes, those number are in the millions.

Total lost from All Scams in 2020: $175,694,583

Total lost from All Scam to end of Aug 2021: $192,683,367

Using the drop down boxes on the page linked above allows to drill down to find the losses from various scams e.g.

2020 Total lost to Investment scams: $65,832,407
To end Aug 2021: $96,258,639

With four months still left to count in 2021 there's already a $31mill increase in lost $$$ to just Investment scams this year.
So as the OP Title reads, Scams, whose fault?

The hackers sure know how to fleece the sheeple. Luckily, I am not one of the fleeced and also with any luck/common sense, you don't become one too!

Being naturally cynical, and perhaps overly inclined to question others' motives, the sheer gullibility of some people falling for typical scams beggars my belief. It can be hard to sympathise when you hear what people will fall for.

StockyGuy said:

Being naturally cynical, and perhaps overly inclined to question others' motives, the sheer gullibility of some people falling for typical scams beggars my belief. It can be hard to sympathise when you hear what people will fall for.

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Unfair Stocky Guy. There are so many different "scams" these days it is quite impossible to stay on top of them. They range from stories that are spun from Romance scammers, Fake tax office agents, Job opportunities, identity scams, mal ware scams.

I (like many others) have been getting relentlessly regular texts telling me I have deliveries coming, they are delayed and now just a voicemal with a link. I don't want to know what the payload is on these relentless texts but it will be nasty and dangerous.

I have had at least three friends infiltrated with an email scam that sends plausible emails to everyone on the recipients email asking for help under the legitimate name of my friends. It is a real challenge. I'm fed up with it.

Point taken, and fair points, Bas. But my statement was very subjective, and therefore comfortably unfalsifiable I also used the word "typical" with intent, because there's some high tech stuff that's more correctly called digital fraud, than a scam.

Simply delete dodgy looking texts; don't give info over the phone if unsure caller is legit. NO ONE wants to send you thousands and you'll NEVER win anything online. Do not save any banking passwords. If you notice anything sus on your account IMMEDIATELY have cards blocked and internet banking disabled - you might even need a pro to clean your device/computer! Romance scammers - seriously, how could someone be willing to send money to someone they've never met like that.

I kind of get a small financial indiscretion, but it's people who carelessly send 10s or 100s of thousands and are then crying on some news report. I mean seriously?! One or both of the rather brutal old adages often applies: "a fool and his money are soon parted" or "easy come, easy go".

If I get an email or posted letter from anyone "official" then in short I'll contact them by phone, looking them up not using the number on the email or letter, to confirm it.

Same goes for anything. Verify who they are and that it's legit.

When it comes to crime, I firmly believe that the 100% of the responsibility always falls on the criminal, especially if that criminal is a legal adult. They make the choice to commit a crime. No one else.

StockyGuy said:

Point taken, and fair points, Bas. But my statement was very subjective, and therefore comfortably unfalsifiable I also used the word "typical" with intent, because there's some high tech stuff that's more correctly called digital fraud, than a scam.

Simply delete dodgy looking texts; don't give info over the phone if unsure caller is legit. NO ONE wants to send you thousands and you'll NEVER win anything online. Do not save any banking passwords. If you notice anything sus on your account IMMEDIATELY have cards blocked and internet banking disabled - you might even need a pro to clean your device/computer! Romance scammers - seriously, how could someone be willing to send money to someone they've never met like that.

I kind of get a small financial indiscretion, but it's people who carelessly send 10s or 100s of thousands and are then crying on some news report. I mean seriously?! One or both of the rather brutal old adages often applies: "a fool and his money are soon parted" or "easy come, easy go".

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I'd also suggest not answering any phone call personally but letting an answering machine pick it up, and if it's someone you recognise then answer it, otherwise the nuisance calls usually just hang up.

e_abrams said:

When it comes to crime, I firmly believe that the 100% of the responsibility always falls on the criminal, especially if that criminal is a legal adult. They make the choice to commit a crime. No one else.

