Scamming the scammer: Beyond Tools manager turns the tables

Anthony Mirabile, manager at prominent national tool and machinery retailer Beyond Tools, turns the table on a ‘customer’ who ordered $30,000 worth of tools but didn’t pay.

Scams are all too common nowadays and tactics of online criminals are becoming more and more sophisticated. An email order came in from a potentially big new Sydney client. The usual checks revealed nothing unusual. When payment didn’t come through, so did the realisation: ‘It may sound weird, but I woke up with a gut feeling’, said Anthony. At that stage the police were unable to assist, however a second scam order presented an opportunity.

When a new $20,000 order came from the same email address, a plan was laid. A dummy order with tracking devices was packed and shipped to Sydney. Anthony Mirabile contacted Channel 9’s A Current Affair team were then there to witness delivery and reveal how other named parties were also scammed by being misrepresented. This is an unfortunate a lesson to all of us to maintain even more vigilance.

See the Channel 9 A Current Affair segment here