MORNINGTON business owner Jenny Fasso couldn't believe her luck when she was asked by an overseas client to spend up to $220,000 fitting out and decorating a local home.
Ms Fasso now knows the deal was too good to be true after being stuck with a $22,000 bill after being duped by a scammer who set up a detailed paper trail of deception.
"The excitement probably overtook us, plus we didn't know about this kind of scam. I think people really need to know this can happen," she said last week.
Police suspect the scammer got hold of overseas credit cards, noted their details and returned them to the wallets of their
unwitting owners, who only realised they had been charged for fake purchases after opening their bank statements.
Other techniques could have included lifting card details from people paying bills or buying goods over the internet.
Ms Fasso's firm, Interior Packages, specialises in providing packages for clients who want to move into a home, or rent a holiday property out without lifting a finger.
"They can go inside and find everything there from the lounge suite to a cheese grater," Ms Fasso said.
A few weeks ago she received an email from a man who said he was relocating from England with his wife and children and wanted her to fit out by mid-July a house he had bought in Mornington.
"He said his budget was $180,000-$220,000 and even mentioned a local real estate agent by name," Ms Fasso said.
In a follow-up email on March 9, the client said his wife wanted some artwork painted in the UK and shipped to Mornington and Ms Fasso would have to view it before choosing matching furnishings.
"He said that as the artist didn't take credit cards, could I charge $9000 to a credit card number provided by him, put that money into my account and then transfer it to the artist's UK bank account with the balance to be sent the next week."
Ms Fasso used the US credit card number the man provided - which was declined three times before being accepted - to access the funds that her local bank branch transferred to the artist's account.
On March 13, the man contacted her to say the artwork was ready and she needed to charge $13,000 to a card and transfer the funds via Western Union.
Ms Fasso said she called her bank’s card centre when she became concerned that this card was declined twice and approved three times as she put the money through in portions. ‘‘The bank said an alert would come up if the card was being declined because it had been stolen, which had not happened in this instance.
‘‘I believed I was protected.’’
Soon after, the man said his wife had become excited about artwork in Africa and wanted $13,500 sent to a Nigerian account. Two credit card numbers provided were declined on March 17 and a concerned Ms Fasso again contacted the bank’s card department.
Her heart sank when she was told they were just about to call her as they were concerned about the possibility of fraud, even though the cards were not coming up as stolen.
‘‘They said I didn’t get a warning call from them the first time two cards were declined as sometimes there was a glitch in their computer system. Then they asked me if I realised I would have to pay back the $22,000 as the fine print of the merchant agreement makes me liable for transactions that turn out to be fraudulent if I have put them through the EFTPOS machine.’’
Ms Fasso pretended her EFTPOS facility was down to buy some time in case arrangements with police could be made to grab the person who went to collect the cash the scammer believed would have been sent to Africa. But her efforts to extract revenge failed as it proved too difficult to organise for overseas police to become involved.
Ms Fasso is preparing a complaint to the Banking Ombudsman or face taking out a personal loan to pay the money.
‘‘I had no idea I could be liable and many local traders I have spoken to since say they didn’t know that either. The police fraud squad told me I’m a just a little crumb in the pie as people are getting done for hundreds of thousands of dollars every day.’’
Email a friend