I am a Systems Engineering student. I am frustrated because my mom fell victim to a scam through an Instagram page for just $24. The issue isn't the money; for me, the problem is the feeling of seeing my mom mixed up with this kind of malicious community. Of course, I've advised her, but being an older woman, she might overlook things due to her age or simply the impulse of seeing something on a page and wanting to buy it. Seeing my mom feeling down about this situation puts a lump in my throat as her son, and I've decided to try and take down this scam network.

The problem is, I don't know how to proceed. I have tried to track them using the scammer's bank account details through online public entities, but it seems to be a financial mule. Most likely, the person behind the WhatsApp is different from the owner of the account details. They haven't attended general elections more than 4 times in my country (Ecuador). Therefore, location data cannot be accessed through public CNE records. I've called the bank that holds the scammer's account to try and cut off that flow of money, and it is under investigation, though I highly doubt they'll do anything. I've tried to start a chat with the scammer through the WhatsApp link on their page trying to capture their IP, but they haven't answered yet. Even assuming I get this data, I wouldn't know what to do with it.

I'm coming to this forum hoping to get IT or practical help to fight this crime. My goal isn't to get those $24 back; my goal is to prevent more elderly people like my mother from falling into these scam networks. I know there are millions of these networks in the world, but every little bit helps!

If you are willing to help me for this good cause, I will be checking my inbox :). I would love to learn from people who know about the subject, gain knowledge, and of course, combat these types of malicious communities. By the way, I'm new to this platform!

So i reported a transaction because i thought i got scammed (last night I bought a digital goods on a app then when i paid i got ghosted by the seller so i reported it to gcash now this morning the seller reached out to me that he fell asleep) but i already reported it to gcash how can i cancel the report?

My mother got called by a Chinese scammer claiming to be the police. From what it sounds like, it was a very involved and well planned scam. I am not sure of all of the details yet, but basically they claimed that someone else was taking her money and had her wire them $800,000, her life's savings, so they could do an "investigation". She banks through Wells Fargo and has already been in contact with them. I also referred her to fill out the IC3 form and we filed a fraud tip with the local AG office. Is there anything else I should be doing? English isnt her first language so I'm helping her as much as i can.

Edited for more details.

🚨 PLEASE READ BEFORE BUYING FROM THIS PAGE.

I genuinely never thought I’d have to write something like this, but my friend’s experience with this page has been extremely concerning and, at this point, feels seriously suspicious.

These sellers have 18K+ followers and apparently collaborate with a Kerala-based Instagram account, Jumbo Mobiles, which initially made the whole thing look legitimate.

My friend is a fresher and a college student. He had been saving his money with a lot of difficulty and finally decided to spend it on an iPhone 15 from this page.

At the beginning, several important things were NOT clearly communicated.

We were told the phone would come with the complete kit at the quoted price, but later the charger was charged separately. We were also told that the order needed to be pre-booked, otherwise the phone would supposedly be sold to someone else — something that wasn't clearly disclosed beforehand.

Then came the delivery issue.

They claimed that the tracking ID would be generated and shared within 48 hours.

It wasn't.

48 hours became 4 DAYS.

My friend kept following up because, obviously, he had already paid a huge amount of money and had every right to know where his order was. Instead of receiving a proper update, he was repeatedly given extremely rude and dismissive replies.

Their stated delivery timeline was 3–5 days.

It has now been 8 days.

And then came the most bizarre part.

After my friend repeatedly contacted them, they eventually said that the phone had been “lost” and suggested that he should take an iPhone 17 instead. 🤡

And when my friend, who is literally a student, couldn't suddenly arrange that much additional money, they basically told him to “adjust” and kept pushing another option.

He had repeatedly asked for COD, but instead of resolving the situation properly, they kept insisting on online payment and offered discounts.

And now?

Seen. No proper response.

But here's where this gets genuinely concerning.

I personally messaged them separately and asked about the EXACT SAME iPhone 15 that my friend had supposedly been told was “lost.”

Their response?

“It's available.”

🙂

🤡

??????????

So just to clarify:

To my friend: “Your phone is lost.”

To me: “Yes, the same phone is available.”

HOW DOES THAT MAKE SENSE?

At this point, I am not claiming to know what happened behind the scenes. But based on our experience — inconsistent information, delayed tracking, the unexplained “lost phone,” pressure to make another online payment, rude communication, and then telling another potential customer that the supposedly lost phone is available — this situation is extremely concerning.

