I sold an iPad and the buyer paid with fake money

[Deaf Spacker]

At the weekend I advertised an iPad Pro on Gumtree for £400 and I was contacted by an interested party, they asked a few questions about the iPad and they arranged to come to my house to view it and potentially buy it. They arrived later that day, viewed the iPad and agreed to buy it, they counted the money out in front of me and gave it to me. After the buyer left my wife counted the money and then put it in my bedside cabinet.

Today I go to the bank after work to pay the money and you guessed it, the vast majority was fake (£380). They advised me to report it to the local police station which I did in person, the police weren't really interested, they took the fake money and advised me to report everything to Action Fraud and they might investigate.

I still have the guys phone number and I'm getting the iPad serial number from the shop where I bought it (I know a member of staff). Obviously I removed the iCloud lock so I can't trace it but I'm going to register the serial number on a website that secondhand stores like CEX use so if the guy has traded it in the shop will be alerted.

I've not done anything with the phone number, I'm not sure what I can do to be fair.

I feel like the world's biggest idiot even though it's not mine or my wife's fault for not noticing as the money felt and looked real.

I'm hoping that this serves as a lesson to fellow GAF members, triple check the damn money when selling something or ask to be paid by PayPal or something.

 

[therealist]

I think you are SOL, nothing is going to happen. The guy (if he's smart) is going to sell the iPad again on ebay.

 

[xxracerxx]

How good was this fake cash that you guys didn't notice it?

 

[Chezzymann]

find out where he lives and punch him in the face, make sure to break his nose so that his medical bills will be more than what he conned you

 

[Arttemis]

Unrelated, but never do these transactions at your home. He now knows where you live and what's inside your house.

 

[Hoo-doo]

Isn't counterfeiting money like, super serious? Weird that the police didn't seem to care.

 

[Chairmanchuck]

How good was this fake cash that you guys didn't notice it?

Depends on the time of the day. I went to take a taxi in Beijing after a Karaoke night, so obviously also drunk though my wife wasnt that drunk. He did a scam, where he only wanted to take new 100 RMB bills after he said the ones we gave him were old and we didnt think anything about it because it was an official taxi. On the next day when we checked them out, it was so obvious it was fake. It was like money printed on normal paper. Reported that taxi thank god, since I always take a photo of the number.

 

[Chittagong]

find out where he lives and punch him in the face, make sure to break his nose so that his medical bills will be more than what he conned you

NHS tho

 

[xxracerxx]

Unrelated, but never do these transactions at your home. He now knows where you live and what's inside your house.

Very good point.

 

[Alter_Fridge]

At the weekend I advertised an iPad Pro on Gumtree for £400 and I was contacted by an interested party, they asked a few questions about the iPad and they arranged to come to my house to view it and potentially buy it. They arrived later that day, viewed the iPad and agreed to buy it, they counted the money out in front of me and gave it to me. After the buyer left my wife counted the money and then put it in my bedside cabinet.

Today I go to the bank after work to pay the money and you guessed it, the vast majority was fake (£380). They advised me to report it to the local police station which I did in person, the police weren't really interested, they took the fake money and advised me to report everything to Action Fraud and they might investigate.

I still have the guys phone number and I'm getting the iPad serial number from the shop where I bought it (I know a member of staff). Obviously I removed the iCloud lock so I can't trace it but I'm going to register the serial number on a website that secondhand stores like CEX use so if the guy has traded it in the shop will be alerted.

I've not done anything with the phone number, I'm not sure what I can do to be fair.

I feel like the world's biggest idiot even though it's not mine or my wife's fault for not noticing as the money felt and looked real.

I'm hoping that this serves as a lesson to fellow GAF members, triple check the damn money when selling something or ask to be paid by PayPal or something.

Do you know if they are a registered user on Gumtree?

 

[Skellig Gra]

Sucks OP but you learned a valuable lesson on this one.

 

[Mikef2000]

How good was this fake cash that you guys didn't notice it?

This. I've yet to encounter a fake bill that doesn't stand out immediately. sometimes just by touch you can tell it's fake. Granted I'm talking about US Dollars.

 

[NandoGip]

How good was this fake cash that you guys didn't notice it?

Lot of fake cash is repurposed bills. For example, there was a batch of $5 that you could melt the ink off and print $100 on it with matching marks

 

[Phyranion]

Is paying that much money in cash normal where you're from? Seems like such a huge risk.

 

[Alter_Fridge]

Sucks OP but you learned a valuable lesson on this one.

A lesson we can all learn off

 

[Deaf Spacker]

How good was this fake cash that you guys didn't notice it?

Pretty good apparently, the teller noticed something was up and called a supervisor, they spent two to three minutes umming and ahhing.

Unrelated, but never do these transactions at your home. He now knows where you live and what's inside your house.

The transaction was done outside, he didn't see anything inside my house.

