Is this a police job? Threatened by Vinted seller

[Reasonswhy]

I know I’m not, but posting for traffic as no idea what to do.
Item for Christmas arrived today and was clearly fake so applied for a refund via Vinted. I’ve had a series of threatening messages from the seller saying he needs the money, and he has my address so will come and find me. He included a photo of himself holding an air rifle. I’m not easily spooked but feel really scared now as he does have my address and seems very angry. I’ve filed a “help” through Vinted but they may not even read it for 48 hours. Do I call 111? On my own with 2 kids so feel really on edge.

I have seen these exact pictures and messages in a vinted group before. So clearly he’s done it before and pulled images from the internet and is full of shit.

I’m sorry you’re going through this OP, it must be really frightening, and that’s the intention. Please try to look at this logically, someone who was involved in serious crime is unlikely to be making their money selling fakes on Vinted that they likely bought from a market in Turkey. This looks me like it’s been written by some kid somewhere trying to be big.

Real dodgy people with access to guns have bigger fish to fry than this. I hope he gets a very loud knock on his door very soon and his arse well and truly kicked.

No alarm but house is fairly secure, main door and you’d have to be stick man to get round to the back door so I’ll likely do some triple checking on the lock tonight. Just makes me so uneasy he was so angry (or came
across that way) 😢

I think another lesson for us all is to block people the very moment it becomes ever so slightly weird. But can we get a refund if we block people?

Glad they are coming out to see you tomorrow, hope you manage to unwind a bit this evening, you have had a tough and stressful day thanks to this piece of sub human trash

Understand, it must be really scary. I hope you manage some sleep tonight, and there will be people on here all night to support you if you are worrying. Shame the police couldn't come today but hopefully tomorrow they will get things rolling and it all turns out to be nothing.

Understandable. Your house is secure, try to get some rest if you can.

He'll be some scrawny shrimp 3000 miles away who throws his back out when he wanks too hard. I guarantee it.

Police and vinted. He needs blocking and removing from vinted. Make sure police are informed!

Another reason to think that it was a kid really. He probably really needed the money for some kid stuff and got angry he’s not getting any. Angry kids are no joke! They can’t self-regulate well. My daughter starts to write in really big letters or throws the pen around! (I hope you don’t find it inappropriate that I am comparing this to throwing pens around, but perhaps you can look at it from a perspective of a teen.) And like someone upthread said, dodgy people with guns have bigger fish to fry rather than fighting over £50.

Sorry op. How horrid! Nasty man

Sending a hand hold, horrible position to be in. Easy to say but try not to worry, I’m sure it is an empty threat sent to scare you. As previous poster said you can keep posting, there will be people here to help. Hopefully the police will be out early tomorrow

Well done op

Thank you all for being so kind

He won't be able to contact his Mafia chums anyway, his mum turned the wifi off because he didn't do his homework.

This happened to me. Similar picture. Fake item. Police told me it’s not uncommon

I thought that too. Its usually the school bully who says he'll get his mates on you. Probably hasnt actually got any mates cos they all know hes an absolute knobhead.
Not trying to make light of a frightening situation though, and Im glad the police are taking it seriously!!

How awful. What a disappointing response from the police. Even if not a credible threat, they should be coming down on this person like a ton of bricks for malicious messaging. I’d keep on at them and let them know you want it escalated asap. A knock on the door late at night would give him a taste of his own medicine, nasty little prick.

I'm just thinking, if I were some well 'ard man and had control of an underground network of biddable and untouchable thugs, I'd make them parade Jeremy Corbyn around London wearing a mankini probably find a more efficient and lucrative business than selling on Vinted.

I understand you are very unsettled. I would be too but I think you are very safe. You cost him money and he might have tried different tactics to successfully scam woman. Apart from the logistics, how many people does he know realistically, who happen to live closer to you and also happen to willingly go and attack a stranger? Besides, sending anyone round to you is achieving nothing and risking everything. He will be chuckling having put you in a state of fear but he will have no interest having the police at his door and physically harming you after he threatened you would probably get in the way of his sad little life.

I think, if it makes you feel any better he’s just trying to scare you because he wants the money. If he was really nuts enough to come round he’d not bother saying it. I hope you manage to put him out of your mind.

eta: obviously dont drop it with the police. He shouldn’t be allowed to get away with what he’s doing!

Hi, I just wanted to say that I have read about this scam before. I've read the exact same story in the past about a gun threat on Vinted. I've just googled it to try and find the story that I read and if you search 'gun threat scam vinted' you will see that it's a common thing that these people do and it really is just scaremongering in the hope you will panic and let them keep the money. There's even a forum about it of other people who have unfortunately had this same thing. I know that's really awful that they do this but I think it would put my mind at rest to read that this is just a nasty scam that's happened to lots of others. Xxx

They don’t know who he is currently, and finding out is not something that can be done instantly, despite what programmes like Channel 4’s “Hunted” might suggest.

Trust me, I wouldn't be surprised. I used to work for a digital forensics company that had the met contract. I wasn't an analyst but I know a fair bit about it all. Usually these people are quite easy to catch. But it's difficult to get logs released if they're based out of our jurisdiction.

Main factor is how much effort the police want to put in. For something like a homicide they'll obv do a lot more.

How did you receive your parcel? As you don’t usually get the buyers address. Usually just a bar code and then the post office or whoever stick the label on with your address, and you don’t get it back. As the picture was fake, he might just be faking that he has your address too! Fingers crossed! That’s really scary though. Hope you’re ok x