Scam alert: fake Gymshark Facebook ads

I’m very wary of these ads. I have received decent quality products, but I also received a quite expensive backpack style handbag that was nothing like the item in the Facebook picture. It was a completely different colour, which admittedly is always a risk when looking at items.

But not only that, it also had a meaningless name in huge letter is attached to the bag as a big metal badge. It was impossible to remove this without damaging the bag. I gave it to my cleaner, but to be honest I don’t think she used it either.

I saw an ad. in Facebook last Dec, when responding to a post, for a small amount of thick double sided tape, free for a ltd. amount of time, only postage to pay. I clicked on the ad. and input my C/C details to pay for the postage, which came up as $3.00, so thought the ad. to be from a USA co. I then received an email with expected delivery dates. Weeks passed and no tape, then I was contacted by my C/C co. and asked if I was aware of a transaction on my A/C. I looked at my online transactions and saw a charge for a subscription to a health and fitness plan, which I did not know about, being in my70s and recovering from surgery, it was not something I would consider. It appeared that the people that got my C/C details used it for the subscription I knew nothing about. B/Card gave me a credit for the amount £49.56 and advised they would stop any further charges from the source, so imagine my surprise when I checked my current transactions a couple of weeks ago, there was another £49.56 charge for a health plan, but looked as from a different source. B/Card again gave me a credit and this time advised me to destroy my C/C and they would issue a new card. It would appear, that B/Card were aware of the source of these attempted fraudsters, as they had contacted me, before my Dec. transactions were to be paid. It would also appear that the 2nd attempt was from the same source, using a different name, or my C/C details had been sold on. Thankfully B/Card dealt with the situation and my old C/C nos. are no longer valid, hopefully that will be the end of it. The moral of my story, be very suspicious about and do not give anyone you do not know, your C/C or bank A/C details. I will ignore any adverts on Facebook I may see in future.

I bought an item on Facebook innocently – first time I had contemplated using a Facebook site but the garment was the first thing I had seen in ages that I actually liked. I had no idea that the photo was stolen from an authentic site, minus the model’s head (usual tactic apparently) and that the dollar price I was paying was for goods from China which took 6 weeks to arrive and bore zero resemblance to what I had bought. Facebook was not interested and Paypal deemed the item “no signficantly different from purchased item” which is utter rubbish. I think the pandemic could result in more people returning to the high street for their purchases, if they have one. At least you see what you are getting.

Today I fell for a wonder working face cream which for postage only – they needed my credit card details for this – would make my wrinkled face all smooth. Fitnessummersecs.com. Later, I checked, they had taken £87 from my account. Was so ashamed haven’t told anyone. Vanity!