# Social Category > The Whistleblower Forum >  This is complicated!

## Porcupine

18th April
Hi i recently bought myself a camera through southwold limited,it's a canon EOS 7D with a lense.
The company southwold limited is based in 3 Graaf street welkom 9460 South Africa.
19thApril
Unfortunitely they didn't have a camera in stock for me so the rep actually found it fitting to send me one from their head office in the UK England.
They decided to use a courier called fast link (www.faslinc.com the tracking order number was sent to me by the rep from southwold limited.

" Hi 
                Below is your tracking number,Our dispatch Dept were unable to ship your order from our branch office due to high rate of customer's demand,Your order was shipped from our head office in the UK because we went out stock we had to request for express shipment to meet up with your delivery which will be reschedule till tomorrow before Noon sorry for the inconvenience.Please let us know soon as you received your package

Tracking Info.
Shipping company Website:www.faslinc.com
Tracking Number:23C26B3460
Sales Rep"

When i went on the website of the courier and went to the tracking section and typed in my tracking order number,it says it has levt on a plane to south africa and will be delivered on the 20th April.

20th April
A private call from fast link couriers asking me if it is alright to deliver it today.
I waited the whole day for them to deliver the package and till 15H00 there was nothing so i decided to e-mail the rep from southwold limited about it.
Not long after that the rep e-mailed me back.

"Hi,
    Spoke to the shipping company now,they said your parcel is under
going customs checking and they will call you if they can meet up with
the delivery today or before Noon tomorrow.I advise you also called
them too sir.
Sales Rep"

So i called fast link and asked them when the parcel will delivered to me and they say tomorrow on the 21st April.
21st April
At 09H39 i called fast link and asked them if they will still be able to deliver the parcel to me ,and they replyed that it will be there in 2 hours.
With an undelivered parcel at 12H00 i called fast link again and then they sead that it will be delivered today,but i informed the person that i'll be leaving my home and there will be no one to recieve the parcel.
They suggest i sent them another address where they will be able to send me the parcel.Unfortunitely i'm on a road trip and will not be staying at places very long so they need to send the parcel to my home address at a later time.
So i levt my home at 14H00 still without me recieving my parcel.
22nd April 
I recieved this e-mail from fast link

"Dear Reolof,
       Your package was held for tax and clearance by customs 3 hours ago which will cost you R3,050. you are to make the payment as soon as possible to sort out the bill in order to ensure delivery by 17:30GMT South Africa today and failure to do that may increase the bill and delay the package from delivery.

Regards,
Faslinc Courier
Customer care lines:0719519616 "

So i emediately notified the sales rep at southwold limited.
This is the e-mail i typed back to fast link:

"This is borderline ROBERY!
You sead that it will be delivered by the 20th April and after
contacting your offices you promised me it will be delivered on 21st
April and now you send this that i have to pay tax on a parcel i
didn't order from the UK.I ordered it from southwold limited in welkom
SA they didn't have stock so they placed the order from their head
offices in the UK to me. Send the bill to southwold limited!"

After that fast link replied:

"Please advise payment to the below account.

Name:First National Bank(fnb)
Account Number: 62308323360
Account Name: R M
Branch Code:250655
Ref: Reolof

Please note: You are advise to attach your payment slip for confirmation in order to have the bill sorted out with customs and delivery takes in immidiately.

Regards,
Faslinc Courier"

Now what to to next?
Clearly i didn't place the order from the UK and i have an invoice from southwold limited in south africa.
The cost should go to southwold limited but if they don't pay then i don't recieve my camera(parcel).
So what direction should i follow now?
Ask southwold limited to give me a camera because i bought 1 from them but then they will just refund me and leave me sitting without a camera.
Telling fast link to deliver my parcel to me is impossible! they want the payment first.

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## tec0

I am sorry to inform you but there was a similar scam with camera equipment on Carte Blanche, both woman never got there Camera’s and or equipment. The same story ringed true with England and the so called delivery at customs that magically disappears along with the money and everything else including the sales man and their numbers was “not working”   :Detective: 

I am really sorry but I would think that you might be another victim...

I hope you didn’t give them the full amount...

have a look at this: http://beta.mnet.co.za/carteblanche/...=4316&Showid=5

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## Dave A

Oh boy!

How did you pay Southwold Limited for the camera, Porcupine?

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## tec0

International scamming appears to be the next big thing and they are faceless and free to move about. Our police cannot help because they lack the resources for this kind of crime. I would imagine that our banks can do something about it. 

