NEWS
A number of large, well- known vape shops
and distributors have been targeted by
scams. Some have lost thousands of pounds
worth of stock.
By R ó i s í n D e l a n e y
Vapouround has spoken to one company who were on the verge
of losing £20,000 worth of e-liquids overnight, but thanks to the
due diligence of their staff, no stock was released to the scammers.
The company, which is well-known across the UK and Ireland,
has been a long-standing friend of this magazine. They wish to
remain anonymous for now but know the importance of getting
the message out to the rest of the industry and have the industry
as a whole take a stance against vape-related fraud. Here is what
they told us:
“A man contacted us saying he wanted to spend a substantial
amount of money on an order – within a couple of days he doubled
his order. He told us he would pay the next day and collect the
stock himself in time for the weekend.
“He lodged a cheque at the bank, which hadn’t cleared, but he was
adamant that he paid cash at the bank and not by cheque. We
contacted the bank – they were slightly confused by it too and then
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they confirmed that the man in question definitely paid by cheque.
What’s more, the cheque bounced, and it emerged it had come
from a stolen cheque book, for which the account had been closed
for fear of such fraudulent situations arising.”
Two weeks went by, and then a similar situation occurred involving
the same company. Our source added:
“By Wednesday of the following week, someone else called asking
to pay for an order by card. But the billing address for the card
didn’t match the address they provided our staff with – it didn’t
match any of the bank records for the card. The man then provided
another address and the same thing happened again – it didn’t
match.
“He rang back and was quite angry on the phone. He demanded
that we refund him. But we weren’t able to charge him in the first
place so there was no transaction to refund.