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Agree, agree. It's just harder to feel sorry for the person who leaves the doors unlocked when their broken into, or leaves their wallet casually all over the place and it eventually gets swiped.

I think, for me, it's less about feeling sorry about the people who do that and more about being strongly disapproving of people who choose to take advantage of that.

This scam is reported in the UK but could be used in any country:

noirua said:

This scam is reported in the UK but could be used in any country:

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I had somewhat the opposite albeit for a low value item.

Seller sent the wrong goods for an order legitimately placed by me and when contacted didn't want them back, though they did then send the correct item.

At a guess, the wholesale value of the stock they'd given away didn't warrant the postage and messing about returning. End result is I've now got enough AA batteries to last at least the next decade despite that not being what I ordered. I've ended up with a whole box full of them

Pity they don't sell diamonds or gold bars or something like that and send those out randomly.

Smurf1976 said:

I had somewhat the opposite albeit for a low value item.

Seller sent the wrong goods for an order legitimately placed by me and when contacted didn't want them back, though they did then send the correct item.

At a guess, the wholesale value of the stock they'd given away didn't warrant the postage and messing about returning. End result is I've now got enough AA batteries to last at least the next decade despite that not being what I ordered. I've ended up with a whole box full of them

Pity they don't sell diamonds or gold bars or something like that and send those out randomly.

Click to expand...

Recently I ordered some curtains through Amazon from a company in China. They sent the wrong curtains but immediately sent the correct ones. A note in fairly good English said, "OK not to return the curtains wrongly sent". Unfortunately I have a pair of curtains 2 x 1 metre wide and 2.8 metres long. Probably meant for a narrow window in a castle.

I ordered a new battery for a Segway scooter from aliexpress, the seller didnt send it, opened a dispute, seller presented delivery documentation for it being delivered to the Netherlands.
Long story short did my dough lesson learnt.
Replacement batteries are not available in Australia, which I found interesting considering how popular the scooters are becoming.
Ended up sourcing one from the U.S.

Finally it's happened! One of the big names whose faces are used to relentlessly flog crypto scams on Facebook has decided to take action against Facebook for not properly policing it's advertisers..

Twiggy has pulled the trigger.

Andrew 'Twiggy' Forrest pursues criminal case against Facebook over scam ads in world-first​

By Chanel Zagon
7:59am Feb 3, 2022

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Australian mining magnate Andrew "Twiggy" Forrest is pursuing criminal proceedings against Facebook alleging the social media giant breached anti-money laundering laws by failing to stop scam advertisements that featured his image.

The scam ads allegedly used Dr Forrest's picture, as well as those of other celebrities, to promote cryptocurrency investment schemes and have appeared on Facebook since March 2019.

Dr Forrest, Australian billionaire and chairman of Fortescue Metals Group, claims Facebook failed to have sufficient controls or systems in place to stop the site from being used to perpetuate the scams.

Well scamming is alive and well.

Scammers have become more sophisticated in duping an increasing number of Australians who lost more than $38 million last month after falling victim to fraudulent schemes ranging from investments to romance.

The latest available figures from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s Scamwatch site showed it received more than 18,300 reports in February, with people racking up losses of $38,106,474. The most prevalent scam involves investments through which more than $27,700,000 has been lost. Australians lost a total of $323 million in 2021.
The consumer watchdog on Friday launched unprecedented legal action against Facebook owner Meta for publishing scam cryptocurrency ads featuring well-known Australians including former NSW premier Mike Baird, businessman Dick Smith, TV presenter David Koch and mining magnate Andrew Forrest.

Describing the Federal Court action as “world-leading”, Australian Competition and Consumer Commission chairman Rod Sims said he expected the case, alleging Facebook had engaged in false, misleading or deceptive conduct by publishing scam advertisements.

