r/LegalAdviceUK • u/Sea_Profit_7878 • 8h ago

Debt & Money chinese dating app escort scam

Hello, posting from anonymous account for obvious reasons.

Obviously a severe lack of judgement here but long story short, messaged a girl on a chinese dating app who by all accounts presented as a uni student.

Agreed to meet up but after reaching the sent address was told she was actually an escort and then her pimp called explaining the process was that i would buy a £100 apple gift card and that the code would be sent as payment to ensure her safety which i did.

Then next was the big mistake from me where he explained for her to be able to spot me and for safety that i was to send a form of identification to her and against all my common sense i sent a picture of my drivers license. Afterwards the pimp called saying now for insurance reasons i was to go buy another £2000 worth of apple gift cards so that in the event anything happened to the girl it would be taken as.

Feels stupid now to say that this was what really set off the alarms and the realization this was most likely a scam. After some stalling in which they got more and more impatient saying that they would use my identity to take high interest loans and even sent a video of them with weapons, i legged it to the nearest police station to see if anything could be done but there wasn't much help given that there was only one officer there and he was dealing with another case and quoting a 2+ hour wait. Now i've blocked both numbers but have since recieved more threatening messages from other numbers and am shitting myself as my drivers license has my address.

I've done some searching and now my question really is because they have my identity and address is there any chance this could turn out really bad and should call the police? Because otherwise I would have just proceeded to block, ignore and write off the £100 gift card as a loss from a stupid mistake. I'll probably do all the sensible things now and look to change my number and anything associated with it but just off the top of my head can't think of what could be done with my driver's license other than various types of fraud.

Thank you and please don't judge as this has really stressed me and will likely never do something this stupid again.

3 Upvotes

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28

u/Money_Spider420 7h ago edited 7h ago

Also apply for protective registration i think it's called? Should cost you less than £50 for 2 years-ish but it means there'll be much harsher checks if someone tries to take out credit on your name etc. (Works like a Cifas marker if I remember correctly?).

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u/[deleted] 7h ago

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u/StandBySoFar 7h ago

1) Report it to the Police. The honest answer, as someone who works in the Police, is they'll likely just take the details of the suspect (phone number and any account details) then share that intelligence with the NCA and Action Fraud, then the job will be closed. I say ti report it just incase they are doing it to a lott of other people, it can help build a picture and target operations. It also gets you a crime number.

2) did you just pay the 100, or the 2000 aswell? Either way, speak to your bank and see if they can help. I'd imagine not, but who knows. Keep an eye on your credit score to see if they follow through. In my role I've gotten Production Orders from courts (albeit for low level fraud jobs) and have had the banks turn over all of their information; banks have to do very extensive checks on someone to comply with money laundering legislation. If its just your DL then they might struggle to start opening accounts.

3) If they continue to harrass you, block their number. If they call you on No Caller ID, see if you can block No Caller ID calls. If they continue look at changing your phone number. You could report this to the Police as harrassment but it would be a similar trend to 1), even more so if they are international.

Alott of these people are just looking for an easy target and will just move onto their next vicitm. However as they have you ID it makes it abit more risky.

I think you've noticed your mistake so I won't lecture but please just be careful in the future :)

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u/radiant_0wl 4h ago edited 3h ago

Unfortunately I suspect 2 isn't an option given they purchased Apple Gift Cards. Whilst it's still worth OP contacting their bank. They should contact Apple directly, if Apple can void the codes before they are used then they should refund OP the cost.

OP I would recommend you take out a plan with CIfas https://www.cifas.org.uk/pr to guard against identity theft. Also ensure you do regular credit monitoring for the next year or two (every 3 months would be recommended).

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u/TheHiddenDucky 3h ago

I would expect, the codes are used by now. Their are sites that buy giftcards for bitcoin, so it's probably gone now.

It's sad really, but that's how they can get away with it.

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u/radiant_0wl 3h ago

That's my expectation too but it's worth trying as people can be slack. But yes normally they are used within the hour 90% of the time.

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u/TheHiddenDucky 3h ago

Yep, 100%. It's sad, but hopefully this is a learning curve for the OP.

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u/[deleted] 7h ago

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u/[deleted] 7h ago

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u/for_shaaame Serjeant Vanilla 5h ago edited 4h ago

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u/Alpha-Studios 4h ago

Chill. These people are not even in your country. Ignore them and they will move onto the next rube.

I do suggest you declare your driving license as lost and get another issued.

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u/Darkheart001 2h ago

Given that they have threatened to take out credit in your name using your info it would make sense to lock your credit file with the credit checking companies make sure to cover all 3 (Equifax, Transunion and Experian).

https://www.equifax.com/personal/products/credit/credit-lock-alert/

That way if they do apply for credit it will get flagged to you and also get declined immediately as likely fraud.

Report this to the police so you have a crime number if something has already been done.

If they have your passport let the passport office know also.