Buyer paid with fake £20 notes for my iPhone and disappeared — what now?
Posted by Lennie_finch@reddit | AskUK | View on Reddit | 59 comments
I sold my iPhone through Facebook Marketplace today and I’m now almost certain the buyer paid me with fake £20 notes.
The buyer seemed normal at first, met me in person, paid in cash and left quickly. Afterwards I noticed the notes felt odd and some of the security features don’t seem right. Since then they’ve stopped replying on Facebook Messenger.
I still have:
screenshots of the Marketplace chat
the Facebook profile
photos of the notes
the phone IMEI/serial number
What should I actually do next in the UK?
Do I report it to police or Action Fraud?
Can the iPhone still be blocked/tracked if it’s been reset?
Will the police even investigate something like this?
And what happens with the fake notes now?
Just feeling pretty stupid and annoyed at myself at the moment.
EspressoBoost@reddit
This happened to me a few years ago but I noticed the cash was fake and got my phone back off the buyer when he was checking it out and told him to do one.
Definitely report the IMEI so it can be blocked.
Just be wary, I had someone try to do the same when I was selling a MacBook Air a few weeks ago, lots of scammers and fake cash buyers on Facebook marketplace currently !
JamzFromTheDiff@reddit
This is why I always do bank transfers now, the risk of fake cash isn’t worth the hassle.
V65Pilot@reddit
Bank transfers, IMHO, are still the safest way, as long as you make sure, using your app, that the money has arrived, before handing over the item. It's virtually Impossible to get a transfer reversed without a major investigation, and scammers don't want anyone looking at them...
Rockpool500@reddit
Report it to the police.
nali_cow@reddit
Buy a cheap UV light and use it for any future cash transactions of this sort. Genuine notes have patterns which only show up under UV, so you can check any note in seconds.
JustAnotherFEDev@reddit
Just do bank transfer only. That's what I do on most stuff I flog on there.
Sometimes for low value shit, I'll take cash, but phones and other higher value stuff, straight into my account. 1. So they don't give me fakes 2. So I don't have that much cash burning a hole in my pocket
richard0cs@reddit
That has its own problems, for example they pay with a hacked account that doesn't belong to them, and a week or two later the bank reverses the transaction.
snakeoildriller@reddit
And check a few real notes beforehand - there's nothing like not knowing what a genuine note looks like (I wouldn't know!)
Greedy-Cranberry-164@reddit
Life lesson to be a bit more street smart
Lennie_finch@reddit (OP)
Yeah definitely, something I wish checked out for
SAP1987@reddit
Obviously you now need to pay it forward, the real sucker is the one holding the money last.
yolo_snail@reddit
Realistically, just spend the £20 notes and play dumb, preferably at places you don't really care about
Chances are nobody will know they're fake.
AskUK-ModTeam@reddit
A top level comment (one that is not a reply) should be a good faith and genuine attempt to answer the question.
Sweaty-Possession-19@reddit
Yessss rather than reporting the crime, become the criminal. Sound advice 😂.
JustAnotherFEDev@reddit
Could just get on the crack and spend um on that. I've seen a bunch of little skeletons given a better dressed skeleton money, and he's handed um little parcels. He definitely didn't do any security checks on the notes. He was trying to be secretive about his whole operation, but 6 little skeletons hanging around a pay phone, wearing big puffa jackets, in a heatwave will always look a tad suss to me...
yolo_snail@reddit
We now live in a society where crime is legal, so if you can't beat them, join them.
SithoDude@reddit
Buy a phone off of Facebook marketplace with it.
Now I type that what if if the suspect was trying to get rid of it. What if this is a literal endless loop?
Inquisitivemind25@reddit
That’s terrible advice.
CactusCastrator@reddit
It's objectively bad advice, but unless they afford to swallow hundreds of pounds, what else is there they can do?
yolo_snail@reddit
Exactly.
If you go to the police, you're out a phone and the cash. Plus, they won't do anything anyway. How do you know the person that gave you the cash knew it was fake, there's enough plausible deniability that they'll get away with it.
Even if you can get away with spending £60, you're still in a better position.
Mat246@reddit
Happened to me and the police didn’t do much except take a statement, it’s a learning experience and you soon learn how to spot fake notes (normally no brain or image in the clear window)
Browneskiii@reddit
This is why you dont pay or accept cash, its not safe enough.
You're lucky its only £20. Right it off as a lesson and dont do it again.
madmac666@reddit
Only £20? It's probably a few hundred.
RedPlasticDog@reddit
Nuke the phone if you can
Decide whether you wish to risk passing on the fake notes.
Heliotropolii_@reddit
You could call the police, report the phone as stolen, they track it, arrest the man and then get your phone back. meanwhile in the real world, you can use the cash on your next trip to the supermarket,
Evening-Tour@reddit
It's not stolen, the buyer will say rhey gave the seller real notes and that the seller is trying to rip them off.
