Beware of a scam yet again

[G15 Roy]

See below sent in from a club member today

Please pass on to all bike owners that you know.
I placed an ad in the old Bike Mart for this month. It was for the sale of my Green 1967 Matchless G15CS
Someone telephoned me today from the Matchless (JAMPOT) owners club magazine.
He offered me a special price to place an advert in their monthly magazine for the non member price of £5.99.
He seemed incredibly knowledgeable with regard to all makes of bikes
So, I parted company with £5.99 of my pension using my John Lewis credit card.
Five minutes later, my mobile rings. I answer and a voice on the other end tells me he's from John Lewis' credit card fraudulent transaction department.
He asks me if I've just made a transaction with Argos £365.00 on line.
At first, I thought it was a wind up! Then the payment came through on my wife's phone as she is the main card holder. That convinced me this guy was genuine.
Luckily the payment was pending, so was stopped immediately. As I was talking another payment came through for £530.00 for another company. Luckily that was also cancelled. Also my credit card was cancelled!
The credit card company contacted me because the transaction was made from Kent (on line) and my email address is in BUCKS. If I was in Kent I would have used my credit card and not a different broadband.
So, Please warn your advertisers of the danger that lurks within.

[FerG3]

I have seen several folk reporting this same scam for various fictitious adverts in club magazines, etc.. In all cases, the clubs NEVER solicit adverts in this way. Hopefully by now the word will have got round to avoid this scam........then look out for the next one!

[clive]

I put this on the website and I think in the magazine in July 2022.

"I had another phone call yesterday from a new club member who was scammed. This is not the first time the scammer has used this method but he seems to have refined it. It goes as follows,

The person advertises an AJS or Matchless bike for sale on facebook or ebay.
The scammer phones up saying he is advertising officer from AJS and Matchless Owners Club and offers to put the advert in the next edition of the club magazine for £4.95. He has some knowledge of the marque.
The advertiser then pays using their card giving card number, name on card, expiry date and CVC number.
and is told it has gone through.
A little time later (and this is the new twist) the advertiser gets a call purporting to be from his bank saying that unusual activity has been noted on his card so it is being cancelled. This call is also from the scammer and presumably to reassure advertiser if he has checked his account on line and seen activity, so that the scammer can continue using the card to make purchases.
On this occasion the advertiser became suspicious, called his bank directly and of course by then £695 worth of tools had already been purchased on his card.

To be clear club members do not pay for AJS and Matchless related adverts.
As Adverts Editor I do not approach private individuals for adverts and have no capacity to take any payments over the phone. When I am contacted by members to place non marque adverts, and there is a charge, the transaction has to be done through paypal which protects your card details"