Further Fraud Advice

• Card Fraud - Airline Ticket
• Internet Fraud - Car (or other high value products) Purchase/Sale
• Rental Accommodation Fraud

When planning your airline travel, be careful where you purchase your airline tickets as bogus travel agents may offer you airline tickets at a reduced cost. Initially, they purchase the airline ticket using stolen credit card details. This ticket is then sold to an innocent party at a discounted rate, thus netting a fraudulent gain for the rogue travel agent. The reduced cost promotion is close to, or for the date of travel.

The fraud may not come to light until the genuine credit card holder receives the bank statement and after the purchaser has travelled. Where fraud is discovered before the passenger travels, the ticket will be automatically cancelled and you will have lost your money.

Advice

To protect your self from this fraudulent activity, airline tickets should only be purchased from travel agents or tour operators who are licensed by the Commission for Aviation Regulation (ROI), or direct from the airline. UK based travellers should ensure airline tickets are purchased from an agent or tour operator who has an IATA (International Air Transport Association) or an ATOL (Air Travel Organisers Licence) or direct from the airline.

Care should be taken when purchasing a car, or other high value product or service, through a private sale.

Buying

(a) Fraudsters will advertise the sale of a 'phantom' car, product, service, on the internet. Potential buyers are requested to send half the money to buy the item, or pay for the service, to an Escrow¹ company, who will hold the money until the buyer takes possession of the car, at which stage the balance due is paid over for the car.

In these cases, the escrow company is a fictitious company which the fraudsters have created to lull you, the buyer, into a false sense of security when sending on your money. Payment is usually requested by one of three ways - Western Union, Money Gram or transfer of money to a bank account usually to a continental country. Once your money has been handed over, there is no further contact from the fraudsters. The fraudsters have access to multiple victims over the internet for the same item or service - i.e. three people could pay €8,000 each for the same car.

¹ Escrow Company - an independent third party, honest broker, that handles funds and carries out agreed instructions of the buyer and seller in a transaction.

Advice

If buying a car, service or any product over the internet, be very careful and check all your facts.

• Make sure the product actually exists
• Make sure the seller is genuine
• Make sure the seller is the registered owner
• Do not part with your money until you have:
  1. the product checked out and
  2. taken possession of same.

If the deal looks to good to be true, it probably isn't genuine.

Selling

(b) People who genuinely have a car, product or service to sell, may also become the victim of a fraud. The 'rogue purchaser' will forward payment by cheque/ counterfeit draft for a sum in excess of the cost of the car or item. You will be asked to return to the rogue purchaser the excess money agreed for the car or item. They may claim this represents the commission they have earned for selling the car to another third party or to be used to pay shipping costs.

Advice

When selling a car, product or service, be very careful if you are asked to return money to a purchaser.

• Make sure the purchaser is genuine
• Before considering a refund, make sure the cheque/draft has been cleared by the bank on which it is drawn (it can take up to 20 working days for some international cheques/drafts to clear).
• Do not release goods to strangers in face to face transaction which are being paid for with uncleared cheques/bank drafts. Many fraudsters attempt these transactions outside of normal banking hours. NB: In this scenario, you run the risk of losing your car, or goods, in return for which you are handed a worthless cheque/draft (ie. You lose!)

In dealing with rogue purchasers, if the genuine car seller complies with the request to return excess funds, they will suffer the personal loss of this sum of money, and will still have a car, product or service to sell.

Variation - Service

(c) Alternatively, a holiday scam could involve a person booking accommodation or a holiday home and then cancelling as soon as the pre-payment has been lodged. They will then ask that the funds be returned immediately, sometimes less an administrative cost.

Advice

• Make sure the purchaser is genuine
• Do not refund monies for services which are being paid for with uncleared cheques/bank drafts
• Before considering a refund, make sure the cheque/draft has been cleared by the bank on which it is drawn (it can take up to 20 working days for some international cheques/drafts to clear).

Be careful!

In summary, if buying or selling a car or other high value product or service over the internet, or in a private transaction, be very careful and check all your facts before forwarding/refunding any money. If the deal looks to good to be true, it probably isn't genuine.

If you are in the market to rent be very careful before handing over any monies. Fraudsters may advertise a flat or apartment to rent through the newspaper and/or internet. Potential tenants view an empty apartment and are requested to pay a deposit and one month's rent in advance to confirm they will be renting the property. When the new tenant turns up to move into the apartment they cannot access the property. The person who showed them the apartment is no where to be found and not contactable. The 'potential' tenant will find themselves joining a long line of other potential tenants, who have also paid monies to the same bogus landlord or bogus leasing company representative, to move into the same apartment..

A variation on the above is for the fraudsters to ask you to pay the deposit directly into a bank account. You may also be requested to forward the transaction receipt to the fraudster, along with a copy of some form of personal ID. The money is then stolen. The ID can be used for further fraudulent activity.

Advice

If you decide to rent a property you are viewing:

• pay the deposit at the apartment (do not pay in cash)
• check that the key you are given fits the lock
• don't make any payment unless there is an exchange of key and rental contracts
• it is best to use a traceable method of payment, such as a cheque or a banker's draft when passing over the deposit and rent.

These guidelines will help to make your rental experience a positive one.