They have the ability to froze accounts and the like; meaning if the bank in South Africa picks up on the scam in England then they can inform the bank in England that this person is scamming and then there local police can take over. 

But to get our banks to do anything at all will take a miracle... But I fear they are the only entity big enough to take on this type of crime.

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## Lawyer Destroyer

This is fast becoming a trend with on line purchases and purchasing in RSA. Legally it is a serious crime as well as fraud. But it is like trying to catch and hold down a snake - after you have been bitten. Prevention is better than cure. If you paid by credit card - contact your bank and have them stop the payment and reverse transaction, also report it to their fraud dept. Otherwise - go back to the place you bought it from originally and try throwing a tantrum - if you can find them.....Good luck.

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## Porcupine

Well would it help if i have their account numbers?
They are both FNB account numbers?
This scam is TRUE! and hello peter had no respons about it so far despite 2 claims that was raised about southwold in welkom area.
I paid by EFT and you can reverse the payment within 3 days but these SCAMERS planed it thuroughly as they kept me on a string till the 21st April till it was to late to reverse the payment.
No where in the yellow pages a company is regerstered as southwold limited?
So i'm been looking in the 2 other reports(compliments) that was on hello peter about southwold ,could that actually be the scamers using a site to benifit them?
Or i just have to look deeper and fint the shop in Bloemfontein!
The Customs payment by fast link is also a face! it's only to lure you in more and get more money out of you while the scamers send you an E-mail through southwold saying they don't have the money to pay for customs and want you to pay for it and they will pay it back again when the money is available.
Truley this is a scamers WET DREAM! and that means i'm the stupid pig that just lost a lot of money.
What is dissapointing how ever i pay my taxes and these ppl get away with stealing my hard earned money and the goverment doesn't have recources.
I saw the scam on carte blanch 2 and i submited the story to them as well.
I'll be diving deeper finding ways to stop them i'll keep you all posted as far as i get with the banks.
I've sent an e-mail to FNB and will give them my case to decide for them selfs wheater these con artists are also using there name to scam ppl in giving away money.

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## Dave A

Frankly there are a ton of warning bells on this one.

First off, a search for Southwold Limited shows adverts on free classified advertising sites, no company website. How does an online retailer operate without a website?
And if it's a "real world" shop, why the incomplete address?
Second - payment method. A legitimate online business would be using an online payment gateway or have a credit card payment option.
Third - it seems likely the courier company is part of the scam. A look-up on the domain registration details shows the domain was first registered on 20th March 2011.

I suggest you lay a charge of fraud as soon as possible. And there are a few organisations who are going to have pay attention to the fact they're being used to perpetrate fraud.

The cellphone company providing telephony (both "entities" have 071 telephone numbers) which should be RICA'd.
The bank (FNB in this case) providing bank accounts which should be FICA'd.

The hard reality is payment by EFT is the worst way to do business online if you can't confirm the seller's credentials. Pay be credit card or reputable online payment gateway only as transactions can be disputed - generally within 30 days.




> I paid by EFT and you can reverse the payment within 3 days


Not sure where you got that info from. From what I've heard it isn't reversable from the payer's side at all.

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## Porcupine

Of corse the courier company is in it ,i believe it is the same person all together.
Well they could be a long setup all together as i found the company in the classified adverts and altogether googled it and came up at hello peter.Obviousley i thought hey this is a site where comanies get chewed up for bad service and if southwold is quated here what do i have to worry about.
BUT this is my fault as i needed to look clearly at the places:
1 : obviously the 1 being commented about is a shop in bloem not in welkom.
2 : truley i should have checked more into the address
All the obvious signs was there i just wasn't on my guard because i'm not always use to doing this on the web.
Fast link only appeared the moment after the payment was made and then i started to relize here is trouble!

Thinking about it who would place an add whitch added to costs no thieve whould do that? right?
Seems i was wrong thinking that way alone as they surley made enought out of me to pay for that add and score.

Clearly these scams will continue as not everyone using the internet knows what to look for and only have 1 thing on there mind, to search for a place where i can buy my item for CHEAP.

Even if whe try to up the ainty on security the scamers will follow creating sites that generally looks exactly the same as ours,and still catch people.They will not be common but they might leave a bigger paper trail behind.

