A SCOTS musician has warned people to watch out this Christmas after allegedly being scammed out of £1,400.
Ross Boyd had advertised his MacBook on Facebook Marketplace last week and was quickly contacted by a man called Paul Williams who was interested in purchasing the item.
The 25-year-old from Edinburgh agreed to take £1,400 for the almost-new laptop and arranged to meet up on Thursday to exchange over the item and payment.
Paul turned up and showed Ross a screenshot from a banking app stating that he had made the payment in full to Ross’ account.
However, Ross claims that no money has since arrived in his account and that the buyer has since blocked him.
Police down south recently issued a warning for over a fake banking scam which Ross believes he has fallen victim to.
He later reported the incident to Police Scotland after being left with no laptop and £1,400 down but is waiting to hear back.
Speaking today, Ross said: “The man showed me what looked like a genuine bank account with ‘minus £1,400 to Ross Boyd’ on it.
“It hadn’t reached my account, though, we looked online and saw that Metro account – the real bank he was trying to fake – was conveniently down.
“So, it looked like a genuine thing. So, Paul called them up and didn’t give any bank details and we spoke to someone who confirmed it should take five hours for a transaction to come through.
“I said to Paul, if it’s left your account then you can’t cancel it. So, stupidly, I let him take the MacBook away and told him we will exchange numbers to check the payment had gone through – I called him a couple of hours later as it hadn’t come through yet.
“I believed that it was a genuine issue with the server of the bank. I contacted Paul who said he would speak to the bank and then he got back to me and said it could take up to 24 hours and that I should call him the following morning.
“He said he would come round with the laptop if the money hadn’t gone through by the morning – he seemed like a stand-up dude.
“I woke up at 9.30 and saw the money hadn’t gone through so I called him and it rang about six times before going straight to voicemail.
“Alarm bells started ringing in my brain, so I sent him a text to ask what was going on. No answer, so I called him again but all subsequent calls went straight through to voicemail.
“Then, I started to think this was dodgy so I went onto Facebook Marketplace where we had initially started chatting and I couldn’t reply to his message, meaning he had obviously blocked me or deleted the profile.
“I contacted RBS who told me to contact the police and the police said we’ll get an officer to call you on Saturday to start a case.
“I’ll go down the police route but there’s no way I’m going to be able to get it back but you live and you learn.”
Ross also took to social media to warn others about the incident.
He posted a photo of the conversation the pair had and the end of the conversation where he appears to have been blocked by Paul.
He also shared a photo of a police warning about the rise in fake banking app scams.
The police warning reads: “Criminals are using a fake banking app which makes it look like money has been transferred when in fact it hasn’t.
“When a meeting takes place to hand over the item being sold, the victim puts their bank details into a fake bank app on the criminal’s phone. It then produces a screen which makes it appear that the money had been transferred.
“But when the victim then checks their account, they find that the funds haven’t actually transferred. The criminal pretends to call his bank saying that it takes up to two hours for the funds to show. But the money is never received by the victim.”
Social media users were left shocked by the incident.
One person said: “Oh, what a total bummer. So sorry you got caught out like that, what a scumbag.”
Another wrote: “Don’t beat yourself up about it, it can happen to anyone.
“Your good nature will serve you well in life, just unfortunately not in this scenario.
“Hopefully something can be recovered!”
A third commented: “What did the police say? I’m guessing you’re not the only person he’s done it to.
“You sound a bit like you’re blaming yourself when this is actual theft. And thanks for bringing this to the attention of a huge group of people – I certainly wasn’t aware of this particular scam.”
A fourth person added: “That’s awful.”
After being approached for comment on social media Paul blocked the journalist and did not respond.