As it's a he said she said situation it's a civil matter not criminal.
If the seller does follow your advice, they buyer could claim it's a false police report as they gave the seller real notes, report the seller and then take them to small claims court.
Your advice is not great.
geeered@reddit
The buyer could try and fight that if the phone is listed at stolen, but very likely is someone that does this regularly and probably doesn't want to bring attention to themselves.
Also, while we're talking about lying, OP could just say "buyer stole my phone and didn't give me any money..."
yolo_snail@reddit
Not a supermarket, they check most notes now because of this.
But your local, less than reputable takeaway probably doesn't check.
takesthebiscuit@reddit
Yeah stick it to the little guy not the retailer worth billions 🫠
yolo_snail@reddit
Well, as I said, if you try and use it at a retailer worth billions, you'll get caught instantly because they check all notes.
But, if you use it at a local, less than reputable takeaway establishment, that perhaps prefers you pay cash so they don't have to pay tax, or pay their totally legal employees an actual wage, is it such a bad thing?
TheMarkMatthews@reddit
My local takeaway would cut my hands off if I gave them a fake £20 lol
JustAnotherFEDev@reddit
Boss man doesn't fuck about...
YoungGazz@reddit
Those white Audis don’t finance themselves.
HandleOrganic1334@reddit
What a prick you are
MonkeysMonolith@reddit
Depends who’s at the till. I never used to check 20s if the manager wasn’t in.
grepusman@reddit
Almost certain? So you,haven't verified they're fake? If they're real and you report the phone stolen, then you would be in the wrong.
Unless I missed where you verified this.
Legitimate_War_397@reddit
Had the same thing tried years ago, guy tried to pay me in cash. The ad said bank transfer only and said I’d only accept bank transfer. He was really pushy about paying for it in cash. Luckily my dad was over for dinner and heard the back and forth so came to the front door and told the guy quite bluntly either bank transfer or leave. Ever since then I just trade in my phone at an Apple Store then get the new one same day. A lot less hassle. Am I getting the most money I could be getting for my phone by trading in? No but it’s worth it for less stress.
JDT33658@reddit
Call the carrier you used on it. O2 for example and get them to blacklist it. Make sure you do both IMEI numbers or they can get around it. Specifically ask for them to blacklist BOTH IMEIS. Also go to the checkmend website and register the device and mark it as stolen.
That said tho if it is sent abroad they may be able to get around the blacklist unfortunately. If they sell it in the US for example it will most likely work fine.
Ill_Ad_791@reddit
I think you’ve learnt a valuable life lesson today
Lennie_finch@reddit (OP)
Definitely, always ask for bank transfers and check notes
West_Yorkshire@reddit
Your wording makes it sound like you haven't checked if theyante real or not.
sillybillylilly9669@reddit
Unfortunately this happened to my mum. She got scammed out of £700 after selling her phone and not much happened. You have to be so careful
Lennie_finch@reddit (OP)
Yeah least I know to always check money now
ExcitingCriticism524@reddit
Report the phone stolen and have it blocked using imei number
TheLightStalker@reddit
It's an iPhone so Apple can nuke it whenever they want.
Beartato4772@reddit
Worth doing but it'll be sent abroad.
ross-dirext-words137@reddit
Well that sucks. If they are fake my guess is the profile is a burner as well.
Report it to the police. Action fraud. Hopefully you have evidence of the buyer.
prankishink@reddit
Bummer. I understand you want to take action to feel better about the situation and feel like there's some retribution available but unfortunately you have no proof the fake £20s came from the buyer. All you can really do is consider it a life lesson to always check cash from strangers is authentic with a UV light. They're only about £10-£20 from Amazon and can protect you from situations like this in future.
shibster00@reddit
Contact the police, if you have a name and picture thru should be able to track him down
JeffBroccoli@reddit
A. They won’t B. The buyer can just say “those aren’t the notes I gave you”
zzkj@reddit
I'm afraid you're out of luck. There's no evidence that the notes you have were given to you by the seller. If you report it and the police come around they may just confiscate the fake notes.
JeffBroccoli@reddit
Exactly. The buyer can say, “I gave you real notes, and now you’ve pulled out these fake ones to try and frame me!”
Seller beware next time
bio4m@reddit
So many comments telling Op to commit criminal fraud. And then we wonder why we cant have nice things...
TroublesZoo@reddit
I suppose you have reasonable grounds to consider the phone stolen, and attempt to get the IMEI blocked.
I have no idea whether that will actually be successful though!
Jamiewoo133@reddit
Nothing. Charge it to the game.
Sea_Director_4439@reddit
Pass them on
Midgecall@reddit
Sadly, you are boned financially. Report it to the police and leave the notes with them as well as whatever trail you have
escapingfromelba@reddit
This story has been told before on here. You're out of luck is the short answer.
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