A Dundee woman duped in a cruel Tinder scam found herself in court while the perpetrators have yet to be caught.
Supermarket supervisor Gillian Reid “showed a startling degree of naivety” to become mixed up in the sophisticated online fraud and could have been jailed, a sheriff said.
She was conned into helping a Gumtree fraudster steal thousands of pounds and has been ordered to carry out 200 hours unpaid work.
Dundee Sheriff Court heard fraudsters targeted vulnerable women on dating site Tinder to facilitate the con, which centred on a non-existent camper van.
Targeted on Tinder
Mother-of-two Reid, 32, was approached by a “Mark Worthington” after placing her profile online and started a virtual relationship with him.
After communicating for a period, he offered to give her £50 to help her out and she agreed to give him her bank details so he could transfer the cash.
Meanwhile, “Mr Worthington” or others were using a Gumtree account to pretend to sell a non-existent VW Transporter van.
When potential customers agreed to purchase the van, the fraudsters provided them with Reid’s bank details and the money was deposited into her account.
The Tinder man – whom Reid had never met – then told her instead of sending her £50 he had accidentally transferred thousands of pounds into her bank.
He told her she should withdraw the money from her account in full and meet him in a car park to hand it over.
Reid turned up and despite the man who met her not looking anything like his Tinder profile, she gave him the cash and he disappeared.
The court was told customers who believed they had purchased the camper van turned up to find no-one present at the meeting point and no trace of any van.
Reid, from Dundee, admitted transferring criminal property – namely £7,730 – by withdrawing £3,330 cash and transferring £4,400 to a bank account in the name Mark Worthington on March 19 2018.
Fiscal depute Callum Gordon told the court the Crown had no record of any of the fraud gang being arrested in connection with the elaborate scam.
‘Common scam’
Solicitor Billy Watt, defending, said: “Having examined this it seems to be quite a common scam.
“Her offence takes place when she withdraws the money as she was asked to.
“Essentially, she is told she will be given a loan of £50 and then they say they have accidentally transferred thousands.
“She has provided as much information as she could to try and trace this person.
“He gets the bank account details and passes on to the person he is selling the camper van to.
“She tells me she is quite mortified and upset that anybody lost out as a result of this.
“She has no previous offending behaviour and is very low risk.
“She is in a new relationship which began about six months after this offence.”
Remorseful and no previous record
Sheriff Gregor Murray said: “I have to balance a number of factors.
“The first is that you are remorseful and have shown good insight.
“You have no previous record and have a job.
“Against that, you showed a startling degree of naivety in the commission of this offence.
“For someone who clearly has a brain, it is astonishing you would just accept this story and pass your details on to someone else.
“You were, in some respects, a pawn in a wider game and I accept that.
“The primary movers in that game have not been traced.
“While a custodial sentence might be merited, it is clear an alternative to custody is available.”
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