5. We are the winners :)

By reading her answer I felt like a winner – I got what I wanted. I supposed that bank checks rigorously IDs of the account holder and there is absolutely no risk in sending money abroad. In my country, you need to bring at least 2 by government issued IDs indicating your permanent address. Moreover, there is always a possibility to cancel the payment. I did not think at all that this bank account might have been set up only for this transaction and that the Abby bank would be so reluctant to solve this issue until the criminals withdraw the payment and dissapeared.

Hi Mathiew,

How are you today?I have asked my lawyer for beneficiary details for Bank transfer and he has nominate Paul Bogle the financial secretary to the Law Firm and details as follows:

BANK NAME: Abbey bank
ACCOUNTANT : xxxxxxxxxxxx
BRANCH ADDRESS: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, UK
ACCOUNT NUMBER: xxxxxxxx
SORT CODE:xx-xx-xx
SWIFTCODE:xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
IBAN: xxxxxxxxxxxx

I will be looking forward to see the signed lease contract and i have informed my lawyer that you will be making your payment to confirm the
reservation.Since you assured me,I have reserved one the rooms for you straight away.I am positive about you.Hope to see you in Edinburgh soon.

Have a nice and wonderful week ahead :)

Regards,
Carol

***************

Hi Carol,

Thank you very much for allowing me to pay via bank transfer. I will
realize the payment today and the secretary should receive the payment
within 3 days.
Thank you also for the reservation of my room and your trust in me
inspite of all troubles.
I hope you have received all necessary documents, including the signed
contract and that legally everything is ok.

best regards

Mathiew

***************

Great,

I will be looking forward to see the payment so that we can move to next face of the rent
Oops...can't wait to see you soon

Cheers,
Carol

***************

Hey Mathiew,

I have attached the signed Lease contract with this mail and as soon as my Lawyer received your payment he will issue acknowledgment receipt.Are you through with the payment?Hope to read from you soon .

Cheers,
Carol

*************** 

Hi Carol, thank you for the signed contract. Yes, the transaction is
completed, I expect the money to come within this week.
Let me please know when the lawyer receive the payment.

best regards

Mathiew

Since I was gone on holiday, my mother decided to communicate with Carol without informing me. She only sent forward to me the whole communication after the transaction was entirely done. I still cannot understand how “Carol“ could have mess up the IBAN number so many times. It worked only against her, because she could have gotten the money much earlier. Or who knows – maybe it was some kind of a scammer trick...

Hi Carol,
I am a mother of my son Mathiew, I write to you because of the rent for my son in your apartment.
I would like to ask you, if you could to sent me again the IBAN code, because, I made a transfer already and at the bank they made a call to me, that they couldnt to make a transaktion because, IBAN code what you gave me it is too short. It is supossed to be like a 22 marks or 18 numbers.

I aplogize to you for it, but in Slovakia we have a big problem with the payment with Western Union, that was a reason to ask you for a number of your bank account.

If you dont to sent me a new IBAN code, I will supposed to go to Astria to make a payment for rent by Western Union, because In xxxxxx is it not possible.

Please let me know so soon as possible your new IBAN code.
Thanks so much, for your understanding and patience.
Bests regards
Lila

***************

Hi Lila,

I'm just through to my Lawyer and he has reconfirm the Bank details again for me and details as follows;

***** 

I will be looking forward to see the payment so that we can move to next face of the rent.Hope it will go through this time round

Have a nice day :)

Cheers,
Carol

Who knows, maybe the mistake was made on purpose, so we would make the payment as fast as possible and without any doubts.

Hi Carol,
Thank you for Bank details.

My bank has just one question:
which code is correct:
Is it
IBAN: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx ??? (second code)
or
IBAN: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx ??? (first code with lettres xxxx)

I want make transfer today .

Thank you
Have a nice day
Lila

What an interesting, logical sentence :) If she had written thiis to me, I would have been sure that she is not a native speaker.

