Calvin Ainsworth & Jared Ainsworth scammers

Being rude to us isn't going to help anybody I'm afraid. We aren't going to publish anything unless WE know that the details are categorically being used by the Ainsworths.
 
i'm guessing at one point scam buster/fraudreporter was probably scammed by these at one point so has a bit of a hard on for getting his pound of flesh

if people are cautious and actually follow the guidelines of the classifieds section before handing over hundreds of pounds they will be fine.
 
........so has a bit of a hard on for getting his pound of flesh

Not the most helpful thing to say :(

I think 99.9% of the posters in this thread (myself included on many occasions when these low life's were rife on this very forum) have one common goal and that's keeping this forum clear of the Ainsworths and their associates.

Please let's not get down to their level
 
I think he was just trying to back up my position. And fraud reporter did start it with a snide remark about AVF spending more time criticising him than doing anything. The admin team and mods have spent huge resources of time staying on top of the Ainsworths and most of this has been from unpaid volunteers with no interest other than protecting people, so his remark was inappropriate at best and at worst down right insulting.

We are completely focussed on keeping them away from these forums, we certainly don't waste that time on putting down people like fraudreporter as he has accused us of. Admin has taken his report seriously, but he still can't indiscriminately post personal account details on this site without clearing it with admin first. Should the information be verified, I'm sure it will be back up here ASAP.
 
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Apologies to everybody.Clearly I was only trying to be helpful. Meanwhile I will continue my endeavours against the Ainsworths in the background where I can see some positive results.
 
Fraudreporter I think what people and especially the mods are trying to say is that we want to keep on top of fraud but just follow the guidelines that IG has mentioned. It's not rocket science!
 
As for putting more energy into detecting fraud/scammers take a look in our dispute section. It full to the rafters with dodgy deals going South. You can't police stupidity. Watching what some of these peeps do with £500 because they getting a Iphone/console/amp for £30 quid cheaper then the shop makes for some interesting reading.

My contribution to the forum is that every purchase/sale I conduct meets all the rules and guidelines laid down by the mods. This has resulted in some 50+ trades on my behalf that have completed with no issue. The same goes for many other active members. The problem is the new traders are like loose cannons and are often the easy target. Where as a long standing member negotiates part payment, post first, full details. The new members act without thinking because by the time they ask for help it turns out all they have is a name and account number. This burns the mods time up trying to fish them out the hole they are in. I don't think there has ever been a time where a mod has refused to assist in some way.

So far as AVForums is concerned I think we are doing our bit.
 
As for putting more energy into detecting fraud/scammers take a look in our dispute section. It full to the rafters with dodgy deals going South. You can't police stupidity. Watching what some of these peeps do with £500 because they getting a Iphone/console/amp for £30 quid cheaper then the shop makes for some interesting reading.

My contribution to the forum is that every purchase/sale I conduct meets all the rules and guidelines laid down by the mods. This has resulted in some 50+ trades on my behalf that have completed with no issue. The same goes for many other active members. The problem is the new traders are like loose cannons and are often the easy target. Where as a long standing member negotiates part payment, post first, full details. The new members act without thinking because by the time they ask for help it turns out all they have is a name and account number. This burns the mods time up trying to fish them out the hole they are in. I don't think there has ever been a time where a mod has refused to assist in some way.

So far as AVForums is concerned I think we are doing our bit.


Having viewed the disputes forum for a few years I've noticed that it's not always the new members that fall prey to the scammers and have noticed a few high value sales catching out long term members as well.
 
Ladies & Gentlemen, glad to see people are pulling back from swipes at each other. ODB_69 thanks for the vouch. DarenD as a quick overview I spent hundreds of hours on various sites where the Ainsworths actively placed their fraudulent ads, reporting them 24/7 to the relevant companies, collating information on their fraudulent ads, sites, email addresses and known bank account details which were obtained from the Ainsworths. The bank account details allowed the police to arrest and charge 50 of the Ainsworth's associates with money laundering and also led the police to identify far more victims to obtain complainant statements. Some of the 50 associates then provided evidence against the Ainsworth's which is partially why they pleaded guilty coupled with some of the corroborative evidence initially provided by us.

