Like thousands of other truck drivers, the first thing Alan Davies reaches for when he is on a break is his mobile. But unlike his colleagues he’s less interested in the football scores or chatting on Facebook. Instead he is posing as a gullible buyer on eBay with one intention – getting scammers to hand over their bank details, accounts that his group will subsequently ask the banks to shut down.
Davies – not his real name – is one of a growing band of guardian angels who spend their spare time engaging with the mostly east European gangs that are trying to scam unsuspecting UK consumers on an almost industrial scale.
This week, the group known as Buster Jack, which has 36 members, some of whom have never met, have been celebrating the closure of their 1,000th bank account – accounts that but for their intervention would still be being used to steal victims’ cash.
The group responds to “obviously” fake listings for cars, camper vans, diggers and a whole range of expensive items being offered on eBay – usually at about 40% of their real value – to trick buyers into handing over their cash.
Having found the scam listings, members of the group pose as buyers, engaging in lengthy email correspondence to gain the scammer’s confidence. If successful they will be sent the bank details in order to transfer the cash. Armed with screenshots and carefully gathered evidence they then take it to the bank.
“We are outconning the conmen. There is the thrill of the chase but also the feeling that you are doing some good and making it harder for these fraudsters to operate, harder to steal other people’s money,” says “Jack Buster”, unofficial leader of the group which is spread across the UK and Ireland. Along with his fellow bank busters he wants his identity withheld for fear of reprisals by the criminal gangs they thwart.
The group communicates via a secret Facebook group. At the same time they post warnings on social media in a bid to make eBay users aware of the scams – particularly the importance of not sending a money transfer for a vehicle or item that the buyer has not physically seen.
“It started with just me and has slowly grown. Some people who lost money to this gang, who I believe are mostly Romanian, have joined the group to stop it happening to others,” says Buster. “Over time we have developed good contacts at most of the banks’ fraud departments and we are getting around four to five bank accounts closed each day.” He says HSBC is the one big exception as the bank is “very slow to respond to financial crime intelligence”.
Buster says that when the group started, most of the fake eBay listings concerned camper vans and other vehicles. The gang members can post up to 500 listings a day on eBay.co.uk alone but have recently branched out into cheaper items including bicycles, printers and even sewing machines.
“They only want to be paid by bank transfer and will come up with all sorts of excuses why there is a delay in delivering the item,” Buster says. “The seller often promises the money will be secured in an escrow or other holding account until the buyer is satisfied with the purchase. They are very good at what they do and sadly people fall for it. It nets them millions of pounds a year.”
Buster says the gangs fly people into the UK from eastern Europe to open bank accounts that will then be used to move on the stolen funds. “Fixers collect them at Luton airport and then drive them to the town in which they will open the account. They are given fake utility bills to go with their own or a cloned ID card and taken to the branch in question. It is all too easy. Does the bank check the applicant really lives at that address – or is with the utility company? No, they just open them an account,” he says.
He says Barclays has been the bank most commonly used by the fraudsters. However, they are finding that HSBC has more recently become the bank of choice in this area. Of the 1,000 accounts shut down by Buster Jack, Barclays had the most (215) followed by Natwest (169) and HSBC (146). Lloyds, the biggest current account provider in the UK, had 76, while Santander had 70.
“Most of the banks are open to what we are trying to do, but HSBC treats us like we are an irritant. Maybe it’s because we use the data to try to help get victims their money back and they don’t like that. Most recently we were told by its fraud people not to email in our suspected accounts, and that we should put it in writing. This in an area in which every second counts. I couldn’t believe it,” says Buster.
An HSBC spokesperson said: “Protecting our customers from fraud is a priority for us. If someone is aware of a scam and provides a tip-off … we always investigate and take appropriate action.”
Barclays was warned about eBay scam account
If you fell victim to one of these frauds and discovered that a bank had been warned on several occasions that the account you paid your money into was being used by fraudsters, you would rightly be furious and demand that the bank compensate you.
That is the position Mary, an NHS worker from Norfolk, found herself in. She paid £4,750 to a Barclays account for a camper van advertised on eBay. But the van didn’t exist and it dawned on her that she’d been scammed.
Mary contacted Jack Buster through Facebook for help, and when he checked his database he found he had warned Barclays that the account Mary had paid the money into was being used for this purpose. In fact, his team had sent Barclays the account details four times, but he says the bank had done nothing.
Buster, who doesn’t profit from shutting down scammers’ accounts but does help victims get their money back in return for 10% of the recovered funds, says he was staggered when Barclays refused to refund Mary.
“It seems extraordinary that a bank that has been repeatedly told that one of its accounts is being used to steal money would do nothing,” he says.
In a statement, Barclays said: “[Mary] made a bank transfer of £4,750 on 13 April 2017. Barclays was not alerted to this scam until 3 May 2017. We acted immediately to inform the money services provider which holds the receiving account and recover any remaining funds. Unfortunately, as with many of these crimes, the funds are moved very quickly, often before the victim is aware of what has happened. In this instance all the funds were withdrawn on the same day they were received.
“When opening an account for a financial institution ... Barclays will have completed due diligence to ensure all regulatory and legal requirements are met. The money services provider then has the responsibility to meet the same standards.”
Victims of eBay fraud wanting to contact Jack Buster are best off doing so via his Facebook page.