Hey,

I'm sorry for this pain in the neck...Since the credit crisis UK banks are not effective because i'm tired all this hastle from the Bank The correct IBAN is xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
I'm just through again from my lawyer so everything is OK now

Carol

And now, here is her anwer to my last message:

Hi Carol, thank you for the signed contract. Yes, the transaction is
> completed, I expect the money to come within this week.
> Let me please know when the lawyer receive the payment.
>
> best regards
>
> Mathiew

Here is the very last communication with Carol. We sent her what she asked for: a payment confirmation. Another weird thing is that she asked for the confirmation for several times. I do not know what her problem was, but this was probably the first time when these criminals coordinated withdrawing a bank transfer payment. Surprisingly, the lawyer wrote back to me that this all is a scam only 2 hours after we sent her the payment confirmation for the last time. Is it just a coinsidence that he had not got back to me for a week and suddendly wrote after Carol got the confirmation? I have the eerie feeling that this is not only bad luck and it was synchronized from the very beginning....

From: Graham Gover <graham@grahamgover.co.uk>
Date: 2010/8/24
Subject: Re: Inicial payment for the rent



Dear Matthiew,

I am in no way associated with Carol Wallace. This is a scam. I have
been contacted by other people interested in renting that property who
have been as suspicious as you.

I believe that she does not own the property which is why she is using
Western Union for receipt of funds.

Regards,

Graham

Graham Gover Solicitor
10 Southernhay West  Exeter  EX1 1JG
TEL 01392 423090  FAX 01392 423446  MOB 07799 067709 WEB ggsolicitor.co.uk

Regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority  No. 126804

On 14 Aug 2010, at 14:21,

> From: > Subject: Inicial payment for the rent
>
> Message Body:
> Dear Mr. Gover,
>
> I believe that you are representing Mrs. Carol Wallace in the matter of rental service for her apartment in Edinburgh. My name is Mathiew and I am supposed to make a payment via Western Union on your account. However, I have been experiencing many difficulties regarding to this payment. Every post office I have visited strongly advised me not to make this payment via WU, because of many fraudelant transaction being made through this company. Please understand my concerns about this payment - Western Union has a very bad reputation in my country and is solely used for scamming practices. Therefore, the request from Carol Wallace to send you money via WU was completely inconceivable for me. Once someone sends money via WU, there is no way to get the money back supposing that it is a scam.
> Hereby I would like to ask you if there were other possibilites to send you money in order to make the contract valid. I would rather make a bank transfer or send you an insured letter, anything else but Western Union. Demanding WU payment as the only possibility does not seem to be either credible, or fair.
> I would really apreciate if you would consider other payment possibilites for me.
>
> thank you very much for your swift reply
>
> faithfully
>
> 

Meanwhile, the whole week my mother communicated about the payment with Carol.

Perfect,

Could you get back to me with confirmation receipt from the Bank?
So that i can forward it my Lawyer in other to prepare the acknowledgment receipt straight away

Hope to read from you soon

Cheers,
Carol

***************

Hi Carol,
i send you the confirmation of the transaction,
from my IBAN code
Bank details: Bank Slovenska sporitelna, Slovak republic (membre of the group Erste bank)

IBAN: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
SWIFT: BIC: xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
i paied 755 € (= 630 GBP)

Best regards
Lila

***************

I have forwarded the confirmation to my lawyer and as soon as he received the payment i will get back to you with the acknowledgment receipt. Oops...can't wait to see you soon.

Regards,
Carol

***************

24.8. 2010 0:02
Hey,

I'm still waiting for my Lawyer to get back to me with acknowledgment receipt probably because they're always busy this time of the year and you have nothing to fear or worry about the room is fully secure and reserve for you.Hope to see you soon.

Cheers,
Carol

My mother replied to the last Carol's message only two hours before I received the email from Graham Gover :(

Hi Carol,
I sand you again the details of the bank transaction for your lowyer.
Best regards
Lila

So, that is it - I do not know what to say.I only hope that that asshole will be found and this blog makes everyone more vigilant about any dubious business....