I'm only mad at myself for not looking at the CLEAR signs that was there! :Confused:

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## tec0

What is really scary is how complicated a scam can become. I will not write about it all because the last thing I would want to do is to write a “how to SCAM” post. There are ways around RICA and FICA but if you are lucky they are not that connected or wise yet. 

Take Dave A’s advice and lay charges of Fraud just maybe you are lucky.

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## Dave A

> I'm only mad at myself for not looking at the CLEAR signs that was there!


Don't be too hard on yourself. We all get taken for a ride every now and then  :Console: 

Thanks for sharing. At least it helps others be on the lookout and hopefully avoid the same trap. And with any luck, justice will catch up with these folk.

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## Porcupine

Well it is on like DONKY KONG!
Got FNB to prove that the accounts are still active. :Wink: 
Got an E-Mail tracker to track where my sent e-mails go that i send to them.  :Smile:  hopefully they won't pick it up?
Looked around and searched and gotten an e-mail address to send all my data to which is part of the fraud section (hq.commercial@saps.org.za) hope you all don't mind me posting it here so that if anyone that reads this knows what to do the moment you get scamed.
Maybe i'll get lucky? maybe i wont?
Have to report everything 2morrow OFFICIALLY to the police department but have sent all the info and my whole story to that e-mail address(hq.commercial@saps.org.za).
I'll probably get alot of feedback starting from 2morrow or when every1 gets back from the easter weekend.

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## Porcupine

Well the trace didn't work on the gmail account!
I surly hoped that they didn't open it in https,but the trace shows that the e-mail wasn't opened but i still got a reply from them.That only means that they are using outlook or something simular or just opening it in plain text.
That also means that they already know about tracing e-mails and know how to battle it ,unfortunitely they are orginized and are skilled! :Frown:

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## Soccerfan

A friend of mine was also scammed by the same company.

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## Sparks

This sounds like my experience with "Auctions Online". I saw on Bid or Buy that Auctions Online had a large screen Garmin GPS at a reasonable price. I made the winning bid and paid in the amount. The GPS was not delivered to my office as arranged. I had to fetch it at the Post Office after querying. It was supposedly brand new. There were a few small faults which I managed to sort out through correspondence with Garmin UK. Garmin SA did not bother to respond. (supplying Auctions on line with returns?). I received good service from Garmin UK. The last fault(still not resolved) is that the voice prompts have dissappeared. Auctions Online promised to send a replacement immediately. I am still waiting(2months). Bid or Buy also got no response from them to my knowledge. Garmin UK will replace the unit for me if I send it there but reading here it is definitely not worth that much.
Good luck getting your money back. I at least got the unit even if it is faulty.

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## SilverNodashi

Scams happen to people, "off-line" as well - i.e. face-to-face. The bottom line is that you should be on your guard the whole time, and trust your gut. If something feels out of place, don't proceed with the transaction.

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Citizen X (20-May-13)

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## dis aqua i

got the same story.go to SAPS fraud .let me guess,you talked to a nigerian fella?

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## Citizen X

> got the same story.go to SAPS fraud .let me guess,you talked to a nigerian fella?


Someone please explain this to me: With FICA, RICA, IP address, bank accounts etc. how is it possible that the authorities can't trace you within 24 hours????

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## ians

People say I am old fashion, but when I buy something I like to hold it in my hand before I hand over money.

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## Dave S

> People say I am old fashion, but when I buy something I like to hold it in my hand before I hand over money.


That is by far the safest policy, but with online buying, how do you do that? All online sellers want the cash up-front. They don't trust the customer enough either. :Hmmm:

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## ians

I don't buy stuff online.

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## dis aqua i

> Someone please explain this to me: With FICA, RICA, IP address, bank accounts etc. how is it possible that the authorities can't trace you within 24 hours????


Well Naick,dont forget that when it comes to the police its another sad story.an attorney on the other hand can make an application wich'l got to the bank and freeze all accounts,the nigerians will see money coming in but wont withdraw and those who lost theirs will inturn get their money back.at the moment i have 3 victims,i need at least 6 to make my case.

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## mvubu

High value electronics is the easiest scam in the world. I often follow gumtree ads and believe 30%+ on certain items is fraud.
You will see things like a dentist in Leeu Gamka selling pro camera kit.
2 things - use google street view and tell the seller that you just happen to be driving through that small town in the next 2 days and would like to pop in an see the goods. They quickly vanish or come up with a story. 
Online shopping rule - buy from decent stores with easily verifiable info OR meet in a safe place, in person to inspect the goods.

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Dave A (19-Jul-13)

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