English woman targeted by ‘Newtownabbey’ scammer

The woman, who wished to remain anonymous, contacted the Newtownabbey Times to highlight the issue after she was allegedly conned by a man, who claimed to be from Newtownabbey, on an online shopping site.

The woman said she advertised an iPhone on August 31 and a man contacted her about it “very quickly”.

She added: “I was selling it for £200 and he offered me £215 as I was posting to Northern Ireland. Within minutes I had a confirmation email stating funds were pending and they would come through once I had proof of postage.

“However, I have not received any payment and it appears it was a fraudulent email. I attempted to email the man, but he has not replied.

“I haven’t ever sold anything online before. I only needed to as I needed additional money for my son’s school transport. I wouldn’t ever sell anything like this again.”

The woman has reported the incident to anti-fraud investigators in England.

A spokesperson for Action Fraud said: “I can confirm that Action Fraud received this report in September 2019 and it will be in the process of being assessed by our National Fraud Intelligence Bureau (NFIB).

“Action Fraud is the UK’s national reporting centre for fraud and cyber crime, and takes crime and information reports on behalf of the police and gives advice and fraud prevention guidance.

“Action Fraud does not have investigation powers, however, the reports taken by Action Fraud are sent to the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau (NFIB) which is run by the City of London Police, the national lead force for fraud.

“The NFIB collates and analyses intelligence on fraud, identifying viable lines of enquiry and developing packages for submitting to law enforcement agencies to consider for investigation.

“The NFIB also execute a range of disruption and crime prevention techniques for victims across all sectors to target criminality and engineer out the threat from fraud and cyber crime.”

For more information on how to spot online marketplace scams, go to www.actionfraud.police.uk/a-z-of-fraud/online-shopping-fraud