I’ve been scammed - help me nail the bastard.

[Thebigblueballoon]

Hello AIBU fans. Shamelessly posting here for traffic.

I work in an interior designs field, and over the part two months ago I have ordered some stock from a person who I previously had a good business relationship with.

He hasn’t delivered the goods. Apparently because he’s had a “family crisis”. It’s been eight weeks. Eight weeks of excuses I have accepted, even when he’s cancelled a delivery on the very same day.

It turns out he’s a massive fraud, and has scammed dozens of people in our industry out of money. There’s somebody in Australia waiting on 15k. Literally thousands of pounds in some cases. Why this hasn’t been documented more online is beyond me, but there you go… now is the time.

I’m taking him to small claims court as soon as possible, I just need to get his address and details, and as much info as possible on this scumbag.
What’s the best way to do this? And how can I flag this arsehole up to everybody in the industry I work in?

So you know for definite he’s not in this unit any more? What details are on the receipts or invoices he gave you in the past?

Did you meet him face to face this time though? Everything you say about changing addresses and phone numbers suggests that someone else is using his name.

A number and an address that isn’t accurate. I’ve checked both.

If you're in the UK, can you contact your local Trading Standards office and get their advice?
Could you contact BBC Watchdog and perhaps Morning Live as they were doing a whole week last week on scam artists and how they keep getting away with it. They might be interested in your story, especially since you've done a lot of research into this particular scam artist. They may be able to find out more for you and have the weight behind being 'named and shamed'?

I hope you do get your money back along with everyone else this scammer has ripped off.

Best of luck to you.

If he previously had fixed premises, found out who owns them on land registry. They will have a list of former tenants and should have properly ID checked anyone they rented to.

They may not be able to release details, but could help you when you report to the police, by agreeing to provide info to the police directly.

No. But I’ve learned since last night that he has done this a lot of people. I’m annoyed nobody has spoken up about it.

This is a very odd thread.

Just trying to get my head around it.

When you originally purchased it was through a website? Or a premises? And the premises has now gone?

And he was a company but deleted all his details, but now you're saying you're not sure he ever was a company, so how do you know he's deleted all his details off companies house (which I'm not sure you can do? You can dissolve a company or be struck off, but there will still be a record)
Even if he wasn't a limited company, if he was legit before he would have had to had to have been something in order to be legit as it would have had to have paid tax, so would have been a sole trader in which case there should be a record also.

How were the purchases agreed? Through instagram messenger?
Do you know where he used to live? You mention he moved house.

contacting your bank is the obvious way to start but if there was no purchase contract and it was just done as selling online casually through a messaging service I'm not sure you're going to be covered in any way, unless you paid by credit card then there might be some protection there?

Have you spoken to other people who have been scammed, none of them have any details for him at all?
Is his scamming instagram still active?

I'm not disputing your experience it's just a very confusing story and your answer to nearly everything seems to be 'he decided to start scamming'.

No, I think if you are in business, then you should be thoroughly checking out the businesses you are dealing with, and then you would know the status of his company.

https://www.met.police.uk/ro/report/fo/v1/fraud/

The Met have this fraud section for fraud everywhere. don't know if it helps at all. Good luck

But he's not in your field is he? He's in the field next door supplying you and people in your field. If he supplies furniture around the world that sounds like it could be very different to what you do. If he's capable of shipping £15k of furniture/stuff to Australia he is facing a lot of regulation and paperwork, and a level of risk that most sole traders wouldn't consider prudent.

Sorry, typo, meant to say that, he owes you money, how did you pay him.

The scammer in question used to have a massive industrial unit that you could visit.
I originally met him at his unit and it was all fine. Things are different now for me and literally dozens of others.

All very strange.

If you know his name and the area he lives in try looking on the 192 website for his home address.

There was a story I read where several women had fathered a child by the same bloke but didn’t know of each other. He duped a lot of women. And no child support. So one of them set up a website with his name in the domain name so any future women that might google him will be alerted.

Says you, viperishly.

It's highly unusual for someone who has been reputable for a long time to suddenly become disreputable.

This points to the dealer in question possibly having his identity stolen without his knowledge.

Is he of retirement age? Is it possible that he shut up shop a few months ago, and a former client has seen an opportunity?

There's only so long a scam like this can be maintained. For someone with a good income from a reputable business to suddenly want to throw that away means they are more than likely either going through a very difficult personal situation that has pushed them to desperate measures, or are a victim of someone else in some way.

Speak to your bank and to the police. The account the person is using to accept money will be registered to an address and it should be possible to track whoever this is down that way - but that's not information to which you will ever be made privy. The bank's fraud department will investigate on your behalf in conjunction with the police. By all means warn colleagues in the industry that all is not right with the seller, but I wouldn't automatically assume he is a thieving bastard - he may be as much a victim in this as you.

Use one of those national people tracing companies on Google. They're usually used to trace people who owe debts and try to hide. When they resurface again (new address etc) they tend to pop up on the radar.

His details should be there

It is extremely unusual, which makes this more difficult.
It is the original person. So many people are unhappy, me included.

is there some kind of social media group for people in your industry? perhaps start asking there if people have interacted with him.

There is, and I’ve had a private chat with a bit of them. It’s more the public stuff that has become ridiculous for folk.

have you told your bank? my bank calls me or blocks my card if I try to do a transaction from a 'blacklisted' dodgy company.

I'm curious if you've been communicating via Instagram recently, how you can be so certain that it is the original dealer that you're communicating with.

How do you know that it's not someone on the other side of the world, posing as and pretending to be him?

I suppose I can’t be sure. But we were getting updates every morning from the account and yet nothing showed up. It is the original seller - he’s scammed a lot of people.

How can you really be so sure it is the original person though? I don’t think the fact that lots of other people have experienced the same and think it’s him is evidence. Whenever the possibility of a stolen identity is raised this seems to be offered as a reason it must be a previously good character turned bad. Surely a prolific imposter is more plausible?