Scam for online Ipad & iphone vendor

[jackyhunger08]

My friend got contact from HWZ regards good offer for Ipad3 & iphone 4S. He contact the company @ London, TXX Ltd , contact person : JamesXXXX, deal close with 3 x ipad3 & 3 x iphone4s . He proceed payment through Western Union & waited happily to receive goods in2-3 days. At same night immediate he paid, receive call from James that due to internal company mispacking & they accidentally ship out 5x iphone 4s & ipad3 each & insist want my friend to pay for it as they can't call back the order due to tax issue.
My friend looked around buyer in his friend team & finally confirmed the deal on additional 2 x ipad3 & agreed to send the iphone 4S back to James immediate whenhe receive the goods. Few hour after he make payment, James email him the tracking number from EMS Cargo Ltd. by 2nd day, James called again to inform that the goods was hold @ Turkey as require import licence from buyer. He wanted my friend to pay additional USD500 in order to get third party to provide the import licence & clear the goods for my friend.
My friend found unusual after few time demand in payment on top of initial agreed of ipad & iphone buying cost. He insist not to pay but James kept calling & email him regards the issue. After dragging the issue for two days, james called to inform my friend that the goods was manage to lear Turkey & reach Malaysia but still required import licence. James wanted my friend to pay the $ & threaten that in case he not paying, the goods will be not be able to receive. My friend tried to call the EMS Carlo but failed to get people to answer the call despite they indicate 24 hours customer service. My friend then approach few local forwardere in Singapore regards the import licence & showed them the tracking advice. All forwarder commented something was not right as the shipping should start direct from London to Singapore instead of transiting in different country like Turkey & Malaysia.My friend then quickly check from internet regards to EMS cargo & found unexpected news : similar case happen posted on website on26/03/12 & informed that EMS Cargo wedsite is FRAUD ! You may check from google & key in emscgltd.eu.pn prompt in Russia & use translate to read the detail.

With that, I tried myself to approach one company from HWZ & found same approach they are used. When I confirmed order of 3 x ipad3 & then later they informed me that due to TRADE UNION IN UNITED KINGDOM do not allow them to ship 3 unit order & they only allow to ship minumum of 5 Unit & wanted me to pay further. Of course I stop the deal although they kept call to get payment from me.
I hope HWZ can investigate this Scam trade & I believe not only my friend fell in their trap as they are really offer good price for recent hot cake like iphone, ipad, galaxy & etc. I hope HWZ can ban immediate all this type of Scam advertisement once it confirmed.

 

[ethwz]

My friend got contact from HWZ regards good offer for Ipad3 & iphone 4S. He contact the company @ London, TXX Ltd , contact person : JamesXXXX, deal close with 3 x ipad3 & 3 x iphone4s . He proceed payment through Western Union & waited happily to receive goods in2-3 days. At same night immediate he paid, receive call from James that due to internal company mispacking & they accidentally ship out 5x iphone 4s & ipad3 each & insist want my friend to pay for it as they can't call back the order due to tax issue.
My friend looked around buyer in his friend team & finally confirmed the deal on additional 2 x ipad3 & agreed to send the iphone 4S back to James immediate whenhe receive the goods. Few hour after he make payment, James email him the tracking number from EMS Cargo Ltd. by 2nd day, James called again to inform that the goods was hold @ Turkey as require import licence from buyer. He wanted my friend to pay additional USD500 in order to get third party to provide the import licence & clear the goods for my friend.
My friend found unusual after few time demand in payment on top of initial agreed of ipad & iphone buying cost. He insist not to pay but James kept calling & email him regards the issue. After dragging the issue for two days, james called to inform my friend that the goods was manage to lear Turkey & reach Malaysia but still required import licence. James wanted my friend to pay the $ & threaten that in case he not paying, the goods will be not be able to receive. My friend tried to call the EMS Carlo but failed to get people to answer the call despite they indicate 24 hours customer service. My friend then approach few local forwardere in Singapore regards the import licence & showed them the tracking advice. All forwarder commented something was not right as the shipping should start direct from London to Singapore instead of transiting in different country like Turkey & Malaysia.My friend then quickly check from internet regards to EMS cargo & found unexpected news : similar case happen posted on website on26/03/12 & informed that EMS Cargo wedsite is FRAUD ! You may check from google & key in emscgltd.eu.pn prompt in Russia & use translate to read the detail.

