I've spent the summer getting ready for Christmas.
Yes, you have read that right.
I try to be on top of things in regards to Christmas presents so ensure that I have everything sorted long before the rush comes in. I've almost finished, too.
The two remaining gifts are XBox games for my nephew. As I am worried that they may not work on the day, I was planning on buying them a little later in the year. However, I saw one of the games going for £15 via Play.com's PlayTrade third party seller feature.
The game was brand new and at such a decent price that I thought I had to buy it immediately.
Remember that saying about if things look too good to be true they often always are?
I woke up yesterday morning to find an email from the seller with 'L.A. Nore problem with order' written in the subject box.
'Okay,' I thought. I opened the email and was asked for my address, credit card number and the three digits at the back of the card as a 'security check'.
As shocked as some may find, I am no fool so I wasn't going to fall for this trick.
The email had the logo of a company, Play.com as well as the MasterCard emblem to make me believe everything was legitimate.
I phoned Play.com and they told me that my suspicions were indeed correct and it was fraud. They then forwarded me an email with a list of procedures that I had to do in order to get my money returned to me. I think that's kind of scandalous, really. Why should I have to do the donkey work when they have allowed this sort of thing to happen?
I did what I was instructed to do and emailed the seller using the Play.com method to resolve issues and told the person they had three days to send the money. A little later on, I received an email from Play informing me the sale was being refunded with 'unable to supply' as being the reason for the cancellation.
Thinking that other people could fall for this kind of con, I emailed the company that the seller was falsely representing and sent them a copy of the email. They thanked me and informed me that this has happened before and they have lodged a complaint with Play over the affair.
I've written this today in the hope that someone looking on a search engine after receiving an email like this can know for sure that it's a con and - for those that have sent their details out in the email - to contact your bank immediately.
Hope this helps in some way.
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