Calvin Ainsworth & Jared Ainsworth scammers

Stuart Wright

AVForums Founder
Staff member
Joined
Jan 24, 2000
Messages
17,040
Solutions
1
Reaction score
14,134
Points
7,651
Location
Birmingham, UK
[Latest update 11/11/2010: The group of 10 Lichfield (and surrounding area) based people arrested in relation to the large scale scamming of people on Gumtree, AVForums and elsewhere are still out on bail while the CPS builds its case. Despite having been arrested and out on bail, they continue to scam people here and on Gumtree.]

Note : we are referring to them as the Ainsworth scammers as that is the name used more than any other in email addresses and on the phone. Until proven guilty, everyone is presumed innocent.

Recently a particularly nasty group of young individuals have been registering with login names similar to traders with goods for sale in our classified forums.
They have been finding people who had made offers on the goods but had been turned down by the trader.
They have then been sending private messages to these people pretending to be the original trader. In the PMs they stated that they had changed their mind, agreed to the offer and asked for payment.
Five people on AVForums have been taken in by this scam and sent a bank transfer. Several people on other websites including Gumtree have been defrauded also. We are assisting the police in securing a prosecution.
So far we have been able to ban all the existing and new accounts by this scammer.
But we ask that you please *always* follow our trading guidelines and in particular, do not, under any circumstances, negotiate or agree trades by private message.
I will be adding all the information we have about these people in this thread. We will be trying to uncover as much information about them as possible.
Thanks go to the moderators for helping to identify and deal with this scammer :thumbsup:

If you believe that you have been the victim of these frauds...take the following action

1 : Inform your bank immediately and ask if there is anything they can do to help you.

2 : Report the matter to your local police who can make some initial enquiries with the bank in question and establish where, geographically the account holder lives. Your force will then pass the complaint directly to the police force that covers that area. It is they that will investigate your complaint.

3 : When you know which force is dealing with your complaint......ring them and get the name of the officer who is dealing with your investigation and also the unique crime reference number for your investigation. They should then keep you updated as regards their actions.



How to recognise this scam. The scammers:
  • Often advertising an iPhone (usually on Gumtree adverts)
  • Only want payment by bank transfer - they don't do Paypal
  • Are looking for a quick payment
  • Invite you to pay on collection but know you live too far to travel
  • If you express doubts they offer to take some in advance and the rest on delivery
  • Often give Stowe Stree, Lichfield as their address
  • Upon request of proof of identity give excuses
If you spot any of these patterns, be very careful.

The bank accounts used to defraud people are:
Sort Code Account number Details
53-70-15 32119550 Nat West, 47 Market Street, Lichfield, WS13 6YB
53-70-15 73669733 Nat West, 47 Market Street, Lichfield, WS13 6YB
30-71-98 42624560 Lloyds TSB, 22 Conduit Street, Lichfield, Staffordshire Ws13 6JS
30-71-98 44014960 Lloyds TSB, 22 Conduit Street, Lichfield, Staffordshire Ws13 6JS
11-00-01 07078159 Halifax, PO Box 548, Leeds LS1 1WU
11-00-01 07852314 Halifax, PO Box 548, Leeds LS1 1WU
11-03-24 00260752 Halifax, Lichfield
20-85-13 83826775 Barclays Bank, Tamworth Business Centre, 24 Middle Entry, Tamworth B79 7N
40-39-12 01405284 HSBC, City Office, 49 Corn Street, Bristol, BS99 7PP
60-24-79 73586935 Nat West
05-09-42 57815216 Yorkshire Bank, 3 George St, Tamworth, Staffs., B79 7LA
 