With that, I tried myself to approach one company from HWZ & found same approach they are used. When I confirmed order of 3 x ipad3 & then later they informed me that due to TRADE UNION IN UNITED KINGDOM do not allow them to ship 3 unit order & they only allow to ship minumum of 5 Unit & wanted me to pay further. Of course I stop the deal although they kept call to get payment from me.
I hope HWZ can investigate this Scam trade & I believe not only my friend fell in their trap as they are really offer good price for recent hot cake like iphone, ipad, galaxy & etc. I hope HWZ can ban immediate all this type of Scam advertisement once it confirmed.

I'm sorry to hear that your friend appears to have been the victim of an online scam. I strongly recommend making a police report and seeking advice from the law, as we do not have the means to enforce/ thoroughly investigate this matter outside of HardwareZone.

We will render all available assistance in the course of the SPF's investigation in this matter should we be approached.

Please PM me if you need further clarifications on this matter.

 

[ludicrouz]

i believe the same guy is doing the scam again, seeing a good deal on hardwarezone marketplace, i emailed him.. this is the email content.

his facebook is http://www.facebook.com/sulihat.albdulmohammed
really seems pretty shady to me

this is the link for his advert
http://www.hardwarezone.com.sg/marketplace/view/229259

 

[ethwz]

i believe the same guy is doing the scam again, seeing a good deal on hardwarezone marketplace, i emailed him.. this is the email content.

his facebook is http://www.facebook.com/sulihat.albdulmohammed
really seems pretty shady to me

this is the link for his advert
WTS : Brand New : Apple iPad Mini Wifi (300SGD) - Ad#229259 - HardwareZone.com.sg

I can ban him if you send me urls of his post or forward any of his PMs to me.

 

[Elise Foo]

Scammers on the loose- Ipad Mini

A WARNING TO ALL: SCAM ON PURCHASE OF IPAD MINI

Hi all,

My main objective in joining this forum is to share my personal experience on a bunch of scammers so as to prevent more of such cases from happening & for others to think twice before deciding on purchasing any electronics through such websites. Upon reading some of the previous posts from the members here, i have reasons in believing that this may be the same scam guy as the one posted back then by "ethwz".

His current identity he is using is a girl by the name of "Joyce"
Below are his details to look out for currently:

joycelimweng@hotmail.com
Account type: POSB SAVINGS / Dennis / 228143308

*One important thing to note though- The account number/name he gave to another victim & I were different. I suspect he does this to different victims & these accounts may not even be his but his friend's.

This was what "joyce" gave to another victim:
Account type: POSB SAVINGS/ Nazrunnisa Binte Ilbrahim/ 170145216

From these, I am pretty sure that "joyce" is not acting alone on this. He/She probably has many other accomplices on these scams.

ACCOUNT OF MY EXPERIENCE:

After conversing on email with "Joyce" & making sure this email address had no past records on scams, i decided to take a chance at ordering an ipad mini from "joycelimweng@hotmail.com". He is one of the few in the market that can do immediate delivery & had one of the best rates. In his ads, he guarantees people 12 months of warranty & 90 days return policy & a 3 hours delivery to your doorstep. He also offers a promo of "buy 3 unit get 1 unit free". (this changes from time to time on different ad sites)

During the course of the email, he would "guarantee" me from time to time that he was genuine, that i would "receive my product" & that he was "trustable" (yeah, sure). In one of the email threads between him & another victim, he even mentioned things like he is a "person of god, has 2/3 kids" & was even "secured by singapore police".
From the following mentioned above, you can be sure he loves coating his words with lots of lies & empathy so be sure to never fall for it.

While I was enquiring on my ipad mini, i was also helping a friend ask some questions as well as she was keen in joining my order. However, i told her that i was taking a chance in this & she should see if i managed to secure my item first before safely deciding to proceed hers.

An amount of 300sgd was transferred to the account on 6 Nov, 9AM in the morning. I snapped a picture of my transaction & E-mailed him immediately on proceeding with delivery. He even replied & told me that he will "update me asap once they start with delivery"

At 12PM, i had no news whatsoever so i emailed again asking for an estimated time & the status of the ipad as it had already been 3 hours. He could still reply me that they were waiting for my friend to transfer over so they can deliver all at the same time (you must be kidding me). Firstly, I just ENQUIRED on behalf of my friend, i had not made any promise or even said that she was keen in purchasing- so the question is, what was he waiting for? (obviously, for more scams to transact through)

This was when I immediately sensed that something was not right.