We also worked closely with with Gumtree to help reduce and impact on the Ainswoth activity with external access to their systems with what was referred to as the 'Silver Bullet', which allowed us to delete fraudulent adverts outside their Gumtree operating hours. The UK operation closed at 5pm, and as soon as it did up came their fraudulent ads, so in effect we were externally policing their site. As a result of meetings and fraud workshops we had with Gumtree European team they opened a 24/7 fraud team in Malta.

Where the Ainsworth's also opened fraudulent sites we had them closed down as quickly as possible with the exception of one, as the ISP provider didn't act. We also trained their fraud team and help desk operators on spotting Ainsworth adverts and kept them up to date on their latest modus operandi. This for me was over an 18 month period before I pulled back due to frustration with Gumtree.

So yes it can be said that I played an active role in the case against them and their subsequent convictions. Now I have mentioned the 'we' word quite a bit above, with the other main person involved being FRAUDREPORTER. He has and no doubt will continue to identify and reduce / impact on the Ainsworth's adverts and still has direct 'live' access to Gumtree fraud team in sunny Malta.

Where he has posted bank account information the source is from emails from the perpetrators asking for bank transfer payment. Historically this information was posted on here and Gumtree Fraud Forum which unfortunately no longer exists. Together with a consolidated email list of known & confirmed email addresses they have used. Quite often this information was posted within a matter of minutes of an advert going live on Gumtree. This allowed individuals searching Google to identify this forum and confirm their suspicions that they had been conned but also give them a link to the investigating team at Staffordshire as if they reported it to their local police there was no joined up approach to their crime and the potential scale. As it was the case that was put against them did not cover off a large element of their fraud, if it had, then they may still be behind bars.

FRAUDBUSTER was also the first person that I know to identify that they were out of prison and back to their old tricks. If moderators no longer want bank information posted then they can contact him direct and he will stop doing so.

Apologies for the long winded response but obviously have to get my post count up as I have been slacking recently.
 
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As for putting more energy into detecting fraud/scammers take a look in our dispute section. It full to the rafters with dodgy deals going South. You can't police stupidity. Watching what some of these peeps do with £500 because they getting a Iphone/console/amp for £30 quid cheaper then the shop makes for some interesting reading.

My contribution to the forum is that every purchase/sale I conduct meets all the rules and guidelines laid down by the mods. This has resulted in some 50+ trades on my behalf that have completed with no issue. The same goes for many other active members. The problem is the new traders are like loose cannons and are often the easy target. Where as a long standing member negotiates part payment, post first, full details. The new members act without thinking because by the time they ask for help it turns out all they have is a name and account number. This burns the mods time up trying to fish them out the hole they are in. I don't think there has ever been a time where a mod has refused to assist in some way.

So far as AVForums is concerned I think we are doing our bit.
DarenD as the quote says a fool and his money are easily parted, but I have seen extremely clever people and organisations fooled by fraudsters over the years. I think the more people looking out for these 'fools' the better. Yes there are rules but unfortunately common sense is not always made one of them.
 
Agreed even the best of us can drop the ball but that's usually because a guideline wasn't followed. I would imagine there are hundreds if not thousands of fraudsters waiting in the wings to replace the fallen. But they still need certain factors like greed or naivety to fall into place to be able to complete a scam. Personally I wouldn't send anybody more then £400 without actually visiting the item and seeing it with my own eyes. Anything sub £400 and it would have to be on my terms no matter what the sob story. Granted I don't conduct many high value trades as I believe the risk factor outweighs the financial gain. Its the guys that are prepared to BT over £500/£600 for the latest mobile phone to a trader with 10 posts and 2 feedback that beggar belief. I know it has come up in the past where some long standing members have asked for people to meet certain requirements before they can trade and that's upto Stuart and the mods.