Last edited:
Here are some of the registrations this person has created as of 28th November:
(Note that the login names he/she created are very similar to genuine members, but with a dot or comma on the end - this is how he/she is trying to defraud - by masquerading as a genuine member).
Login name IP address IP resolves to Account Email Registered Last activity Information Mark.N123 90.208.87.77 Sky broadband Lichfield [email protected] 30/10/2009 19:05 30/10/2009 23:06 mlh. 90.212.240.65 Sky broadband Lichfield [email protected] 30/10/2009 21:01 31/10/2009 00:32 Posing as mlh, requested £255 from inferno and £270 from DeepDish. Name Mark Newton iphone4u 90.219.16.85 Sky broadband Lichfield [email protected] 30/10/2009 23:39 31/10/2009 00:38 Requested £340 from richiej, dropped price to £270 RobertPaulson. 193.25.116.40 Staffs Council [email protected] 31/10/2009 15:23 31/10/2009 15:38 Posing as RobertPaulson, defrauded £100 from spendec. Address given as 56 Stowe Street, Lichfield, Staffordshire, WS13 6AQ. Name Robert Paulson clamicpo1. 193.25.116.40 Staffs Council [email protected] 31/10/2009 15:39 02/11/2009 09:49 Posing as clamicpo1, requested £350 from paddylogan and also £1100 from Deadz. Name Mark Newton avf2. 193.25.116.40 Staffs Council [email protected] 02/11/2009 09:51 02/11/2009 10:08 Posing as avf, requested £100 from bigbaz paulski. 193.25.116.40 Staffs Council [email protected] 02/11/2009 10:18 02/11/2009 10:37 paulski, 193.25.116.40 Staffs Council [email protected] 02/11/2009 10:24 02/11/2009 11:01 Posing as paulski, requested £800 from Gregorski. Said was with Natwest. Mobile: 07933014235. 48 Stowe Street, Lichfield, Staffordshire. WS13 6AQ shea. 193.25.116.40 Staffs Council [email protected] 02/11/2009 10:36 02/11/2009 10:54 Posing as shea, ccepted offer of £70 from LindseyD JTD21. 193.25.116.40 Staffs Council [email protected] 02/11/2009 11:25 02/11/2009 11:56 Posing as JDT21, accepted offer of £450 from sk23005. Alternative email address given [email protected]. Mobile number given 07933014235 HinchleyGrinch. 193.25.116.40 Staffs Council [email protected] 02/11/2009 11:33 02/11/2009 11:57 Posing as HinchleyGrinch, accepted offer of £100 from klamath chrisfairc16. 193.25.116.40 Staffs Council [email protected] 02/11/2009 12:21 02/11/2009 12:40 Posing as chrisfairc16, defrauded Telephant out of £675. Name Chris Faulke callahan. 193.25.116.40 Staffs Council [email protected] 02/11/2009 12:48 02/11/2009 12:56 Posing as callahan, accepted offer of £630 from fab914 becky. 193.25.116.40 Staffs Council [email protected] 02/11/2009 13:18 02/11/2009 14:35 markymiles. 193.25.116.40 Staffs Council [email protected] 02/11/2009 14:48 02/11/2009 15:11 Posing as markymiles, acceped offer of £570 from Advocate86 3804. 193.25.116.40 Staffs Council [email protected] 02/11/2009 15:55 02/11/2009 16:07 Posing as 3804, acceped offer of £275 from Techie_89 hdiam. 212.183.134.129 Vodaphone [email protected] 02/11/2009 23:00 02/11/2009 23:18 Posing as hdiam, accepted an offer from Spa Accylad. 212.183.134.129 Vodaphone [email protected] 02/11/2009 23:48 03/11/2009 02:49 Posing as Accylad, accepted an offer from gaz12 for £180. When questioned by a moderator, was defiant and unrepentant mrspoons. 212.183.134.129 Vodaphone [email protected] 03/11/2009 01:13 03/11/2009 01:42 Posing as mrspoons, requested a bank transfer of £160 from theADDict thattallchap. 94.116.16.79 Cloud network [email protected] 03/11/2009 11:57 03/11/2009 12:23 Posing as thattallchap, contacted josh5674 accepting his offer and asking for a quick payment by bank transfer GOLFATHER76. 94.116.16.79 Cloud network [email protected] 03/11/2009 12:31 03/11/2009 12:41 Posing as GOLFATHER, £350 by bank transfer from Spy Tom.Stanly, 193.25.116.40 Staffs Council [email protected] 03/11/2009 15:27 03/11/2009 15:49 Posing as Tom.Stanly, accepted offer of £350 from buckas keeny1979. 212.183.140.18 Cloud network [email protected] 03/11/2009 15:42 03/11/2009 15:51 Posing as keeny1979, acceped offer of £400 from db1234 wack. 94.116.16.79 Cloud network [email protected] 03/11/2009 17:01 03/11/2009 17:33 Posing as wack, contact ynot wanting payment by bank transfer TooDark. 79.76.35.50 Tiscali Lichfield [email protected] 03/11/2009 20:59 03/11/2009 21:25 Posing as TooDark, contacted sprice accepting £60 selfaddict. 79.76.35.50 Tiscali Lichfield [email protected] 03/11/2009 22:43 03/11/2009 22:51 Posing as selfaddict, contacted KelvinS1965 accepting £450. ginoworm. 76.73.42.202 FDC Servers America (anonymous proxy?) Email changed to [email protected] 11/11/2009 00:59 11/01/2009 01:33 Posing as ginoworm, asked for money from NiKha Sajan123. 