I went into more research & managed to find previous advertorials he had posted elsewhere. FYI, the website i got to know about him was "Locanto". He had other previous postings in places like "sgadsonline" & "sgbestclassifieds".

So how did i confirmed he was a scam?

He left a contact number on "Sgadsonline". I immediately contacted the person via whatsapp. Guess what?

This number that he gave turns out to be one of his previous victims (how smart of him) & she actually goes by the name "Serene", not joyce. She shared her previous experience with him & advised me to make a report to the police & bank. She had many people contacting her regarding the electronics as her number was used under his advertorials. She did not eventually transfer any cash to him as she suspected that he was a scam. However, it was very bold of him to use her number as a contact in his scam ads (so as to make it seem more convincing).

One important thing to note. His first questions to you upon your enquiry on any products would be the country you are located at, following by your full details like Name, Handphone number & Address (God knows what he uses his victim's details for so do be careful).

He may also be changing his contact details very soon/close previous accounts as he's already been alarmed. The reason as to why he managed to stay in this "trade" this long is due to his constant switch of contact details, identity, account types used conversing with victims & you can never google past records. Wouldn't be surprised if he even has a group of accomplices with him.


To end it on a sweet note, I did give him a chance with my last email exposing him & asking him to either deliver the ipad mini within an hour (of course i knew by this time i wasn't gonna receive any ipads) or to have my 300sgd refunded. He still had the guts & ego to reply me things like "What are you talking about la" & "Your parcel is already on its way, will inform you when its near you asap" & "you will surely get your item". So the question is, did i eventually managed to secure my item by the end of the day? Of course not.

Alas, i still did something for him despite being scammed- A long, detailed police report on the very same day with all details/particulars/email exchanges we had submitted for investigation.

This is definitely not the end as I am still gathering information/ setting traps with my friends so as to hand-over more leads to the police. I believe justice has a way of finding him but there are also many preventive measures/precautions we all can take note of to avoid future scams & to prevent such people from getting their hands on the hard-earned money of us commoners. These scammers know better than anyone else on the vulnerability of those who approaches them- whether being desperate or just looking for a good deal with these "middlemen/resellers", in order to avoid the steep prices that we face in retail shops.

I may have lost 300sgd, but i did pay to have a huge lesson learnt. I am pretty sure there are others out there who probably had gone through similar encounters or worse. Please do have it reported to the police immediately. I know many who would just keep quiet & blame it on their luck but hey, this is also the reason why such they are still on the loose.

 

[dr_ahcir]

Hi Elise and HWZ,

I am also a victim of this certain "Joyce". I really agree with you Elise that this Joyce is not working alone. She gave me the same POSB account numbers:

Account type: POSB SAVINGS / Dennis / 228143308

Account type: POSB SAVINGS/ Nazrunnisa Binte Ilbrahim/ 170145216

And even she gave me another account:

POSB SAVINGS/ Leow Yu Rui Edmund/ 057-45179-7


Along with our conversation, I asked her to send her IC as proof that this is a legit transaction. She did not gave me here IC but instead she sent the IC of

CHNG YONG BOON DENNIS (ZHUAN YONGWEN)/ S8719397G

She said that this is her "boss". I have a copy of the IC with me. I have reported this to the police as well but until now seems like there's no progress.

Elise, I would like to coordinate with you. Maybe the details I have here may help in the investigation process.

 

[code4tamy]

A WARNING TO ALL: SCAM ON PURCHASE OF IPAD MINI

Hi all,

My main objective in joining this forum is to share my personal experience on a bunch of scammers ...

Nice write-up.

I am not being scammed but i pity the victims. Hope that the scammers can be caught.
By the way, I wonder and dunno why it seems to me that police reports are only meant for "filing" purposes. when SPF could check out those bank accounts where money were transferred to....

Anyway, by the way ppl.. when the price is too good to be true, think twice or ask for cash on delivery. A taxi ride from 1 end of Singapore to another end of Singapore certainly is lesser than $300.

 

[hwzadmin]

Dear Member,

We are sorry to hear of this. Please forward your email exchange to membership@hardwarezone.com.sg and we will assess the situation for you.

A WARNING TO ALL: SCAM ON PURCHASE OF IPAD MINI

Hi all,

My main objective in joining this forum is to share my personal experience on a bunch of scammers so as to prevent more of such cases from happening & for others to think twice before deciding on purchasing any electronics through such websites. Upon reading some of the previous posts from the members here, i have reasons in believing that this may be the same scam guy as the one posted back then by "ethwz".

