Diamond buying scam
Weirdest most intricate scam - has anyone ever been through something like this?
Tldr- guy wanted to buy my vehicle. He wanted me to pick him up and we go to the bank to clear the funds. Pick him up - diamond smuggling scam. No money yet, first have to meet ton of other people, pretty sure I've been drugged, wouldnt do all this stuff otherwise. Lost R20k at end when I realised what was happening, and now have 2 fake diamonds. They keep messaging and calling me from different numbers. Scared as hell.
Full story - I am selling a vehicle. Pretty new one that I inherited, so amount is quite substantial. This one guy calls me and tells me he isn't close to me, but his friend is, he will send his friend to see the Bakkie and do the payment and everything and he will come through to collect the bakkie. The friend phones- apparently he is a trucker from Namibia and wants me to pick him up, then we go to the bank to do the transfer and then sort out all of the paperwork when the money clears. With all of the scams going around I ask a friend to come with.
We pick up the guy and he asks me to just take him to the Checkers they want to pay in cash and his friend has the money. We get to checkers and someguy comes out with a bag full of cash, and some diamonds. Here I should have ran, and I have no clue why we did not. Not me nor my friend at anytime tried to stop them and this is where I think we were drugged or something. We see the diamonds and the money and suddenly there are three guys involved. A Buyer a Seller and a Middleman. The Buyer has the cash, seller has the diamonds and the Middleman is going between the two so that they dont meet.
The seller wants cash before he gives the diamonds to the Middleman, and the buyer wants the diamonds before he gives the cash. Next thing I know I withdrew R35000.00 on my creditcard, I bought them food, backpacks at truworths of over R4000.00, and I was driving them up and down. My friend fortunately had to leave and after his appointment he started following us in his own Bakkie. When he phoned me and tells me hey this guys is fucking you around and I realised what was going on, we parked the guy in, and I took what I can - R25000.00 and some of their fake diamonds.
Absolutely dumbfounded and traumatized went home to try and make sense of everything the buyer calls me - dont know how everybody suddenly has my number - he wants the diamonds and he will buy it from me the next day. Obviously I am not going to meet anybody anywhere.
Today the original guy phoned me to know when he can come amd get his bakkie. I tell him he cant his friend robbed me and I am opening a case at the SAPS. 10 minutes latet the buyer is trying to get a hold of me. I blocked all of their numbers and removed my add for the Bakkie everywhere.
This scam almost went on for 5 hours, and they had me drive more than a 100kms between the 3 of them. I am just so thankfull that we are unharmed. This is the most intricate scam and I am still struggling to make sense of what happened.