66.90.73.246 FDCservers [email protected] 11/11/2009 13:44 11/11/2009 13:46 JustinL. 76.73.42.202 FDC Servers America (anonymous proxy?) [email protected] 12/11/2009 13:15 12/11/2009 13:27 Posing as JustinL, asked from money for bobinski oglyndwr. 76.73.42.202 FDC Servers America (anonymous proxy?) [email protected] 12/11/2009 18:45 12/11/2009 18:50 Posing as oglyndwr, asked for £185 from paulefox hypernova. 149.254.49.35 T-Mobile [email protected] 21/11/2009 17:29 21/11/2009 18:13 Posing as hypernova, requested £200 from p1tse and £800 from bairdyboy1980 awink1. 149.254.49.35 T-Mobile [email protected] 21/11/2009 17:45 21/11/2009 18:14 jacksmith898 86.171.82.234/237 BT (BTCentralPlus) [email protected] 23/11/2009 22:49 27/11/2009 07:41 Defrauded JONNO-2009 out of £350 and send additional PMs gloating about it. i scammed you, you ****ING retard, youve been done in by the GREAT, "SafeG" p1tse. 66.90.104.63 FDCservers [email protected] 24/11/2009 21:26 24/11/2009 21:46 Posing as p1tse, requested £180 from jamescarter1981 jacksmith898. 79.76.108.103 Tiscali Cannock [email protected] 24/11/2009 23:26 25/11/2009 00:41 Used this account in conjunction with the jacksmith898 account to successfully fool a buyer into believing the jacksmith898 account was genuine. SIB01. 79.76.125.142 Tiscali Cannock [email protected] 25/11/2009 11:38 25/11/2009 12:10 Posing as SIB01, requested £435 from jeff127 scatman1337 86.171.82.234 BT (BTCentralPlus) [email protected] 25/11/2009 20:25 25/11/2009 02:36 Tried to do deals with nashi, mightymouse04 and bairdyboy1980 Beamer. 79.76.58.5 Tiscali Walsall [email protected] 25/11/2009 21:55 25/11/2009 22:39 Posing as Beamer, requested £3,750 from gaza916, £325 from uretsai, £325 from fragger, £350 from snow-munki and £400 from asup85 nightic. 79.76.98.222 Tiscali Swadlincote [email protected] 26/11/2009 01:17 26/11/2009 02:57 Pretended to 'expose' another account of his as a scammer and then asked mightymouse04 for money rebelpj24205. 79.76.118.228 Tiscali Cannock [email protected] 26/11/2009 11:09 26/11/2009 11:31 Posing as rebelp24205, asked for £230 from asup85 Mark123. 79.76.118.228 Tiscali Cannock [email protected] 26/11/2009 12:28 26/11/2009 12:30 Mark123, 79.76.118.228 Tiscali Cannock [email protected] 26/11/2009 12:31 26/11/2009 12:32 Mark123' 79.76.118.228 Tiscali Cannock [email protected] 26/11/2009 12:35 26/11/2009 12:38 Posing as Mark123, asked for £580 from SIB01 Foogie. 79.76.118.228 Tiscali Cannock [email protected] 26/11/2009 15:07 26/11/2009 15:11 Posing as Foogie, asked for £70 from gareth_alien gaza916. 79.76.112.84 Tiscali Cannock [email protected] 27/11/2009 00:25 27/11/2009 00:57 Posing as gaza916, asked for £1,500 from ambervillewolf steven76. 79.76.112.84 Tiscali Cannock [email protected] 27/11/2009 01:48 27/11/2009 11:42 itrader. 79.76.112.84 Tiscali Cannock [email protected] 27/11/2009 02:04 27/11/2009 02:06 rebelpj24250 79.68.44.73 Tiscali Sheffield [email protected] 27/11/2009 12:15 27/11/2009 12:54 treddes 79.68.44.73 Tiscali Sheffield [email protected] 27/11/2009 13:21 27/11/2009 13:43 Posing as tredders, asked for £235 from THE BOARS. Also talked to bdbod. iinferno 79.68.44.73 Tiscali Sheffield [email protected] 27/11/2009 14:21 27/11/2009 15:02 Inpersonating inferno asking for £260 from Super Andy H, £750 from Begonia and trying to strike a deal with edale gavber 79.68.44.73 Tiscali Sheffield [email protected] 27/11/2009 17:11 27/11/2009 18:07 Pm'd ickeyboy asking for £210. User gavbeer had made an offer in the thread. jonnyb123 79.68.44.73 Tiscali Sheffield [email protected] 27/11/2009 21:15 28/11/2009 04:39 Created 37 posts in the trading forums trying to pose as a legitimate member. Made a fake trade with ineedaphone and positive trading feedback left. ineedaphone 79.68.44.73 Tiscali Sheffield [email protected] 27/11/2009 21:27 27/11/2009 21:30 Replied to to a For Sale thread created by jonnyb123 making an offer for a phone which was accepted. Positive trading feedback left. jimmydoge 79.68.44.73 Tiscali Sheffield [email protected] 28/11/2009 03:53 28/11/2009 03:55 Never activated account jimmydogee 79.68.44.73 Tiscali Sheffield [email protected] 28/11/2009 03:57 28/11/2009 03:58 Never activated account thecreditcrunch 79.68.44.73 Tiscali Sheffield [email protected] 28/11/2009 04:00 28/11/2009 04:00 Never activated account Crysis 94.76.204.100 BlueConnex Ltd [email protected] 28/11/2009 11:24 28/11/2009 11:28 JTDesign 94.76.204.100 BlueConnex Ltd [email protected] 28/11/2009 11:39 28/11/2009 11:48