His current identity he is using is a girl by the name of "Joyce"
Below are his details to look out for currently:

joycelimweng@hotmail.com
Account type: POSB SAVINGS / Dennis / 228143308

*One important thing to note though- The account number/name he gave to another victim & I were different. I suspect he does this to different victims & these accounts may not even be his but his friend's.

This was what "joyce" gave to another victim:
Account type: POSB SAVINGS/ Nazrunnisa Binte Ilbrahim/ 170145216

From these, I am pretty sure that "joyce" is not acting alone on this. He/She probably has many other accomplices on these scams.

ACCOUNT OF MY EXPERIENCE:

After conversing on email with "Joyce" & making sure this email address had no past records on scams, i decided to take a chance at ordering an ipad mini from "joycelimweng@hotmail.com". He is one of the few in the market that can do immediate delivery & had one of the best rates. In his ads, he guarantees people 12 months of warranty & 90 days return policy & a 3 hours delivery to your doorstep. He also offers a promo of "buy 3 unit get 1 unit free". (this changes from time to time on different ad sites)

During the course of the email, he would "guarantee" me from time to time that he was genuine, that i would "receive my product" & that he was "trustable" (yeah, sure). In one of the email threads between him & another victim, he even mentioned things like he is a "person of god, has 2/3 kids" & was even "secured by singapore police".
From the following mentioned above, you can be sure he loves coating his words with lots of lies & empathy so be sure to never fall for it.

While I was enquiring on my ipad mini, i was also helping a friend ask some questions as well as she was keen in joining my order. However, i told her that i was taking a chance in this & she should see if i managed to secure my item first before safely deciding to proceed hers.

An amount of 300sgd was transferred to the account on 6 Nov, 9AM in the morning. I snapped a picture of my transaction & E-mailed him immediately on proceeding with delivery. He even replied & told me that he will "update me asap once they start with delivery"

At 12PM, i had no news whatsoever so i emailed again asking for an estimated time & the status of the ipad as it had already been 3 hours. He could still reply me that they were waiting for my friend to transfer over so they can deliver all at the same time (you must be kidding me). Firstly, I just ENQUIRED on behalf of my friend, i had not made any promise or even said that she was keen in purchasing- so the question is, what was he waiting for? (obviously, for more scams to transact through)

This was when I immediately sensed that something was not right.

I went into more research & managed to find previous advertorials he had posted elsewhere. FYI, the website i got to know about him was "Locanto". He had other previous postings in places like "sgadsonline" & "sgbestclassifieds".

So how did i confirmed he was a scam?

He left a contact number on "Sgadsonline". I immediately contacted the person via whatsapp. Guess what?

This number that he gave turns out to be one of his previous victims (how smart of him) & she actually goes by the name "Serene", not joyce. She shared her previous experience with him & advised me to make a report to the police & bank. She had many people contacting her regarding the electronics as her number was used under his advertorials. She did not eventually transfer any cash to him as she suspected that he was a scam. However, it was very bold of him to use her number as a contact in his scam ads (so as to make it seem more convincing).

One important thing to note. His first questions to you upon your enquiry on any products would be the country you are located at, following by your full details like Name, Handphone number & Address (God knows what he uses his victim's details for so do be careful).

He may also be changing his contact details very soon/close previous accounts as he's already been alarmed. The reason as to why he managed to stay in this "trade" this long is due to his constant switch of contact details, identity, account types used conversing with victims & you can never google past records. Wouldn't be surprised if he even has a group of accomplices with him.


To end it on a sweet note, I did give him a chance with my last email exposing him & asking him to either deliver the ipad mini within an hour (of course i knew by this time i wasn't gonna receive any ipads) or to have my 300sgd refunded. He still had the guts & ego to reply me things like "What are you talking about la" & "Your parcel is already on its way, will inform you when its near you asap" & "you will surely get your item". So the question is, did i eventually managed to secure my item by the end of the day? Of course not.

Alas, i still did something for him despite being scammed- A long, detailed police report on the very same day with all details/particulars/email exchanges we had submitted for investigation.

This is definitely not the end as I am still gathering information/ setting traps with my friends so as to hand-over more leads to the police. I believe justice has a way of finding him but there are also many preventive measures/precautions we all can take note of to avoid future scams & to prevent such people from getting their hands on the hard-earned money of us commoners. These scammers know better than anyone else on the vulnerability of those who approaches them- whether being desperate or just looking for a good deal with these "middlemen/resellers", in order to avoid the steep prices that we face in retail shops.