As for Gumtree it sounds like your doing the work for them half the time and that goes for Staffordshire police. As members we can't be expected to trail through hundreds of posts checking account numbers/email addresses. Its simply not possible. I would gather half the guys who are currently running disputes haven't even read this thread or even the trading rules thread (even I have served a one month ban for a slip of the rules)

The problem still remains is that they are obviously a network of thieves who even after serving a jail sentence haven't been perturbed due to their gambling and drug use. As I have already stated I applaud your efforts but I feel you won't turn the tide on your own. I think the Ainsworth's were reported to have benefitted by some 200k which I understand could be much higher as not all victims were traced and trades identified.

Some £63 million was stolen last year in online fraud according to the NFIB which is a rather tempting payday to the scum.
 
Thank you for your positive and constructive comments Bilbo - much appreciated.
I came into this forum to try and make a difference by sharing any useful information I have identified about the Ainsworth family. Although I can get their Gumtree ads removed as soon as they appear, this isn't helping the situation as they just keep reposting often changing their tactics. I am not sure whether the Forum members are interested in seeing their current ads - if they are I am happy to post them for all to see otherwise I will refrain from doing so. On the other side of the coin,I feel the Police are reluctant to act against them purely on any intel provided about their activities until they are inundated with a "Blitz" of complaints from innocent victims and are forced to act as they did previously.
In the meantime I will persevere "hitting them where it hurts"on Gumtree and hopefully they will eventually migrate to other sites that don't concern me. These guys will never give up and I am afraid we will have to put up with them until their next prison sentence.
 
If you have any information that you think will be relevant to us please PM Bleem on the admin team with it so he can collate it with what we already have. Thanks for your input, and keep at them :thumbsup:
 
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On Friday the Iphone 6 is being released. I am anticipating that the Ainsworths will be "milking" it for all it's worth on Gumtree. If anyone knows of any other site that they targeting, I'd be very interested to know.
Cheers
 
If a deal is to good to be true.....................it usually is especially on the net. Different if you are doing a face to face handover (although there are other problems with that, stolen goods comes to mind).
 
The Ainsworths have been jailed


So “money laundering, possessing criminal property and lying in order to obtain a passport” gets you 19 days of community service - the law in this country is a joke.

Cheers,

Nigel
 
So “money laundering, possessing criminal property and lying in order to obtain a passport” gets you 19 days of community service - the law in this country is a joke.

Cheers,

Nigel
The brothers got five years and seven months, and three years and four months in prison though (although will probably only serve half of that :().

I guess they must have viewed her as the ‘hired help’/willing participant in the frauds rather than as one of the ringleaders as she was ‘only’ a courier collecting the cash from victims.
 
The brothers got five years and seven months, and three years and four months in prison though (although will probably only serve half of that :().

I guess they must have viewed her as the ‘hired help’/willing participant in the frauds rather than as one of the ringleaders as she was ‘only’ a courier collecting the cash from victims.

Yes I’m aware the brothers got more, but it still a bit light in my opinion - the charges sound a little more involved then just being an unwitting courier.

Cheers,

Nigel
 
Jail time is an occupational hazard for these guys. A reasonable return for several business class all expense paid Thailand holidays, free gambling and loads of fancy electronics. These guys have no conscience whatsoever.
 
Yes I’m aware the brothers got more, but it still a bit light in my opinion - the charges sound a little more involved then just being an unwitting courier.

Cheers,

Nigel
The BBC says
She was jailed for 16 months, suspended for two years, and ordered to carry out 150 hours of community work, in March 2018.
so she probably got the lighter sentence as she admitted her guilt a lot earlier?
 
Jeez is this still rolling on. So 5 years which we all known is really 2.5 yrs which will actually be 12 month after a few courses then out on licence just in time for Black Friday 2020
 

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