I have already contacted the police on the matter.
 
Last edited:
This idiot continues to try his/her scam. While we have a mobile phone number and bank details (which I don't want to publish yet, but have been given to the police), if anyone has any idea who this person could be, please let us know.

Because we know this person is located in Lichfield, it is likely that the Cloud free wifi being used is in one of the following locations (these are the only cloud network locations in Lichfield at the time of the scam):

Fradley Arms
Rykneld Street
Lichfield WS13 8RD

Gatehouse
1 Bird Street
Lichfield WS13 6PW

Innkeepers Lodge - Lichfield
Stafford Rd
Lichfield WS13 8JB

McDonald's - 1260 Lichfield Wall Island
Wall Island
Lichfield WS14 0QP

McDonald's - 209 Lichfield
12 Conduit Street
Lichfield WS13 6JR

The Acorn Inn
16-18 Tamworth Street
Lichfield WS13 6JJ

In the table above, the use of a Staffs Council IP address very likely means the scammer used Lichfield Library computers.
The timing of the posting means that the scammer used the library and then a few minutes later the cloud network. Note that the Gatehouse pub with free Cloud Network access is just a few minutes walk from Lichfield library.
 

Attachments

  • Image1.jpg
    Image1.jpg
    145.8 KB · Views: 675
Last edited:
When the bank details go up would a permanant ban be put in place on Avforums if a couple of charitable donations were made :D

Someone has been a busy boy :nono:
 
When the bank details go up would a permanant ban be put in place on Avforums if a couple of charitable donations were made :D

Someone has been a busy boy :nono:

Not quite sure what you mean or whether I should publish bank details, but let's not forget that it's quite possible that the scammer has stolen someone's identity and the person owning the bank account may not be the person responsible.
I think that's unlikely, though.
I'm surprised, actually, that more people have not offered to help identify this person. We'd appreciate the help of people with investigatory resources at their disposal at this point.
 
Last edited:
Maybe if you sent out an official Avforums email to every member explaining the situation and that you would like to request any help in bringing the culprit to justice you may find you get the help you desire. At the moment this is a scene from Hitch Hikers Guide to The Galaxy....Beware of the Leopard ;)
 
So those who have been scammed were only done so by PM?
Sounds like asking for trouble.....if everyone reported unsolicited PM's to do with trades/sales then we wouldn't have this problem.

I hope someone on the forums can identify the culprit and he gets his just deserts.:mad:
 
I work in Lichfield - we could set up a sting operation!!! (or have i been reading too much Jack Reacher latley ;) )

seriously though - disgusting that anyone would try to con people in this way - especially as they are riding on the back of honest traders.

Not going to help here - but going forward.... can you not ask for postal address as part of the signup process to the site?? At least you have something on file for people like this....

also - why not do away with the use of disposable email addresses?? Im guessing that we all have home / work addresses we could use....
 
I'm sure a very large number of users rely entirely on services like yahoo and gmail - banning these domains from registration would probably harm the sites take up of new members.
 
I work in Lichfield - we could set up a sting operation!!! (or have i been reading too much Jack Reacher latley ;) )

seriously though - disgusting that anyone would try to con people in this way - especially as they are riding on the back of honest traders.

Not going to help here - but going forward.... can you not ask for postal address as part of the signup process to the site?? At least you have something on file for people like this....

also - why not do away with the use of disposable email addresses?? Im guessing that we all have home / work addresses we could use....

thats too overboard. It reminds me of the OTT terror measures and how government bring **** in that ruins are lives.