 

[Spork4000]

Always use an online payment solution

 

[youbastards]

I sold an iPad and the buyer paid with fake money

 

[HawksWinStanley]

Unrelated, but never do these transactions at your home. He now knows where you live and what's inside your house.

This. Jesus, OP. The fake money is the last thing I would've been worried about.

 

[Alter_Fridge]

Is paying that much money in cash normal where you're from? Seems like such a huge risk.

People buy cars worth several thousand dollars cash to backyard sellers.

I don't think it is that unusual

 

[Deaf Spacker]

Isn't counterfeiting money like, super serious? Weird that the police didn't seem to care.

Welcome to British policing.

Do you know if they are a registered user on Gumtree?

No idea, they were texting me via iMessage.

Is paying that much money in cash normal where you're from? Seems like such a huge risk.

Yup, I've sold computer systems, phones etc for hundreds or even thousands of pounds in cash on occasions, £400 is not unusual.

 

[br3wnor]

Always use an online payment solution

Yeah, that's best solution if possible. I would have thought cash would be pretty fool proof but then stuff like this happens. All the horror stories I've heard about selling stuff to strangers makes me really have no interest in doing it, I buy some secondhand stuff through websites but don't want to deal w/ the headache of trying to sell stuff myself. Makes me think more about my purchases as well knowing that I'm probably not going to resell it once I've lost use for it. Amazing how many scummy people are out there.

 

[xxracerxx]

Random off-topic question, but do Venmo and other payment services know how much is in your linked bank account and will not allow the transfer of funds if it is more than what you have?

I feel like if I was doing transactions this large, and the above is the case, I would only use Venmo and the like.

 

[Phyranion]

People buy cars worth several thousand dollars cash to backyard sellers.

I don't think it is that unusual

People do what now? You're American, right?

 

[hodayathink]

I know that in the US, there are markers that you can use to tell counterfeit bills (wouldn't help in the washing a bill and reprinting it, I don't think). Also, yeah don't handle these transactions at home. Always a public place, and if you can help it a public place you can use to help verification (i.e. a bank if you're the seller, an electronics store that can make sure the device works if you're the buyer).

People do what now? You're American, right?

My family likes to buy cheap used cars as extra transportation and for jobs where we'll run the car down a bit, and we usually do those deals in either cash or a cashiers check/money order. Usually not over 2K, though.

 

[the_batman]

Where the hell do you live where the police don't care about counterfeit money and where someone else "might" investigate?

Edit: ok, so i noticed the pound symbol so op must be in england. Weird.

 

[somecrazymember]

I would have just paid with the money somewhere else lol. If you didnt notice, i'm sure a nightshop or something wouldnt neither. Now the police kept it as evidence so you're left with nothing

 

[Chittagong]

I love how the thread is about getting scammed with fake money and the banner ad is PPI claims

 

[Alter_Fridge]

People do what now? You're American, right?

Aussie actually

 

[LOLCats]

im more shocked about you doing this at your home...

 

[the_batman]

I would have just paid with the money somewhere else lol. If you didnt notice, i'm sure a nightshop or something wouldnt neither. Now the police kept it as evidence so you're left with nothing

Wtf am i reading, you're saying OP should've used the counterfeit money themselves?? I don't know about the laws in England, but knowingly using counterfeit money in the US guarantees prison time. How stupid can you be.

And they were already left with nothing because the bills were fake.

 

[Ashhong]

I would have just paid with the money somewhere else lol. If you didnt notice, i'm sure a nightshop or something wouldnt neither. Now the police kept it as evidence so you're left with nothing

Exactly. If the bank didn't take it from you, you should have spent it at another store or something.

 

[louiedog]

This is why I meet outside the police station and why in some places the police specifically setup a place for people to meet for deals like this. I mention it in my ad that I'll meet the buyer there.

Someone carrying fake bills isn't going to want to meet you at a police station so they won't even respond to the ad unless they try to get me to change venues, and I won't do that.

 

[Alter_Fridge]

im more shocked about you doing this at your home...

It's really not that weird

But as the poster above said, outside the cop shop is the smartest option

 

[BeforeU]

sorry but I don't think there is much you can do now.

 

[Helensmith]

That really sucks, sorry OP

Were they £50 notes? If they were £20, I think I would have tried to use them spaced out because shops don't tend to check £20 notes. I know it's dodgy but I wouldn't want to take such a big hit giving up the money.

 

[jstripes]

If the local police don't care about counterfeit money, which is bizarre, here they'd seize it if you brought it in, go to whatever the national police in the UK are. They'd LOVE information regarding counterfeit money fencing. Info like yours could help in bringing down a counterfeiting ring.

 

[Alter_Fridge]

You could try contacting the media about this. They would probaly like to know and get more attention on your case from the cops in turn

 

[ClosingADoor]

You're fucked. Police don't care. You won't get the money back.

