Assistance ordering from CPC

[PlainName]

Appropos of not a lot, I've heard that one way to launder money is to buy something and pay rather more then get a refund of the rest. Voila, pay with dodgy money and get pukka stuff back. You could imagine £10 worth of CPC parts being reimbursed with £1000: "Sorry mate, finger trouble - forgot the decimal point. Just send me £900 back to this other account and we'll call it quits." Of course, the return account wouldn't be the same as the (hijacked) paying account. Wouldn't work with PayPal, of course, 'cos you would just tell it return the excess to the sender (who would be known to PayPal in the first place).

I also heard that mules caught up in this sort of scam get treated as willing participants with jail being a likely result. If you're lucky you might not be funding terrorists but just losing money:

https://www.hoax-slayer.net/overpayment-scams-work/

[CJay]

I too offered help but backed out because it stinks to high heaven, Paypal or cash posted to me was seemingly not possible but a bank transfer was fine?

FWIW, I am not saying the OP is trying to scam anyone but I offer this to the OP to explain another part of the reason why I backed out:

I can quite imagine the first transaction or two going smoothly, money appears and stays in your bank account, you believe you've done a good thing and there's smiles all round.

Until there's a 'oh I must ask you a large favour, I need to buy £x000 worth of equipment, as we have already done business I'm sure you can help', because the first one or two transactions went without hitch and you're a nice helpful person, you agree.

The money appears via bank transfer as before so you duly purchase and forward on the kit while the money enjoys its short holiday in your account, then the bank tells you the transfer was fraudulent and it has been returned to the account it was 'borrowed' from so you're out some not inconsequential amount of cash having forwarded on some nice, resellable gear to the con artist.

I may just have a nasty suspicious mind but I don't have the time to mess about trying to untangle weird transactions because someone can't be bothered to meet me halfway when I'm doing them a favour and I certainly don't have the money to fall for a scam that leaves me in debt.

[Ian.M]

Yep.  Cash on the barrelhead or the buyer can FOAD. 

Also, why were they being coy about what they wanted? If they'd posted the list of parts and their approximate location, odds are someone would have found them either a local supplier or one that accepted export orders.

[kcs]

That was one side of the story, here is another one.

One of the first questions I have asked amiq was if I could pay by a bank transfer and I have received a confirmation that "bank transfer is fine". When amiq has received a parcel from CPC, he has, for the first time, asked me "Are you able to pay using paypal?" to which I have replied that I specifically asked if bank transfer is fine and that I want to pay using this method. Then I was told that "If you want to pay by bank transfer I'll need your address and phone number" (my actual address, not the one used for parcel forwarding services). Again, this was told to me only after the order was received. I must say, that I have asked his bank account number right after he has placed the order so that I could pay him in front, but he did not provide it. Maybe at that time he already knew that he no longer wants to accept bank transfer or that he would introduce extra requirements that were not agreed on. I have replied that I am not willing to give up the details he has requested as they are not required to make a bank transfer and that there was no mutual agreement that I will do so. I have also said that even if I did provide those details he had no means to verify if they are valid and actually mine, so what is the point of that? I could speculate that even having my details he would not be completely satisfied and ask for some other proof of my identity, for example to provide a photocopy of my passport. He gave me one day to change my mind and has not explained why there was such a change in his requirements. To sum up, we agreed that payment will be made by a bank transfer, he knew that parcel will be shipped to the UK address (to parcel forwarding service), after he has received a parcel he unilaterally introduced new requirements that we did not agreed on and he gave me one day to change my mind and do what he says or otherwise he will return the parcel back to CPC.

I have learned a very good lesson. I should have listened to bd139 much more carefully and just order from other place.

[Ian.M]

I'm with you on that - I don't trust PayPal further than I can spit upwind in a hurricane.  However IF I had volunteered while I was still responsible for CPC orders at work, it seems to me that a 20 Euro note wrapped up in foil with a piece of hardboard, popped in a padded envelope with your order list and shipping details, and sent by registered post would have avoided all the payment aggro, and as long as nothing on the order is subject to US or UK export controls, why the <beep> would I want to know your residential address, especially if I've given you a mailbox rather than my own residential address.

[kcs]

Ian.M, there were two reasons why it was not an option for me: (1) I do not live in the UK, I live in other European country, so it would cost me quite a bit to do that, but more importantly (2) under the local regulations, I cannot send currency by post.

[Ian.M]

Yes - international currency by post is *NOT* permitted in many countries, which is why you wrap it in foil round a piece of plywood (or slip it inside the foil of a chocolate bar)  so it doesn't show up on a random mail X-ray and keep the value low enough so you can afford to write it off if it goes missing.  No-one's going to give a damn for 20 Euro, as long as neither of us is dumb enough to post our real names and contact details on a public forum!

You send it registered because of the few bad apples in the postal service.   Its been known here for Christmas mail sacks to be blatantly dumped in the nearest canal or river after they've been looted for valuables, and the lost and misdelivered items percentage for ordinary post is far from acceptable.  Registered mail delivery is subject to slightly higher scrutiny so the temp workers with fake ID have less opportunity to intercept it.