I often use disposable email because I dont want all my details floating about willy nilly.
 
Unofficially I have passed info on this incident onto a department within the bank that the account used in this particular scam is held.

I'm trying to be careful with my wording here, because while I do work within a fraud based role I'm not directly involved in this particular aspect (I'm a techie working on trojans etc etc) and I am also not officially representing the bank here. Just a long term member interested in helping if I can!

Anyway the contact that I defenitely don't have :) within the bank has requested that anyone who has been scammed by this individual to let the bank know via the online contact form on their website.

https://www.natwest.com/secure/global/contact_us/personal_form.asp

This will be picked up and passed along to those investigating.

**Please Note I am not representing a bank here in an official capacity. I've merely mentioned something I've seen freely available on the Internet to someone I know. Yes I do also work there but I'm here in a personal capacity**
 
I don't really know how people can help other than what is being done.

As Stu says it seems they're using untracable WiFi access points so can't access them that way, and either hacked or throw away email accounts.


The only things I can think of are to change the registration process so that nicknames that start or end in a punctuation mark are not allowed.

Also can a "fuzzy search" be done at registration for similar names, and if a match IS found an email / PM sent to mods and/or admins to notify them of a potential scammer?

Note that email/PM would not be sent to the person registering as I assume you'd want to then track their activities so the police could be sent straight to their door, also if the mods/admin had advanced notice a nice little sting could be set up with the assistance of the police.


Sorry I can't be of more help.
 
We are pretty much on top of things at the moment.
This person has given bank details and a mobile phone number.
Not 100% happy releasing those at this point.
I have been contacted by the police again today to keep me updated that the investigation is in the hands of the fraud investigation dept.
I'm confident that this person will be in custody soon. Still it would be nice to know their identity sooner rather than later so I can start a thread to alert the world of their activities. I.e. search for them on Google = find they are a scammer.
 
You can tell by the Thanks above how appreciative everyone is, but I thought it worth stating that Stuart and the modding team's vigilance on this is commendable. It's one of the reasons I'd recommend using AVF over any other online trading site - the AVF team actually want to help when their members get shafted by crooks. Thanks again.
 
We are pretty much on top of things at the moment.
This person has given bank details and a mobile phone number.
Not 100% happy releasing those at this point.
I have been contacted by the police again today to keep me updated that the investigation is in the hands of the fraud investigation dept.
I'm confident that this person will be in custody soon. Still it would be nice to know their identity sooner rather than later so I can start a thread to alert the world of their activities. I.e. search for them on Google = find they are a scammer.

Sounds like he/she will wish they never heard of AVF soon.:rotfl::thumbsup:
 
Its true what someone posted earlier. ie if you will deal via PM's then you are asking for trouble and really do only have yourself to blame. So do I buy this tv in the open from said store or from the guy in the white van ? hmmmm
 
I was in discussions with this person via PM when he was spotted online and his cockiness deserves a mention. He was so sure that he couldn't be caught that he came back again and again without realising that we were effortlessly watching his every move. How odd that since we revealed that he has been using the Cloud wifi hotspots in Lichfield pubs that he hasn't felt very thirsty today :D

MIke.
 
I was in discussions with this person via PM when he was spotted online and his cockiness deserves a mention. He was so sure that he couldn't be caught that he came back again and again without realising that we were effortlessly watching his every move. How odd that since we revealed that he has been using the Cloud wifi hotspots in Lichfield pubs that he hasn't felt very thirsty today :D

MIke.

Sounds like he does this all the time and get's away with it all the time.
I wonder how many other forums have been victim to this scab, and either didn't have the resources or time to track him.
 
Trouble is now youve drove him underground (off the wi fi spots) the police may have a harder time finding him.

Couldn't have revealed that until we were fairly sure that he'd let out enough rope for them to hang him with...
 
Bit of a stupid question, but has anyone contacted staffs council? hide.staffordshire.gov.uk seems suspiciously like a proxy server....
 
Couldn't have revealed that until we were fairly sure that he'd let out enough rope for them to hang him with...

so they have caught him then, they have him in custody?
 
My thanks also to all the AVForums staff working in the background to make this a sfer place to trade - and to get this person his just deserves...however, is there any way that something can be put into place on the forums software to stop this happening again...ie - somebody registering with a very similar username to an already registered member?
Once bitten twice shy and all that...:smashin:
 

The latest video from AVForums

TV Buying Guide - Which TV Is Best For You?
Subscribe to our YouTube channel
Back
Top Bottom