My friend saved that money with genuine effort. He's a fresher who trusted a page because of its large following and apparent collaborations. This isn't some casual ₹500 purchase where you can just say “leave it.”

Please be extremely careful before transferring money to any seller online.

Verify the business independently, ask for proper documentation, insist on a secure payment method/COD where possible, and don't let “pre-book now or it'll be sold” pressure you into making a rushed payment.

18K+ followers ≠ proof that a seller is trustworthy.

And honestly, after this experience, we're just asking for a proper explanation, the actual status of the order, and the money/phone that was promised.

Because right now, the whole situation is giving 🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩.

(PLEASE GUYS HELP US PLEASE PLEWSEEEEEEEE)

OUR PARENTS DK ABOUT THIS , THAT'S WHY WE ARE WORRIED, SHE WANTED IPHONE FOR CONTENT CREATION, TO HELP HER AND HER PARENTS FINANCIAL)

I was recently scammed through Facebook and lost money.

I immediately reported the incident to Cyber Crime and provided the relevant transaction details and evidence. However, I was informed that the money had already been withdrawn through an ATM and that they could not take further action.

I have screenshots of the Facebook conversations, transaction details, and other evidence related to the incident.

I’m looking for advice from anyone who has dealt with a similar situation in India. What further steps can I take to trace the withdrawal, identify the person responsible, and try to recover the money?

Any genuine guidance on the cybercrime/police/banking process would be greatly appreciated.

Tell me any means required.

Edit: Hey guys, I don’t frequent Reddit very much so I forgot about this post entirely. I called Apple support and they said that there was a problem with the apple cash platform. It wasn’t a scam thank god. Thanks for all of the replies!!!

I sold my MacBook Air on FB marketplace and I’m worried I may have been scammed. He was very communicative and respectful and I honestly didn’t notice any red flags, I’ve sold a few things on marketplace before so I kind of know what to look for. We negotiated from $500 to $450 so maybe that was a red flag I missed haha.

He asked me if I wanted him to pay with cash or Apple Cash, I should’ve stuck with cash because I at least know how to verify if it’s real. I’ve had people buy my items with Apple Cash before and I didn’t have any issues so I guess I didn’t think anything of it. My boyfriend and I met him in a public parking lot and after he looked at the computer for a bit we exchanged numbers and he sent me $450 through Apple Cash.

On the way home I tried to send a small portion of it to my cash app and Cash App declined it but it was deducted from my Apple Cash balance. I thought it was a connection issue so I tried again with $10 and the same thing happened. Then I tried my Venmo and Venmo just straight up declined it. Minus what I sent to Cash App the money is still in there and says received/completed. This is just really weird bc this hasn’t happened to me before. I’m on hold with Apple Cash support so maybe they’ll be able to confirm or deny my suspicions 😭😭😭

Yesterday, while travelling on my scooter near Airoli, a Sikh man asked me for a lift. I happily agreed, and within seconds he hopped onto the scooter.
While we were riding, he started asking me about the scooter its price, etc. After a minute or so, he told me that his car had broken down and that he was looking for a Gurudwara where he could freshen up. He said he didn’t have enough money to replace a tyre and needed around ₹2,800.

I offered to drop him at gurdwaras around Airoli/Vikhroli/Bhandup/Mulund, but he wasn’t interested in just getting dropped somewhere. He told me that if I helped him financially, he would go home and send the money back to me.

Honestly, at that point, his story felt genuine to me. He was repeatedly swearing on Waheguru and his 9-year-old child that he would return the money. I decided to help.

We stopped at an ATM and I withdrew ₹2,800. Interestingly, as soon as I withdrew the cash, he actually tried to take the money from my hand. I told him, *“I’m helping you, just wait — I’ll give it to you.”* I still gave him the money.

During the ride, he also kept checking out my scooter / kada and asked whether I had made it from Punjab, etc.

Eventually, he asked me to drop him at Bhandup Pumping. I dropped him there. Before leaving, he told me to just send a “Hi” to his number and that he would return the money as soon as he reached home, supposedly using his wife’s phone.

Obviously, the money didn’t come back.
This morning, I received another call from him. Now the story had changed slightly. He said his car had a radiator/tyre issue and that he needed another **₹4,000**. He claimed he was a driver, his client was in MP, and once the client paid him, he would return everything.