Professor Malcolm Fisher, who was head of Royal North Shore Hospital’s intensive care unit, signed up to an investment scheme in October last year after getting an unsolicited phone call from a woman representing an investment company called QPE Securities.
“They had a very impressive website and an ASIC listing,” he said. “It’s a pretty sophisticated set up.”

Professor Fisher checked the company’s ASIC record and found that it was registered with an ABN and an ACN. It had provided him with a comprehensive market preview, a daily report on his investment, a local bank account and an adviser he regularly spoke to on the phone using a local phone number.

“It all looked pretty good,” he said.

Professor Fisher initially invested $10,000 and then $18,000 and appeared to be making money from day trading; his bank contacted him to say it had blocked his account because it had detected “nefarious trading”. Initially, he did not believe the bank when it told him that QPE Securities was operating a scam.

He told them the company had an address in Chifley Tower. ‘Oh dear’ was the bank officer’s response - “everyone has an address in Chifley Tower”.

Trivago just got hit with a $45M fine for misleading customers on hotel prices.

They advertise that they find the best price for you. They specifically don't do that and if one followed their work you lose big bucks on hotel bookings.

Quite a damning story.


Trivago was found guilty in 2020 for telling consumers it would show them the cheapest rates, when it actually ranked hotels by factoring in which advertisers paid the highest per-click fee.

The misleading claims were featured in advertising and on its own site more than 400,000 times from late 2013 to mid-2018.

In a federal court judgment on Friday, Justice Mark Moshinsky said Trivago’s contravening conduct cost Australian users about $30m and was intentional, rather than accidental.

Key points:​

• The Federal Court has penalised Trivago $44.7 million plus legal costs for misleading consumers
• Consumers have not been compensated for booking more expensive hotel rooms and are estimated to be around $30 million out of pocket
• The ACCC was pushing for penalties of at least $90 million, but Triavgo wanted a total fine of less than $15 million

The big new scam in Australia is redirection of funds used for house purchases. Deposits and stamp duty payments ae prime targets.
Well worth checking out

Australia's overheated property market has become a target for hackers — and they're scamming millions​

ABC Science
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By technology reporter James Purtill
Posted 15h ago15 hours ago, updated 10h ago10 hours ago

Real estate scams are feeding on the Australian dream of home ownership.(Getty Images: William West)
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The scammers' first email to Kelly and her husband arrived in the small hours of the night, when they were sleeping.
"Due to the ongoing bank audit on our account," the email read, "please see attached our subsidiary trust account details for the payment of $25,000 deposit."

Key points:​

• Property settlement scams are becoming more common as house prices rise
• Scammers hack email accounts to impersonate conveyancers or real estate agents and collect money intended for home deposits
• Poor cybersecurity, as well as the failure of banks to verify account names, has made Australia a target, experts say

The email address looked legitimate — it was the real estate agent's.

Kelly and her husband, both young engineers and "tech savvy", were at the pointy end of buying a house in Western Australia.
And so the next day, Kelly's husband sent their hard-earned home deposit to a scammer, and never saw that money again.

Property settlement scams are becoming more common as house prices rise and scammers turn their focus to the large and often lightly protected sums of money that prospective buyers are transferring to the trust accounts of real estate agents and conveyancers.

Known as "payment redirection", it's part of a category of scams called "business email compromise", where criminals hack an employee's email account and then, impersonating that employee, send a payment request, substituting their own bank account details.

The victims tend to be individual home buyers or small business owners, for whom the consequences of a lost deposit are devastating.
Six months on, Kelly and her husband haven't yet told their parents or their friends that they got scammed.

I always use the same local settlement agent, you can nominate your own settlement agent, I wouldnt be buying a property where everything is based on over the internet trust, that to me is asking for trouble.
It is no better than gambling, I wouldnt even buy a second hand car sight unseen over the internet, let alone a house.
Why woulnt they ring the settlement agent to ask is there a problem, due to you being audited? I mean really? We have an ongoing bank audit, llease send $25,000, FFS is there any wonder we are going down the toilet, kbviously people have way too much money IMO.