I may have lost 300sgd, but i did pay to have a huge lesson learnt. I am pretty sure there are others out there who probably had gone through similar encounters or worse. Please do have it reported to the police immediately. I know many who would just keep quiet & blame it on their luck but hey, this is also the reason why such they are still on the loose.

 

[walter_foo]

I came across a similar Locanto ad just yesterday. I requested for a face-to-face transaction but the seller insisted that I transfer at least $200 to his account. I asked for his physical shop location and he even gave me a bogus location in Bukit Timah Plaza (i.e. Moby Shop and Challenger Mini #03-10A). Bukit Timah Plaza shops are only from B2 to 2nd floor, and there's neither a Moby Shop nor a Challenger Mini in Bukit Timah Plaza.

Just a friendly warning to everyone - do not transfer any money to dubious sellers. I am still insisting on a face-to-face meetup but I suppose that will never happen.

Here is his POSB Saving Account details: 189-55837-6
Full name : Mohan Rajaram

The seller's e-mail is wanhonggadgets@hotmail.com.

 

[walter_foo]

I bumped into one more seller who posted a Facebook post on cheap iPads. He is Wei Poh Ng and his e-mail is weipohsales@outlook.com.

I requested for face-to-face meetup but he declined, saying that he had a bad experience being robbed at a crowded MRT station so he is selling through free shipping instead.

The account he provided is POSB Savings 024217078.

Please read the following advisory by SPF: http://www.spf.gov.sg/mic/2013/130906_mixed_delivery_order_others.htm

 

[samayl6]

I too have just been scammed. He even gave an image of his passport. The online name is still the same. Apparently there is an on-going investigation for this. The scammer is now on locanto.sg....

 

[JustForInterest]

I bumped into one more seller who posted a Facebook post on cheap iPads. He is Wei Poh Ng and his e-mail is weipohsales@outlook.com.

I requested for face-to-face meetup but he declined, saying that he had a bad experience being robbed at a crowded MRT station so he is selling through free shipping instead.

The account he provided is POSB Savings 024217078.

Please read the following advisory by SPF: http://www.spf.gov.sg/mic/2013/130906_mixed_delivery_order_others.htm

I too contacted this guy before. But difference is that I contacted for fun only. I knew he was a spammer so I just played along with him. When he asked for my transaction detail, I just emailed him images of Hell Note.

When the deal is too good to be true, trust me, it really is.

 

[samayl6]

just a quick update. I have spoken to someone within the banking sector. If you have not received your money back, he has advised that once a police report is made, follow up with them after talking to your bank. The bank can provide the scammer's details to the police only. This can help speed up catching these culprits.

 

[Luvradical]

hi,

I also got scammed just recently.


I saw the ad on gumtree about this guy selling an ipad mini at a low price. I enquired about it and he said he provided free delivery in 3hrs. So i decided to go for it. So I transferred the money and he replied me that I am able to get it the folllowing day. The following day he asked me to pay 150 more for taxes which i did and he mentioned the delivery timing is 4pm.

at 4pm, he said i needed to pay 400 for insurance fees to be able to get my item, which this 400 was something i was able to get back. After paying and he mentioned the item will be delivered by 7pm. So at 7pm i emailed him and he said his delivery man got into an accident which I have to wait till next day to get my item and having to pay an additional 150 for the delivery for next day which I refused.

I demanded a refund but was unable to get it back. I managed to contact him a few days later which he mentioned to me to transfer another 300 into another account so i'm able to get my item.

I have by far made a police report and the police had mentioned that it's 0% chance for me to get back the money.

Just want you all to becareful of this guy.

Dennis Kwan
denniskwansafestore.sg[at]hotmail[dot]com
POSB SAVINGS: 244-69470-5

Another account he got me to transfer
Acct Name: chan yu tat
POSB SAVINGS: 193-36535-3

 

[hwzadmin]

Dear Members,

Thank you for your report. As we work towards enhancing our platform with secure payment gateways, we ask that you seek help from the police if you are a victim of fraudulence.

 

[villson7]

Hi HWZ,
I believe this is a big group of syndicate who operate these whole iphone scam. They posted all their fake ads in available market trade website such as carousell, craiglist, gumtree, sgclassified and etc. As I heard from my friend and colleagues, they not only operated in singapore but in oversea like malaysia, china, myanmmar and more.