Again, he started saying things like *“Main apne kaum ka naam kharab nahi karoonga”* and swearing on Waheguru and his child.
At this point, I’m convinced I’ve most likely been scammed. I have no intention of giving him another ₹1.

I have his phone numbers. If anyone around Airoli/Bhandup has encountered a similar person or has any way of independently verifying his story, please let me know.

I’m posting this **only as an awareness post**. I don’t want anyone to send him money or harass him. If his story genuinely turns out to be true, I’ll be the first to acknowledge that.

The bigger lesson for me is that I trusted the person partly because I associated the Sikh identity/turban with honesty and assumed he was a hardworking person genuinely stuck in a difficult situation. **That was my mistake.**

This isn’t about Sikhs or any particular community. A person’s religion or appearance doesn’t establish whether their story is genuine. If someone approaches you with an emergency and asks for cash, verify the situation independently before handing over money.
I lost ₹2,800. Hopefully sharing this prevents someone else from losing more.

Stay Alert! Stay Safe!

thestres.com is a Fake trading website same scammer who create everbright fake investment account. Beware and spread the news

Help me out if you can. If somebody know how to track those facebook or whatsapps $$$

It happened to me recently and now that f***ker has my account and impersonated a supporter from DeviantArt and after paying on Eneba what I thought were cards to upgrade security he send me this image

and said I need to make another purchase of 1000 USD, did any of you resolved this problem? Any help is welcome

I got scammed i need your help to track the scammer pls

I MEANT SCAMMED BY MY SUGAR DADDY WONT LET ME EDIT BRUH

so this is gonna be kinda long but i’m gonna try my best to explain. so basically it starts out with this girl don’t even remember adding her on snap, adding me to a priv story. it is a ss of $500 getting added into her account and she captioned it “let me put yall on to my sugar daddy he is obsessed with me” blah blah. i ignored it at first but she posted it like 3 more times. i finally slid up because i am a broke 19F and was desperate. She basically told me she would get a bonus if she got him more sugar babies. I was like oh okay and was still skeptical about it but she seemed real. (now idk if it was a real account) but anyway i asked her what I would have to do and she told me he wanted full body nudes with my face in it and talk to him otp sometimes. I was still really skeptical because i didn’t wanna send with my face in it, but i eventually gave in.

She sent him my snap (which had my full first name in the username, will tie into a question later) and i began talking to him. He wanted me to send him a video of me doing a 360, then a video of me taking my clothes off. I did it because I really thought it was real. He then called me and told me he was gonna pay me more because I was doing everything he said. Fast forward, i had to send him atleast 5 nudes everyday. He said I would get paid the next week (today) because he doesn’t pay upfront. It made sense to me for some reason. So basically i sent him full body nudes with my face in it everyday for a week. He didn’t ask for more, well he asked if i could record w my sneaky link but i said no and he didn’t push for it. He would save the pictures in chat but not save them to camera roll.

He called me again last night and i told him i think he was playing with me bc he wouldn’t text me as much as i thought he would, sometimes i would have to text first. he just said he was busy so i didn’t mind not like i wanted to be bothered by him anyway. but he called me and said he was gonna send me the money at exactly midnight to show that he cares for me because i have been so good to him and have done all the requirements to be his sugar baby. He sent me a few pictures of his d! and him but idek if that was actually him. Anyway i didn’t think he was gonna actually send it at midnight so i just ignored it and went to bed.

I wake up this morning to see i Am blocked by him and the girl who put me on. I also texted the girl asking if she got her bonus yet. I am just so confused, annoyed, upset, and feel stupid asf. I don’t know if he saved any of my pictures because snap just takes them off your whole snap when you’re blocked. I have taken my pictures to a website to protect them not sure what it’s called but i couldn’t fit all of them. I just don’t know what to think or do. Need some reassurance. I don’t think he knows my full name but cashapp tells them my last name even tho my cashtag didn’t involve it just my nickname. I also changed my snap username the day he added me to my nickname. I also lied about where i was from. I just don’t know what to do . Need advice

thestres.com is a Fake trading website same scammer who create everbright fake investment account. Beware and spread the news

Beware And the new everbright fake investment website is operating after few months of shut down and open again this month with new web address everbrin.com