If you got his number, I guess you can try and threaten him about a police report and see if he wants to make a deal to give the money back. Happened to a friend of mine once when he got scammed online.

Where the hell do you live where the police don't care about counterfeit money and where someone else "might" investigate?

Edit: ok, so i noticed the pound symbol so op must be in england. Weird.

Most small crime is not investigated anymore. Unless this is about tens of thousands of pounds/euros/dollars, the police won't bother since it is more effective to get the big fishes and cut it off at the source. Sucks for the common man though who is now just reporting crimes to be used in statistics.

 

[Fugu]

This. I've yet to encounter a fake bill that doesn't stand out immediately. sometimes just by touch you can tell it's fake. Granted I'm talking about US Dollars.

I used to work at the cash center of a bank. Part of my job was identifying counterfeits. I'm Canadian and counterfeit Canadian money is relatively obscure now because making fake versions of the current bills is such a process (and they're usually quite easy to identify as fake) but we got a lot of American counterfeits.

While the vast majority of counterfeit bills look quite shoddy, some of them don't. I remember a particular batch of American fifties looking quite convincing. They were good enough to fool the bill counters -- although that's not saying much -- as well as a significant percentage of the people whose jobs it was was to identify counterfeit bills. The fact is that it's pretty easy to confuse a bill that's in poor condition with a fake bill, particularly when the bill doesn't have a lot of security features and/or it's common for old bills to remain in circulation for a long time.

Anyway, the long and short of it is that convincing counterfeits exist.

 

[Phyranion]

My family likes to buy cheap used cars as extra transportation and for jobs where we'll run the car down a bit, and we usually do those deals in either cash or a cashiers check/money order. Usually not over 2K, though.

Out of curiosity, is this because you actually want to pay in cash, or because your bank does not provide the necessary services? Let's say you wanted to transfer 10 bucks to your friend, could you do that with your phone in a minute? How would you go about transferring larger amounts of money if you don't have the money in cash? Can you do it online?

 

[Stallion Dan]

I would have palmed the money off slowly to different places. Fucking losing £380.

 

[xxracerxx]

I would have just paid with the money somewhere else lol. If you didnt notice, i'm sure a nightshop or something wouldnt neither. Now the police kept it as evidence so you're left with nothing

Exactly. If the bank didn't take it from you, you should have spent it at another store or something.

Well this is a scumbag thing to do.

 

[Stallion Dan]

Well this is a scumbag thing to do.

Nah, do it to nationwide shops, it not gonna hurt them. They insured for stuff like that and it already factored into their profits.

 

[Deaf Spacker]

im more shocked about you doing this at your home...

Like I've already said, it was outside not inside.

I would have just paid with the money somewhere else lol. If you didnt notice, i'm sure a nightshop or something wouldnt neither. Now the police kept it as evidence so you're left with nothing

Nope, I'm not an idiot.

That really sucks, sorry OP

Were they £50 notes? If they were £20, I think I would have tried to use them spaced out because shops don't tend to check £20 notes. I know it's dodgy but I wouldn't want to take such a big hit giving up the money.

£20 notes and no, I'm not an idiot.

I would have palmed the money off slowly to different places. Fucking losing £380.

See above.

 

[Stallion Dan]

Like I've already said, it was outside not inside.



Nope, I'm not an idiot.



£20 notes and no, I'm not an idiot.



See above.

You're £380 down. Doesn't sound very smart to me.

 

[Rembrandt]

Wtf am i reading, you're saying OP should've used the counterfeit money themselves?? I don't know about the laws in England, but knowingly using counterfeit money in the US guarantees prison time. How stupid can you be.

And they were already left with nothing because the bills were fake.

*knowingly*

If you get caught, you just tell them the story about the iPad.

Don't call people stupid when youre saying shit like using it is guaranteed prison time like it's not a thing people do. Don't spend it in a large chunks. Go to stores and buy small amounts of things.


Also I see GAF is still scared shitless of things like Craigslist. Don't pay electronically. Pay cash. Meet somewhere public if you're that worried.

If the local police don't care about counterfeit money, which is bizarre, here they'd seize it if you brought it in, go to whatever the national police in the UK are. They'd LOVE information regarding counterfeit money fencing. Info like yours could help in bringing down a counterfeiting ring.

You could try contacting the media about this. They would probaly like to know and get more attention on your case from the cops in turn

I'm gonna go out on a limb and say they probably won't care about less than 1k.

 

[Deaf Spacker]

You're £380 down. Doesn't sound very smart to me.

I'd rather be £380 down than arrested for spending counterfeit money.

 

[Alter_Fridge]

I'd rather be £380 down than arrested for spending counterfeit money.

Try and deposit at another branch before you give up

 

[Deaf Spacker]

Try and deposit at another branch before you give up

The money is gone.