ScamVictimsUnited.com

If you fell for the phoney scam, go to your bank immeddiately with your bank statement, tell them it is a fraudulent activity, and they will refund your money, as well as investigate them for fraud.
I did, and I got back my money in 10 days.

I'm Afraid I fell into the trap also on May 20th, I had a gut feeling after I gave all the information something was not right. I have been calling the 800 number the 727 number, Man I wish I had done some homework on this company. All I get when I call 1 800 786 8519 or 1 727 585 4762 is a recording of what the business hours are and if it is the business hours then all operators are busy. I'm lucky so far no money has left my account this is due to the fact that I told them I would not have money untill a certain date. WHEW gives me time to notify my bank. This company also does business as National Consumer Services and National Platinum Consumer Services. Notice the play on the name Services rather then Service because there are legit companys with the same name but without the plural Service(s). Thats ok because I put in a complaint with the FTC today I have this comapnys address if you would like it I suggest you also file a compaint with the FTC. http://www.ftc.gov

You need to have the bank close your account and open a new one with a different account number

If you would like to post any of the info on the company, like their address, on this site feel free to do so. Someone else may google that same information and then they will see your post and know that it is a scam.

Also, I agree with reverse . . . to do your bank and close all of the accounts that they have the information on. You don't want anything to slip through.

i just dont understand why anyone gives out there information. maybe you shouldnt get it back

Superdave,
Many people who do not think about the REASON that a person would get a check from someone do not understand this. I will try to explain.

You have something to sell online . . . you use Craigslist, Ebay or one of the many other sites out there where the "average person" can sell items that they no longer want or need.

Now, if the buyer of that items does not live near you and you cannot have them pick up the item and pay you cash in hand, then a payment plan needs to be figured out. This is where the seller has to give out their personal info (name, address) so that the buyer can send them the payment (cashier's check) . . . now that I think about it . . . even if it was a "face to face" transaction you would need to give out your address for them to come and pick up the item . . . and really how do you know that the person coming to your house to pick up a couch you advertised for sale is not a murder or robber that is going to take everything in your house another night when you are gone now that he has your address?

So really, I guess the only way for people to be safe is to NEVER sell anything that they own. (not very practical)

Your right so maybe if your selling something, you should get all that persons info(try your best to make sure its correct). even like there drivers liscence number or liscence plate if they come to pick it up(an honest person would probably give out this info). A dishonest person might be like forget about it and then you have less of a chance of being scammed.

what do you think, good idea?

Agreed . . . get as much info as you can from the person you are selling an item to . . . but, how do you REALLY know that it is true info? That person could be using stolen ID or CC, a fake addresss.

So, should every person selling on Ebay or Craigslist do a background check on anyone who wants to buy their item? Those cost money, and if they are selling something they probably don't have the money for that kind of verification.

maybe everyone who buys or sells on these websites should have to have a valid cc and a picture so that if something happens you could have at least something to go to the police with. or maybe these websites could mail the person signing up for selling or buying a conformation letter you have to return from a valid mailing address.

superdave,
I agree, things like that would help to protect not only the seller, but the buyer. Now the problem is having everyone do this. There would be an increased wait time before anyone could post an item for sale on a site like Craigslist because someone would have to "verify" that the person is who they say they are . . . and now that puts the liability on the company since if fraud did happen, you could go back to them and say that they did not do their job correctly (can you imagine the lawsuits!)

I am not trying to say that businesses and websites should not play a part in fighting these scams, but a lot of time the ideas that we come up with here sound so easy and like they would be the perfect fix, but the work to make such a thing happen would be huge.

I am going to guess that if sites did something like this they would need an entire staff to just verify everyone before a transaction could go through . . . good thing is more jobs, bad thing is that they have to pay those people so the company might have to charge more for their services (Craigslist might not be free, or Ebay might charge more to list items)

First, stolen credit cards are still valid if the charge goes through, that is why people steal them and most transactions are done within a 3 day span of when the card goes missing. The way credit card companies verify a credit card transaction over the web is to have the shipping and billing info match and that info can be bought.

Secondly, A picture can easily by hijacked from any online site. Check out the dating/romance scams for an example of this so this would be not very helpful to slow down a scammer.

With selling online there isn't much to do to protect yourself other than to know about the overpayment fraud. With credit cards you will win some and lose some and is truly a cost of doing business.

I would never give you my license number or plates, how do the know the "buyer" is not a scammer and you just gave away your information. Giving away the information you suggest is worse than giving away your account number. Getting your DL and your tag numbers changed is much more difficult than getting a new account number............

You have suggested a worse solution than the original problem.