Employment scam ads

A new scam has appeared in the news today – which as always is best to be aware of.

DETECTIVES in Plymouth are trying to unravel a complex employment scam after arresting three city people.
Police say the trio appear to have been duped into cashing fake traveller's cheques by an online con-man.
The arrests have all led investigators to the same job advert on the Gumtree website.
Officers were alerted to two separate incidents last weekend, one at a bank and the other at a Post Office. Both saw foreign nationals attempt to cash in 3,000 Euros in counterfeit traveller's cheques.
Staff spotted they were fakes and called the police, who arrested a 22-year-old woman on Friday, April 15, and a married couple – a 35-year-old man and a 22-year-old woman – the following day.
Detectives say both parties had applied for a housekeeper/cleaner job they had spotted on Gumtree.
They were then emailed by the advert's author and asked for personal information.
Police say the fraudster told them they were 'the lucky one' who had landed the job, saying their future employer wanted to give them an advance as a retainer.
According to police, they were sent traveller's cheques and told to cash them to pay for his 'house broker', sending the bulk of the money via a wire transfer to a third party.
The con artist, who used a British-sounding name, said he was living in Spain but about to return to the UK.
However, after trawling through emails provided by the arrested trio, detectives say they are unconvinced English is the man's first language.
All three have been released on bail until May 19.
Dc Dave Neale, who is leading the investigation, said: "The people we've arrested have given us plausible accounts of their initial intentions."
Appealing to anyone else who may have been in contact with the 'employer', he added: "There are scores of this type of fraud going on in this country. The targeting of specific individuals is becoming more complicated and more intricate. In this case the person behind the fraud provided a wealth of seemingly legitimate information. But it should be a warning to people in Plymouth and the surrounding area; we don't want to see any more people risking their own liberties."
Anyone with information is asked to call police on 08452 777444 or Crimestoppers, anonymously, on 0800 555111 quoting crime reference EC/11/3972.

Protecting the Privacy of our Customers

'CPN' (Customer Protection Numbers) are used to protect the Privacy of our advertisers, deterring - though not fully preventing - unwanted canvassers from ringing them directly.

HOWEVER, let’s knock a few myths on the head right now!  It is NOT a Premium Rate service and never has been, all charges are clearly printed both online and in the magazines.  They are:-

• Calling an CPN from a standard BT home or business phone are charged at the BT rate of 37.5 pence per minute (ppm) at peak times, 25 ppm evenings and 12.5 ppm weekends.
• The cost of calling a CPN from a mobile phone varies depending on the mobile operator the call is being made through. Mobile phone operators are obliged to make their call charges readily available to their customers.

When do you get charged?

• Only when the call is answered, if there is no answer there is no charge.  If it is answered by voicemail, you will be charged for however long it takes to leave your message!

Safe in the knowledge that their contant details are safe, the CPNs are very flexible. If you need to change your contact telephone number, simply update the tel number in your Account Details and click the Update Details button at the bottom. You will receive an email to confirm that you have made changes AND the mapping to your CPN is INSTANTLY changed. You won’t miss any calls. Impressed?

If someone has placed a joke ad using your telephone number, let us know and we can switch off the CPN and instantly stop the calls (aahhh silence)!

OK, so what - if anything - can can go wrong?

• Customers sometimes enter their own phone numbers wrongly!  So the CPN won’t connect!
• Some customers never respond to voicemail messages!
• Customers forget to update their telephone numbers in their Account.

Shown online and in the paper, we map the CPN through to your own telephone numbers. When you place an advert online you fill in the telephone number box so that customers can contact you.

In your “Account Details” online, the telephone numbers that you have used are shown together with the CPN that is covering them. That CPN displays both online and is printed in the AdTrader magazine:

• The CPN will firstly connect to your telephone number one and if it doesn’t receive an answer go onto ring the second number.
• BUT – if the first number listed has an answer machine attached or voicemail the system won’t then ring the second number as it has already been answered.
• Ads placed over the phone to the mags are slightly different.  They are covered by CPN numbers in the same way, but to change the mapping you will have to phone the centre to have this done.

Any questions?

Happy Selling.

The AdTrader team.

Buying & Selling SAFELY

It goes without saying that Adtrader want to keep our users safe from harm with there Selling Advice.

If you follow these easy to remember snippets you will be able to buy and sell with no worries.

Buyers

• Never disclose personal details until you are sure a buyer is genuine.
• If you are accepting cheque as a method of payment ensure the funds have been cleared in your bank account before you release the item.
• If someone offers to pay for an item and the shipping costs but asks you to pay shipping costs first upfront, don’t. You are likely to lose the money.
• Be suspicious if someone offers to pay a lot more than your asking price.
• Be wary of inviting people into your home if they are complete strangers. Have someone with you or meet at a halfway public place.

Sellers

• If you can try and meet the seller face to face so that the item can be seen and payment can be exchanged then this is always the safer option. Never transfer money until you have seen the item and ask for a receipt as proof of purchase.
• Beware if a seller is asking a very low price and asks for a holding deposit. They may keep your money and not send you the item.
• When buying tickets make sure they exist and that the name can be changed on them.
• Be aware of scams that promise large amounts of money for items upfront (see below).
• Report any attempted fraud to us and the police.

Damo (CRM & Insights, AdTrader)